Another week has passed, and we have our Six Sentence Story featuring the Nervous Poet, who accidentally found herself at the Six Sentence Café and Bistro in my last week's entry. The story is a collaborative one, and you can read about the happenings at the café from several perspectives—and discover some other of their work along the way... Here are a few of the writers/blogs involved: the Wakefield Doctrine, inSPIRAtion, Luna's on line, Messymimi's meanderings, and of course we can not forget our hostess of the six-sentence blog hop, Denise at Girlie On The Edge.
This week's entries to the six sentence challenge can be found at the link-up, as usual.
Please do check them out and perhaps you want to participate too.
the Six Sentence Café & Bistro #2
"What the heck do I do now, this is so embarrassing," Aurelia muttered, sitting behind her desk while staring at the mysterious box in front of her; you could say for the backstory that after the lights came back on, Aurelia discovered she had tripped over a fancy-looking azure-blue box with ornate charcoal lettering: For Poets and Writers Alike.
While we established that this poet's main character flaw was her nervousness and fear of the dark, the weirdest trait was that she took a liking to boxes, and this box was curious-looking enough for her to pick it up and, without thinking—before her panic from the dark had subsided—she found herself returning home with the box lodged under her arm.
No wonder she felt a rush of guilt and fear that her thieving would come to light, for she had intended to give the box to the bartender and now found herself battling over whether she should look inside or not before deciding what to do with it: keep it or pick the option that required her to admit she had taken something home on her first visit.
"Surely everyone had noticed the box I was carrying," she sighed as she traced the lettering, and it seemed as if the box itself was calling out to her: "Aurelia, discover me, look inside, look," and before she knew it, the contents lay scattered across her desk:
fifty-four mahogany blocks, each with exactly one word engraved upon it, and nestled among them were azure-blue stones; "Wow, so pretty," Aurelia gasped while reaching for the included envelope and pulling out what looked like some type of introduction.
"Hello poets, you think you are good with words..." Aurelia read the first line and thought to herself that she had never assumed she was good with words, more that she was constantly overseeing medieval-style duels between synonyms, and if one happened to lose, she sometimes felt sorry for it and favored it anyway.
"The rules are simple: pull a block and use the word in your poem; choose carefully, because if you collapse the tower, you must use all the unchosen ones too," Aurelia read, pausing for a while, as if gathering her thoughts—or experiencing the existential dread of having to use all fifty-four of them—before getting up and putting on her combat boots, determined to return to the café and apologize for 'borrowing' a tabletop game—perhaps the pretty box is something to put on display and forget if there are other 'Poets and Writers Alike' (besides the Nervous Poet) who are scared of words.
There's more of my work:
If you like short stories I have them scooped up into one category (including the six-sentence stories).
The Nervous Poet at the SSC&B can be followed here.
There is also poetry.
More personal entries can be found at the Blog.
There's also the IT studies blog in Estonian and "Chaos in Spring" on YouTube, Spotify and other streaming services.
Uh oh…. I think our poet friend is going to need more than pretty words to get herself out of this one….
Hopefully the fact that she is returning it will ease “the whooping” she is about to get.
😆
Oh my. The gatekeeper himself is already laughing… Poor Aurelia…
Intimidating looks can be deceiving, Reelika.
Stop by before you enter the Cafè, offer me a genuine conversation and problem solved: we were playing Jenga with Hūnga, that’s why Aurelia got it out 😉
https://youtu.be/5PrnVkKN0HE?is=wRFk-UMPGA_m0pQN
Oooh, what an interesting box. I’d love to see that! (If only I wasn’t stuck in a strange room – Room 215, apparently).
If she manages to get her butt down there without getting distracted with another box then hopefully we can meet soon and look at the said box…
That sounds like a great tabletop game for the Six Sentence Cafe & Bistro.
Surprising find for sure, not as surprising that she gets all worked up over a box though.
I’ve seen a similar type of box before. I shouldn’t spoil it by saying anything more. (*wink*)
Wonderful to read the use of a literary device in a story.
Thank you! I have played only the jenga one and often managed to collapse the whole tower by being the first… It would be a nightmare if the rules were like that…
Your wonderful story snippet inspired me to take out my box of words and compose something. I posted it to show what the box looks like. https://artmater.com/found-poetry-1-couplet/
That is actually one cool box, now imagine being tipsy and playing a game and losing and having to use all 200 of them.
I just looked up Jenga. Ooooh, fun! I thoroughly enjoy the pace of your sentence structure — it feels jolly, even though you claim Aurelia is nervous. Great fun.
Thank you so much. I actually have so much fun writing her that it probably shows in the narrators voice lol.
Maybe best to slip the box in under cover of a swirling poncho, and hide it just under a back table…
So the next poet can find it and be intimidated by words. Lol sounds like an idea.
Your Six is one of the reasons I love the Six Sentence Café & Bistro! It (the Café) being all metaphorical hangout filled with imaginary people coming to life and having adventures in a virtual world!
And…and!! lines like: “…constantly overseeing medieval-style duels between synonyms” Can I get a ‘Damn!’ lol
ex cathedra: speaking for the tall, thin man (and possibly the other Proprietors) not to worry… that said, style points do accrue on the basis of the surreptitiousness inherent in your return of the purloined box counts.
Enjoyable Six and character, this Aurelia.
Thank you so much, the virtual world is awesome.
tripping over something in the dark.. yep, that’s a great beginning…. i so enjoyed the thought that she could not help herself had to take the box and freaked out the whole time yet opened it anyway…. and the small details… combat boots absolutely… and to think i once wore high heels like they were diamonds great S6 story
Combat boots or heels… Yes. The amount of heels this one has…. And I enjoyed writing it too, am glad the reading seemed the same to you.
Thank you.
Mimi will understand. Sometimes odd things happen. Thank you for bringing it back, by the way. I didn’t know we had this and I wouldn’t try playing myself, I’d end up having to use the unchosen ones, I just know it.
I wonder how it got there, knowing that Aurelia has a thing for boxes…. hmm.