The Protocol Cutout
Today’s post is based on a writing prompt I shared in a previous Daily Drafts & Dialogues post. Keep reading to see what I wrote, and to access more writing prompts. [Ed. from the Archive.]
What I wrote below is based on the following writing prompt: Write a fictional scene that is centered around a conspiracy theory in some way.
The Protocol Cutout
Richard Goff brought the cutout text to the meeting and held it up in protest when other members of the chamber clambered and mulled about, attempting to evade the serious business of the day's proceedings for as long as possible.
How was no one else more concerned by this manifesto, this bombastic piece of work?
Had he gone mad? Or had they?
It is possible that amid war, everyone is a bit mad... but that doesn’t matter. Not now. More people were going to die. Their countrymen. Their wives and children. Thousands upon thousands of them. For eons to come.
How could he sit there and do nothing? Say nothing? Especially after what he had read in the newspaper that morning, which he held in his hands, like a ticking time bomb. He had nearly choked on his tea when he first read it. He couldn't even force himself to read what it said again, for fear it would come to pass more rapidly, in real-time.
"But it says right here. They want to dominate the world!" Goff lamented loudly, beginning to garner some attention, but not enough.
He almost shouted louder when someone nudged his shoulder, possibly by accident, amidst the din of voices.
"Here, here. Doesn’t everyone? Especially us?" One densely mustached fellow scoffed from an arm's length away. Chamberlain was his name. Luckily no one else heard him, as the proceedings hadn't officially started.
What a thing for him to say! If it were on the government record, there would be international riots. Absolute chaos!
After a few more painstaking moments, the pointlessly busy group of men was called to order. Then after quite a few more, it was finally Goff's turn to speak.
By this time, Goff had already peeled back most of the skin next to his thumbnail, making it bleed—a nervous tick he would likely never get rid of. Still, there were much more important matters to address! So, he held up the newspaper cutout again and waved it over his head, drops of blood from his thumb trickling onto its print.
Finally!
He had everyone's attention.
"This is evidence we need to move with great haste. They have already sealed their fate and made their claims. There is no time to waste!" Goff cried, unironically, but also unintentionally.
Some in Goff's small audience openly sniggered at his lackluster rhyme, causing his cheeks to turn beet red. Whether from embarrassment or fury, it was hard to tell at the time. Either way, he suddenly felt like a schoolboy, which made his blood begin to boil.
"Bring it here, that clipping you're holding."
Finally, Goff thought, their leader, Wolcott, was deciding to lead. Took him long enough.
Wolcott, careful not to touch the spats of blood on the cutout, placed it on the table in front of him and looked at it over the edge of his spectacles.
Wolcott started reading the headline aloud, "The Protocols Resurfaces as Evidence of..." but did not continue. Instead, he pushed the clipping to the side as if it were an old fingernail or used tissue, and not an important piece of newspaper. He removed his spectacles, leaned back, and sighed deeply with a strain of annoyance before speaking to Goff again.
"Mr. Goff, it is unfortunate you are new to this chamber. We debunked this so-called Protocol of Zion years and years ago. It is a fake. It is a forgery. It is borderline blasphemous in the wake of recent world events. I am sorry to be the one to disclose such news, but you have been had by propaganda. Please do your due diligence before fanning the flames that will start another world war!" Then he rapped his gavel.
Goff could not believe his ringing ears. For the remainder of the session, he sat in silent defiance, refusing to vote or act or speak again at all. He vehemently believed that Wolcott, the old crone, was wrong. Dead wrong. And he was bound and determined to set out and prove it if it was the last thing he ever did.
He would make people listen, he decided then and there. He only needed a larger audience than this, a much larger audience…
Richard Goff was not a man to be ridiculed and ignored! Not for long. No. He would never go gently into the dark night alone. Or so he believed that day…
…
But alas, Goff met his end shortly after that, having been had while promoting a dangerous fool-hardy movement. And that was that. …
[Write what happens next, or add to this story, then share what you come up with in a comment or chat thread below.]
I might revise, edit, or add to this draft in the future (again). Stay tuned.
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© All Rights Reserved by K.E. Creighton; Creighton’s Compositions LLC. The above work is a piece of fiction. While, as in all fiction, the literary perceptions and insights are based on experience, all names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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Today’s Writing Prompt
Writing Prompt: ‘the wheel of time’
Write a fictional scene in which the phrase 'the wheel of time' is used at least once.
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