For Stan the idea that anything might exist put a strain on what he could philosophically tolerate. Asserting himself he told his students that there wasn’t a single good reason why any of them were here.
But all of that was before the accident, the emergency room, the coma and the visitations. Things started to click when one visitor with attractive horns offered him a full twenty years in exchange for his spirit.
Stan wished he could have told his students what he discovered before his life support was removed. He consoled himself with the thought that they would find it more credible if they heard it from someone else.
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Denise offers the prompt word “strain” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
The hostility between Steve and Bobby was miraculously resolved during the funeral of their older-by-twelve-years sister and Fred’s wife, Lily. During Fred’s eulogy for his wife he handed Steve and Bobby separate boxes containing mementos of their lives from infancy through grade school that Lily saved having watched over them many decades ago. He then handed them envelops with the words “Last Will” written on them containing a letter asking her two brothers to stop fighting with each other.
Touched by a sense of melancholy while going through the box he received from Fred, Bobby apologized to and forgave Steve who seeing this as a sign of weakness announced to all at the funeral that this long-overdue confession coming from the likes of Bobby was a miracle (which it may well have been).
In spite of that remark peace between them lasted until Steve insisted moments later that he get credit for being the one who apologized first which everyone at the funeral knew was a lie. Through the resulting commotion Fred called for silence and handed the brothers another envelop containing Lily’s second Last Will which simply read, “Didn’t I tell you two to STOP FIGHTING?”
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Denise offers the prompt word “melancholy” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
1 John 2:9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.
Neither Timothy nor Martha had a clue how to grow stuff as they looked at the good ground in front of them having enough stones to make a small mountain. Some neighbors reminded them that when winter came they were going to starve. Every time they heard the word starve they giggled without knowing why.
Come summer the crops grew. Come harvest time the yield was a hundredfold. Come winter Timothy and Martha, ignoring the neighbors’ security concerns, opened their doors to those hungry enough to stop by to make sure no one in the village starved.
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Denise offers the prompt word “security” for this week’s Six Sentence Story.
Matthew 13:23 But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Ralph ran his mind like an audio device on permanent replay. He believed in neither demonic nor angelic spirits which made the demons giggle with double delight.
What overflowed through his mouth further challenged his pretenses of being rational. Additionally all the time he spent muttering to himself made him wonder precisely whom those meditations were meant to impress.
To keep reality afloat in spite of his doubt that reality was really real he wondered if reality might well be an AI program simulating who knows what or whether there were some female identity trapped inside his male body all of which surprised even Satan who laughed at the inanities unrenewed minds wasted their lives on. As the day ended Ralph tried to put his spirit to sleep while his spirit struggled to wake him up.
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Denise offers the prompt word “replay” for this week’s Six Sentence Story.
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Jake’s rationalizations tried to redirect the waterfall of reality away from himself so he could avoid getting wet. If the latter rain came his soul was so dry he might start smelling like petrichor. And if he got filled to overflowing who knows what might happen?
From mountain sources water splashed down boulders like conviction eroding away the resistance of his stony heart.
Jake remembered reading somewhere that given the current rate of erosion the entire mountain would be at sea level in less than fifty million years assuming reality lasted that long. He wondered how long his heart could hold out.
James 5:7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
Many stories, few of them good, could have been told about her by those depositing their tithes in the treasury box. Most everyone advised her to keep her tiny coins since neither the temple nor the Lord needed them as much as she did. Figuring she couldn’t survive on them but sensing no one really wanted what little she had to offer she didn’t know what to do.
Regardless of her failings which were perhaps right up there with our own those two coins were all she had. They weren’t much, but they weren’t counterfeit either.
Luke 21:1-4 And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. 2 And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. 3 And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: 4 For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.
Early in the morning worried about how he was going to use the assigned word “yellowbelly” in a story Jeremy walked to the ocean as the beach was being raked into a linear pattern perfect in its symmetry until he stepped on it. He saw a bird and considered but then rejected the idea that he might be able to get away with writing a story about a yellowbelly seagull.
Forgetting about the word he wondered where the birds that were coming to shore spent the night, but all they wondered about was whether he brought snacks. Others bored with the sun tossed pieces of bread to the birds who grabbed whatever they could as Jeremy clicked his camera.
Eventually everyone, including the yellowbelly seagulls, realized that the day had indeed begun as expected without their needing to be there at all. It just happened leaving it to those like Jeremy who’d rationalize the joy out of stuff to only step back onto the freshly raked sand and see to his surprise sunrise, birds, beach and even himself as one awesome gift among many others from the Lord for which his thanks was long overdue.
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Denise offers the prompt word “yellowbelly” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
Job 37:14 Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.
Sam walked into the ice cream parlor where Betty, the owner with bright blue streaked hair, a splattering of tattoos and a decades-long carousel ride worth of baggage that her clothes thankfully covered, asked him, “What flavor would you like today, Sam?”
In turn he asked, “What flavor is the least popular?”
“You know as well as I do that nobody in his right mind would choose cherry vanilla,” she responded pointing to the nearly empty tub of his favorite ice cream.
“Then to help you reduce your inventory I’ll have two scoops of it,” he said.
While scooping out his order Betty felt that Sam—for his own good—should never ask her to marry him, but believing there were still miracles waiting even for the likes of her, and given the fact that she was rapidly running out of cherry vanilla, held onto the hope that he might do just that.
Eventually she and Sam rejecting the decades-long garbage clinging to both of them were married by a real chaplain to show that their commitment to each other was, like that chaplain, real all of which put the Wonderful in such a good mood that He gave, and they like giddy children received, the Wind and the Fire, the living breath of God.
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Denise offers the prompt word “carousel” for this week’s Six Sentence Story. The notion of God being in a “good mood” I owe to Michael Wilson.
Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful….
Mark 10:14 …Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.
There’s nothing out there that resembles what you’re looking for, Timothy’s inner voice said as he concluded his failed search for intelligent extraterrestrial life-forms wondering—Well, what about non-intelligent life?
There‘s none of that stuff either, the voice answered. Be grateful that there’s life as you used to know it still on Earth.
Well, what about those aliens in their fancy UFOs that beamed me up and experimented on me? he asked.
Yeah, they’re real, but I told you to stop messing with the demonic.
This conversation with his only remaining friend was all Timothy needed to flush away what was left of his feigned composure as he exploded like a supernova into a sequence of big bangs against the padded concrete walls while psych ward orderlies came in to strap him down for further experimentation.
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Denise offers the prompt word “flush” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
The Mediterranean Sea and Jaffa Beach in Tel Aviv, Israel
In the days when Jake felt his mind was running a few bricks short of a full load he was told he would never find his friend lost in the crowd of humanity without the heart to at least look. What made matters worse was Jake no longer remembered what his friend looked like nor what his name was nor why he bothered trying to find him.
Regardless that still small voice kept reminding him that if—yes, if—he were willing to listen and respond promptly as he was directed he would one day find his friend and be able to laugh again. Over the years Jake kept searching even among those unlikeable sorts he ran into wondering why his friend would consider hiding among them.
Eventually the still small voice ever ready with something new to say no longer focused on Jake’s lost friend. By then Jake had more friends than he previously thought were there to find joyfully aware that not a single brick was missing from the load on his truck.
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Denise offers the prompt word “truck” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
1 Kings 19:11-12 11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: 12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 