Month: May 2021 | the Wakefield Doctrine Month: May 2021 | the Wakefield Doctrine

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

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

This is the Ten Things of Thankful (TToT) bloghop.

Not that weather is the primary criteria for a day being conducive to taking note of things, (and people, (and places),), for which one might experience the state (feeling/context) of gratitude, but doesn’t hurt! Or, is that, more properly, ‘doesn’t help!’

Whatever.

Holiday weekend.

(Metaphor for an insight into the reality of a clark??!! Is that what you want? Really?@  You want the unvarnished view into one of the three perspectives on the world and the people who make it up? Do ya? Well, you can’t handle the unvarnished… errr perspective.)

OK picture a desert island in the middle of a shark-infested-sea and the lone occupant, (you remember the single panel comic from when you were not old, the rounded mound of sand with single palm tree.

There it is. The clark on the island. Oh yeah, one other thing. The ocean surrounding the desert island? It’s lousy with cruise ships, full of travelers and vacationers and tourists. And they all wave. Some get on boats and land on the island, marvel at the environment and get back on their little boats to rejoin their friends on the giant boats…. and the clark remains standing, trying to understand what they’re seeing.

Like that. Except for certain elements of reality my own, actual reality: Una and Phyllis* and the Wakefield Doctrine and the Six Sentence Story and the challenge and attendant satisfaction of writing two serial stories, ‘the Whitechapel Interlude‘ and ‘the Case of the Missing Fig Leaf‘. And, when not at home: work projects such as the 20 Minute Real Estate Briefing. The appreciated and possibly even critical hosts maintaining this bloghop, the likes of Dyanne and Mimi and Lisa and Patricia and, at the end of the day, having internet friends and such and a Book of Secret Rules (aka a Secret Book of Rules).

* like this:

 

 

oh, yeah and a reprint!! Below is the first installment of the bloghop that Lizzi created:

the tao of gratitude the Wakefield Doctrine (a blog hop that will not only be fun… but useful too!)

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

use this one

…and welcome to the Inaugural Edition of the ‘Ten Things of Thankful’ blog hop.

The  idea-child (to organize a blog hop with ‘Ten Things of Thankful’ as the central theme), of ‘the Considerer’. Her idea of a Saturday blog hop offers to demonstrate an aspect of the internet that is truly remarkable.  To have a community created by the thoughts and ideas (shared by) people from all over the planet… coming into existence for a day…spreading outwards through the blogosphere, passed along, modified enhanced then to fading from view…only to return again, different yet the same. How cool is that?

and…and!!  there are 9 co-hosts!  (the afore-mentioned Considerer), and

  1. A Fly on our (Chicken Coop) Wall
  2. A Woman’s Place
  3. Bringing the Sunshine
  4. Finding Ninee
  5. Icansaymama
  6. Shoved to Them
  7. Steps into Parenthood
  8. the Wakefield Doctrine

Each week…

That’s about it for me, for this Post. While familiar of with use and value of compiling a gratitude list, creating a list is an interestingly arduous task! Not that I am ungrateful, (non-grateful?? anti-grateful?? hypo-grateful???  lol), for the things in my life, I have not engaged in a formal exercise before this…I will, without a doubt, be sharing my thoughts and impressions as the weeks progress.
And I am also a big advocate of bloghops… especially for those of us who spend a lot of time writing a blog. The hop (like this one right here) is an opportunity to ‘get out… meet new people, read blogs that you might not otherwise come into contact with… so add your blog to the place below that says sign up here… it’ll be fun.

List of 10 things about/within/comprising my life today 06/08/2013 that I feel grateful for:

  1. coming to know interesting people such as Considerer, simply because there is no way I would have met her, were it not for her blog
  2. having the time available to write this post
  3. seeing examples of Posts as written by the other co-hosts
  4. having a family (wife and dog*)
  5. having known the perfect dog…Ola
  6. living in a climate that is only bi-annually of intolerable climate (lol)
  7. the 3 or 4 years spent on fishing boats
  8. the friends that I have
  9. the enemies that I do not have (at least not in large numbers)
  10. the invitation from Considerer to co-host this here bloghop here

Now the hard part!  There’s supposed to appear some code for a button and an invitation to join us… all I need to do is get it right…. hold on….

