Flash Fiction / SSS / writing prompts

The Link (Tales from the SSC&B)

Chris Hall48 Comments
Vintage Silver Ronson Lighter

The red-headed writer, aka the Raconteuse, was sitting outside on the small flat-roofed section of the old mill building, leaning her against the wall of the long-defunct elevator machine room; the upper floors of the large, storied building were derelict too, but the ground floor and basement were the busy hub of the thriving Six Sentence Café & Bistro, or at least they had been up until the outbreak of a small kitchen fire earlier that day.

It could have been worse; due to Tom’s rapid reaction and the prompt attendance of the fire department, the fire had been mostly confined to the sauté station, although the accompanying damage from the fire hoses had left the kitchen a soggy sooty mess; thankfully the rest of the Café had remained unscathed.

There was something else bothering her even more: the sudden disappearance of the Café’s doorman, the Gatekeeper, who’d subsequently been found dead in his apartment building, and despite communications from some female attorney, improbably called Finley Leana something-or-other, the Raconteuse was having difficulty accepting her fellow Proprietor’s demise; she sighed, if only she could rewrite that particular chapter in the SSC&B’s history.

She felt the reassuring solidity of the object she was holding, once described as a ‘non-functioning prop’, a purely fictional item, the silver cigarette lighter was now tangible, although granted, it didn’t actually work, which was probably just as well, since the lack of ignition fluid absolved her from any suspicion as to the cause of the fire, should there be an inquiry.

The point was, she had brought an item from one of her stories into her own actuality; maybe this newly-found phenomenon, where imagination and reality had collided to produce a tangible object, could be harnessed; as she slipped the lighter into her pocket her thoughts drifted to Jenne’s Time Travelling Tomahawk, still stowed on a shelf behind the bar, Jenne had said that she could borrow it.

She took out her notebook and pencil and started to write.

~~~~~

This has been my second offering this week for Denise’s Six Sentence Story Challenge where this week’s prompt word was fluid.

I would also refer my reader to the following linked Tales from the SSC&B: Why Exit Now? by Spira, Baptism by Fire by Denise and this week’s Six Sentence Story – The Wakefield Doctrine by Clark.

~~~~~

Join us at the famous SSC&B for more Six Sentence Stories
~ click on the sign to enter!

Six Sentence Café & Bistro logo

48 thoughts on “The Link (Tales from the SSC&B)”

  2. There have certainly been some odd events occurring at the SSC&B recently, Chris… unless they’re just more noticeable to me as a special guest star 😊!
    I do like the crossover/realities colliding feel the Bistro brings, where absolutely anything can happen… and it does.
    Here’s to more magic being interspersed between those individual six sentences. 🙂

    Liked by 4 people

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  3. A newly-found phenomenon but ancient as human thought…
    …boundaries need some pushing every now and then…
    …if only…

    (Together we ride,  the Raconteuse said…)

    Liked by 3 people

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  11. loved the line: “…just as well, since the lack of ignition fluid absolved her from any suspicion as to the cause of the fire, should there be an inquiry.”

    It’s that, matter-of-fact, everyday tone that makes this Six so effective.

    Trips into alternate timelines, which nearly every Reader enjoys, does not require the skill and finesse as does placing the fantastic into an ordinary context. Way more engaging for us Readers.

    (I love the fundamental character of the Six Sentence Café & Bistro in how it can be whatever is needed/imagined/required. Again, quite skillful in making it an adaptive feature (here, the rooftop which easily coexists with the rest of the structure)

    cool
    (Can’t wait for the next installments!)

    Parents had, and, now that you’ve brought it out of my own past, I believe the exact same style lighter is somewhere in my own house. lol

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    • I’m not surprised you haven’t seen a lighter like that, Robbie. It’s very like one I came across when I was going through the stuff at my mom’s house. I think it dated from the 1940s and might have belonged to her father.

      Liked by 1 person

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