the Wakefield Doctrine

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

Six Sentence Story

Denise is the host.

A story of precisely six sentence in length, based on the week’s prompt word.

Prompt word:

TARDY

Two words: she’s gone.

A pause, little more than a flutter, so far within as to be without, serves as reminder you’ve stopped; utterly without hope of avoiding the descent away from everything good and real.

The view ahead is clear between here and the near-horizon, life’s pacing of minutes and hours, days and years. There’s another view, one beyond that; it’s lights beckon to a place of the heart, where the stars, one warm, summer’s morning, tore themselves from the earth and fled outwards.

The mind is a tardy mourner in its choice that death is a single event, to be remembered and studied at another time.

The heart, however, is incapable of being late in its attendance to loss, embracing both the present and the past, where the world and what matters lives in a timeless place.

https://youtu.be/_JQATJDoPU0

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

Six Sentence Story

Denise is the host. Each week, she provides a prompt word and invites all to write a story around said word. It’s fun and challenging. You really oughta try it.

Some explanation on this week’s story. It revolves around the lives of two new characters in my serial story, ‘the Case of the Missing Starr‘. Without giving too much away, the sub-Saharan country of Burundi figures prominently in the plot.

(One of the things I most enjoy about the process of writing is the need, (for me), to imagine life in parts of the world I will never visit. I spend an inordinate amount of time online trying to see what the people and their lives are like, through tools like google. Unfortunately, Burundi is a remarkably poor country and, as of yet, there are no ‘Google street-views’ available. But, if one perseveres, photos of life in the country can be found, mostly from institutions like the University of Burundi and the commercial sector.)

In any event, allow me to introduce Gabriel and Iniko Nisabwe.

This week’s prompt word:

SCRUB

A full day at the university, with half a night at the hospital still to go, Gabriel Nisabwe, intent upon resting his chin on his wife’s shoulder, got as far as the kitchen of the small single level home, when she turned with such natural grace that his day-old whiskers grazed the toffee-gold of her neck with less friction than velvet on a pearl; she smiled, “Professor Nisabwe, just in time to help set the table.”

A tired smile accentuated his dark walnut complexion as he asked, with feigned concern, “You’re the psychologist in the family, should I be worried about olfactory hallucinations, as the aroma of Boko Boko greeted me at the door and I know for a fact our anniversary is not for another two months and three days.”

“No, Gabriel, it is not a holiday or our anniversary, but still a special occasion.”

With a cautious silence, he took a single step back, still holding her hand and stared at her; Iniko saw an excitement beginning to flare deep in his eyes and quickly, with a smile, said, “No, Gabe not that, still we are preparing for the life of a family, when you are a physician and I have my doctorate.”

Holding her chair, as she put two plates of food on the small table, he smiled, “God willing, our children will have your beauty and practicality and my persistence,” seating himself across from her, he continued, “In less than a year I will trade my white shirt and bow tie for scrubs and a stethoscope.”

“Speaking of good news, I read in the newspaper the shortfall in the seed-stock due to the US withdrawing from participation in the UN’s agricultural assistance program has been solved; Bayer AG, the German multi-national has agreed to come to Burundi’s rescue,” Iniko Nisabwe smiled to herself, thinking that perhaps there was a bright future for her husband and her family yet-born.

 

https://youtu.be/9uyiE5-5mEk