Do Not Judge A Story By The Chapter You Walked In On

{Denise gracefully hosts Six Sentence Stories, where writers unleash their magic under one simple rule: in no more or no less than 6 sentences.
This week’s prompt word is : SURPRISE
A Tale from the Six Sentence Café & Bistro.}

DO NOT JUDGE A STORY BY THE CHAPTER YOU WALKED IN ON

The calm waves of Mimi’s invitation reached the shore of Sybil’s heart, as she begun to slowly surrender to something unexpected, especially after her earlier encounter at the entrance of the SSC&B; “Shit, Ian…you could have told me this guy is actually named The Gatekeeper!” laughing at her thought she was seated in the alcove, at the only table with carved words on its polished surface: Because Dear Friend, There Is More To This Story.

“You know…Sybil, right?...there’s a reason Nick’s called the Gatekeeper and no, not simply because he’s solid, stoic and as sturdy as the oldest tree in the world, which by the way is the Great Basin Bristlecone Pine…” Denise uttered the words slowly in her characteristic way of referring to thoughts you were certain of their privacy; “…the SSC&B is a place of liberty, freedom of choice, acceptance and friendship – but as it is the case with everything precious in life, leave it unattended and it will mutate into a bitter, dusty chimaera…we have chosen not to let that happen.”

Denise met Sybil’s eyes with complete attention as she sat next to her:” Denise is the name, aka The Bar Tender…nice to have you here, on this day…that’s why I took the liberty of bringing you a cocktail reserved for special people on special days!”

Sybil was flooded by a warm feeling she was not used to be met with, definitely not from her own family, let alone from strangers in a strange town inside a strangely named Cafè, yet she had the distinct insight that the characters she was just starting to meet at the Six Sentence Cafè & Bistro were connected in more ways than meet the eye; accepting the crystal glass with the golden-red hued liquid, she smelled the aroma, tasted it and said with a smile: “A hint of Absinthe?”

The Bar Tender’s eyes lit up with a silent recognition of a fellow enthusiast of spirits extraordinaire: “Yes!…you found my secret ingredient…the rest are a smoky riff of two types of mescal, agave nectar, Angostura bitters with an orange twist finish!”;Denise didn’t have to turn her head to know who was approaching them from the shadows to the alcove…

«Σίβυλλα, δε μαινομένω στόματι αγέλαστα και ακαλλώπιστα και αμύριστα φθεγγομένη χιλίων ετών εξικνείται τη φωνή δια τον θεόν¹» quoth the Gatekeeper and as he softly laid his right hand on Denise’s left shoulder, he bookended the surprised woman…” Welcome, Sibyl.”

¹ : “ Sibyl, with frenzied mouth uttering things not to be laughed at, unadorned and unperfumed, yet reaching a thousand years with her voice, by aid of god” – thus wrote Heraclitus for Sibylla

//\\

Post Scriptum:
“The happiest people I know are always evaluating and improving themselves.
Unhappy people are usually evaluating and judging others.”

BY THE COMPANY OF WARRIORS I KEEP

Spira / Nick © December 2022

Advertisement