Perpetual Suspension #sixsentencestories

Perpetual Suspension

How any of it got there was a mystery; nobody ever noticed it come in and certainly nobody saw any of it leave, but somehow it accrued, the yard a mass of arrested motion, a cluttered place where all manner of metal and wheeled machines had become mired and still.

In the front, right up tight to the house, a wooden boat on stands shaded the boat trailer beside it, the trailer stacked with pipes and metal rods and ductwork; a car with stiff, cracked tires and an expired plate was corralled in the driveway by a troop of rusting washers and dryers, the truck he drove having to be parked along the street, but even there seeming in some danger of being absorbed into the mushrooming still life of the quarter acre lot.

There was a narrow path winding through the accumulations by which he could circumnavigate the small house that was an atoll in a sea of overgrown shrubs and reefs of hulking metal; a ’76 Ford pickup truck, a lilac bush clawing its way through the bed, blocked entry to the back porch, which itself was bursting from floor to ceiling with boxes and old appliances. The engine block to this truck had been hanging by chains from a wooden tripod for years, and though he sometimes gave it a reassuring nod and a grunt, it came no nearer the open hood of its truck, but remained in perpetual suspension.

When one evening he was late for dinner, yet his truck parked in its usual spot on the street, a quick circuit of the property revealed that he had perhaps been inspecting that engine block, but maybe should have inspected the wooden legs of the tripod first, for he was found crushed dead where the whole thing had collapsed on him.

The first things to go were the washers and dryers, right into the dumpster that his wife had delivered and placed in the driveway quite soon after the funeral.

 

 

Well, I’m ready for Six Sentence Stories this week. Denise at GirlieOntheEdge says the word is “circuit”. The linkup won’t be open until Wednesday but there you go. When you ready your story for participation, just write six sentences, no more, no less. (Though you might notice more semi-colons than usual)

It’s Time! You can link up HERE.