According to the map, the best way, it said, was to go under the footbridge and follow the dual carriageway to where it bends right, and take the left – this road leads nowhere, but it’s the best place to park and then walk over the railway bridge onto the station approach; take the steps down to the main road, cross over, walk along the buildings for a bit, and that’s where Key Street is.

That’s what the map said.

I’m at the junction of the main road and where Key Street should be – only it isn’t there.

The main road behind me, all modern, busy with traffic, shops, food places and neon signs, just a usual typical main road.

In front of me is an alleyway, a back alley at that, a back alley that looks like it’s stood still since the 1930s, not a street at all.

And at the end is the building… the building that shouldn’t be there… not here… not then… the building that hosts the Bistro… but the thing is, I’m not even in the same country as where the Bistro is – this mystical place certainly seems to have a unique pull about it.


A second entry for Six Sentence Stories, where the prompt word this week is ‘Key’. Well… all keys lead to somewhere, don’t they?

38 thoughts

  1. Lovely take on the prompt! I am reminded of a story I used to read as a child in which magical boots when worn would transfer people back and forth between the years 1804 and 1984. This story is also a bit reminiscent to the Platform 9 3/4 thing in Harry Potter, though I haven’t read that series at all.

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    1. Yes, that’s right, D., that fact appears to have slipped my mind here… mind you, I wasn’t expecting to see it on the street that wasn’t there! 🤯🤪🤣

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    1. I did, Icewolf… I’m quite good at map reading. Street maps, though… not those orienteering ones… or technical how-to maps to put up a flat pack table…
      Now, if the image has triggered the slightest burst of inspiration, why not have a go at writing your post in six sentences? 🤣 It’s a fun challenge, and quite addictive! (Although there is a time limit for each prompt word… I’m not rushing your next post along in the slightest! 😊)

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      1. You are a very valuable commodity Tom…you can read Street maps! A rarity indeed – very few can!
        A post in 6 sentences? Icewolf?? 6 sentences???!!!🤣 Add a 2 or 3 0’s on the end of that and we might be talking 😂 … But then again…One can always try!😉

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          1. Yup! Very much so😉Though you didn’t specify there was any limit on sentence lengths…lol😉🙃With the right punctuation and a lot of luck-pushing you can fit quite a bit more than expected into those 6 sentences!!🤣

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            2. …them to be, and commas, semi colons and… those dot things all come in handy! (Don’t know whether you noticed, but I caught the post button there, but it’s been so cleverly disguised, it’s hardly noticeable) 😊

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              1. 😅Yes…perfectly disguised 🥸 👌 Tom! An excellent use of an initial short, impact statement in the 1st comment to grab the reader’s attention….😁 followed by some edifying and strengthening body tezt in the next….sheer genius!🤣

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                1. I knew that as soon as I read it… funnily enough, I’d just finished reading my copy of Tome of Egyptian Hieroglyph Variants (Tome One), and ‘tezt’ was in it. 😁

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  4. To borrow one of my favorite insights into reality (Alfred Korzybski) ‘The map is not the territory’.

    Kinda reminds me of a localism (probably universal) but directions can take the form of “Continue down this road and take a left a block before the old ….. used to be.”

    This, imo. surely represents a combination and balance of of mind and heart.

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  5. Nobody is at the same country the SSC&B is…

    You know when you have found it because, as you said, it seems out of place and time.

    And,you will know, that you are inside when you suddenly realize that your ID is missing from your left pocket; the ID that , for everyone else’s convenience but yours, puts you in a box of presumptive categorization .
    The very one that stays at the booth by the entrance of the Six Sentence Café & Bistro.

    👏

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  6. The SSC&B can be anywhere we want it to be, Tom. After all it turned up in Liverpool a few weeks ago, although I think that perhaps that it might have been there all the time… which sends me down another rabbit hole (it’s probably a bit like the TARDIS). 😉😂

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