Category: Prose

John loved to play the game of making faces when posing for family photos like crossing his eyes or pursing his lips. He was at the age when children found funny faces funny and even his father and mother thought he was cute.

None of that would have mattered except for the strife dividing his family over the next decades which opened doors for the demonic to flow agitating any form of weakness it could find. Nor would he have remembered any of it had he not inherited his mother’s photo album. The photos reminded him where he came from shoving in his face a demand for repentance for his part, large or small, in the mess they were now in.

John wished he gave his mother a beautiful smile when he had the chance and not some goofy expression, but when he looked at the other photos in the album a childlike smile of release appeared on his now aging face as he realized that most of the time, indeed nearly all of the time, he had.

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Denise offers the prompt word “play” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

For more on the demonic see Frank and Ida Mae Hammond’s Pigs in the Parlor.

Guilt followed the pride of life dissipating Zach’s energy. That may have been a good thing since he was wasting his time on stuff that didn’t matter.

But what mattered? Zack was just a simple guy with a conscience informing him that he had lost his way. To get back on track he ran after one godforsaken enlightenment program until it disappointed him giving it up for some other gnostic nonsense.

I can’t tell you how Zach found his way home because I am in the same hog pen that you are refusing to eat the miraculous pearls which allegedly would provide living energy that could not be equated with matter no matter how fast the speed of light was.

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Denise offers the prompt word “energy” for this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

I was thinking of those pearls and swine in Matthew 7:6 when E=mc² came to mind. The “I” in the story is the narrator running his mouth pretending to be the author.

On a table in his hotel room Simon began building a house of cards carefully laying each one next to or on another lest the structure fall showing the futility of his addiction. Meanwhile the full moon rose over the Sea of Galilee sparkling light on calm water.

After he used up all his cards he opened the door to the balcony to breathe in the cool air. He saw the moon, higher now but still beautiful, and he wondered why he wasted his time with those cards.

Coincidental with Simon’s wonder one card in the house he built gave up supporting the others. With a swoosh all of the cards lay flat on the table.

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Denise offers the prompt word “structure” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Believing the best way to deal with someone was not to beat him over the head with a club Brian manipulated George with psychology. George, on the other hand, preferred the club.

Over the years these two friends found lovely brides and got married raising children who had children until Brian died which made George wonder if he should have used the club less often. Without Brian’s subliminal influence George felt the only thing left to do was grow old.

That was when an undeserved miracle gave George a wallop knocking some sense back into him and letting him know he wasn’t quite dead yet. After that the grandchildren longed to hear his tall tales while his own children listened and even his wife respectfully responded to his loving touch which frankly shocked him but not as much as it pleased her like an answered prayer.

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Denise offers the prompt word “club” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Ephesians 5:33 “Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.” (KJV)

Jeremy tried to spark some vitality into his life, but reality kept blowing it out.

His dietician suggested replacing the stuff that went into his mouth with other stuff, but he didn’t like that other stuff. The family counselor suggested he forgive his wicked sister Felicity, but that wasn’t going to happen. His anxiety over unlikely disasters wouldn’t leave no matter how many shrinks he paid to worry about them.

Reality refused to repent of its evil ways. Over the years all it did was add to Jeremy’s baggage until he couldn’t get a good night’s sleep even after wicked Felicity preceded him in death.

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Denise offers the word “spark” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Brian’s cold was a regular part of his seasonal doldrums starting about November and lasting till Spring. The liturgy minister in the church he attended, knowing Brian’s talent with a guitar, wondered if he would like to join the Sunday worship band. Brian told him about his cold even though the cold didn’t stop him from doing anything he really wanted to do.

Without warning the minister put his hand on Brian’s shoulder and prayed out loud while everyone watched that Brian be healed. Embarrassed but courteous Brian accepted the prayer expecting nothing much from it. Three days later the cold was gone and it never returned.

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Denise offers the word “band” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

I am on vacation, but this story occurred to me and so I scheduled it for today without being able to participate in the link party.