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

This is our contribution to the Six Sentence Story bloghop

Denise the host.

The prompt word:

STROKE

“I’ve always wondered about why people are so taken with the expression, ‘The stroke of midnight’, you know?”

The compound sentence establishes a presence in your mind like a professional wrestler at a First Communion party, clearly the strategic approach is to hear it out; this proves to be a big mistake as it proceeds to split apart, one down to your gut and the other your mind, and a wave of nausea splashes up and against the ice storm racing across your scalp.

Your habit of sprinting into fantasy versions of life whenever you begin to feel overwhelmed by the stress of direct human interaction stutters just a moment, this allows you to resist the urge to speed rap on your provocative, if not off-the-wall observation, even as images of hot-looking villainess’ from random Disney cartoons and and other hormonal irrationality tries to grab the wheel and show you a route that nobody’s ever driven.

Sitting opposite you in the truck stop booth, the girl shows none of the familiar signs of exhaustion or it’s emotionally-conjoined twin, boredom; as a matter of fact, unless you’re mistaken, she’s calling your bet with a smile and a half-laugh that sounds at home in a half-lit bedroom.

You immediately assume two things: you’ve said something right and the dream from which you’ve always awoken prematurely is not over; being two forty-four in the morning, the interior of the diner somehow is becoming a miniature version of that 1970’s evangelical atrocity of a church in California, searching your mind for the name of the guy who built it you stop, grab yourself by the collar, all while reminding yourself not to show anything on your face or make a sound out-loud, like an outburst of laughter, as the mature part of your mind manages to take over motor control long enough to return her smile.

You hear yourself speaking and see the girl nodding and, for a moment, believe that the sun might yet rise on a day you do not wake up alone; the last thought you hear that does not arise from your busy, busy mind is: ‘Second Person Point-of-View isn’t the only perspective on reality’.

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