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:
TEAR
Sister Aclima eased into the airport terminal’s molded plastic/plush upholstered seat with the reluctant grace of a patient with a weekend abscessed tooth; against the vulgar susurrus of cranky children and impatient adults, the muffled pulse-beat of her heart beneath the starched-white wimple reminded her that, awake, she was duty-bound to honor her vows.
Nights as tortured and dreamless as the most recent would sometimes produce flare-ups of starkly inappropriate humor; while all children are taught that god lives in the details, some learned that the devil possessed an endless supply of banana peels and that ‘tear’ and ‘tear’, as verbs and nouns were all too often paired.
The young nun tried and tried to remember the name of the patron saint of air travel… Saint Time Zones, Holy Mother Baggage Check or something; she indulged herself in a half-laugh, a peculiar form of expressing merriment that required exceptional vigilance… the judicious placement of a hand over mouth never hurt, either.
The knife edge of despair and hope (the two, in her own experience not all that opposite) was silent caffeine for her exhausted mind.
Aclima, not her given name, had been half-successful in reconciling herself to her abuse; she knew it wasn’t her fault, quite a mature perspective for a child of ten; unsurprisingly she was unable to find a place for the pain so, in keeping with the inclinations of her gender, turned it inward.
Until, quite by accident, she encountered the Order of Lilith which offered a path not nearly as self-destructive as her current one but, as with salvation through any external agency, the twisted scars of a child’s pain remained to be incorporated into her best efforts to free herself.
About clarkscottroger
Nice phrase: “the devil possessed an endless supply of banana peels”
thanks, sometimes it seems that way
May the path of Lilith offer her salvation and freedom from current painful restriction.
that would not be a bad thing to happen
Turning it inward is the common, and maybe worst, solution.
ikr?
I’m still enjoying ‘tear’ and ‘tear’, and also some wonderful patron saints – real or not!
thank you Chris (you know how, when we’re writing, there are certain scenes/elements/phrases that we just plain like but on the whole the Readers are liking some other part?) that was the tear, tear thing for me… started to think of it as a poem within the prose…or something
How Sister Aclima dealt with her pain can be the beginning of a whole new story.
yeah, that seems to be the narrative path forward… and, don’t tell anyone, as much as I feel it challenging to execute in a story, gotta try to make sure we stay close to her issues (without bogging down the overall story… which will tie into the narrative taking place at the Six Sentence Café & Bistro… somehow
and thanks for stopping in this week… now that you have a better sense of the physical layout (and that, imo, is key to writing oneself into a location) feel free to stop in anytime
WOW…just WOW.
ty
Is this a woman with axe looking for whetstone?