 

Ten Things of Thankful
 Your hosts
A Fly on our (Chicken Coop) Wall, A Woman’s Place, Bringing the Sunshine, Considerings, Finding Ninee, Icansaymama, Shoved to Them, Steps into Parenthood, The Wakefield Doctrine

 

Share

clarkscottrogerAbout clarkscottroger
Well, what exactly do you want to know? Whether I am a clark or a scott or roger? If you have to ask, then you need to keep reading the Posts for two reasons: a)to get a clear enough understanding to be able to make the determination of which type I am and 2) to realize that by definition I am all three.* *which is true for you as well, all three…but mostly one

Comments

  1. Considerer says:

    It’s certainly different as a formal exercise rather than just as a consumable when-it-occurs kind of thing. So far so good.

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      @Considerer

      not a bad start (for participation, not my messed up Post lol) Like the diversity of participants (with this the first Post)… will watch the ‘late night’ (seeing how I have a 5 hour late window, that you don’t have).
      Will check in on ‘the Facebook’

  2. Considerer says:

    No – I’m rather impressed (though to be frank, much of the participation thus far seems to be down to Christine…) I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of inspiring posts the link in the Wakefield Doctrine brings – your readers tend to be highly considered people, so it should be fascinating. I shall send you a message over the facebook :)

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      @Considerer

      they (readers of the Doctrine) are truly that. Lets see what kind of ripples in the reality fabric we can produce (having said that sort of cancels out the initial ones, but the secondary ones are the ones’ we’re after anyway)

  3. Cyndi says:

    Aww…sweet Ola. I still find myself tearing up over Hash Brown…new dog is cool, though, but still..sigh. Happy Saturday. :)

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      @Cyndi

      I know how you feel, Ola will always be the first dog I think of… and with time the sharpness of the pain of loss has dulled, but the feelings haven’t, if that makes any sense…
      hey! there’s an ugly rumor going around that the Progenitor roger might be calling in tonight! (don’t know if you have had the… experience of hearing the world from the rogerian perspective…)

  4. christine says:

    A climate bi-annually intolerable? Ha!
    Your list leaves me with so many questions. For example, where do you live? And where were you for those three or four years of fishing? And with whom? And why?
    I do love the internet especially for the people I get to meet whom I never would have known otherwise.

    Looks as if you got the button, but the link isn’t coming up. Perhaps when you added the song you cut off some of the code?

    Happy hopping!

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      @Christine

      …the fishing was out of Pt Judith (google will reveal that to be in Narragansett RI…which, coincidently enough is bodering South Kingstown…which has the eponymous Wakefield as it’s center of town!!)

      Yeah, working on the button with Considerer…it was doing that ‘endless cycle’ thing even before the the music video (I was thinking of you as well as Considerer with the selection… do you have country music over there? no, nothing involving lutes, braziers with animal heads or pudding counts as ‘country’ lol)

  5. Janine Huldie says:

    You know most of what I am thankful for this week, but do add onto our friendship and having gotten to know you through the crazy world of blogging. So awesome this new hop and so happy you are co-hosting!!! :) :)

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      @Janine

      lol you coulda warned me! (the additional stress of getting the button to place correctly*) the best compliment I have is to say, you get that FTSF bloghop out every day and work your J9 Design and look cool, calm and collected doing it. damn!

      *not quite there, fortunately the driving force behind this hop, Considerer has vast reserves of patience for those of us who are more… blog-tech challenged

  6. Dyanne @ I Want Backsies says:

    Spot on with #1! I have made such good bloggy friends that I would never have otherwise met! An awesome perk of the job!

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      @Dyanne

      yeah… with you on that. What a strange and/or interesting place this blogosphere is…

  7. RCoyne RCoyne says:

    Now that doesn’t sound like a trap at all…

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      lol

  8. Mary-andering Creatively says:

    Thanks for co-hosting this great blog hop. I really enjoyed your list.

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      @Mary-andering

      thank you… this is an fun and interesting project

  9. Jamie Thomas says:

    I am following you from the 10 things we are thankful for blog hop! I enjoyed your blog!

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      @Jamie

      thanks Jamie this has been a great ‘turnout’ especially for a Saturday…Considerer has really done yeomans work getting this first (of hopefully) the long blog hop

  10. Joy@icansaymama says:

    I am glad to announce the video is blocked in Germany. Again. FU GEMA! (sorry)

    As for your list I totally love blog hops, too. And wow, you spent 4 years on a boat? Tell me more about that!

    And I really love that your are also a co-host! Your posts are always special!

