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 the ‘hop has but one rule: Six and only six sentences your stories must be.
Prompt word:
LIMIT
“Are you sure?”
Sister Catherine sat behind her desk at four forty-four on a Wednesday afternoon staring a pile of eighth grade book reports. The dusty-susurrus of chalk-on-slate providing the traditional soundtrack of detention at Saint Dominique’s elementary school.
“Yes, ma’am. I counted twice,” the boy stepped back from the field of black holding a nub of chalk, yellow-coated shirt cuffs and a single lemon smudge in the center of his blue clip-on necktie, the contrite artist surveying a papal commission.
With a skill available only to those women who, choosing to serve their God without reservation, devote their lives to educating the young, his teacher erased the blackboard of all but one iteration of the repeated sentence; not a particle of chalk adhered to the long black sleeves of the habit of her Order.
‘The prompt word is LIMIT, not LINK;’ the single sentence was eaten by the black felt of the eraser and, in the tone of any teacher who shares punishment with her pupil, said, “You may go, Seth, I’m confident you will not make this mistake again.”
*
About clarkscottroger
Nice description of those blackboards as “the field of black”. I wonder if schools use blackboards anymore. Your story brings back the chalk, erasers and even the sound of old school days.
yeah… clapping erasers after school too!
A small mistake is easy to make, easier to overlook.
The nuns were very good at what they did.
focused on their personal reality, fer sure
That was delightful; I so enjoyed reading your punishment for getting the prompt word wrong.
Belting! chalk, blackboard and rubber🤣
takes ya back, no?
What was up with that?! The writing on the board “I will not….” that shit. I remember. The nuns had all kinds of cruel punishments for children. Have my own “horror” stories, lol
No, I dare say no chalk ever did adhere to those long black sleeves.
lol