Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
As readers know, we enjoy the Six Sentence Story for providing fun reading and the chance to learn more about this writing thing. Which, in a clark often can be one and the same thing. Provided, of course, the learning is not tied to an external demand. You know, “…learn the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas. It will be on the exam at the end of the week! Your grade point average is taking on water faster than a lifeboat on the USS Puffed Rice!”
In any event, seeing how the re-write of Almira is in semi-full swing, I’ve decided to use characters from that story in Six Sentence Story(s). This, for two reasons: to practice my POV chops and to get to know them better.
This week, Denise, our host, informs us the prompt word is:
Difference
“Well, Hunk, I can’t for the life of me understand why you’re fretting so,” the quiet voice was distinctive for the very subtle stress on the word, ‘can’t’; coming from a lesser woman, an admission of powerlessness, on this particular evening it revealed a glint of steel. Before he could reply, she raised her right hand, the gesture as unnecessary as it was peremptory, “Mail-order college degree or not, your place is here in Circe, and besides, who ever heard of a farm hand working for a Chicago book publisher?”
Hunk Dietrich stood in front of his employer and hated himself, Listen to her, she’s right, you’re nothin but a farm hand; the partially crumpled telegram in his left hand, somehow resisting all efforts to crush it into illegibility.
Looking down at the table, one undeniably created for a large family, the gaps between the three place-settings spoke volumes; the young man heard a different, quieter part of himself, Dorothy managed to get away, surely I can,’ and looked toward his employer’s husband who, with the relaxed concentration of an experienced mountaineer hammering a piton into an icy cliff wall, continued eating his dinner.
“Henry’s got nothing to say, at least nothing that that’ll make any difference, young man.” By force of will, Emily Gale, turned a small, subsistence farm in Circe, Kansas into a large and successful business, not surprisingly, she was quite capable of doing the opposite to the men in her life.
About clarkscottroger
Strong women can make a difference.!
this is a true statement
Oof. He deserves to get away.
totally
She is an awful person. Or as written in “Counting by Sevens”, she “is not a bad person.” She “is bad at being a person.”
Very well described scene.
agreed (nice way to put it)
I really enjoyed reading “Almira” and regardless of how long it’s been since I’ve read it, I still can’t stand Emily Gale! lol
yeah, totally agree
Phyllis said it quite well.
Hunk needs to get out sooner than later.
it is not long (in the chronology of the story) that he does
Poor Hunk. I hope he can muster the courage to break away.
He can (and he does)… don’t want to take away any of the fun of reading the book, by describing what eventually happens to our erstwhile Scarecrow
A farm? I might guess who is in charge of the gelding at that farm. Someone with a glint of steel in her voice.
What did Marx say, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” lol…. no, wait! that does make any sense at all.
…or does it?
Sense is in the eye of the beholder spilt under the milky bridge, as the saying goes.
lol
An awesome businesswoman but a horrible person. I hope Hunk gets away.
You are with the majority on that sentiment.