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:
FILL
“Fill ‘er up, please.”
It was three o’clock in the morning and the start of my sophomore college year in a city still three hours and thirty years, by all metrics social and otherwise, further up the Interstate; advised by white-reflective-letters on a DOT-approved green sign that the next gas station was ‘farther than you got dude’, my exhausted brain stirred long enough to take the next exit.
Rolling down the window, a miasma of cigarette smoke, the product of too many miles and not enough coffee, saw its chance and fled bonelessly into the night air, a nicotine-atman fleeing mortal confinement.
The mercury vapor lights, junkie suns reveling in the hours most distant from day, preened before clouds of amphetamine insects, drawing shadows on the asphalt like a five-year-old with their first coloring book, i.e. the edges were blurry but the black parts were really black.
“That’ll be seven-fifty… you were driving on fumes, man.”
“Sure thing, here’s eight…keep the change, Phil,” addressing the attendant by name-tag was every bit the soft-click of a bra strap on a second date as the loneliness of third shift seemed to fade, he smiled shyly and his, ‘Thanks, man” had a vocal ellipsis that reached towards the driver-side window and so, despite feeling like the worst person in a car at 3:10 am, I drove off, bound for my own future.
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About clarkscottroger
What can be better than spending time with the Sophomore in a car with a full gas tank, cigarette smoke and Tom Waits!!!
Thank you
Damn. Allow me to be redundant… excellent.
ty
Ah, those middle of the night drives. Sometimes, at least back in the day, there was no gas station open at that hour, you had to make sure of your tank before leaving.
yeah… not to mention (and, yet, he does!!) no tv after the national anthem at 1:00am
Where we were, it was no TV after midnight on some of the stations, when I was very young.
You asked on my blog about water for the bees (they feed themselves), bees tend to try to get water out of the cat water bowls, the bird water bowls, and etc., and because those are relatively deep, they drown. We are partial to the honeybees which are good neighbors (they mostly leave us alone) and so there’s a special shallow bowl, with rocks, and water. They can stand on the rocks and safely reach down to get the water, without landing in water and not being able to leave again.
…and! for us, back in the Before Time, there were only three tv channels (cable tv was a legend referring to poor folks in rural upstate New York who had to settle for a cable system, as the over-the-air didn’t reach so far
ahh! can there be no doubt that the internet (minus the howling of the ‘real’ world) is a clark’s dream, i.e. a used book/magazine store with a bathroom-to-customer ratio of 2-1, couches and chairs everywhere and ‘whisper nooks’ (places among the rows where two or more could discuss their finds) cool to add to my understanding of Hymenoptera in general and honeybees in particular
I knew next to nothing about bees. Until now. Fascinating, Mimi.
I remember filling up a tank for about five dollars. I remember thinking to myself that that was about a quarter per gallon which I though was outrageous, but then quarters in those days had silver in them. I can just see the sign saying, “the next gas station was ‘farther than you got dude’”.
I decided to play it safe (writing this Six) and look it up mid 60s to mid 70s like fity cents a gal!
I am mesmerized by the repetition of the number three in the first paragraph- ‘ three o’clock in the morning and the start of my sophomore college year in a city still three hours and thirty years,’ if one is into numerology- which I am not- but it was still a draw when I read and reread that paragraph.
Some very cleverly laid out writing in this piece, Clark.
Thanks, V.
Not for nothin’ but I’ve always considered any time after 3 am to be a totally alien reality… not healthy of no body
I’m agreeing with Phyllis – can’t do better with those few things on the road, including that great voice.
ikr?
I echo what Violet says. I happen to be a number 3 by birth, so it was the first thing I noticed.
fun how, sometimes, the simpler elements of the story have a greater effect on the Reader than the more elaborate… goes to show me, write what feels right
They want us to fill our tanks with electricty nowadays, shocking.
lol
This is quite excellent writing, and I’d like add, even though I’m not turning this Six into a personal recollection — although, yes, I am in a way — I remember when we’d sit and watch the test pattern on telly because programming didn’t start until after dinner (or ‘tea’ as they call it up north), and doing homework was more interesting than anything on telly.
“…though I’m not turning this Six into a personal recollection — although, yes, I am in a way”
lol
thank you for the honesty… is it not the key to an engaging story to provided some element the Reader can identify with?
Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve been known to mine my past for a story. And, not, not merely autobiographical episodes and adventures (though I have zero problem with that) but emotion… a little tricky to describe, it’s kind of a clark thing… I may have a draft story (sad, exciting, whatever) I will often go back and find a old memory and… sit with it. Then write the next draft.