#sixsentencestories – Page 14 – Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

Second—Six Sentence Story and Poetry Slam

As Steven entered the computer lab where he cursed a mindless machine a few weeks ago the next second the clicking of keyboards stopped while the students waited to see what would happen. He thought we all knew where he had been and what he had done, but—except for me who heard from a friend of a friend—they likely knew nothing nor wanted to know what he had been up to.

After being dumped under the interstate with the homeless Steven was able to confirm his identity, change his locks and get a new phone. This left him at a point—actually any point on that turning carousel would do—when he had an opportunity to change his mind and follow through by jumping off the merry-go-round.

I don’t know what happened to Steven beyond that point being more interested in my future wife sitting next to me rather than either the assignment on the monitor or Steven’s future antics. I sometimes wondered about him, though, wishing him the best, but only sometimes since both of us, grandma and grandpa now, have had plenty of merry-go-rounds of our own we didn’t want to jump off of even when we knew that was the only way.

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

This is the final story in a four part series about Steven circling back to the computer lab. After the lab it followed Steven to the caverns of a little Babylon. Last week Steven found himself dumped in a homeless camp under an interstate. Today, we are back in that computer lab long, long ago when your grandfathers were dating your grandmothers and your father and mother were still a twinkle in their eyes.

There is also a poetry slam going on this week at the café. I asked Steven if he would like to participate. Unfortunately, he agreed. Here’s his poem.

     Hello.  My name is Steven.  
 I like running my mouth as much as 
            the next guy 
         especially that guy, 
               Frank, 
    who thinks he knows 
       what happened to me 
          in those caverns 
  the second some nosy, UNRELIABLE 
    source who   NEVER!!!!   liked me 
     in the    FIRST    place offers 
   a tall tale explaining 
          why I wasn't in class.  

        What Frank doesn't KNOW
  is I was out saving a damsel 
            IN DISTRESS!!!! 
      ——— yeah, that's right ———
  from the very DRAGONS of Blislisnis 
        HE PUT THERE HIMSELF!!!!  
              
He forgot to mention that.
  
Of course, he'd forget to mention that.

I plead the Fifth Amendment on any probing question about those dragons.

Valet—Six Sentence Story

Steven woke from his misadventures in the caverns of Blislisnis lying on the ground by the tents of the homeless where the Caverns Valet Service sometimes parked people who were still alive. After regaining consciousness he asked a man sitting nearby how he got there.

“You must have called upon the name of the Lord,” the man answered, “but they told me to tell you they got tired of feeding you like a dog.”

Steven noticed that his wallet and keys were missing and his phone was smashed.

“Don’t go back to those caverns, son,” the man said.

Steven left the man walking in a direction that seemed as good as any to reach home if he would only persist this time in going there.

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Denise offers the word “valet” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories. Steven’s story continues from last week. It will be completed next week.

Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Thread—Six Sentence Story

Steven followed the thread until it broke which made him worry that he might not be able to find his way home. Fear of shame kept him from crying out for help since he had no business being where he was.

The creatures from the caverns of Blislisnis where he went to waste his time approached to collect additional fees. They lured him back to the pleasure rooms of their little Babylon by offering him piece after piece of wormy delights like one might lure a largish dog when it refuses to go where you want it to.

Forgetting that he dreadfully wanted to leave only moments ago Steven lapped up morsel after morsel consuming as much of the delicacy as they would allow him to eat. With him secured deep inside his accusers, those scornful, lying mockers, induced him to vomit, surrounded him with derision and gloated that now he could never leave.

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Denise offers the prompt word “thread” for this week’s Six Sentence Stories. Steven’s story continues from last week and will continue next week. I don’t have the heart to leave him in Blislisnis.

Romans 1:24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts…

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Cabbage Plant and Purple Pea Blossom Against a White Fence

Screen – Six Sentence Story

In the good old days when your grandfathers were dating your grandmothers and your father and mother were still a twinkle in their eyes students used computer labs where each could interact with a boxy screen through a noisy keyboard.

Seated in one of the lab chairs was Steven losing his composure when he faced instructions to press some cryptic key sequence. Pressing the wrong key generated an error message normal human beings could not understand which led him to press other (wrong) keys which took him through a labyrinth filled with dead ends and booby traps. I will spare the gentle reader the exact words leaving Steven’s lips as he exposed his heartfelt frustration which his fellow students mistook for demonic possession.

Eventually Gerald got up from his chair and walked over to where Steven was sitting wondering if he could figure out what the problem was while trying not to think of the consequences coming from Steven’s anger if he could not. Gerald pressed what might be called today the escape key, but God only knows what it was back then as peace reigned once more in the computer lab and grandfathers and grandmothers could go back to cherishing the twinkle in each other’s eyes.

