Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
Below is the Doctrine’s contribution to the Unicorn Challenge bloghop.
Hosted by jenne and ceayr, it is part writing exercise and part TAT (with, being the digital age, a touch of Hermann R’s Kool-aid). But it’s fun and …well, satisfying. You oughta join in this week, It’s easy! This is the prompt image. Write a story with les than 250 words in it, go to the link and hook in.
On with ‘the show:
“You’re just foolin’ me again, Grampa.”
“I’ll have you know that I would never deceive my only grandchild.” Cognitive assessments for the very young are not yet able to measure the sophistication allowing appreciation of the cynical italics he placed on, ‘my only grandchild’. If there were, the notation in the test results would be whatever words replicated the giggle that followed.
“Now I know you’re just jokin’ me.”
The two sat on the low concrete wall. Well, one was picked up and set-down with the sense of fun less appreciated by mother than son; the other sat with the slow care of a pensioner counting coins in his monthly change jar.
“When you look out your bedroom window at night, how far can you see?”
The curious shift in topic had the desired effect; the boy’s eyes lit up in foreshadow of his reaction to the question.
“What you see is not forever-far away. What you see is the other side of Time, where everyone we’ve loved have gone to wait for us.”
“Now I know you’re foolin’.” Another, under-assessed quality of the young human mind, is appreciation of metaphor. Some parents fear the imaginary friends or whimsical excuses for chores missed; the very old and the still-quite young revel in it.
Reverie, a state of being that issues passports more to the immature and the elderly, imbued the lighthouse with a glow of excitement and purpose.
“There you two are! I hope he hasn’t tired you out, Dad.”
About clarkscottroger
Writing eloquent yet simple, you’ve crafted a beautiful tale of a unique relationship. No better gift than imparting the magic of imagination.
ty
There’s magic between those generations.
yeah, agree
As one who has an ‘only grandchild’* I can relate to this, Clark.
Although our days of hunting mythical beasties in the treetops with magic-dragon-secret-mammoth-multi-functional-hydrosonic-stick-guns are long gone, he is still as much a source of joy and inspiration as when I wrote a series of Jack the little Giant stories for him.
Great insight to the interaction in your words.
*We had dinner last week in a pub/restaurant on the site of a school once attended by Robert Burns.
thanks, c.
as others have mentioned, this week’s image was a tough one. not sure why. But then again, ‘my process’ has, of late, been to look at the image and go with storylines quite tenuously connected to the object in the pitcha.
Which is a fun thing.
I watch your stories to offset going to far afield with mine. That is to say, to me, you write an engaging story in which the photo provides the setting/location/venue and then have your characters do their thing (to our surprise and/or delight).
First and foremost, Una is splendid.
Second and foremost, this is a really wise story, so clearly crafted and written.
Favourite sentence for me: ‘Reverie, a state of being that issues passports more to the immature and the elderly, imbued the lighthouse with a glow of excitement and purpose.’
Those two points in life where freedom is most possible – inner freedom, if not always outer.
And all emphasised by the mothers’ silly (in this context) ‘grown up’ question.
Love it.
might be telling that I seem to be most facile, if not comfortable, with the inner workings of the child and the old… not so much, apparently with the in-betweens those poor, often caricatured ‘real’ people (who we often refer to in Wakefield Doctrine posts lol)
damn! so much for my reading carefully! (I should be embarrassed to say this, but I only just noticed that you said this, more succinctly, imo, in your semi-penultimate line:
“Those two points in life where freedom is most possible – inner freedom, if not always outer.”
ty yo
Oh, man — Jenne took what I was going to say!
Reverie: a state of being that issues passports more to the immature and the elderly <— this definition belongs in a dictionary
I know how that feels (heck, this actual week*)
*in my comment to jenne’s story
You’ve successfully created the world the grandpa and grandson share, and shown how comfortable and delighted they both are in it, and in each other’s company. The down-to-earth voice of ‘mother’ at the end contrasts nicely with the world of imagination and deep thoughts the two others share. Beautiful, Clark.
Thank you Margaret
(that adult voice/element was the trickiest part for me. Not so much that it was necessary (or at least a positive element, rhetorically) but how to get it into the narrative without too great an interruption/disruption of the interaction… saved by ‘the last line!’ funny how the simple things can be the most elusive (lol well, to some of us) and… it was that magical thing (in writing, if not reality) allowing for a step back/a step out of the current reality….so, if we’re suddenly another character, then it’s kinda normal to address the person by name (Dad)…
fun, no?)