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 there is but one rule: the story (inspired by the week’s prompt word) must be six sentences in length.
Prompt word:
FREQUENCY
“You’re a’scairt, that’s all you are.”
“No I ain’t!”
The two boys moved through the brush like grooms through layers of diaphanous veils and curtains securing their respective wedding nights; one slid careful hands, fingers soft pry-bars, and parted each leaf-clad branch in his path, the other, slightly older boy less taken by the beauty of flourishing wild cherry bushes equally the sting of green briars lying in wait.
The lakeshore clearing was an incidental rise of the earth; a root-knotted and ivy-greened path leading generations of neighborhood children to a betrothal chamber far from the protective (and jealous) eyes of parents and other adults; the term rite of passage is the kind of description conjured by one who has forgotten childhood, ‘the Swing’ was all anyone, of a certain age needed.
The water was dark and quiet, a flawed mirror as the sun sketched details at the whim of passing clouds, the tree, at the top of the rise, was everything the earth might be, were it possessed of a desire to experience flight and the rope hung straight, a make-shift pendulum measuring the passage of Summer.
The swing’s arc, invisible in stillness, was the ritual; the rope ,the sacrament and the frequency of its celebration measured in seasons and generations;
“Then you go first.” the boy grabbed wrist-thick rope; closing his eyes as a last defiant act in the face of fear, he ran until the earth set him free.
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About clarkscottroger
Good observation: ” the term rite of passage is the kind of description conjured by one who has forgotten childhood”
thank you, Frank!
Love your story. Written such, the visuals act as quintessential time machine.
Emotional last sentence. The poet’s brush strokes fully evident.
You tell these so well we can see every movement and leaf.
ty, mm
Yeah, right..
” I don’t write poetry”… 🐃
lol dude, lol
How beautifully…
gracias Miz Chris
Yes, perfect example of “show us, don’t tell us.”
Thankee, Miz M
This brought me way back when I used to swing slowly on the rope swing.
ikr?
Wonderfully descriptive, it was like I was following them!
the fun of wordage (always trying for that 1st POV camera angle, you know, like the nightclub scene in ‘Goodfellas’