Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
This is the Six Sentence Story bloghop.
It is hosted by Denise.
It has but one rule: use the prompt word and wrap it up, all nicey-nice in exactly six Sentences.
[Back in 2018, wandering down the almost-mouldy scented aisles of the world-sized used book and magazine store that is the internet, I encountered an article on the infamous prison, Parchman Farms. It made such an impression, I had to write a Six using it, (as it was in the early 20th C), as the setting. And, as happens, if we’re lucky, the real-world place and the fictional characters grew in realness. Not surprisingly, there followed additional Six Sentence stories grounded in my imagined Parchman Farms. For those of you who find the following Six enjoyable or, otherwise engaging, here are links to some of them: Polish; Release. and Legend]We will be returning to our regularly scheduled serial stories, next week.
Prompt word:
QUARTER
Lurking behind a bank of pre-dawn clouds, typical of Mississippi and June, the sun sent sapper raids of fog-cloaked light down the endless rows of cotton as the prisoners of Camp 8 moved down the lane at a pace that neither welcomed nor denied the day’s labor in the fields of Parchman Farm; the sun stalked the men throughout the morning’s labor, at times when light breeze faltered, raged down threats of worse to come in the afternoon.
Cageboss Roscoe Williams, seated on a sorrel quarter horse that put him above his manacled charges in every possible way, called out, “The State of Mississippi insists that y’all have a lunch break, the Warden insists that I get as much work as possible the rest of the time, so, back to work, the fields have more rows than you’ll ever finish, at least today.”
The old man, who spent his lunch picking at his gruel and, like an unlikely shipwreck-survivor, holding the wooden cross that rested against his chest, smooth light-brown wood on leathery and age dark brown skin; even as he staggered up into line with the other men, the thought came that he felt the way he had the first day on the line, only he was fifty years older.
Two things happened: his lungs got into a fight with his heart and his vision turned into featureless light; sitting back down, he was saved from falling like a dead man by the sycamore that supported him through the noon rest;
“He cain’t move and I don’t think he can see so good, Boss Roscoe,” Billy Tulene stared down and let his voice find the only person with the power to do anything.
“Tell you what, you boys pick his share along with your own, I won’t make a fuss,” as the line of prisoners moved out of the scant shade into the relentless sun of the fields, they didn’t see Roscoe Williams slow his horse, and throwing his Stetson down at the old man, say in voice he’d deny to God Almighty, “Think about the old hound dog in hell’s August heat, breath in through your nose and let it out through your mouth; I’ll fetch my hat if you’re still here at day’s end.”
About clarkscottroger
‘Lungs getting into a battle with the heart’ reminds me of many unfortunate incidents happening out here I’d to look up ‘sycamore’. Enjoyed the tale…
thank you, Reena
I found this much more interesting (and intelligible) than your usual writing, Clark.
You tell a strong story very well.
Thanks, ceayr. These Parchman Farm stories kinda write themselves once a sense of what that world must have been like
You are always so deep. I envy that a tad.
kinda mutual in terms of writing styles, your economy and heart is something I’d like to have, (sorta like a Telecaster through a Fender Vibrolux and a Strat through a Marshall stack)
Perfect six for a hot humid June day, also loved the video.
Thank you.
yw
We know that heat, and sometimes it wins. Well done!
I can only imagine (ip here it’s ‘holy-smoke-hot’ for maybe a day or two… but then I prefer the heat to the cold
Another Parchman Farms episode. Been awhile. Good to be reacquainted with the old man, Boss Roscoe and Billy…
” the sun stalked the men throughout the morning’s labor,”
Always a visual experience, these Parchman Farm episodes.
Music choice is a perfect compliment for today’s Six.
Yeah, there is something about the place… the institutional, everyday horror of the place… like the Miami Children Center (in Maumee, Ohio)
Good one, and a diversion from your two serials. I remember a couple of your previous PF stories, and you’re right they kind of tell themselves through the crushing heat and the intensity of the environment and time they’re set in.
Thanks, M.
(Backstory: we had an exceptionally hot day early in the week, so, naturally I decided to work outside… as a result, ‘my lungs picked a fight with my heart’ lol… and then, as I often do, I tried to imagine life in the early days of Parchmen Farm… nearly impossible to imagine and that, of course, is where the fun-with-words starts..
Wonderfully visual, Clark. Super-smart prose as ever.
Thank you, Chris
I hadn’t heard of Parchman Farm, so I’ve learned something right away. I could see all of the action happening, so vividly have you described it. ‘His lungs got into a fight with his heart.’ Wow.
And the unexpected ending with Roscoe Williams’ as near to kindness as he could manage gesture. Excellent.
(…as I was saying, in my Reply to Mage’s Comment above), the occasion of physical distress from over-exertion is surely a time when creativity rises to the surface. And…and! it (the yard work event I was referring to that was for, like an hour or two, just outside my air-conditioned house. To be a prisoner forever… just boggles the mind.)
Boss Roscoe is interesting… it seems, in my writing, I can get a bad guy ‘drawn’ and they walk and talk and do what I tell them, but, if they have whatever that magical quality is that keeps them coming back, if I’m really lucky, they begin to reveal more and more of themselves and, in the case of Roscoe Williams become less a simple bad guy (male or female)…
Well described character in Roscoe through his relationship with that old prisoner.
funny your mentioning Boss Williams, I was ‘talking’ about, in my Reply to Jenne49, how some characters, even the ‘bad guys’ will insist on being more than that ‘a bad guy’
Excellent and sad and authentic and extremely, painfully well described.
Thank you, Lisa
Ooh, this brings back memories from when I used to work in a greenhouse, with the very notable exception of not being a prisoner. Very well described, Clarke. This was some strong writing.
Yeah… just boggles the mind, that level of work with no hope of change