Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
This is the Doctrine’s contribution to the Six Sentence Story bloghop.
Hosted by Denise
[ceayr Advisory: Sure, the character, ‘the Sophomore’ is familiar by now, the setting is consistent with the storyline thus far, even the music is enjoyable to a certain variety of post3-graduate from most institutions of higher education. But…but the musings, in the form of a message from one of the Proprietors? Might get grabbing Doug and Brad and running (metaphorically) down to Keith’s Stage Door Bistro for a shot (or three) of something that makes sense seem like a good idea.]
This week’s prompt word:
LABYRINTH
The Sophomore, ceasing his hurried descent, leaned against the glass-block wall that bound the mid-floor landings of the mill builind together like rough jewelry on a metal-casting tree; from the exterior alleyway it gave the appearance of uncut blood diamonds stacked improbably, awaiting the polishing wheel to remove the patina of time and use.
His shoes, sandals, actually, were responsible for the peculiar sound accompanying his hurried descent from the roof, a double-slap separated by a whisk; the double slap, familiar to anyone attempting to make haste while wearing footwear intended for anything but making haste, and whisking sound, the result of maintaining direction on a surface covered with a fine aggregate of flaking paint, deteriorating cement and the leather soles of a hundred years of exhausted laborers.
His breath reclaimed the rhythm that his lung’s design specs stated were advisable for a maximum usable life, the young man took from the left front pocket of his grey Dockers a twice-folded square of paper the tall, thin man had pressed into his hand as the medevac chopper shouldered it’s way up and off the rooftop.
‘Everything you want, and all that you fear, is inherent in the day today, your inability to grasp that which you desire is not due to their distance in space, because everything is a matter of probability in the context of your reality; life is but a labyrinth, so remember that the paths you do not chose are what makes it seem difficult to find the exit you seek and half your battle is won.’
The Sophomore turned and walked down the alley in the direction opposite the loading dock at the back of the Six Sentence Café & Bistro. The city air held the scent of bus diesel and the promise of afternoon temperatures in the high nineties; his stride, the careful one-foot-in-front-of-the-other manner of a person so tangled up in their mind as to not take a chance on non-moveable objects like telephone poles, bus kiosks and anyone who refused to leave him alone.
*
About clarkscottroger
Nice description of that surface: “covered with a fine aggregate of flaking paint, deteriorating cement and the leather soles of a hundred years of exhausted laborers.”
Yeah, one of those descriptions that, having spent time in such mills and factories, is challenge not to use, but to limit myself in the details…
Master Weaver, a request?
Certainly, what would you have us do?
Somewhere down the line (hand claps)
I say, somewhere down the line (hand claps)
I would really, really (hand claps)
like to see a soc Six from you!
We trust we have the correct (musical) reference?
We’d be happy to… hey! Here’s an idea!
Next week, provided Denise approves, we’ll (both) both* post a double Six. The Doctrine’s post will do minimal explanation (primarily linkage) the question of whose first and who’s second (in layout) should be left to the individual and their Muse… (I have the habit of not reading other Sixes before I publish, so it’ll be fun)
socs (for us) are funny, it’s like mood first, words second… nothing else pre-determined, other than the obvious include the prompt word
Excellent suggestion!
sounds like fun
let us know if it sounds fun to you
*lol
…quick thought…suppose we both send Denise a handful of sentae and let her pick one for the starter sentence (swapping them, of course!)
lol
even more fun*
*thereby highlighting the secret of soc (imo)
Frickin hell…I knew somehow when I was typing the request that I was walking into a trap lol😄😄
First off, the music reference was (for me) 2.40″ from the song you posted. But, not complaining, learned a new song!
Here is another thought…damn Nick, you walked right into that!!!
Well I don’t know for myself of double Sixes ( you should since Hūnga comes with Denise at the SSC&B) but the soc…let’s do it.
Tell you what instead of sending Denise extra work, why don’t we let her give us a sentence…regardless of the prompt.
