6SS – Shelter

6SS – Shelter

Read Time:1 Minute, 42 Second

This post is a participation in The Weekly Six Sentence Story Challenge hosted by Denise over at GirlieOnTheEdge

This week’s word is:

Shelter

  • A place that gives protection from bad weather or danger
  • Prevent someone from having to do or face something difficult
  • An animal sanctuary

Less Magical than the Books Make it Seem

After spending the majority of the day curled up in bed, the author finally sought to rectify his earlier mistake; the utterly humiliating error of posting to a 2 week old prompt.

The author tucked his laptop under his arm and ducked away into his office: the walk-in coat closet under the stairs.

“Excuse me, excuse me, sanctuary, sanctuary,” the author cried as he pushed past the piles of stuffed animals and dolls to find a secluded space at the back, hidden away from the door should anybody happen to peek inside.

He sat himself in the darkness, flipped open his laptop, laced his fingers together, cracked his knuckles, cracked his neck, straightened his back, shifted a teddy bear away from his groin, re-positioned the laptop, drank some imaginary tea from the tea set in the closet, had a brief conversation with Mrs. Crumbles the Princess of Closettia, then with a determined nod of his head… he began to think about writing.

The author stared at the blank screen before him for a long time before his fingers reached for the keyboard and, with the speed that only comes from hundreds, nay, thousands of hours of typing, he rapidly input the word “The,” deleted it, replaced it with “A,” deleted that, changed it to “Once,” deleted that too, supplanted it with “If only,” then, having run out of simple synonyms for ‘replaced’ and concluding that two words were better than one, he nodded with satisfaction and took a second tea break.

“I appreciate you allowing me to work here,” the author said, raising his cup to Mrs. Crumbles, “you’ve sheltered me from distractions, chores, responsibilities, and children for so long, and I am truly grateful.”

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13 thoughts on “6SS – Shelter

  1. At least he has plenty of characters in that closet under the stairs to write about. It’s interesting that Mrs. Crumbles sheltered him even from “distractions, chores, responsibilities, and children” in the last sentence.

    1. Many inspirational characters in there! Sir Leon the Tiger used to be a King, but he retired to help lonely children around the world. He’s with us temporarily until he hears the call again.

  2. Hear, hear, let’s give it up for Mrs. Crumbles!
    “…he began to think about writing.” Now THAT, is the thing often trips me up. The “thinking” too much – “oh, man, I’ve got to write something! or how come I can’t think of anything!” Perfect set up for blocking what I know to be there – creative thoughts.
    Glad you made it to the Six Ollie 🙂

  3. Hurrah for you and Mrs. Crumbles, and a little tea and inspiration in a safe place. This made me chuckle and wish I had a shelter of my own like that.

    1. It’s a difficult place to access 😅 there is also a child sized kitchen set that has to be squozed past to access the little free space behind it. I don’t think anyone even knows there’s space back there.

  4. Wonderful exposition on the writer’s life, Ollie, but also a great reminder of the endless cups of imaginary tea and cake with little girls in our family over the years.

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