Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
This is the Six Sentence Story bloghop.
Run by Denise.
It’s a ‘Whitechapel Interlude’ week. Read the entire story here. The Chapter, antecedent to this installment, is here.
In these modern days of micro-dissected hours (and minutes) it often happens that, even when attempting to relax, we don’t pause long enough to read the backstory. As a service to my Readers, allow me that most helpful (and I suspect more difficult to execute than it appears) TV series device,
…previously in the Whitechapel Interlude,
The appearance of a time traveler in the East London district of Whitechapel brings the local chapter of the Order of Lilith into a state of high, if not very discreet, alert. Spanning the ages, acting in the shadows of history and at the source-springs of myths and legends, the Order is not alarmed by the fact of time travel as it is concerned with the reason for this time and this place. Brother Abbott assigns recent recruit Anselm to trail the visitor and report on his activities. Following is quarry to a luxury hotel, the younger man assumes the disguise of a bellboy and escorts the traveler, registering as Mr. Egmont, to his suite on the St. Pancras hotel.
And now our story, already in progress.
The prompt word:
CLIP
“You’re awake, splendid!”
That I was unable to move was not nearly as disturbing as the realization that I returned to consciousness deprived of three of my five senses; I could see the ceiling and I could hear a voice.
“You and I have much to talk about,” his words were clipped, ever so slightly, with a humor common to boys sharing their clandestine enjoyment of risqué playing cards, guilty fear mixed with carnal aggression, a combination impossible to harmonize, “and we don’t have much time.”
The man who signed the hotel register as Mr. Egmont leaned over the bed that supported my inert body, holding the shiny square that had tempted me to remain longer in his room than wise; it was of some material like silver or pewter but lighter; “Where I come from, we call this a computer, but that is not important at this moment,” moving out of my single, vertical field of view, a wool-and-mustachioed sun ranging the sky like an undisciplined prophet in Joshua 10:12, the variations in his voice telling of a man unable or unwilling to remain still, “What does matter is, why are you following me?”
The jagged edge to his voice smoothed, as if he remembered that I was a mere drawing of a man on a hotel bed and continued, his voice that of an orator resigned to a rapidly approaching conclusion.
“Well, lucky for you that you’re not a booze-marinated streetwalker, otherwise I’d use you to prime our killer’s hunger; you, my young friend, need to provide me with information about who you represent and, if useful to me, you just might wake up tomorrow.
About clarkscottroger
You pack so much into six sentences. I like it. But that wallpaper! As Oscar Wilde said right before he died, one of us has to go, it’s either me or the wallpaper…Great six Clark, as always.
lol (damn, ain’t that the best ‘last words’)
thanks, Paul
funny thing about this one, the music came first…. I knew it was going to be a Whitechapel Interlude Six but when I stumbled across this cover… I was all, guess that tells me about the tone of the Six
I like the thought that one can’t harmonize “guilty fear mixed with carnal aggression”.
That fair sprints across the page and leaves you kinda breathless and tense.
Love the pace.
And always like it when something opens with dialogue, then the action commences.
The last line is pretty menacing too.
Good one Mr Clark.
Thanks, V
Went back and forth with that (start with voice or action)… like it ’cause it more quickly puts us there… or something.)
The menace is fun but like a …a (something that is inherently short-lived and rushing only accentuates it but still, how can you go slow?) thing… left with, Damn! Now what?
Going to have to keep reminding myself that this is a flash novel* and write bite-sized (I got it! ‘Pulp Detective Sliders!’)
* not sure that is not already a thing, a genre
He’s now in quite the pickle. Very well told, indeed.
Thanks, M
This is my fave pick of the week: “wool-and-mustachioed sun ranging the sky”…absolutely fine writing of description. And I agree with the other comments. I also like the images/photos you choose to accompany the Six. Fabulous, my friend!
TY, JS!
that secondary stuff is a large part of the fun (for me)… photos and, this week, the music was significant… I knew that I was going to rejoin the Anselm narrative but hadn’t gotten much further than that when I stumbled on the cover of ‘New Drug’) which was a favorite of mine, back in the day. That makes it even more fun when you hear a sound you like ‘improved upon’ and …and! it, somehow, totally set the tone of the Episode.
You’re most welcome…we do get pretty involved in our weekly stories. Six sentences doesn’t sound like much…but boy, do we make the most of them…masterpieces one week at a time :)
thinking (and writing in a comment to Vintage Toy) that I should remind myself that (each) of these Sixes can be thought reading like, say you get on a bus and in the seat next to you someone left a paperback book lying, pages-open face-down… your stop is only a block away.
…like that
lol
Could be…
Yep that was my fav too! 😊 Fab 6!
Great minds, eh?! :)
thank you, E
Who are these people in the Order of Lilith?! What do they think is going on?!
Guess we’ll have to wait until next installment :D
Near as I can tell, they’re like self-appointed hall monitors, but in a good way. The tough part for the Order is, being decedents of Lilith (rather than Eve) while their mission to make sure the bullies don’t totally dominate the schoolyard, they have to keep a low-profile, lest the sheep focus on them as the new Boss*
* yes, The Who ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’
Loved the Bible quote about AI
“10 Now it came to pass, when Adonizedec king of Jerusalem had heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them;”
If he can only see and hear and can’t smell or taste, then someone better test him for Covid
You are a master of interesting descriptions!
thanks Lisa