The challenge? Write a story in exactly 6 sentences based on Denise’s one word prompt: REMOTE. Visit, comment, and write & perhaps post your own on Six Sentence Stories !!
It’s not that the trip across the channel was long, but that it was terribly uncomfortable: waves rolling and resolving in a stomach-lurching corkscrew, aluminum hull juddering against whitecaps, a ceaseless and acidic breeze from somewhere else besides the majority of the big lake (because no matter the weather elsewhere, this channel was always like this); legend has it that fewer than three persons had ever crossed within a single season before the lake iced over, so does this make me number three, or four?
I turned around in my seat in the bow of the 12 foot aluminum Jon boat and opened my mouth to shout a question to its driver, then remembered he was deaf. He stared resolutely ahead, his hand twisted on the outboard motor’s tiller to maximize speed, and I noticed for the first time the thick opacity of his pupils.
Was he steering by instinct — or magic? — and would we reach my chosen sanctuary?
I would have to take this on faith, as I’d done for every earlier decision that had brought me to this point; turning back around, I noted a squared smudge on the horizon, topped by a tiny, white triangle of a lighthouse.
At least this felt whole and right, at long last.
© Liz Husebye Hartmann (2024)
Valley of the Trolls 
How intriguing! There’s a very ominous undercurrent here, I want to know part two! :-)
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Lol, so would I like to know. Thank you, Sunra!
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Extremely vivid scene, Liz. Fewer than 3 per season?! Your MC is both confident and highly motivated or, perhaps faith alone has him totally trusting his gut. Last line appears to validate his choice.
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Sometimes the only choice remaining is to move ahead on faith alone, deaf and blind.
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So near but so far.
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So many of life’s journeys are like that. Thank you for stopping by, Keith!
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I hope it means something good is about to start.
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I think this marks a steady ascent, or at least a flattening, calming trend.🙂
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This sounds like a treacherous journey, Liz! I hope it has a happy ending.
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We always hope…
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There’s no fighting destiny. I’m interested to know more about what happens patch of land beneath the lighthouse. I liked this line: “does this make me number three, or four?”
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Thanks, Michael! Just your typical lighthouse on an isolated rocky island.🙃
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Speeding towards the light!
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😁 Yep! Thanks for your kind comment,
Ann!
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I have never been good on a boat, even in a story, but I’m enjoying this immensely, Liz!
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Glad to hear that! Thanks, Chris!
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That lighthouse was a relief. The deaf, blind driver was a sign of the miraculous. Looking forward to find out what happens at the sanctuary if the story continues.
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Thanks, Frank!
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