The Fifteen Minute Novel is a novel written fifteen minutes at a time with each week day’s section starting with the sentence from the previous day. At least it is attempting to be a novel. For now I am just aiming at one continuous story I suppose, worked on for fifteen minutes each day. Started Friday January 1st, 2021 I can’t wait to see where it ends up. It could be good, or it could be a mess. We’ll have to see. For now, here is today’s fifteen minutes.
Day 4: When he left, James would become someone else.
When he left, James would become someone else. He would be a new man with a new past about to start a new future. James wasn’t certain how he felt about that. All of his life he worked for his family. He started in the family business in highschool and worked different positions. He father and grandfather wanted him to be familiar with every aspect of the business, no matter how small.
He worked as a janitor and as the CEO. He had served his time in the mail room and held the big corner office. It was what each of them had done and what was expected of him. The expectations were more of his grandfathers than his fathers and when the old man passed, and James much younger half-brothers decided that scrubbing toilets was beneath them, they were given a pass and allowed to skip the high school after school work and go straight from Business school to the big office.
When James voiced a concern, he was waved off. ‘You’ll be there to guide them,’ his father told him. “How much trouble could they get into.”
Plenty it seemed even with him to watch over them. In reality most of his time was spent cleaning up their messes. As the agent drove, James wondered how they would be coping with his absence. He wondered how the rest of the family would be coping with his absence.
In the past ten years the office had taken what little time he had. It cost him most of his friends as he was always too busy to see them. It ended up costing him his marriage. He couldn’t blame Faith for walking out. He was never there. She was married to a ghost. She claimed he knew nothing, saw nothing but work. But he knew she was having an affair. He only used the knowledge of it to keep her greed in check during the final paperwork of their divorce. He knew the private investigator had records, pictures and documents proving a long standing affair. He asked not to see them, certain he would recognize the face and not wanting to know who took his place.
It was only after everything was said and done, the last of the files stamped and filed that he found out she had been sleeping with both of his step brothers. It was then that his series of endings began. That he looked at his life, realized how much he gave up for the company, for the family, and how little they valued it. While part of him wondered how they were getting on without him, the rest of him felt a petty satisfaction in the fact that they now had to, that someone else would have to step up to the plate or which the entire company go down the drain. It was a mean thought and not one he was terribly proud of.
‘But I suppose you are allowed to end a life on a mean thought,’ James mused. ‘After all tomorrow I’ll be someone else with someone else’s past. This James will be dead and gone.’
James suddenly had the feeling that he was actually driving along in his own funeral procession. He fought down the urge to look behind and see if there was a hearse following. Slowly, the dusty Ford focus left the darkness and signs of the city began to appear around them.
Ten til Midnight 