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

Tension – Six Sentence Story

Jake’s fortune read, The best way to mess up a miracle is to take offense, which made him wonder where people came up with stuff like that. The messages his co-workers received in their thin, dry, almond cookies didn’t seem like they were pointing suspicious fingers at them, or maybe he was just being overly sensitive about the one he received.

He recalled years ago around his fortieth birthday getting a fortune that read, A fool at forty is a fool indeed. At that time Janice, a sales manager he had to tolerate, remarked, “The universe is trying to tell you something, Jake, 😂🤣.”

Since Janice was paying for the meal, Jake thought it best to keep his mouth shut. However, his silence couldn’t stop the tension from building up in that noodle between his ears pitting his general unbelief in most everything against his realization that that had been the third consecutive time that he, and he only at the table, received that very message.

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

Silk – Six Sentence Story

Not having made a meme before Richard searched the internet for tools that would make one for him. Finding a few he sniffed his nose at he decided to do it the hard way and write his own code.

That exercise kept him merrily preoccupied for weeks. Once he figured out which package to use and which options to apply he realized how smooth as silk easy it was to put words and images together.

With all that procrastination out of the way Richard ran up against a problem even an internet search couldn’t answer. He couldn’t think of anything snarky enough to give him a wicked giggle that wouldn’t eventually make him regret he posted the meme in the first place.

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

Lounge – Six Sentence Story

Demons love to lounge and blame and curse beneath a pretty sky.

With ugly words they seek to maim. Demons love to lounge and blame. Avoid them when they’re taking aim. Reject the shameless words that fly.

Demons love to lounge and blame and curse beneath a pretty sky.

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Denise offers the prompt word “lounge” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories. As a poem I posted this on Poet’s Corner.

Zest – Six Sentence Story

Eileen, troubled as many of us are, was seeking never to be the same again as she watched dozens of people, some very old and some very, very young, fall and laugh overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit during the revival meeting. She knew this would not happen to all attendees since some understandably felt no zest to embarrass themselves in public in front of video cameras, but she wondered if it might happen to her in spite of her sitting in the middle of a row far in the back of the auditorium and in spite of her troubles.

The revival leader said he was looking only for those the Spirit showed him were ready as he walked the aisles. When he called her she nervously edged her way past the lukewarm spectators sitting next to her to get to the aisle knowing that—yes!—she, too, was going to fall and—yes!—she, too, was finally going to laugh.

Eileen raised her hands in praise, unnaturally fell backwards fearlessly into the arms of a catcher and laughed without restraint on the floor. Although decades later she would have proof, while lying there full of joy she already knew she would never be the same again.

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Denise offers the prompt word “zest” for this week’s Six Sentence Story.

Wrap – Six Sentence Story

Steve looked at the sunrise letting his mind wrap his preconceptions around what he saw. He was no longer a pagan rationalizing this burning ball of hydrogen as a pantheistic spiritual entity. Nor was he ever an atheist seeing naturalistic stellar evolution in play rather than the greater light created by God to rule the day.

Taking Einstein’s relativity seriously he stipulated that the one-way speed of light from the sun to him was instantaneous. This forced the one-way speed back to the sun to be half the speed some might want it to be who preferred their own preconceptions to help them get lost in the addiction of deep time.

With that taken care of Steve watched the birds originally created on the fifth day watch the sun rise over the catastrophic flood waters that drained off over five millennia ago to become the Atlantic Ocean.

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

If the story makes no sense, I’ve been reading Jason Lisle’s 2010 presentation of the anisotropic synchrony convention and a 2018 modification of it by Tenev, et al.

Date – Six Sentence Story

After their last doctor visits Jeremy and his wife, Felicity, planned a series of trips across the country. They went from their children’s homes to those of other family members to friends making sure to mark the date so they would not forget to attend Sunday Mass wherever they were. They saw baby alligators lie on mama alligators’ backs in the Everglades, fancy roosters wander the streets of Key West, cold Alaskan glaciers, deep Arizona canyons, Rocky and Blue Ridge mountains and wide expanses of oceans with turtles, birds and seashells.

Some noticed the medications they were taking while others wondered about their talk of checking off items on their bucket lists. Regardless, they could be counted on to visit when there were births or weddings and to offer consolation at funerals leaving those they visited overwhelmed with peace.

In spite of the medications and bucket lists Jeremy and Felicity beep bopped around the country for another thirty years and the Lord visited them every day putting at the top of their list those who most needed to see them next.

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

Romans 10:13 – “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (KJV)