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:
FUNCTION
The tall, thin man slowed as he approached Room 215; the walk from the ground floor Café & Bistro would have been as quick as from the convenience store to your car except for the soul-battering whorls of darkness that lined the hallways at random intervals.
Lighting a cigarette he walked past doors, some marked with normal alphanumeric numbers, other by sigils of a decidedly foreign character and still others were un-marked which was, somehow, worse; smoking produced a twofold benefit: inhaling deeply, the nicotine dumped dopamine-laden memories of pleasure in times passed and as a bonus, the darkness that inhabited the empty hallways viewed his self-destructive habit with approval.
Now standing at the door to Room 215, the Proprietor recalled the hastily-prepared Seller Disclosure provided when he, Mimi, Denise, Chris and Nick, (the majority of the Proprietors who voted to purchase the abandoned mill building), might have been a bit on the sketchy side in listing material (or immaterial) defects to the property.
Without warning, an earworm, no doubt thrown by one of the dark-streams as a maleficent distraction prior to entering the room; his memory/auditory lobes wrestled like a sophomore coed at her first kegger into connecting the words ‘function’ and junction’ all embedded in a catchy scat-jazz tune.
Hand on the knob, the tall, thin man heard a rhythmic thumping overlayed with a metal on metal tone that sounded just plain sad; stepping into the room, he saw the dumbwaiter on it’s right side on the floor, it’s left hand and arm raising and lowering a card;
{Where Did Everyone Go?}
{Not Again…∩ ! }
*
About clarkscottroger
Sounds very spooky …….. and never, ever sign a disclosure agreement without consulting a very good lawyer, you never know what you can be getting yourself into.
this is good advice.
It sounds like someone knocked over the dumbwaiter. I hope he’s OK and in the mood for more stories.
yeah, trying to figure that out (he might have simply fallen and could not get up)
posting a 2nd Six
Ho ho, the tall, thin man will need to be back in the Café and Bistro next week… and pronto too! Fab song by the way.
ok. this will be fun
Oh phew… but we have done something like this before, haven’t we… although if it’s a problem it could be cancelled?!
errr no, we’re 21st C beatniks and hispsters… we don’ need no advanced stuff everone’ll be there or they’ll truly be square
lol
I rather feel sorry for that sad little guy.
Poor dumbwaiter… All alone on its side.
Perhaps the tall thin man will employ the little guy, at a proper living wage of course, for the poetry slam evening.
I wonder if the dumbwaiter would like the function next week…
lol are you looking over my (metaphorical) shoulder!? will be posting another Six to that effect
The manner in which you end every episode makes it a perfect script for a TV serial.
thanks you, R
you know a guy?
lol
Just a reminder that the SSC&B Poetry Slam will be held this week. The prompt word is ‘Word’ (ikr? lol)
I seem to recall your asking about the alcoves and there is one reserved for you. (Which is not to say you are not welcome to ‘present’ word groups to the audience. (yeah! what an entrance! sweep back the privacy veils and walk right up to…)
In any event, hope you can make it (in any capacity)… as it happens I took the liberty of making your alcove next to Misky’s so, lets keep the whistle and cat-calls to a minimum, shall we? lol
The hallway is definitely spooky, but that earworm brings back childhood memories of Bob Dorough, and Number 8.
Enjoyed the buildup of tension… walking the hallway… approaching Room 215 and then…………………..poor dumbwaiter! 😆
Feeling sad for the little guy…
I suspect he’s accustomed to the life of an automaton
Funny how the song came to me, too, last Sunday when I first saw the prompt word. Those songs stuck!
I wonder if the dumbwaiter wants out of his room to be nearer everyone else. As for the weird stuff in the building, it’s true of most old places, you take them as they come.
glad you said that… the intermittent darkness of the hallway is not intended to be a ‘haunted/evil’ house thing…
…it’s way worse! lol the real-life attribute of totally, bedrock aspects of life, reality and everything every now and them…not functioning as they should
At least the dumb waiter was on it’s right side, not it’s left one – the card would have been concealed.
good point