Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
This is the Six Sentence Story
Denise is the host
(continuo from this week’s Doctrine Six Sentence Story)
Prompt word:
TERM
The knock on the Manager’s office door was soft enough to eliminate at least two of the seven Proprietors.
Pulling the chair away from the desk brought a quick correction to the list of door-knockers. The Sophomore sat and was immediately assailed by the memory of the first night he’d, ‘worked the door’, of the Six Sentence Café & Bistro. Standing at the top of the three granite steps that terminated down at the entrance door, his mentor/sponsor/probable-friend, the Gatekeeper, in a deliberately comical sotto voce, said, “So, young dude, it’s not the people who know they should be allowed in who matter, it’s the people who hope to deserve to be let in, that, my friend, is the art of Gatekeeping.”
The second (double) knock on the door cued a memory of advice from yet another Proprietor: ‘When people, other than cops, knock on your door, it’s a lot like the first-date teenager pretending to stretch his arms in a movie theatre as a premise to establish an emotional beachhead; it’s a total Schrödinger’s moment.”
With a smile, the only employee rumored to be a Time Traveler, deepened his voice into what he believed sounded adult, “Come in!”
About clarkscottroger
Nice distinction: “it’s not the people who know they should be allowed in who matter, it’s the people who hope to deserve to be let in”
something that says much for the gatekeepers of any organization
The Gatekeeper is a wise, wise man.
this is a true statement
Did we answer some doors or what?!
lol
heck, what’s the point of being able to create realities if we’re not, speaking only for myself, take chances (that I might lose track of timelines, characters and otherwise look silly in the process)
I’m seeing some fun doors coming up, Denise and the womenfolk-Proprietors* got theyselfs a night out which will surely be providing some adventures. (Not to get all rogerian and spread rumors but the word on the street is our co-Proprietors are likely to be joined by Cassa and Zelda and Em and them
*please, fresh vegetables on the stage only!
Did somebody mention ‘time-traveller’, or have they not done so yet? 😏
Hey, Tom! Glad you asked.
While time travel is a ‘thing’ for characters and narratives based in the collection of stories going, presently, by the title ‘Tales from the Six Sentence Café and Bistro’ I’ve made reference to the tall, thin man being a time traveler. In my second Six, I attribute that ability to ‘the Sophomore’. It’s a special case, however.
Warning: now veering towards my favorite topics, ‘How to Write Good’… lol, am totally aggravating the other Proprietors with questions, “what if I did this with a character?’ ‘How to transition from this to that…’
In any event, the character of ‘the Sophomore’ is my attempt to use an established character from my first WIP. Long story short, thst story (‘the Number you have reached’) is a classic, ‘wake up in your college-age body with full experience and memory‘… stop me if you’ve read a story like this* lol
Thing was, being way new at the writing thing, I went for the 1st Person POV. as in my sophomore year at college. Fast forward to the SSC&B, and I’m thinking… ‘hey I created a character from 1971 or so why don’t bring him into the Café stories?’ He already exists, why the hell not?
whoa… it’s turning out to be harder than I thought… I mean I have get in the head of a character who was me in college but write him now in the present… I suspecting this is a great idea or a really, really dumb one.
err what was your question again?
lol
🤣
Sometimes, it’s easier just to write it! 🙂
We’re all time travellers going in one direction anyway… the question is how would our earlier selves act if they were here in our later nows… not forgetting it’s always now whenever we are.
And thinking about that, how would our later selves act in an earlier now…
You’ve opened my mind a bit now… always good!
Returning from ‘Knock’, I’m a bit concerned who actually might be knocking. Not a George, I hope.
Surely the shortest of short stories (I like it more than even, the ‘Baby Shoes’ story from the early 20th)
Loving the ongoing(s). But that’s what time travel be about, non? lol
Let the stories continue…
As I “catch up on homework today”, I reread this Six. I totally enjoy the last sentence!
If I’ve not asked this question (but question has been already posed) what would happen (could it happen) if the Tall Thin Man came face to face with the Sophomore?
(…nope, simply can’t happen…but then, anything can happen if we write it!)
a course, it’s an open secret that the Sophomore is a rendition of the tall, thin man as portrayed in the WIP, ‘The Number you have Reached’