Six Sentence Story: Prodigal Son

Brian spent most of his life running away from blessings, but they overtook him anyway. His heart changed as he physically stopped, turned around and went home. Although the time he wasted overtaking useless stuff overwhelmed him, he was relieved that he no longer felt compelled to do any of that.

They say the narrow way is narrow and Brian was just beginning to realize how narrow, yet fulfilling, it was.

One day the devil challenged God, “Being omniscient and all, surely You still know, even though You might not want to remember, all those wicked things I got Brian to do, don’t You?”

The devil stared at God trying without success to penetrate the Light with the dense darkness of his trimmed vision hoping God would give him a philosophically precise answer this time that he could pick apart with satisfaction through eternity, but all God said was, “Nope.”

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

Hebrews 10:16-17 KJV16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

Six Sentence Story: Blue Sky, Green Grass

Jeffrey lay on a sofa in the student lounge of the University of Noital with his mind full of sleepy sky-is-blue-grass-is-green dreams. He knew he had an assignment, due that afternoon, to write a six sentence story using the word “minute”, but, as usual, he preferred dreaming about the assignment being done rather than getting up and doing it.

Eventually he got so tired of being tired that he chased his dreams away, sat upright on the sofa, opened his laptop and typed: “The sky is blue.” He added, because he needed more than one sentence: “The grass is green.” Hoping it might encourage some stray muse to have pity on him, he wrote the last sentence next: “The End.”

Then Jeffrey closed his laptop and lay back down on the sofa as his sleepy dreams returned to remind him like a nagging conscience annoyed with having been pushed away earlier, “Don’t forget to use that word minute in your story”.

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

Six Sentence Story: The Doctors Of Nescience

Philip decided to start a company that would produce deceptively engaging nonsense for video channels. He hired his colleagues from the University of Noital each a renowned Doctor of Nescience to build the content. Being congenitally unemployable they were surprised to find themselves suddenly working.

The company was so successful that after many years of faithfully rigging the books, Philip’s CFO reported that profits exceeded expectations for the tenth quarter in a row. However, when the CFO demanded a bigger cut of the faked profits Philip, who failed himself to get a degree in nescience, took the company to the next level by firing the entire board of directors.

That was when Philip realized that he had acquired enough expertise twisting stuff to pitch it all and trash the books himself.

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

Six Sentence Story: The Mousetrap of the Misguiding Muse

Bob told everyone he followed the Bible as closely as the next guy. However, when he read something he didn’t like, on those rare occasions when he read the Bible at all, the muse guiding his philosophical wanderings soothed his mind with a strand of myth, mystery and misinterpretation.

Nonetheless God enjoyed listening to Bob, because when the muse ran Bob’s mouth God couldn’t stop laughing (I mean He could stop but – you know – why would He want to). When Bob died, God looked forward to meeting him so He could ask him some trick questions just to hear how his muse might respond.

Unfortunately, right at the last moment, just outside the Pearly Gates and in spite of all the warning signs, the muse guiding Bob’s philosophical wanderings led him to that omnivorous, omni-awesome black hole, so logically logical that even Lucifer could get used to living there. Then, as Bob gazed down, deep, and ever deeper into the bottomless pit, the mousetrap snapped taking Bob with it into that dark abyss where some say not even light can escape if there were any light down there to try.

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

Six Sentence Story: Pop

“After all these years of searching I’ve found nothing – nada – zip – that would explain how there could be life of any sort in any universe,” Brian told his grandchildren, “which makes me wonder what lit the fuse that got us here.”

But didn’t it all just pop out of nothing?

By itself!?

Yeah, we heard it went pippity-pop like pop corn, grandpops.

What in the world do they teach you kids in school these days? Nothing like that could ever happen.

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

Six Sentence Story: Pretty Pink and Baby Blue

The devils planted Pamela wearing her pretty pink petunias next to Billy with his baby blue blossoms in a flower bed.

That’ll teach um, one of the devils said.

Teach um what? the other asked.

Teach um . . . hmmm, yeah, teach um what? . . . ah! teach um that now they can weep and moan and gnash their teeth at each other for all eternity. The dumbest thing they ever did was to find their way down here.