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      @Joy

      wth??!! (oh, I’m sorry…. ‘was zum Teufel!?’ ) This must not be permitted, I will try another source, so check back in a little bit.

      Thanks from the gang at the Doctrine (a dragger for most of the time the longest trips were only 10 days 2 weeks, like that!)

  11. christine says:

    Aha! Rhode Island!
    It seems Considerer and I have become such good friends, no one can tell that we don’t know each other in real life. I live in Indiana. Far from pudding and lutes, but unfortunately not far from animal heads. (We do live on a farm with animals that die on an uncomfortably consistent basis.)
    Hopefully, the button issue will be resolved next week with our new code.

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      @Christine

      I thought I saw a reference to the Midwest…but for some reason I thought I saw a ‘uk’ extension to your blog’s url. huh
      Well, I will get the button straightened out for the next hop. I thought we did pretty well for a first Post, I saw a good viewer rate…especially for a Saturday.

      Hey! that means (living in Continental US) you can call us on one of our Wakefield Doctrine Saturday Night Drives!! It’s a conference call thing… questions are answered and new insights are generated… about the use of the Wakefield Doctrine, of course. I have been trying to figure out to integrate Skype into the call so Considerer and a couple of others from overseas could call in (without having to mortgage their houses).

  12. Melanie Chisnall says:

    Those are some great things to be grateful for!! I especially love the one about your family and about Ola. I was packing some boxes earlier and came across a photo of me with our dog Sasha from years ago. He was a gorgeous German Shepherd, and had such a lovable (although slightly doff) nature about him. I miss all our animals who have passed so much and it’s one of my fantasies that we’ll meet again one day. May sound silly – but they were family, not simply pets. And they have the most amazing personalities, don’t they?! Hope you’re having a fantastic weekend and enjoying the Spring weather up there!

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      @Melanie

      totally does not sound silly! (being family)… Ola was ‘an only dog’ and frankly ranked higher (with me) than some of the human relatives…lol
      Yes, we are near the Summer days are long very good thing (plus the warm thing)

      Hey exciting news… we were talking on the Drive (the Wakefield Doctrine Saturday Night Drive) with Cyndi and I was saying how I was trying to figure out ‘the Skype’ and a way to tie it in for the Drive so you and Considerer and Joy and the others in the ‘away places’ could join in and Cyndi being the geniusette that she be sea: why not use google+ hangout? (the rest of us i.e. Denise and Progenitor roger ) were all like… what did you say??! more to follow.

  13. Kristi Campbell says:

    Yay to number 1 because all of you – these amazing bloggers that I’d never have found were it not for blogging…and I am so thankful. Love that you’ve known the perfect dog. Me, too. Happy Sunday, Clark! (and Scott and Roger – is Scott hungover today?)

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      @Kristi

      totally agree about (canine set) they give something to clarks that no one/nothing else can

      no, funny you should mention scotts, I was talking to the Progenitor scott this morning about… what else? the Doctrine and scotts (and rogers) and how we (clarks) are getting to the point with this thing that we will soon be drawing the rogers (who will never allow themselves to appear to be interested in something that is not already in the middle of a herd) and scotts (who, like their metaphoric paradigm are a single clark’s best friend…and a small group of clarks’ worst nightmare…lol)

      ..

  14. Katia says:

    I love the idea of a blog hop dedicated to gratefulness and agree with you that the blogosphere offers so much to be grateful for. It’s so important to, I think, to practice gratefulness and a blog hop like that is a wonderful means to this end. I love your list, especially number 5. I’ve only ever had one dog, the rest were cats, but I know exactly how you feel.

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      @Katia

      totally agree with this thought, though I will have to admit I don’t seem to inclined to reflect on life in the manner that writing a blog like 10 Grat… requires, but that I suppose is the benefit (for me) to participating. Plus it gets me out… you know how it is with a blog, all efforts get focused on producing new content often at a price of diversity and perspective. see you next week ( or next Friday at FTSF).

  15. Jak says:

    Ahoy! I almost couldn’t find you!

    I attempted to find your site via your Blogger profile, but only blogs you follow were listed… and then…

    *2 Hours later…*

    I was like… he is probably on that linky dohickey. And sure enough :-) and you are a co-host. Congrats! I know… I’m a genius almost all of the time sometimes!

    I like your list and am glad you have a short enemy list. It’s best to keep that one short whenever possible. I don’t know how many arch nemesises… Nemesi… Hmm… Super villains I have stalking me from the shadows.

