This week it was not Aurelia who had gotten herself into a pickle but the author/narrator herself... We had summer solstice and a few birthdays to celebrate this week, and I genuinely left the story until the last minute because I somehow messed up the days. I thought it was MONDAY!!!! HOW???? WHERE DID TIME GO????
The prompt for the Six Sentence Stories is provided by Denise (yes, the same Denise from the story) and other sixes can be read at the link-up.
Rules of the hop:Write 6 Sentences. No more. No less.
Use the current week’s prompt word.
Link is live Wednesday 6:00 PM, ends way late Saturday night.
Spread the word and put in a good one to your fellow writers!
PROMPT WORD: CHARGE
the Nervous Poet and the cake at the Six Sentence Café & Bistro
"Hey, Batgirl, you came back," the tender of the bar tried to break the ice and, if I may say so, she had succeeded in getting a shy smile out of the Nervous Poet, who was still trying to figure out why everyone was being so nice to her.
Perhaps her skittish nature came from her past experiences with other humans, but you could also say that her mind tended to paint things in much more horrid colours than they really were... and while Aurelia was drifting away in her thoughts and the made-up scenarios in her mind—a way she had learnt to protect herself from the horrors of socializing—she was pulled back to earth by the sensation of a dog's nose on her hand.
Aurelia must have looked quite puzzled as the dog "handed" her a note and she read aloud, "Order CC4CD..." before she could react and, as she was glancing back and forth between Hūnga, the Gatekeeper, and the note, she was once again saved by Denise: "That’s our Mimi’s special… Coffee Cake For Challenging Days… Nick’s right, you must try it."
"Yes, please," Aurelia agreed as she indeed had been stuck in a loop of challenging days for the past few months by now—churning out poetry while wrangling her demons and vocabulary into submission on page after page of odes to her deepest fears—she had forgotten how deeply she actually missed having people around, their smiles, and, most importantly, cake.
"Nice nails," the tender of the bar caught Aurelia's attention as she was scrolling on her phone without noticing the cake that had been placed under her nose before looking up with excitement in her eyes, "Oh, thank you, I actually do these myself," she replied while admiring the tiny webs and spiders she had hand drawn for hours and feeling genuine happiness over the tiny compliment, the fact that she hadn't forgotten to charge her phone, and, most importantly—you guessed it—the delicious cake.
They must have kept talking for around fifteen minutes before another customer stole Denise from Aurelia and she grew curious about the roof that the tender had advertised to her as a place to perhaps enjoy the fresh air, "Fresh air and silence... I might actually need it," Aurelia thought to herself while also contemplating whether it was okay for her to wander off, why did it feel like she was talking to an old friend, and why would someone talk about the roof...
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.
It won’t take long before Aurelia realizes she’s in the company of some extraordinary people, and that includes the four legged one. A woman who provides the most delicious of baked goods at just the right moment is not coincidence, a Gatekeeper who sees and knows all in, and around the Cafe, whether he’s present or not, a Bartender whose talents extend beyond mixology, a world renowned resident storyteller and of course, the tall thin man.
The Nervous Poet will find the Six Sentence Cafe & Bistro to be a place where her thoughts have opportunity to untangle and arrange themselves just as she would have them. Already! She is contemplating a trip to the roof. Yes, I’d say Aurelia is comfortable in the Cafe.
Engaging Cafe Six, Reelika!
Thank you, and she seems to have a lot to learn about the place and the people. And it also seems that she may be opening up already, a bit :).
What Denise said.
Besides, Reelika, not all who wander are lost.
Thank you so much and I agree that not everyone who wanders is lost…
There’s an old saying, “If you’re lost, asking directions from anyone is useful. But, if you’ve lost your direction, then consulting those coming towards or away from where you are. is the only reasonable solution.”
no, really, I swear I saw that in an old book somewhere.
You are, in fact, in good company with Nick/the Gatekeeper, Denise/the Bartender and Chris/la Raconteuse, as they are all Proprietors (of) the Six Sentence Café & Bistro which means they’ve been here since the doors opened. Good ‘people’ to know.
The thing about magical places, imo, is that in it’s most fundamental definition, ‘magic’ not only is not limited by good v bad, it is more constructive to view is as being a matter of rational v suprarational.
ya know?
You/Aurelia do seem to have that quality, all too rare these days, i.e. the confidence to revel in the open-endedness of imagination.
cool
and, not to put too fine a point on what it is to be a clark* Mimi is the fifth Proprietor**
*the ‘Outsider’ in the Wakefield Doctrine system of personality types
** mums the word, our dog ate my keyboard at the precise moment I was typing her status (right there at “Bistro which me…” )
Well I hope she meets them all on one day.
🫢🫢🫢 thank you. I do spend a lot of time in my imagination like Aurelia.
Now I’m wondering why Batgirl Aurelia has spiders and webs on her nails. Maybe she wants to entice them to join her. Her mind tells her to go on the roof top, that’s where Spidey often is.
Or maybe she just likes things that are a bit odd and creepy. I for one love bats and the hairy tarantulas, they are cute.
Aurelia is such a sweet character — and I love those spiderweb nails. Lovely!
Thank you so much Violet, I poured a bit of love into her and hopefully she suits here.
First off, now you have me wanting cake for breakfast! And secondly on a rooftop under the stars sounds heavenly…..
So sorry, Nick made me crave cake since last week as in his reply under Denise story he sent Hunga to me with the note…
Ah, excellent. Cake… very pretty nails… and even better, maybe go up to the flat roof. The red-headed writer often wrote up there, and I think that’s were she got stuck in to the Room 215.
AHH how splendid. I wish I had a flat roof to write at too.
Hopefully once you get out of the room to charge the phone or something Aurelia won’t be too close to it and get with the door or something… 😂
soo enjoy the revelation of authors writing the stories…. truly the internet has become a place of international get togethers that might never have happened otherwise… it is a beautiful day in the neighborhood of dogs and stories… so enjoy your 6SS
Yes I think that is so cool about it, internet doing what it was meant to do… Connecting people.
And those bloghops at all, it’s so cool that we have writer’s from all over the world we can connect with… And this ssc&b thingy is awesome too.
It appears the cafe has everything. Not only Coffee Cake For Challenging Days but a roof where one can rest.
It really does seem so.
A certain song by The Drifters is playing in my mind. ‘On the roof, it’s peaceful as can be, and there, the world below can’t bother me’!
Even if I am very scared of heights I love sitting on the roofs or the viewing platforms and such, I like that creepy feeling and also it’s usually peaceful to just sit and stare at the view or something. I have heard the roof of the cafe to be a good place to ponder or write. Or to listen to music.
It’s important to be gentle with one another’s souls.
I completely agree. If most of the world thought that way while talking to other people… Uhh. It would be a paradise.
Thank you for the comment ☺️.