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.
Hosted by Denise, it offers a prompt word around which a story is requested. One rule: six sentences; (judicious use of feral semicolons allowed.)
Prompt word:
EXTRACT
“I have a package for a ‘Mister T.T. Man’ from ‘Fourth Wall Victualers and Restaurant Supply,’ who wants to sign for it?”
Dressed in an immediately-recognizable, ultimately forgettable, quasi-military uniform, the deliveryman held a plastic rectangle out to the darkness of the nearly-empty Café; though the GateKeeper and the BarMistress and Chris-of-the-Monitor were there, in the dark, (Chris, in a characteristically fun way, held a grey scarf between herself and her computer’s camera creating invisibility to anyone scanning the Bistro for someone to sign for the package); no one moved except Hunga, who didn’t so much move in the locomotoring-sense, as wag his tail to the rhythm of a dogsong, probably titled “Look! Its not a Threat and it’s not Food, Look, everyone Look!”
With passive admission to being the only one who might sign for the package, the tall, thin man, pushing through his storm a projectile-sighing, took the Mont Blanc from behind his ear and, realizing the signature being asked for was on the Etch-A-Sketch grey surface, returned it the opposite ear; he stared at his right index finger with the resigned acceptance of a kindergarten teacher at the beginning of the first finger-painting class for the twenty-three five-year-olds waiting impatiently to find their Muse in the little pots of primary colors and the brown placemats of construction paper.
“A moment chèr,” the voice came from the end of the bar nearest the Manager’s office and just behind where Hunga played tiddly-winks with the two small dog treats, courtsey of the stranger in the funny clothes and what appeared to be a vanilla wafer; “I believe our wayward chef is working on something of a surprise to celebrate his return from his walk-about.”
“Tom, yo, we have the vanilla extract that you ordered, it’s here, the EXTRACT of vanilla,” restrained laughter from the other Proprietors put the bold in the font of the Manager’s choice of words to indicate the precise character of the food-flavoring.
The tall, thin man was just stepping towards the double swinging doors that offered access to the kitchen behind the bar, when there was a single sound and an asterix’d exclamation; the first described best as: ‘Dit—Dit—Dit‘ the second, something akin to ‘Bloody ‘ell‘.
*
About clarkscottroger
The roof , the roof is on fire!😂
(is that an expression in any way related to one that was current when I was in college (late ’60s early 70’s) which meant to imply, ‘Yeah, right Come on do you expect us to simply accept what you just said/did?! the expression was, lol, ‘yeah, your ass is on fire’ ah the natural poetry of youth and higher(lol) education)
funny, started writing this one earlier in the week, not sure if Tom would appear originally, the ‘joke’ was to have been Mimi feeding me the line/the prompt word while we waited for him to show up.
Nah… nothing to do with that. Simply joking about the potential of a second kitchen fire!
damn! I always liked that expression but unlike the sacred ‘cool’ it did not survive the changing times
Nice description of the surface of those digital devices as an “Etch-A-Sketch grey surface” on which one writes with one’s finger as one did in kindergarten.
I hate those *^&$#^@ N things
(five thousand years of civilization and technological miracles just to develop a sure-fire old-person detector. (Your Honor, we have prepared sample signatures from all at the crime scene. Without identifying the person associated with the individual samples, we will conclusively prove to the jury that, in the case of the shopper lifter who avoided two security guards, jumped over the product checking kiosk and performed a hood-slide that would make Daisy Duke smile, that my client, TT Man is not guilty)
Cleverly done!
Thank you, Miz Mimi
A most excellent opening sentence.
Never a dull moment at the Six Sentence Café & Bistro. Great to get a fly on the wall’s view of the latest goings on.
Only the tall thin man would have a Mont Blanc behind his ear, lol
lol
ty
More than fabulous for the Six Sentence Café & Bistro.
Really great fun, plus the Etch-A-Sketch, of course🤣
god I hate those ‘Please demonstrate to the young person helping you what life does to once-perfect, Palmer-method penmanship’