    Good luck with co-hosting this blog hop. What was the music blog hop you mentioned taking place on Tue? I will try to check into it once I get the low down. I love my music!

    Jak

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      @Jak

      (what’s the Talking Heads line from Life During Wartime: I’ve changed my hairstyle so many times now, I don’t know what I look like) yeah not always easy to find us. But here we are, welcome! Jen and Kristi do the Tuesday music thing. Here I put in ‘the music video’ often ’cause I come across something in my research or when I wake up with a mind worm.
      Any questions, let us know.

 

***

Music

*

*

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Share

Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine-

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

This is the Six Sentence Story bloghop.

Denise

6

Well, it would appear we are, (or were when we started typing), in a hurry to get to the next installment in our Serial Six, ‘the Whitechapel Interlude’. (If you’re new to this story, you owe it to yourself to click on the title and get yourself current. For reasons soon to be obvious, there’s no time to waste.)

Prompt word:

POWERFUL

[Oxford University, London 2183 AD]

 

“Time travel is impossible,” Dean Augustus Hapwell, the center square in a grid of video feeds comprising Oxford University’s Science and Technology Council, spoke with the uncomplicated confidence of a child or a learned-man maintaining a greater Truth, his cold stare found the upper edge of his glasses as comfortable as the parapet to the medieval sentry atop a castle wall.

“I assure you, Professor Egmont, while this institution has produced more than it’s share of world-class writers of fiction, were it not for your body of work in physics, this proposal would constitute an insult to your fellow academics gathered here today; your own studies on temporal manipulation have established, and I quote, “The inherent limitations are grounded in the amount of energy needed to power a functioning time machine and would be irrevocably in conflict with the Schwarzschild ratio…”

“I prefer the term, ‘Time Mechanism’ given that what I seek to build will not be, strictly speaking, a physical device, yet having a certain amount of physical parts and engines, it will manifest in a form those limited in intellect or imagination would refer to as a ‘machine’,” one square of the grid glowed white as Professor Roger Egmont spoke, his words evenly distributed among the virtual attendees, his eyes never straying from the man who stood in his way.

“Physics is not a product of the imagination, it is insight into natural phenomena subjected to rigorous trial and error and testing to take it from idea to reality, not a magic spell; where would we all be if Newton decided the Laws of Motion were at the whim of Cthulhu,” murmurs of assent were mixed with chuckles that sounded like the final scrum in a rugby match between two very un-matched teams.

“I do not cite Lovecraft as my authority, rather I seek a point much further in the past,” with an archaic flourish, the former chairman of the Department of Advanced Physics rose, stood behind his chair, transforming it into a lectern and began to speak, his tone a strikingly powerful amalgam of desperation and superiority, and concluded.

“A 20th Century author famously wrote, ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’, I have uncovered a connection, the converse of this author’s insight, that there is a pathway, if you will, that will provide me access to power that dwarfs all known sources; since you choose to remain bound by the ivy that covers these hallowed walls, I bid my farewell.”

 

 

 

Share

Tuesday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

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

I almost feel ashamed of posting reprints. My rationale is neither novel nor particularly seductive. It is, however, sufficient to quiet whatever voice might be raised within. This, in no small part due to the fact that the readership of this blog has changed over the years.

This reprint is from 2015.

That is correct, six years ago.

Ayiiee.

In any event, I did not come here to praise the post writing of former years, for they are well received posts. I post at least one reprint each weekday so as to keep the old visible to those who are new to this blog. While some may stumble upon this odd corner of the blogosphere and, curious enough to read a article visible through a time-dusted plate glass window, few have the time to step through the door. (If you now think, in your personal special-effects lobe of your mind, that you hear the glassy-metallic sound of a small bell, as you open the door, welcome).

But these are modern times. And all things change. The time most of us have available to leaf through books of obscure origin and indeterminate tenure, like our capacity to run for the joy of motion or shout for the fun of it, is surely less than it was, six years ago.

That does not detract from the pleasure we might derive for stealing a moment for ourselfs. The world has a way of demanding time as payment and is always jealous of what little we may keep from its outstretched hand.

So, here is a little Doctrine moment.