(Shit damn, like a newbie at basic training lol)
Would you care please to redefine for me the rules of soc?
In my mind the italicized sentence at From Womb to Tomb is one, right?
Well, well, welly! Do I hear the chanting of a challenge! An soc challenge at that?! Excellent. Do this, gentlemen (not a request). Let’s see what chops ya got –
1. Once I have posted the new week’s prompt word tomorrow, I want each of you, Clark and Nick, to send me via e-mail, 3 sentences based on the prompt word.
2. I require those 3 sentences no later than Monday.
3. I will choose for each of you the first sentence you are to open your Six with.
4. The sentence I send each of you will be from the other’s 3 sentences:
Clark, you will begin your Six with the sentence I’ve chosen from Nick’s 3 sentences.
Nick, you will use as the first sentence of your Six, the sentence I’ve chosen from Clark’s 3 sentences.
5. You will not begin writing your Six until 5:30 local time Wednesday. Link your Six immediately upon typing the last word. No thinking about it. Link it. Done.
P.S. Why should you two have all the fun, huh?
Yo! Ford! No going AWOL from the SSS, man (no one leaves “Yellowstone”).
Challenge: I will send you 2 sentences: 1 sentence chosen from the remaining 2 sentences from Clark’s 3 and 1 sentence chosen from the remaining 2 from Nick’s 3. You will use each of these as Sentence 1, the other as Sentence 6.
The best part?! I will instruct you which is to be Sentence 1 and Sentence 6.
Time frame is same for you. I’ll be in touch 😎
Thus has spoken!
(Again, can someone summarize what is considered a soc…I don’t need the additional embarrassment of a complete blunder😄)
Seat of thou pants, sir. You will not blunder. You will in fact, have fun!
I e-mail you the chosen sentence. At the appointed time (5:30 PM local), you have 30 minutes to open up a blank WP, write sentence 1, allow words to spew forth; then publish your soc Six Sentence Story, 6:00 PM your time.
For you, 7 hours in our future, you’ll have to wait for the link to go live at 6:00 PM my time before linking to the blog hop proper.
Questions? 😎
Yes, I got this, thank you. So, 12.30 am I write till 1 am and publish.
But…what qualifies as a soc? That is what I want to be certain of ,milady.
Meaning, is the only condition that it has to be written in this half hour or there are additional conditions as to form etc?
All good. I get it. But the ” this is not a request”….🤣😎 I Love it!!
How i do hate trying to run in sandals. Who am i kidding, how i hate to run! If someone yells, “run for your lives,” it’s not going to happen, i’ll stay behind as the sacrifice, lol.
lol
Why yes. I imagine after reading the note from the tall thin man, the Sophomore would be all up inside his head. He’d be better off walking in a field of flowers than on a city sidewalk, lol
Rich, tactile descriptions in this one. Gritty. Nice.
So…why was the Sophomore hurrying down from the rooftop?
damn! I shoulda put a link to the previous installment.
That’s the sound of sandals, all right! And such a sense of lost and seeking unlost in this six. A perfect musical match too.
Sandals, Clark, sandals, you know it, especially when running down the stairwell while wearing them to get to the postman or woman in time… flip flop go the tongs, the sound echoing around the apartments.
Re: the soc challenge, I’m in, I think I get it. D just emailed me two sentences, I arrange a soc around the order of these two?
(Let the soc expert speak lol)
Yeah mate. I gather our friendly neighborhood facilitator designated which one is #1 and #6. So,5.30 pm their afternoon, 😆, we draw our pens and shoot the remaining five sentences. We link as soon as the SSS linkinz goes live, at 6pm.
They keep saying fun to me…we’ll see!
Hey, wait a minute! Why are you getting to shoot 4 instead of 5?
Man…connections everywhere…that’s why our civilization will crumble and polar ice melts 🤣🤣
Cue the frickin Morricone music…harmonica please!)