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.

This is one of a series of Six Sentence Stories done in the setting of Parchman Farm, (click here for a Wikipedia briefing). For a sampling of these, here’s one with the prompt word: Quarter and another from later in the series, prompt word: Polish.

Prompt word:

CHALLENGE

“Warden gettin’ soft, tell all the cagebosses to give out these here calendars, for the barracks.”

It was Earl Fenton Callaway’s first day on the job so he threw the sheaf of papers on the trestle table where the inmates of Barracks 8 sat trying to make the December morning meal last.

“Well, don’t thank me all at once,” the starch in his shirt collar gave lie to how casually the man took his promotion; when he and his supervisor stepped into the long, open room, the first thing he did was announce to the men who called it home that, while ‘Mister Callaway…Sir’, was acceptable, he’d look upon it kindly if they’d just call him ‘Boss’.

Cageboss Roscoe, standing in the open doorway, snorted his opinion of his new assistant; the convicts, for their part, made sounds as non-committal and untraceable as the low wind that roamed the cotton fields of Sunflower County during the wet, winter season.

Stepping through the younger man’s words, Roscoe Williams held one of the calendars out to a white-haired man, the hands accepting the gesture looked like two strings of chestnuts folded over on each other; sensing his new-found authority was being challenged, Earl laughed, “Be sure to mark the day, boy, Christmas is still the twenty-fifth, even here at Parchman Farms.”

“Christmas a place,” nodding his thanks to the older guard, the man brushed a silent path from forehead to the middle of his chest, his work-scarred hand a dark star that few of the prisoners could see, fewer still would understand, ‘ain’t just a square on a calendar.”