 

-the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘the price of self-improvement is always almost more than we would pay’

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)20150525_110009_resized

I went to check the progress of renovation work being done to one of my properties today. I stop by at least once a week and, each time see a different set of contractors working on the house, this being a full roof to basement re-do. Today the dry wall/plaster crew was there. I saw the dog, (in the photo above), as I parked my car. Smiling, I got out of my car and waited for him to be a dog and bark and come over to me and make sure I belonged and/or had any right to come on his property.
I talked to him, (no matter what the breed, how big and ferocious they might be), I always start my conversations with, “Puppy dog! what a good-looking doggie you are!”  [funny, isn’t it? a person’s sense of self-consciousness, when it comes to behavior that might be regarded as silly or inappropriate, is totally tied to how much that person enjoys whatever the reason is…for…acting silly. It didn’t  matter if anyone was watching this real estate broker get out of his car and ignoring everything, have an out loud conversation with the approaching dog].
In any event, we met and he was a friendly dog. I started walking towards the house, (“come on! lets go see the house!”). He was a German Shepherd, probably 6 or 7 years of age, and I immediately noticed the slant of his hindquarters. (It’s my opinion that the most monstrous form of animal abuse I can think of is the breeding of dogs to match some person or breeder organization or show dog judges. The words of this conformance standards can be seen in some German Shepherds. My guard dog today being one them.)

My new friend and I walked towards the front door. As we stepped up onto the raised brick walk leading to the front door, he fell. He half-fell. His rear legs simply did not negotiate the step-up on to the walk.

I turned and looked at him. He looked at me with an expression that… represents what makes dogs so amazing. It was a look that said, ‘hey, sorry. legs gave out. Go on without me, I’ll be alright…just have to get back up.’

I felt sorrow for him. I didn’t ‘feel sorry for him‘, I felt sorrow.

What an awful feeling. My stomach fell, trying to pull my eyes into my throat.

I waited. He got up, without undue distress, clearly he was used to this happening. Once he was back on all fours, I actually said, in all sincerity and seriousness, “hey you should go back to your post, I’ll just go in myself’…. (yes, I said this out loud ), and he did just that.

What does this have to do with self-improvement and the Wakefield Doctrine?

You will read in these pages the statement, ‘…the Wakefield Doctrine is a tool to help you better understand the people in your life‘. This is a true statement. It is also a tool to better understand yourself. Which, when you think about it, can be a much more difficult task than:

  • understanding why your husband insists on using a sharpie to make outlines of the tools that he hangs in the shed or
  • your daughter who totally thinks that her expression of her individuality (purple hair, nose rings and combat boots) should not go against her in the upcoming job interview.

Using the Wakefield Doctrine allows me a slightly different perspective on myself. Which, given that I am a clark, is at once more difficult and more valuable. We all, (clarks, scotts and rogers), have blind spots.* And, if you’re after improving on the way you relate yourself to the world around you, then you had better find a way to see into that area. There might be treasures there.

The biggest blind spot for those of us who grew up and live in the personal reality of the Outsider, is emotion. Not that we don’t have or feel emotion. It’s just that we’re not always on the best of terms. (New Readers? If you read and learn the worldviews as well as some, people like zoe and Kristi and Val…. then, had you heard a person utter that last sentence, (“It’s just that we’re not always on the best of terms’), you would be totally thinking, ‘probable clark‘.  lol

But I felt the raw emotion today. Just for a second. And I knew that it, (the emotion), was, as Castaneda might have said, ‘a thing of power’. It was an indication that there are parts of me that I do not know very well and that, if I am to self-improve myself, I will need to come to know better.

….but, it was so sad.

But hey, no one said it would be easy. In fact, most people will say, ‘if you want to change for the better, there is a price to pay and it’s always going to be almost more than you’re willing to pay.’

 

 

* I will not go into how insufficient the term ‘blindspot’ is in this context. It is. Maybe the next Post.

