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.
Previously in our current tale…
Prompt word:
TABLE
After selecting one small book from a bookcase marked: ‘For the Hallway’ and his favorite Mont Blanc pen, the Proprietor paused before stepping into the hallway. His eyes sought the brightness and illumination to the right where the hallway led to the Café & Bistro currently full of normal people sitting at small, round, wooden tables celebrating a normal existence.
With a determined, if not slightly resigned smile, the Proprietor instead stepped to the left, his intimate knowledge of the building causing the intermittent blackouts to sputter, as if in frustration, as he walked further along the corridor; tracing a small tattoo: طواف, on his left wrist, the impeccably-tailored man laughed the word ‘widdershins’ and proceeded, the light of his torch elbowing the darkness out of his way until finding the door he sought.
“La Raconteuse, I presume,” offering a modest smile as his letter of transit, the tall, thin man paused just inside the room even as the shadows of the hallway butted against the now closed door to Room 215; a flare of twisted light knifed futilely under the door, barely missing the left heel of his Stefano Bemer Oxfords.
“If I might be so presumptuous as to suggest you step away from that particular window,” the emphasis on the word particular was accompanied by a head tilt towards the seating around a small, black marble fireplace.
“Now, as a beloved friend no longer with us once said to me, ‘tell me how you managed to find this particular room and don’t leave anything out’,” the Proprietor laughed in approval at the remarkable variety of objet d’art, curios and steampunk clockworks.
About clarkscottroger
The place has more rooms than we’d imagine. Like in the Harry Potter world, where there’s a necessary room which shows up when you need it most in various places and it can be whatever you need it to be.
which is what I like about the SSC&B a ‘real(ish’ building in a virtual world with a permanent address
having spent far too much time in mills and old factories I have a soft spot for them… even the dusty stairwells that echo each sliding step on steel-edged concrete treads
This is absolutely excellent, and I adore the word widdershins (old; counter-directional, amongst other things).
thank you, Misky
Full Disclosures: the word was a memory fragment from an excellent book, ‘the Illuminatus! Triology’ by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. (highly recommended)
I forgot to mention: Circumambulation? (grinning)
ikr?
Steampunk clockworks!!!
Absolutely love the imagenery of the room that is being played out these last few weeks…
I wonder what other rooms may be there that nobody yet have seen…
ikr?
see Mimi’s Comment (lol)
Excellently done… since both of us are in this interesting world, called the room 215. Love this detail – that small black marble fireplace, happy to sit there… for a while. And of course, she can ramble for ages. Hmm, some drinks and… (let’s see where it goes).
thank you, Chris such a inspiring location/building
btw the images I use so often of mills and factories, while not the actual ones, are very much like the places I found myself in an earlier time in life (can’t speak for modern ones, but those places in the 1970s (of course they were 100 yo then) would be vast (yet closed) lit but only locally, depending on the department or the machines in us, noisy very noisy and smells of machine oil or yarn (depending on what they made) but the smell was so pervasive that it would take days to get the smell out of your nose.
Aye, I know places like that in many parts in the NW England – but surely no nasty smells in Room 215, no? But now I am thinking about the next scene… maybe a dumb-waiter may appear (just a thought).
oh man!! why you gots to do this to me!?!?!
lol here I am, finishing up my TToT post for the week and you throw the fricken creative grenade next to my keyboard! a dumb waiter I immediately went literal with the imaginary a person, full 1940s bellhop cum waiter tuxedo entering Room 215 who is mute …ayyiee the possibilities!
fully optional
as the Beatles said, Give me your answer, fill in a form,
lol
Ah. The dumb-waiter maybe next time now… oops!
got ya… look for another Six with a certain tall, thin man today(ish)
Circumambulation? The guy has circumambulation tattooed on his wrist? Let me just say, this guy has most assuredly found his niche!
lol (the fun of rummaging through the virtual world in search of that one thing that resonates with the character)
I like that mysterious room with clockworks. And the thought that there are likely many more mysterious rooms awaiting discovery.
I agree about Room 215
near endless possibilities for characters and stories both good and not-so-good
Good to know there are still normal people celebrating normal existences within this abnormal institution.
I’ve always been fascinated by that invisible divide… to be aware of the gulf between most and the few… with maturity I am increasingly comfortable with let them enjoy their normal, knowing of the abnormal will not enhance their enjoyment and less and less I have the drive to want to say “But don’t you see?! What of the vast range of reality there is… (no, I’m not addressing Horatio) lol
ok kinda channeling
Always an admirer of your impeccable wordcraft. You create the best imagery I have ever come across.
that is very kind of you to say… this remarkable community of ours helps me to keep trying in improve in the wordifying
loved the details… especially so the shoes…. and those normal things that somehow make their way into our mad world to bring us remembrance of where we’re living… one cannot help but to enjoy the journey of the unknown and the curious that draws us in to help us find our way to where we’re going…. the story continues…. great six
thankee
Totally got lost in this scene and love the third sentence. Hm… could it be the tall, thin man’s preference for wearing long sleeved dress shirts (Brioni?) the reason no one knows he has a tattoo? “Widdershins”, indeed!
this is the first I’ve heard about him sporting ink