Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
This is the Six Sentence Story bloghop
Hosted by Denise
This is an Ian Devereaux week, so, the story below is the next installment in ‘the Case of the Missing Fig Leaf‘.
The prompt word:
CONNECTION
“Only fair to warn you, Sister, I served eight years in a parochial elementary school, so unless you’re going to make me write, ‘I will not use the introduction of a new character as an excuse for exposition’ fifty times on that chalk board, what say we cut to the chase.”
Except for the worn sofa that I awoke on, the room was empty but for three wooden chairs in a half circle and, face down on one, a lute with all but two strings broken, the remaining catgut draped over the rounded back like an octogenarian’s last attempt at a comb-over; hoping my voice was more convincing than my hands, already cramping from the muscle-memory of hours spent writing a single, declarative sentence on a classroom blackboard where, once written, erased; Sisyphus in a two-dimensional hell of after-school punishment.
The woman standing over me wore an old-fashioned nun’s habit, complete with starched white wimple that framed a face that, captive to the hopeless ambition to do justice to the most remarkable green eyes, conjured a vision of a new moon rising in the darkest of night; to my credit, I resisted the urge to howl in superstitious awe; the monochromatic religious garb was accentuated by a row of golden-yellow stones strung around her waist, worn like a belt yet looking like rosary beads; she caught me staring.
“You find my sole vanity interesting?” Without breaking eye contact, she put the chain of amber beads into a complex motion that, pretending to describe a simple circle, actually moved along more than a single axis, flashes of yellow and shards of darkness shooting randomly from the ovals of amber, “Of course, the origin of amber being fossilized tree sap is rather pedestrian, however, some are convinced these are distilled from the life-sap of a singular Tree, a very, very long time ago.”
“Did you really just pronounce tree with a capital ‘T’?”
With a smile that promised as much as threatened, she leaned close enough to caress my face with her breath, “Mr. Devereaux, I believe we have the basis for a beneficial connection.”
About clarkscottroger
Another richly written episode with the dashing Devereaux! I particularly enjoyed the description of the lute with a comb over.
Thanks, Chris (lol don’t know where the hell that comb-over thing came from, but once established I couldn’t get rid of it)… the lute and chairs is a reference to a scene in ‘the Whitechapel Interlude’ Interlude [4]… making this connection (between the two serials) is deliberate but not necessarily strategic… the paths, sharing geography are starting to interweave
You are such a wordsmith. Bravo
thanks, Paul right back attacha for your Telecaster* work on at ‘the Latte’
musical analogy….simile?!! whatever, but I admire your style in it’s elegant economy, like a Telecaster in contrast to, say, a 335 (or Albert Lee* to Alvin Lee) lol
he doesn’t actually play a Fender, but his sound totally makes you think, ‘Single coil pickups!’
Better than any Bible study that I attend.
I loved the line:
“Did you really just pronounce tree with a capital ‘T’?”
Rich beyond my wildest anticipation! Certainly inspires me to imagine and describe more thoroughly in my own writing. Leaving less to the readers’ imagination and commanding a scene is a worthy exercise. Thank-you for the inspiration, as well as, this artfully beautiful tale.
Thanks, Susan.
One week I start out… ok, Lets try and do the Hammett or Chandler and then the next, Hey that Joyce guy gets a lot of attention… lol*
If pressed, I would describe the process in my head as being visual first… all the words are meant to let the Reader follow along and the scene plays out in Technicolor… and then, the pendulum pauses and returns to find the illusion of balance
*don’t tell anyone, but at some point early in the writing this week I was looking up Cliff Notes on Ulysses ; no! seriously, a part of me was whispering…’come on, clark quote a famous line and then run with it… luckily I came to my senses.
Indeed, the comb over was excellent. However….really enjoyed the last part of the Six as the mysterious nun wields her amber beads :) It is a credit to our Mr. Devereaux he takes this experience in stride. How in the world will he update Leann about this encounter, lol
yeah, should be fun following the golden-bread-crumb highway further into (these) two stories
Once again I feel like I missed the start of the movie, and it is all-action stuff!
You’re not alone in that…. hey! I got a thought experiment that might be beneficial! Suppose, provided you’re old enough to remember drive-in theaters (wait, what am I saying, I see your photo)… in any event, what if instead of the viewer driving to the theater and park on a slant (surely one of the coolest elements of the whole thing)… and turn off the engine to watch the movie, the movie (Smokey and the Bandit II or…. Hunt for Red October) was displayed on random billboards along the highway… and truly random, not like, six in a row… well you’d eventually understand how this scene supports and enhances the conclusion, no?
think of the two serial stories in the same manner
I like this episode. Those beads, they are extra ordinary aren’t they? This woman knows so much, is very intriguing. Good luck Mr. Devereaux.
I certainly hope so! Not sure who this un-named nun person actually is but suspect she will be quite interesting
Honestly, I don’t know what to say in response to this story…
Sometimes helps to think of them as little film clips from a much longer movie that, even though the narrative has not yet presented itself into a whole, the sections are enjoyable as such… scenes from a story
As always, i have to read it twice.
but still fun, yes?
I am fascinated by the beads and their mysterious trajectory. The old-fashioned nun, the description of her face and eyes, and her ‘sole vanity…’ Mmm, what will be next? Intriguing.
Me too!*
* true seat-of-the-pants approach, while those beads (from ‘the Tree’**) are fascinating, I totally don’t know what they may do, signify or otherwise be capable of…should be interesting
** thing is, I’m not really sure if she’s referring to the ‘Tree of Life’ or the ‘Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil’ although both have some interesting implications to a story that involves a time traveler and a secret order dating back to the Garden of Eden (the Order of Lilith) guess I’ll have to stay tuned.
‘an octogenarian’s last attempt at a comb-over” you do have a way with your words…
lol the thing that keeps me going are the serendipitous wordage that I occasionally am treated to
I like the description of the after-school punishment described as “Sisyphus in a two-dimensional hell”. That rosary of amber beads looks like it could be used for unusual purposes in the coming stories.
yeah, me too (though, for anyone who hasn’t spent hours (and hours) writing spelling words on a blackboard as punishment) it might be a bit obscure an allusion to myth and parochial schools