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, constrained by a sentence limit (high and low) of six, there are worse ways to spend the remaining time you have on earth.
Prompt word:
SACK
[Eibigen Abby Rüdesheim am Rhein, Germany]“This is a mission of critical value to the Order and we are confident you will live up to our expectations,” the Mother Superior smiled at the young woman across her desk, and while her expression conveyed confidence, her voice, conspiring with a dark reflection in her eyes, promised negative repercussions if she failed.
Sister Aclima nodded, reminding herself to maintain eye contact as she returned the smile: her social skills, while impressive, were born of need, sustained by necessity and now inspired by desperation.
Her upright posture shifted subtly, concentration on the older woman’s increasingly pedantic lecture causing her mind to wander, her discomfit was compounded by a stale onion odor as beads of sweat coalesced in the armpit of her habit.
“Are you alright, Sister Aclima?”
Catching herself, Aclima resisted the urge to snap at the Mother Superior, her reward was a sudden wave of fatigue converting the normally comfortable habit into sack cloth and burlap.
A glance at the wall clock provided no relief, it’s stubborn and resentful face insisting she’d been sitting for all of ten minutes; a hot flare of rage burned across her face, fueling the urgency to get through this interview and return to the safety and privacy of her room.
About clarkscottroger
Pressure hits all of us different ways.
this is very true
Love it!
;)
An interesting lecture (sort of).
The tension is mounting 🙌
The description of Sister Aclima’s social skills is interesting, and very realistic.
thank you, Reena
of all of the characters in this Serial Six, she is the most in simpatico with many of your Six Sentence MCs… no nonsense, a touch authoritarian and clearly lacking a sense of whimsy
The Mother Superior reminds me of Lou. However, I am sure (or rather hope) Sister Aclima can handle the assignment.
funny you say that (the thing about Sr Aclima, not Lou)… Spoiler Alert!! I kinda want to work on portraying a character with issues (internal, not gun related)… and the scene this week was to try and show (and not tell) her inner turmoil, ya know?
No pressure, there, lol.
Is there a “Mother Superior” on the planet doesn’t possess the ability to scare/intimidate? I’ll wager Sister Aclima is up to the task.
lol
I am thinking if Sister Aclimia’s initial reaction to the Mother is this devastating- she needs to rethink her desire to be employed under the Mothers watchful eye.
ah!
I trust you don’t mind a discussion of writing in lieu of confirmation… that is what I was going for in this Six…sorta trying to show a person with demons that not only didn’t give a shit about how much she was trying to live a ‘good’ life… it (the demon, not the good life) feeds on her discomfit as she tries and, (now this is way, way fricken’ way beyond my skill level) in a sense is driven by the suffering almost as much as she is driven by the need to escape.
this writing thing is tricky!!
Very relatable. So glad to be out of the Rat Race.
but then, where are we to apply all the hard-earned survival skills and strategies and such, developed by our time in the Race?
Perhaps in the Six Sentence Story challenge, where we can compete against ourselves to write something creative each and every week? Woot!!
this is true…
(it takes me back to my original mental metaphor for the Six Sentence Story Café & Bistro… that Six Sentence Stories were like ‘live mike night’ at the Café we write a story and put it out there every week it helps me, thinking in those terms to remember to take chances… forget the audience (in the sense of arbiters of the quality/value of my efforts) and more as co-conspirators…
I sensed her discomfort having been in similar situations myself, on both sides of the desk – not as a nun of course!
of course
lol
(but who among us, veterans of the Parochial Disturbances of Childhood have not been so close as to know them cold)
I think that Mother Superior is messing with Adam and Eve’s eldest daughter’s namesake, Aclimia, and that Mother Superior might learn what it feels like to dance with someone who steps on your toes. Ah yes, a game of shoots and ladders.
Love the tension in this. Words survive on space but thrive on tension.
Words survive on space but thrive on tension.
Damn! Tell me that that’s yours (the expression…)
Full Disclosure: while I was not consciously trying to create tension, I’m hearing in comments the scene has it. What I was consciously trying to create was a ‘show’ of the subjective state of Sr. Aclima such that we might begin that she was some very real ‘issues’*
*ideally pronounced with the British lack of shs sounds (or whatever the correct term is)… i.e. iss yews rather than ish shoes