1 Vote

*

Share

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

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

10) Secret Rule 1.3 (from the Book of Secret Rules, aka the Secret Book of Rules):  “…[a] list that, you know, in your heart-of-hearts, simply can’t make any sense to anyone but the most logic-/CMS-/Sister-Catherine-grammar-class-deprived-Readers, who will not only immediately click to another website, but will, to be on the safer and prophylactically prudent side in terms of preventing further degradation of better judgment turn off the power to whatever device being used and storing it in a dark, cool place for several hours….” quid pro forma, op. cit. c. 2021-2022

9) the Secret Book of Rules/Book of Secret Rules (aka SBoR/BoSR) a feature of this bloghop that, in all due modesty, in and of itself sets Lizzi’s creation apart from all the other gratitude ‘hops in the blogosphere

8) Hypograts another stand-out element of the BoSR/SBoR that gets it elbows and hands above the crowd… like an ‘onside kick’ in football, if one were to describe how the thing is executed, many would walk away, muttering things like, “You want to get 80 yards in that direction, but you’re going not really try...” or “Sure, count on the opponent, who has only to run out the clock to win…do your best to put the ball in their hands

7) music vids as aids to understanding the written word, better, music with a) attractive people or 2) little animated figures who accomplish more in increasing your enjoyment a work of classical music than a busload of music appreciation teachers driving the class to the beach, which also has an amusement park across the street from the ocean.

6) not one, or even two… But Ten (10 / dieci / zehn / kymmenen / dek / tekau / عشرة) Hosts (technically, co-hostinae) which is like saying, the more…the scarier? Current hostina: Dyanne

5) encouraging linkation to other places other than the site the hypothetical Reader has deliberately, or worst-case scenario, been completely hood-winked into opening by a throughly charming photo of a dog who, even from the static and at-a-distance medium of a photograph, (a fricken digital photograph, at that), conveys a sense of the potential that all life possesses to connect with everything else and, in doing so, offering, what is arguably, the key to a fuller appreciation of all that the world and the people who make it up, have to offer.

4) Linking to fictional people in imaginary worlds leading lives that are limited only by the skill of the author, which is akin to wearing a skin diver’s wet suit (appropriately fully of water) and walking in a desert… (or something) err well, see for yourself whichever one of the following does it for you and don’t forget to ‘follow’). Places like the Six Sentence Story, ‘the Case of the Missing Fig Leaf‘, ‘the Whitechapel Interlude‘ or, even, the 20 Minute Real Estate Briefing.

3) the Wakefield Doctrine (the guide to enhancing our understanding, appreciation for how we relate ourselves to the world around us and….the people who make it up)

2) Phyllis

1) Una

 

music (like we’re gonna forget that)

*

*

*

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Share

Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine-

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

This is the Six Sentence Story bloghop.

This bloghop is hosted by Denise.

Denise sets the rules for these stories

Stories are to be six and only six sentences in length

The length infers that a serial format is permitted.

Given this permission, what follows is the next installment in the (serial) story, ‘the Case of the Missing Fig Leaf‘ (For continuity, you might want to click on this link, for Chapter Twenty.)

Prompt word:

RIVALRY

“Tell me again why I should trust you,” I was beginning to get pissed-off; not so much because of her assertion of a common interest, as wanting a sense of the woman who stood over me as I sat, admittedly more punch-drunk than I prefer for a first date.

The genius of the religious habit she wore lay in how it eliminated all distractions while denying information; the shapeless vertical folds of the black tunic took care of the traditional, leaving the face framed in stiff white linen and softly draping veil; as attractive as her eyes were, they teetered between whispering and screaming, ‘Look at me, I’m not the one you should be worried about.’

“If I might make a suggestion, Mr. Devereaux, while your client, Dr. Thunberg, is of no interest to us, the woman in Chicago that she sucessfully inveigled upon you to contact is; it would be ever so helpful if you would call her, …now.”

Character may develop from adversity, but most wounds and permanent scars to the psyche are the product of elementary school, so I took my cell phone from her outstretched hand; I began to falter in my resolve to get the upper hand over the very confident woman standing in front of me, when, remembering the details of my interactions with ‘the woman in Chicago’, preventing Leanne from becoming collateral damage took precedence, “Ok, Sister, it’s your funeral,” as I pressed the contact on my phone, I looked up, “You know I don’t know your name, not that it matters that I know it when Anya answers, but to indulge in maybe the last normal interaction before we get to the bottom of the rabbit hole, what do I call you?”

Her smile rang the dissonant emotional chimes of third grade in my head, but what I saw in her eyes had me looking for a door, “Call me, Sister Aclima,” the mirror’d hall depth in her eyes spoke of timeless ages and unmeasurable suffering.

“Ian,” Anya’s voice, creeping from my phone, was as close to friendly as Twenty-first technology can achieve, “Now you know I enjoy a joke as much as the next girl, however, if you didn’t pick up on it when we were together in Chicago, I am not a fan of contrived rivalry, so start talking and don’t leave anything out.”

 

 

 

Share