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
Prompt word:
TURN
“Hey, where the hell is everyone?”
“I learned a new word…or fact… or whatever the term for the crumbs of insatiable curiosity… gotta be a cool Greco-Romanian fricken word for it,” the tall, thin man paused, very much a person interrupted by the voice of a compelling, if not overly visible, agency; the path he took upon leaving the Manager’s office, while tempting to describe as random and pointless, going from bandstand to bar, back to dance floor, then sitting for a moment at a random table only to rise and move through the mostly dark, entirely empty Six Sentence Café & Bistro, betrayed a certain competence as he ended up at the waitress station at the end of the bar closest to the perpetually dark hallway where his journey this evening began.
“It’s ‘compline’ which is something to do with the Liturgy of the Hours and, while not as cool as some of the others, like Terce,” the man’s tailored shirt sleeves were turned-up un-evenly, his bespoke jacket left hanging on a mic stand on the low stage that ran along the back wall of the Café, a chromium valet reflecting the blood red of the nearest Exit light, “I wanted to tell someone; anyway, compline… those Latins with their declensions and cases, always misleading the average Joe, compline is the last prayer of the day so you’d think it’d have, you know, special powers.”
“It don’t,” the tall, thin man stood still in the empty club, as if waiting on a memory, but then continued with the non-voluntary effort of a drowning man rising out of the water, “You’d think with that kind of effort, scheduling the whole day, down to every syllable of every word you’d speak out-loud, it would fuckin work.”
“But it don’t…”
The Proprietor stood at the new jukebox and stared at the neon-lit list of songs and felt nothing and, if for no other reason than to drown out the silence, continued,
“You know the worst thing about ghosts? The worst thing about ghosts is that they’re almost real and we’re never, ever, no matter how hard we try, allowed to forget the almost.”
Compline… no, wait, lemme look it up for ya.Here, int Wikipedia , it says,
Compline tends to be a contemplative office that emphasizes spiritual peace. In most monasteries it is the custom to begin the “Great Silence” after compline, during which the whole community, including guests, observes silence throughout the night until after the Terce the next day.[1] Compline comprises the final office in the Liturgy of the Hours.
About clarkscottroger
Because dear friend… there is more to this story.
Always.
https://youtu.be/shzb7Gw0K5Y?si=t4NfX1gjgCjuOizC
Always good to get back to the Café
(thanks for the tunage… nicely curated, yo)
“..his bespoke jacket left hanging on a mic stand on the low stage that ran along the back wall of the Café, a chromium valet reflecting the blood red of the nearest Exit light,..”
The image, as real in my head as it is there, in the Café.
Atmosphere of the scene? Perfect for whatever led the tall thin man to remain at the Six Sentence Café & Bistro until that hour.
Searching for the adjective, Clark. Elusive, so allow me, “most enjoyable, if somber, Café Six.
I agree with the last line – thank you
“You know the worst thing about ghosts? The worst thing about ghosts is that they’re almost real and we’re never, ever, no matter how hard we try, allowed to forget the almost.”
Well, evening prayer does put the Amen on the day and turn it over to eternity.
the turning it over, surely the most difficult of simple things
I guess it depends on what one means by ‘ghost’ whether they are ‘almost’ this or that. The result of logical conclusion originates in assumptions and definitions which are grounded on whatever one takes to be really real. That is usually either God or merely man. If it is merely man all hell breaks lose, but I digress.
Interesting word: “compline is the last prayer of the day so you’d think it’d have, you know, special powers” Wikipedia has an interesting article on this word. I don’t think I ever heard it before, but it sounds familiar so I must have forgotten.
Well told tale. I can sense the discomfort of the main character through his actions and words in the empty cafe.
thanks Frank.
sometimes I bump into that thing about ‘show not tell’ in the words we offer the world of our stories
Café Six. I wonder where we are..?
ah! good question
perhaps this might be best addressed to the other Proprietors: Nick and jenne and Denise and Mimi and Ford (and Tom)