Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
This is our weekly contribution to the Six Sentence Story bloghop.
Hosted by Denise every Wednesday.
This Six is a continuation of last week’s, so allow us: Previously in this story...
This week’s prompt word:
VAULT
“Goes by the name, ‘the Sophomore’; long hair, quiet-type, dresses la maison de Salvation Armee, kinda mumbles when he talks, but funny; you did say you knew where I can find him, right?”
While not quite like when you wake up from a particularly intense daydream, the source of the jolt in my stomach was a toss-up between: when my passenger got in my car just outside of Boston city limits, the sun made her longish hair seem more white than blonde, in contrast to the brunette hair that was cut short enough to serve to frame eyes darker than the night-sky and the fact I was currently at the bottom of the off-ramp, five minutes from my office.
“Can’t say I know the guy personally,” I sensed an angry withdrawal from my passenger, like those demonstrations of inertia, where a balloon is tied to the center console of a car speeding along a road and, when the brakes are applied, the balloon moves, counter-intuitively, towards the backseat rather than the windshield, “But I have heard that name from a guy I know who is one of the owners of a place called the Six Sentence Café & Bistro, it’s not that far from my office, I can drop you off there”.
Praying for green lights, I drove past my office building; not that there would be anyone in the waiting room of Devereaux Investigations and Conflict Resolutions LLC, as the city was wrapped in night and the only pedestrians, at least in the part of the city we were driving through, were people who were lost, or those hoping to become so.
“You know, it’s late, why don’t I give a call ahead, maybe this guy you’re looking for has, I don’t know, left for the day?”
As we drove through a sodium-light waterfall at the intersection between the Superior Court building and the DMV, my hitchhiker finger-combed her short dark hair and adjusted the lapels of the pin-stripe business suit that made the blue ambient lighting pretty much surrender, she smiled while reaching into the back seat,
“Don’t fuck with me, you so much as think about warning your friend at this Bistro place, I will stop you like a bank vault door.”
*
About clarkscottroger
There’s a scene in a cartoon movie my children enjoyed years ago in which a young turtle pulled his head in his shell with the words, “He’s scary!”
Excellent scene setting here.
thankee M. (I bet I can almost remember that cartoon*)
*almost remembered?!! what is almost remembered. maybe thats what I need to add to this week’s Café Six
That hitchhiker sounds like trouble. Nice description of those pedestrians: “people who were lost, or those hoping to become so”.
thanks Frank. that line is a variation on something I heard from someone, who was talking about his trainer as he started as a cop on the 3rd shift, the training sergeant supposedly said, “On third shift, the only people you’ll encounter are people like you or people who deserve to meet people like you” lol
Strong female character…where is Uma?!
ikr?
been a while since I’ve done a strong, fairly evil female character… ask Denise about Anya Claireaux
He’s a little scared of her, that comes through.
Um, actually, so am I.
But the story intrigues!
thanks: Spoiler Alert while the character of ‘the Sophomore’ is, at least sub-textually, an inadvertent time-traveler this girl… damn! we don’t have a name, do we?!
(Weirdness Alert!! Miz Av’ry you have been of non-measurable benefit and aid in my process of learning to write good. For which I am unabashedly grateful.
If you have a moment to spare, a name for this woman (not entirely evil, but her normal social drive has been twisted by being transported to the present from college in the year 1972 (or the unshakeable belief that this has happened?)
Thank you for reading this (and by virtue of even considering this request, imparting a small addition to her reality)
not a full bio, but a thumbnail to whatever extent you would
I thought her name was Sybil. Sybil Trainor, a young woman who grew up silently despising everything about growing up in a small to medium sized midwest town where grain silos stood in for sky scrapers.
Sybil Trainor it is.
thank you
Just know I have no idea why or where from. She’s all yours. (Watch your back, especially as she smiles to your face)
lol
noted and appreciated
a thousand ships she launched
(I be getting all Elizabethan on these replies lol) oh well, Friday and all
Loving this chat. I had a Sybil nick-name in the late 70’s but lived in a London suburbia … just saying! 🤣
it’s fun, no? will be interesting with this new character, I can’t wait to find out more about her.
What a jolly little trip awaits. ;-)
…god! I hope so!
Great narrative tension. This won’t end well, will it? And Captain and Tennille: what a blast from the past!
lol. half the fun (and a lot of the ‘interesting’ to this process for me is to find a song that adds, enhances and otherwise increases the Reader’s pleasure. (with a subtext on how, sometimes, a song will shape and significantly direct the progress of a story.)
Hey! you like writing*
we (Denise the host and Nick (Spira) do this livestream thing on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 ET. We talk about writing and such. If you’d like to join us this weekend, I’ll be happy to send you a link to use to either come on the stream or through the comment chat feature. If that sounds interesting let me know, I can use the email that I see (and does not get published) here in the comment…place.
*lol very early am local time. prone, at this time to spontaneous garrulous writing
Hi Clark, Wow, that sounds interesting! Thank you for wanting me to bore you with what I’m enjoying about the Commedia. 🙂 I can definitely do it through the comment chat feature but this Sunday afternoon I’m booked. Feel free to use my email though to get in touch and maybe we can do it another time after the holidays? I’d be happy to do it!
cool
look forward to it have a good holiday
Yeah, Dora…what Clark said! And it would be a topic by itself to share your experience (3rd time around!) of Dante’s La Comedia.
Boggles the mind, doesn’t it?! 🙂 I just responded to Clark that I’m up for a chat via comments if that’s alright, after the holidays.
Not my mind 😉
She sounds like a tough cookie. To warn or not to warn?
that is the question, surely ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer her slings and arrows
lol
Don’t mess with the hitchhiker with short, dark hair, and a fierce attitude. Unless you like that kind of woman…
(speaking only for myself, hailing from the robust land of Y Chromia) ‘like who doesn’t right up until the end?’
Why do things always get weird at night, lol
Great last sentence.
👏👏👏
thank you, Chris
Boom, boom, boom ” If you’re looking for trouble you’ve come to the right place”. The Sophomore versus unknown lady, long hair versus short hair, Salvation Army hand me downs versus business pin stripe, let the battle begin.
sounds like more fun for the (fictional) characters than the writer (what to do…what to do?)
lol