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:
PILOT
As cigarette and cigar smoke hovers over the only occupied table in the Six Sentence Café & Bistro, sonic contrails of a conversation drift towards the five Proprietors standing near or seated at the long bar that defined the far end of the rectangle of interior space.
A micro-iceberg crashes against a leaded crystal Titanic and despite the latter’s pilot house being un-manned, no lives were lost, forfeited or saved by selflessness; in a cool amber sea, one bounced off the other, neither concerned with rights-of-way, the Rule of the Sea or Fate.
A toothless zipper hiss followed by the delicate crunching of cellophane announced a consensus among the four people seated at the only table in the club section of the Bistro with good and intuitive illumination, that if they had them, they could, indeed, smoke ’em.
“At the risk of sounding like an Unreliable Narrator, I think I can offer a useful perspective on the matter that brings us here… or, to remove any doubt in your mind, permit me say, ‘Have any of you considered that what you think you know is not necessarily true?'”
The Sophomore slouched back in his chair deliberately to avoid having an inadvertent, if not telling, halo form above him, surely a devious conspiracy between the lighting and the particulate-intense atmosphere.
Of course, Nature abhors a vacuum and though there are few things in Nature more un-natural than a group of silent humans, the Rules are the Rules; without warning or prelude, the ca-chunk of the ice machine behind the bar calving identical twins by the scoopful established the bass note, followed immediately by the full-throated ring of an old-fashioned analog desk phone.
About clarkscottroger
I generally assume, except when deceived, that all narrators are unreliable until proven innocent. Someone is going to have to start the conversation.
Love your 3 sentence setup and not for nothin’ (as they say), but the Sophomore puts forth a valid question.
“…the ca-chunk of the ice machine behind the bar calving identical twins by the scoopful…”
Damn. A “wish I’d written that” line if ever there was one, lol.
Fun Six.
yeah he’s a funny one…
(thanks… though I was less successful, onomatopoeia-istically speaking with the opening of a pack of cigarettes
Very intriguing story I must say!
that is what I hope for with each installment
interesting…
thank you!
Ahh, thanks for that G + T, lots of ice… excellent. But who’s phoning, we are wondering?
ah! there’s a potential narrative that might have a bunch of potential… if you’re planning on staying at the Café for a while Sixistically, then I’ll be happy to have the tall, thin man bring the phone to your booth in next week’s Six Sentence ‘hop… and leave it with you, for maximum flexibility
let me know!
Who is calling on the old phone???
you want to know the coolest thing about the Six Sentence Café and Bistro? (beside it being a fictional location with established (and enduring) features and qualities (just ask, we’ll be happy to describe the layout) it’s stable enough to allow multiple writers to write a Six there as the scene (Denise and Chris and Mimi and Nick are all regulars there, not just as ‘characters’ but as writers doing stories set in that location…
if you’re inclined to want to explore the possibilities for your own narrative purposes, let us know we’ll be happy to set you up*
*literally, as it is an established practice for a set up that leaves a ‘narrative gap’ for another writer to, not so much enter the scene (in terms of action) as it is having the stage set and act… we refer to this as doing a walk-on. only rule is that we tend to not write for another’s characters…other than by reference, ‘Chris (the Raconteur) smiled and waved from her booth…” or “Nick (the Gatekeeper) smiled and grinned (somehow) in the same instance’ or ‘Denise walked to the far end of the bar, towards where Mimi, looking smiled and, letting the gris gris glitter on the mahogony bar greeting the Bartender with a ‘bun shahnss‘.
hey! it’s fun!
Nothing quite like the sound of freshly calved ice being freed from the metal mechanized mother of a machine which gave it life- put to use as punctuation. Bravo!
lol (who doesn’t know that sound, am I right?)
Sounds like slick shenanigans soon to start!
…god-willing! lol
I wonder how long Lou would even consider such a possibility.
funny thing about scotts they are intelligent but, when not, are prone to being stupid* but I believe our Mr Caesare has a secondary clarklike aspect which would allow him to being open to the possibility of being wrong. ….for the moment! lol
*as rogers are dumb and clarks are crazy
This hums with I wish I’d written that: “The Sophomore slouched back in his chair deliberately to avoid having an inadvertent, if not telling, halo form above him…”
… because halos so infrequently materialise in anything I write.
Completely fab.
now that you mention, same here, i.e. the paucity of halos