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Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine- [a Café Six] cont’d

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

This is the Wakefield Doctrine’s contribution to the Six Sentence Story bloghop.

Hosted by Denise, there is one rule: Six (no more, no less) Sentenceses to the story.

Previously, in our serial story…

Prompt word:

FLAKE

“There’s an old saying…”

The tall, thin man watched as Mimi’s right eyebrow teased her lips only to have a frown try to head-off the laughter; it was no contest.

A good-natured, if not charitable, concession to anyone nearby who, upon observing one tall man and one not-tall woman in conversation might be tempted to believe they could extrapolate it’s content from non-verbal cues, the man turned to face the growing crowd at the Six Sentence Café & Bistro’s first April Fools Day3 open house.

“Oh…kay, I just made it up?”

Mimi smiled at Rosetta who, ferociously not paying attention to the two Proprietors, backed her way into the Ladies Room with a fresh supply of towels and hand lotion, then looked back at the man who had a green bar rag tucked in a twelve-hundred dollar Hermes reversible belt, “I’m sorry did I break your concentration? I didn’t mean to do that, please, continue…”

“… that no two snowflakes are identical, the blizzard knoweth not’ and how in heaven’s name did you manage that,” a nod towards the restrooms on the lighted end of the hallway, “miracle?”

 

 

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Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine- [a Café Six]

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

This is the Wakefield Doctrine’s contribution to the Six Sentence Story bloghop.

Hosted by Denise, there is one rule: Six (no more, no less) Sentenceses to the story.

Previously, in our serial story

Prompt word:

FLAKE

“Glad you could make it,” a slight pivot, shoulders barely half a degree down and the tall, thin man moved among the tables in the main area of the Café, his smile a letter of transit through the crowd, “Good to see you, how long has it been…” the ecosystem of a party, especially one with such a varied constituency as the first April Fools Day3, generated it’s own language, each individual contributing to the lexicon, snowflakes in a linguistic blizzard.

“Pierre, Héloïse we are so glad you could make it,” taking the man’s hand, he smiled at the woman.

Non, mon ami, c’est mon honneur, le château en Normandie est à vous lors de vos prochaines vacances; après ce que tu as fait… nous aimerions tous les deux pouvoir faire plus,” the woman smiled, the patina of fine wrinkles at the corners of her eyes conveyed genuine affection, yet despite her advanced years, there was a flare in the back of her eye that spoke of a lifetime of… life, as she elbowed her husband with the most subtle of marital arts, “Forgive, my husband, you’d think being a diplomat would make him more sensitive; now go, attend to your other guests.”

The Proprietor checked his phone, knowing that Nick and his fellow-traveler, while likely to put in an appearance, rode the winds of chaos on their private odyssey and headed to the left of the small stage which, at the moment, was occupied by two women seemingly intent on recreating the cave scene at the end of the movie, ‘Annihilation’; the typical concentric audience/observer/participant-wanna-be rings formed around the stage.

Ma come puoi anche solo suggerire che… aspetta, ecco il nostro ospite… chiedi a lui, Proprietario,” the young woman lurched, thereby appending a subtext to her complaint even as her young man blushed, a not-so-proud display of the purple heart of public faux pas, “I apologize for my date, sir, she’s never been to an event with such a high ratio of the celebrated and the notorious.”

Looking through the waving reeds of human figures, the Proprietor noted that Chris‘s table was, at the moment empty, except for her laptop, the open cover perpendicular and showing stickers that included ‘Louvre ’84 ‘all the world’s a pyramid’; sensing the party had reached a level of equilibrium to obviate the need for a formal host, the tall, thin man headed towards the bar and, beyond it, the Manager’s office.

 

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Friday -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘the gods look down in anger…’

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers

This is the Doctrine’s contribution to the Unicorn Challenge bloghop.

A word-count constrained imagination contest* hosted by jenne and ceayr, the prompt is an image and the only limit is ‘tell your story in under 250 words’.

 

The evening’s whispers, like mountain streams, manifested their true power in the endless variety of sound as they tumbled towards the sea. Never a single voice. Rarely even similar timbre or tone. Yet mountains fell and oceans filled.

“Fuck ’em,” a smile like a shadow growing on a series of X-ray prints found voice, “If that was in Latin, they’d listen.”

As is the nature of even the most high-borne soliloquies or alcohol-engendered bravado, the words were cast to an empty house, footlights of a hand-crafted stage obscuring all but the highest-proof perspective.

