the Wakefield Doctrine

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 defined by it’s numerically eponymous title.

Prompt word:

FOIL

What? Sorry, misheard what you said, this is the rare manuscript department, maybe over in the self-help section?

Yeah, lots of those in our self-published and flash-fiction shelves, one might say that…eccentricities among indie authors… damn, sorry, my age is showing and the hearing is the first to go, especially with the bilabials; have you tried looking next door in the supermarket?

Sorry, as a delicacy, that stuff was outlawed because of the cruelty to the geese; sorry, damn…my French is minimal, maybe you should check in housewares.

Welcome to the Grocery department, yes, yes we do, we even have a choice: Reynolds and Store brand. How many rolls would you like?

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, ruled by a sole numeristic imperative. Six

Prompt word:

PUNCH

“…get the hell back here, I got a job for you.”

Lou’s voice rolled up the Lounge side of the Bottom of the Sea, and, like the true destructive power of a tsunami, did not manifest as anything as theatrical as a towering, white crested wave, destruction and death incarnate, instead it was as fundamental as a in change sea level; a reorientation to the norm, as he intended. Best way to describe the effect, it was like the adolescent-boy dominance game, (as if everything, at least until the arrival of girls wasn’t), of ‘Who can hit the lightest’, but in a metaphysical sense, of course.

Diane Tierney’s hand on my forearm was the reason the subjective and metaphysic view was not the sole guide for the Path of Man; at least not after the grandest of boyishly-mean pranks, the ‘You can have anything in the world except for this one thing;” I wrote a paper in sixth grade titled ‘Why I’d Rather God Punch Me Now and Get it Over With’; Sister Mary Imela was not amused.

Although some of us would like to think the world should be amusing with intervals of fascinating followed by happiness and contentment, I had pretty much given up on that view of Life; the touch of a hand reminded me why that was still, ‘pretty much’.

“A word to the wise, Ian…”

the overtone of caring to the lightly saracastic interrogative brought me back to earth, one that held the promise of life with things worth being serious about.

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, ruled by a sole numeristic imperative. Six

Prompt word:

PUNCH

“Who the heck made the punch?”

“Wait, don’t even think about going down that road, or I swear I’ll call Keith.”

“Chill, dude, I was just going to mention what a punch it had, nothing to the effect of implying that the word lended itself to a puh…”

“As god is my witness, I mean it, I will totally do it!”

“Sorry! Jeez, it’s just that I was reading this old magazine, ok! I won’t say the name, it’s from like the Victorian Era; and, for the record, your music video that you think enhances your story, the line you base the connection on is not; ‘Punching Judy and calling Keith’, the line is: ‘They’re all Pimping Judys and Popping Speed’.”

“Hello, operator, I need to send a telegram to England…. What do you mean you’ve never heard of them, telegrams are basically emails-by-castanet; no, really; ok take this down: to Keith (stop) Have a writer friend practicing Pun-ation without a License, send help (stop)!”

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.

Denise is the host. There is only one rule: a story must have six (no more, no less) sentae.

Hey! Fans of Lou Caesare and the Bottom of the Sea Strip Club and Lounge! This here Six here, is our ‘Flash-back Six‘ wherein we introduced Rosetta Storme them fine folks at the SSC&B.

… so, please, permit us to intone, “just seven hours and fifteen days ago.”

Prompt Word:

FOAM

“You can’t stop me!”

Something in the young woman’s outburst caused me to hear the old Led Zeppelin song, ‘You Shook Me’ where, through some trick in the recording studio, Jimmy Page’s guitar lead is echo’d before it is played; my entrance was abruptly halted at the hostess station despite the invisible-foam push of restaurant air at my back as the stainless steel and glass doors shut behind me.

A manicured hand on my arm applied a gentle pressure that made me feel stronger rather than lesser; Diane Tierney, the hostess, smiled at me, which in terms of necessary force was a classic example of coals-to-Newcastle.

“Why the fuck should I do that…” in a place like the Bottom of the Sea Strip Club and Lounge, as the last dancer was getting all Seiji Ozawa on the hormonal symphony beyond the multi-colored footlights, that the voice was that of a young woman in the last booth on the lounge side was not cause for alarm.

Diane shook her head while never un-coupling the lock her eyes maintained on mine; I might as well have been in handcuffs and leg irons, though the imagery did little to alarm me; suffice to say, any outburst, vocal or otherwise, in the vicinity of the booth that Lou Caesare used as his office/boardroom/refuge/headquarters was, by definition, approved…

“Well, fuck you!”

Thirty-five patrons gasped in unison even as Diane pulled me towards her out of the path of a the sequined tsunami of a young woman headed for the door; the spell was broken only when Lou called out, “Hey, Devereaux, stop dry-humping my hostess and get the hell back here, I got a job for you”.

*