Now, with "Tomas And Vera: And Other Stories" ($10 in paperback from Valley View Press; available from Amazon), Henson enlarges his creative landscape with a series of tales and vignettes straight from his imagination.
The title story, he says in an introduction, was inspired by "a black and white picture of a man, dressed up and standing in a field of sagebrush and dirt." A friend had found the picture and sent it to Henson "as a challenge to write something about the character in the picture. A few moments later, after looking more closely, I had an eight-page story about the man, who became known as Tomas."
The story is a fitting centerpiece in the book. Tomas, having crossed the U.S. border, walking alone, not knowing where to go except onward, is picked up by a woman named Vera, who also speaks Spanish, as a likely prospect to work on her father's big ranch. He's hired, and later Tomas "rides out with Vera to the back forty. He closes his eyes as he feels the rhythm of the horse match his heartbeats. He can smell the dry grass whisper in the air, reminding him of his younger days as a boy on his grandfather's farm on the outskirts of Mexico City."
The two come across a group of squatters, and Tomas stays the night to make sure they leave. This does not go well, and Tomas almost gets himself shot. But something happens to save him and Tomas learns there is much more to Vera than meets the eye.
Henson has an eye for small things. There's King Amos the cat in "All Hail King Amos," and a dog on the hunt narrates "Obsessed." There are poems and stories about disappointed love, spiritual yearning, and "riderless horses" running free.
And so is the writer's imagination.