Lifting the broken glass, the man, his girth an ironic filigree to the delicate touch of tobacco-stained fingers, held it up to the light in search of shards that might disturb even his thirst.

“My kingdom for a whore!”

Chin thrust, shoulders hunched, the drunk dared the empty barroom to duel.

The barman held open the door, Charon waiting to complete the journey begun in the light of a challenging day at work. The pride he proclaimed in ‘showing those management morons’ now resignation to the 3:00 am kingdom of empty streets and hopeless dark.

Hearing the door close behind him, the man pressed the broken glass, scepter of a kingdom found and lost in eight hours, to a bloody grip oer his noble profile and stumbled into the endless pre-dawn night.

 

 

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Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine- [a Café Six]

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

This is the Doctrine’s weakly contribution to the Six Sentence Story bloghop.

Hosted by Denise, subject to the Rule of Six.

Previously, in our story

Prompt Word:

CARD

“The first guests of our April Fool’s Day3 will be arriving before we know it, time to get to work setting up,” the tall, thin man, after rolling up his impeccably-tailored sleeves, put down the rack of glasses and held his suit coat out, over the bar, “Do you mind putting this on a chair somewhere?”

Perfectly shaped eyebrows shifted like hungry wolves looking for the prey’s weakness as Rosetta Storme stared in disbelief; finally her shoulders relaxed slightly, but sufficiently, to bring her upper body from attention to at ease.

Like olden day card sharps looking for the single weakness in their opponent, the young woman and the refined gentleman began an exchange:

“No problem, what the hell, I’ll go put it in your office,” and took one step in the direction of the hallway…

“Stop, under no circumstances are you to ever go down the hallway without being accompanied by a Proprietor…”

Jeez… just trying to, like, get in the spirit, but if you people are so uptight, maybe I should just leave…”

“Not at all, it’s for your… I promised Lou that you would be safe working here,”

“Hey, old dude, I ain’t no kid, I can take care of myself and am way capable of handling drunks both male and female…”

“You misunderstand me, this is not about the customers, hell, it’s not even about the Manager’s office,… it’s about the hallway…”

“Are you busting my balls or what?”

Sighing, the Proprietor continued, “You’ve worked here, what, a total of five days, and among other attributes, you are very observant…”

“Sure but whats that got to do with…”

“Don’t interrupt, just tell me if you’ve seen a single thing about this place, lights, plumbing fixtures, furniture that seems to be broken or in need of repair…wait, don’t answer… the  hallway at the end of the bar, tell me, what you see?”

“The lights are fucked up, a bulb or two that’re ready to burn out, … a little dark for a emergency exit route…it’s been badly lit since I got to this zoo, so the hell what…”

“Do you think Mimi, a Proprietor and one of the, to use an expression from before your time. the most-together people in this… zoo, as you so charitably put it, sits there at the last seat, right next to the service station because it’s the best seat in the house?

“She’s there so you or some other kid, being all young and oh-so-sure of yourself does not come to harm.”

 

 

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Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine- [an Ian Devereaux Six]

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

This is the Wakefield Doctrine’s contribution to the Six Sentence Story bloghop.

Hosted by Denise, there is one rule: Six (no more, no less) Sentenceses to the story.

Previously, in our serial story

Prompt word:

CARD

Being careful not to change my posture or breathing rhythm too drastically, I raised my eyelids just enough to take in the sight of Diane Tierney behind the wheel of the car that hopefully would deliver me back to the Land of the Rational; almost immediately, my attention was highjacked by a wide, granite rectangle approaching on the right side of the road, it’s face, carved lettering: ‘Hobbomock High School’.

Memory is a funny thing.

Were it simply a collection of facts and information, it would be both manageable and efficient, unfortunately it is anything but; memory/memories are less an old-fashioned library’s card catalog and more like a Busch Gardens zoo with an aggressively incompetent staff consisting of manic-depressive animal trainers, hebephrenic tour guides and exhibitions that, at random intervals, lowered the fences separating wild animals from feral humans.

This is especially true of memories created in the years separating childhood from adulthood, the scorched-earth, psycho-social battleground known as adolescence.

“You’re coming down, that’s good,” Diane’s voice was a synthesis of concern, curiosity and genuine affection; overcoming my obsessive desire for privacy, I decided to not be selfish and responded,

“That’s the hellhole where I endured four years of socialized torture, aka my old high school.”

She laughed, “Well I, for one, am glad you survived.”

 

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