Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
This is the Doctrine’s contribution-of-the-weak to jenne and ceayr‘s bloghop, ‘the Unicorn Challenge‘.
A mirror of unreliable silvering, all invitees are told one thing: ‘this is an image, now tell your Readers and we few, we creatively-driven few, we band of bloggers a two-hundred and fifty word story.
“Shit.”
Surely the most concise and, therefore, powerful of invective.
The human animal often holds up language as its crowning achievement and distinguishing characteristic. Above all other animals, on a throne supported by a stubborn consistency of sound, at once remarkable and, yet, in it’s tendency to branch off into dialects and pidgin in fact, diminishing. Nothing is more emblematic of the curse of the fruit of a certain Garden than to choose, among the countless choices of sounds… words, than this:
“Shit.”
I looked down over the terrain. The blue of the sky made more the abyss by banks of grey-on-white clouds. The first to navigate the River of Time and my first impression is ‘an Artist’s studio minus the nude’. Of course I recognized the buildings, there was no mistaking my location.
When I was, as the Bard so tactilely invoked, there’s the rub.
The Mound was as it must be. The approach to the Baths was as conspicuously missing. Compounding my sense of dislocation were black pathways running in too-even rows among trees that had shed circumference by a factor not possible to yet remain alive. The afterbirth of Man’s effort to sire Nor Loch was there, but possessed the smoothed contours expected of the very young and the too-old.
“Damn that Professor Egmont and his infernal machine!”
*
About clarkscottroger
Hugely entertaining, Clark, and full marks to your research team!
But Embru, as we Scots call it, is still Embru, magnificent and majestic, regardless of the when.
thanks, c!
that (and my google of ‘Embru’ is what I enjoy most about hanging out with you mutants in the blogosphere)
One might say your MC has been in this place, but as he – is it a ‘he’? – says ‘When I was…there’s the rub’.
That’s the thing with this time travelling.
Was it in the days of the Nor Loch? (I had to look that up, to my shame. And I really liked ‘The afterbirth of Man’s effort to sire Nor Loch was there…’)
Excellent descriptions as always.
I echo your final line – add ‘But who the devil is Professor Egmont?’
ahh!
Professor Egmont is a character in my Six Serial ‘the Order of Lilith’ (from the Victorian Era, of course! lol)
You had me googling with this one, Clark, and I’m glad of that. I like your time traveller’s reactions to the ‘when’ he finds himself in, and your descriptions of his ‘where’ are lovely. I do like a time travel tale. Good one.
thank you, Margaret
An enjoyable and thought-provoking read, once again.
Entertaining, complex.
Dude, go easy on the window pane, man!
“Shit”…the estimable Dr. Egmont rides still? (lol)
Excellently done, and of course, it’s the Prof!
thank you, Chris
Time travel, by machine or chemical enhancement, can be tricky. Watch out for the Doc and hope for a safe arrival back home…