Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
Warm up for the Six. The prompt word: ‘FIX’ (not the old-time cowboy movie star… no, not the granola running guy, the 1980s band…. wait a minute, let me check…nope, definitely not them. Cereal? the one for kids? nah. Last chance now, waking up on a morning in a future where you should be dead? …. yahtzee!)
zoe, a friend of this here Doctrine here, does this bloghop on Thursdays, called Six Sentence Story. It’s a challenge to us to a take a word and write… do I have to say it? thank you!
Fix
“I need my fix.”
Four words heard at an inner city traffic light, the post-industrial watering hole for those left behind, cast out or demon-dragged to the fringes of society, the spray-painted building behind him a blackboard of despair and crippled hope.
“C’mon pal, help a brother out.”
The driver of the European luxury car stared upwards through his windshield at the red-lit traffic light, suppressing his increasing impatience before the electromechanical roadway shrine, “Come on. Turn!” his simple prayer.
The man shambled towards the car, his own prayer less demanding, “Hey, buddy can ya spare a dime”, the pull of decayed memory combined with the push of desperate need lending him strength; one more debt he was unable to repay.
The driver suddenly angry at himself, glanced to the right and, through the passenger window recognized the aggressively subtle cut of an Armani suit, white-mottled vomit residue like alteration marks of a new tailor, ‘Carruthers, is that you?!”
About clarkscottroger
You never know, now do you?
no, no we do not!
I knew someone would take this spin on “fix.” Kinda guessed Paul for some reason. Great story that proves appearance isn’t always reflective of the truth. In fact, rarely.
thanks, Lisa
Interesting trivia… I pinned this to my “awesome reads” board on Pinterest and got a message after that it was also pinned to a board about men’s suits. LOL
the power of fashion, I guess
I didn’t see this coming–I hadn’t thought of this take on “fix,” and I certainly didn’t expect the driver would recognize the beggar. Well done!
thank you
Ah… exactly the fix I was thinking of…the difference between optimist Kristi and the cynic in me!!!
(made me go look up ‘Candide’… lol thank god for the internet, Martin)
What a great ending! However Carruthers or not I never give while waiting in traffic as in my memory I did once and the traffic lights changed with the beggar hand on my car in the midst on moving traffic!
yow! that couldn’t have been fun!
They know each other! Nice fix, indeed. Which one of them is more surprised?
the driver (the damaged ones are never surprised…by anything)
Great story, Clark. Love how you described the vomit on the Armani. I’m inventing my own story of Carruthers’ demise.
(yeah….”I suggest, a little flare to the lapels….just so.” lol)
And the proud shall be humbled. Excellent story, intense. And tomorrow any one of us could find ourselves on either side of that window. We never know what the future holds. That’s why it pays to be compassionate to others.
perspective! the only universally beneficial tool (even if we don’t agree with what we see)
“…demon-dragged to the fringes of society..”
Really like that.
To clarify – I really like that description lol
thankee
This is an excellent story that brings home such an important message!
Thank you Pat!
It’s a sadly common story, i have known a couple of people who ended up on the streets like that.
Wow. That was a heck of a punch at the end. Greatly drawn. Loss, prayer, more loss, recognition. A ‘holy crap’ moment. Loved it.