Just then another truckload of flowering wretches arrived.

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

Luke 13:28-30 KJV28 There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.
29 And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.
30 And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.

I don’t think this photo has anything to do with the story, but you are welcome to let your imagination run wild.

Six Sentence Story: How I Learned to Confuse Chickens With Dinosaurs

Although less than ten years old the boys were old enough to read a children’s weekly their parents purchased for them. One of the stories reported that chickens evolved from dinosaurs (or perhaps it was the other way around).

Regardless, the boys decided they would find a dinosaur and become famous like the guy who wrote that story. One of the boys thought that a slight rise in the normally flat Indiana farm land was enough of a warrant to proclaim that ground as the perfect burial ground for a dinosaur, but their father told them they could not dig there while the corn was growing.

So they shifted their plans and began a dig behind the chicken house going about a foot down before reaching the water table and finding – ! ! ! – BONES! – though admittedly only chicken bones, but bones nonetheless worth showing to their mother. After giving her the bones they went back outside imagining now that they were Flash Gordons saving Dale Ardens from Ming the Merciless and their mother put the bones in the garbage.

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

This is a true story. I was the boy who wanted to dig up the corn field. My brother liked digging up stuff as well. Only many, many decades later did I realize that this chicken-dinosaur nonsense was indeed nonsense.

If you haven’t yet realized that it’s nonsense, but are still going on snipe hunts or are wondering how reindeer could possibly fly, have a look at Michael Earl Riemer’s Reindeer Don’t Fly: Exploring the Evidence-Lacking Realm of Evolutionary Philosophy.

If you don’t know who Flash, Dale, Ming, Princess Aura and Dr. Zarkov are, you are either missing out or you are very fortunate.

Matthew 18:2-6 KJV2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,
3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.
6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Six Sentence Story: Temptation

The devil tempted George to curse the idiots around him, to just lay into them with full force. However, George couldn’t see what good that would do, so – since the devil reminded him of them – he blessed them instead.

Annoyed by George’s disobedience – not that George owed the devil any obedience whatsoever – the devil then reminded him that his silly blessings amounted to a hill of beans on the commodity market of prayers, because everyone knew those idiots weren’t going to change no matter how nice he was to them.

Don’t forget, George, that it is up to them to decide if they want to change, not you which was the only observation the devil made that George could agree with.

Regardless, those blessings were a win-win-win for George.

If nothing happened, as the devil predicted, those George blessed would remain good examples to point out of bad behavior, but if something unexpected happened – something admittedly miraculous in their cases – they would become an awesome fount of blessings for everyone around them and yet no matter what they did by blessing them George at least did what he was told to do: bless, and curse not.

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

Six Sentence Story: Myth

Unable to naturally get there from here, Brian began mythologizing. He wasn’t sure if he should make it new-age spooky or stick to his usual pseudo-science.

Trying to make a good impression he began at the beginning with In the beginning the universe popped itself out of nothing and after an eternity it randomly evolved into what we see today.

He realized that no one in his right mind would buy that, but just how many people actually were in their right minds today nobody knew.

Just in case there were still a few around, Brian continued with Then the witch told the wizard that if you keep stirring the pot eventually no one will be in his right mind.

None of this is supposed to make any sense, so don’t worry except for the fact that Brian has been stirring the pot ever since.

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

Psalm 14:3 KJVThey are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Six Sentence Story: Rattling the Brain

“I know the Bible better than you do,” Brian taunted trying to rattle Mark’s brain.

“Even the devil knows the Bible better than I do,” Mark quickly countered unsure just how much the devil actually knew about anything.

“I am – NOT – the devil 😈 😈 😈!”

“How do you know the devil’s not running your month?” Mark wondered -unfortunately out-loud.

“How do – YOU – know 😠 😠 😠?”

Not having a good comeback for this, Mark wondered if perhaps the devil does know the Bible better than he does having heard it from every Tom, Dick and Harry he unsuccessfully tried to harass – not that such knowledge could ever, any more, do the devil any good.

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

Matthew 4:5-6 KJV5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

It is written