Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
This is the Wakefield Doctrine’s contribution to the Six Sentence Story bloghop.
Which is hosted by Denise
For one reason or another, we had the good fortune to ‘remember’ (more accurately, to stumble across among the familiar memory debris of the past), a story titled, ‘Knock’ by Frederic Brown. Surely, for those us with the ambition to write brief but engaging Sixes, it’s the holiest of holies.
Prompt word:
TERM
The tall, thin man sat back like a marionette with half of it’s strings suddenly cut; it was not a graceful change in posture, like the slow-motion transition of one seeking only to relax, confident the back of the chair would be waiting.
As the only Time Traveler to have returned from the past without adulterating his present, he felt a need to share as much of his experience as possible, texted a single line on his phone and began to write on the yellow-lined pad to the left of the computer keyboard that sat, like a spaceship just outside of a 19th Century town in the American West.
There was a knock on the door.
…
The Sophomore approached the cluttered desk, unmindful of the door closing behind him, the hardware store lettering, ‘Manager’ returning to it’s post in the dark hallway like a battle-scarred warrior returning to sentry duty.
The office was empty.
Pulling the sheet of paper taped to the computer screen, he read, ‘It wasn’t that the new buildings looked old, or that old buildings looked new, it was the mature trees where once grew a field of grass; which when you get right down to it, is the difference between a ream of virgin paper and a college term paper from the bottom of an attic-bound cardboard box: one resigned to manifesting the ambitions of the novice writer, the other a forgotten ward of a State absorbed by a ravenous future’.
About clarkscottroger
Delightful time travel story.
‘It wasn’t that the new buildings looked old, or that old buildings looked new, it was the mature trees where once grew a field of grass; …
Every Wednesday, I pass my elementary school where there are 50 year trees on what was once a grassy hillside.
Thank you.
well said
Maybe “all human beings [were not] swept off the face of the earth” but the women of the SSC&B sure did fly out !
Leaving us answering knocks on doors lol
ikr?
Every fricken move we make cracks a wall into a door… fun*
*for my own purposes, as a clark, I’m resolving (at least for the day) to just write myself out into the story and hope that I can write myself back
It makes sense that time travelers should worry about returning “from the past without adulterating his present”.
‘a course, that begs the question, ‘What present?’
Hard to pull off, coming to the present without changing the past, some wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation. Excellent story.
Thanks, M
Oh yes, Clark, you’re pulling this reader in so well… but like Mimi says, maybe the temptations of time travel might eventually prove too great?
(I must seek out FB’s short story)
You owe to yourself (to go read ‘Knock’) We’ll wait here (I did say it wasn’t an overly long story, right?)
Off on the hunt. Back soon.
Now, I find myself here… Still trying to get to know the players!
The Sophomore and the Tall, Thin Man: the same person from different times, in the same time, yet neither interfering (that may not be the correct term I want to use! 😊) with each other’s reality. Yes, I can see that working… all the more fun as one disappears when the other appears.
Now I need to find out who was knocking at the door; if I haven’t already.
Time travel is such fun!
Interesting (hopefully): when we first started the SSC&B metaphor, most everyone of the other Proprietors were comfortable with ‘writing-themselves-as-the-Proprietors’; but for whatever reason, I didn’t. Preferring a ‘stand-in’ in the form of the ‘the tall, thin man’. I brought in the Sophomore… cause it was a challenge. So, you’re correct in the most basic sense.
(Funny thing. Back a month or two ago, when we did Chris’s book party at the Café I knew I should put in an appearance, but the tall, thin man was not quite as established, so I brought in Ian Devereaux as protag. He’s my 1st Person detective and, with time and practice, a better 1st character.)
In that same Six I had Lou Devereaux accompany Ian. You might see some references to him from Nick the Gatekeeper. Ever chivalrous, he took exception with Lou’s err…. scottian voice. But I believe they’ve gone on to be wary allies… lol
Ah, yes… I did see a reference to Lou earlier!
Things are slowly slotting into place! 🙂
ok… if you insist (lol)
a chapter from the Case of the Missing Fig Leaf (WIP Ian Devereaux)
I see… quite the character!
ik,r? Not too much fun to write
Speaking of characters…
so, if you’re in the mood for a ‘write-on’ by way of a ‘heads up’ the following is what I sent out to the Proprietors,
…from ‘Tales of the Six Sentence Café and Bistro’ with Denise’s ‘Girls Gone Wild Night Out’ (lol) and the inevitable (and totally a tv/movie meme of the guys do the dishes (equally lol)…I’ll post a context Six by tomorrow afternoon. Pretty much where Nick left off, ‘come on back in (the Bistro)’ that will establish the cast of characters* and we ( Y-Chromians) can take off from there, either at the Six or before.I assume Denise can do the same, what, seeing how this is all her fault.
*no, not a novel or a play, still just a scene…
I bow down before Mr. Brown, lol
An eerie aura/tone to this story (gee, where/when did I last use that word, “eerie”, I wonder, lol)
Potent Six, Clark.
In particular, sentences 4 and 5.
What’s the exclamation used among certain individuals?… “g – – damn”.