Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
This is the Six Sentence Story. Hosted by Denise, each week a word is provided and an invitation extended to all who would write a story of exactly six sentences in length.
You oughta join in this week. It’s fun and it’s great for toning them word-slinging muscles. All styles and genre and such are welcome.
(New Readers: some of us write against the backdrop of WIPs and completed work. This can add to the fun. It’s helpful to me in allowing me to get to know situations and characters better. And you can’t go wrong knowing your characters. This week’s Six is from the world of my WIP ‘Hobbomock Chronicles’. To be more precise, it takes place in the fictional town of Hobbomock and is a part of a flash serial, ‘Interlude’, which I’ve provided a link to the main story at the bottom of the post.
This week, the prompt word is:
Requirement.
The man leaned against the passenger-side door and stared up at the house, the shingle-and-granite bulk of the three-story cottage muted the roar of the ocean, an angry lover hidden in a maiden’s closet, desperate yet defiant; the crushed-porcelain sound of a car pulling up did nothing to alter his stance, silent testimony to the durable stability of all camera tripods, the swing sets in every playground in the world, and the pyramids of Egypt.
“Let me get this straight, you want to keep on with the Open Houses, now, in the middle of October,” Bill Ross, stepping from the Bentley, rested both forearms on the roof of his car, transforming it into a sheet metal and lacquer conference table; he exuded the confident aggressiveness that caused visitors at any decent-sized zoo to remark, ‘Look, children, the tiger must like you, see how he’s smiling.’
“Yep, a couple of more weekends,” the real estate broker remained focused on the house, his answer the emissary of a defeated, yet by no means, surrendered army.
His client made a sound often heard when an adolescent performs chores without being asked, cautiously affectionate suspicion, “Usually you real estate people are afraid your clients, me, in the case of this cedar-shingle white elephant by the sea, will make Open Houses a requirement for getting the listing, yet, here you are, well after the seasons over, insisting on babysitting ‘The Keeper’ into the winter. ‘Summer is the time to sell a summer house’, were your words, unless I’m mistaken”, his smile dared anyone listening to suggest that that was even a remote possibility.
“Just a couple of more weekends. Then you can turn off the heat and put the sheets over the furniture.”
Want to read Part 1? Here: ‘Interlude Part One‘
About clarkscottroger
Good six. I’d love to have a three story cottage by the ocean! Very descriptive you are my friend. Good use of metaphor and simile.
thanks, Paul
You sure cover a lot in six sentences. Good one!
thanks, Reena
He wants what he wants.
‘this is very true’
I wasn’t familiar with “maiden closet” so google helped me out with that one.
We had something like that when I was quite young when we lived in a house without closets.
Great description of the roof of the car being turned into “a sheet metal and lacquer conference table.”
Good SSS and great that you can call upon your ‘Interlude’ to write your Six.
wonder whats going on (with some posts trying to comment) your first comment came through… and so did the second (I was going to delete the redundant comment but then…. how can a compliment ever be considered redundant?! and, it might serve as reassurance to the next person that their insightful and kind comments will, in fact, get through…lol)
In all seriousness, I’m increasingly aware of the value of ‘real’ characters and the fact, ‘the more real, the better’… my two complete efforts to write (‘Blag Dominion’ and ‘Almira’) were sorta told to me by the characters, they were that real. So, yeah, characters first, always.
I’m going to try commenting again. It seems not to have gone through.
I was not familiar with maiden closet, but google helped me out. We actually had one or two when I was a young child and lived in a home without closets.
Your description of the roof of the car being a “sheet metal and lacquer conference table” is great.
Hello to Six Sentence Story people. I’ve been reading some of your posts. I wrote a story but cannot find the proper place to link. I’ll try it here. I guess my timing is wrong since the linkz is closed. https://onetahayes.com/2018/10/18/requirements-matter/
You’re almost there…
go to girlie on the edge and click on the title of the first post.
in that post scroll to the bottom and you will see a blue rectangle that is labeled ‘Click here to view and add link’
go ahead and click on it
now you’ll see a page of ‘thumbnails’ representing each post submitted already.
theres another blue rectangle (more in the middle of the page) and it says, ‘add your link’
click
this last page will look familiar… add your link and title of post etc and click ‘Done!’ and you’re
…well, you’re done.
I have enjoyed reading the Interlude serial. I never tire of a good time travel story.
Enjoyable 6.