Six Sentence Sunday

This page will be updates with six sentences from published items or works in progress as part of the Six Sentence Sunday blog. Be sure to check it out.

March 4, 2012 from Untitled Raymond Jaye third story

     The first step creaked under my weight and I froze.  I couldn’t afford to give away my arrival at this point in the game.  It had to be a surprise.  I slowly eased my weight onto the stair and watched for any sign of life from inside the house.

     The doorknob was one of those fake jewel things made of plastic and faceted like a gem.  It caught the various porch lights and streetlights in the area, and when they began to shift, I knew the door was coming open.

February 26, 2012 from The Mrs. Manetti Matter (unpublished follow-up to Cue the Sax)

      “I don’t know anybody’s wife around here. I’m not the kind of guy things like that happen to anymore,” I said, thinking of the hook.

       He tried not to look at it, but I could tell he wanted to ask. You walk around with one glove, no one gives it a second thought. You walk around with one hand and everyone thinks it’s their right to know. I guess it’s the same thing pregnant women deal with when strangers want to rub their bellies.


February 19, 2012 from The Mrs. Manetti Matter (unpublished follow-up to Cue the Sax)

       “I’d better go with you,” I said, thinking that if she was in the bedroom, at noon on a Saturday, she might not be alone. Especially if she expected Ernie to be in jail for assault.

       “Bedroom’s this way,” he said, and turned toward the half flight of stairs that led up.

       The stairs ran along one wall of the living room, but the high vaulted ceiling made it feel like a hotel lobby. At the top of the stairs, Ernie froze, then looked at me, then back.

       I pushed past him to see a woman in her mid-thirties, wearing a dark blue dress, lying motionless in a red pool in the center of the kitchen floor.

February 12, 2012 from I See You (unpublished)

       I hope my face fills your mind because if there is any doubt about it, any doubt at all in your mind that I’m the one that set this up, it means you did got to someone else. Someone too scared and traumatized to do what needed to be done. Someone too scared to act. Someone you drove so far down that hallway into their own private hell that they may never come out. Well, I came out. I came out and I know right where you are, you son of a bitch.

February 5, 2012 from Cue the Sax

Sounds of groaning from the living room brought me back out. In the dim light I saw her thrash around on the floor. Thinking she was coming around, I moved toward her.

When I got close, she sat up, looked straight into my eyes, let out a scream worthy of a 70s slasher movie, and hit me in the face with the palm of her hand. It wasn’t a slap. It came straight from the shoulder.

January 22, 2012 From Cue the Sax

Their conversation had to do with some abandoned silver mine. Specifically, a mine in which Ugly had disposed of a body the night before. I didn’t get a lot of the details, but a couple of things were clear. Ugly’s real name was Masu, and he worked for the suit.

The only thing left to do was to find out the identity of the guy on the video and turn the whole thing over to Ortega. Simple enough—in theory.