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, worked on for fifteen minutes each day. Started Friday January 1st, 2021 (in case you want to search for the beginning. 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 6: He wondered if he was going to get this agent’s name.
He wondered if he was going to get this agent’s name. Was that the prize at the end of the relay team of agents. The name at the end of the rainbow. The prize at the bottom of the box of crackerjacks. He gave a half smile to himself. James guessed the agent to be a few years older than he was, or at least he looked it. His hair had flecks of gray in it and his face had a somewhat droopy look that he suspected would end up becoming jowls as age advanced. Still there was a sharpness in his eyes that made him look less hangdog than he might have otherwise. There was too much intelligence gleaming there to be compared comfortably to a basset hound.
The agent was looking over the pages attached to the clip board. James noticed he held a file as well as the clip board. It was underneath, tucked discretely away. The agent looked up, a quick glance before turning and moving to another seat at the conference table. The look was dismissive and James found himself prickling.
He ran a large multi-billion dollar international company, he was not someone others dismissed.
‘Unless they are family,’ James thought. HE bristled automatically and then realized the futility of it. He no longer ran the company. He was no one important. In fact at the moment he was no one at all. James was left behind. The journey into the afterlife had been completed. This man, this agent, would now tell him his fate.
“We’ve given you a new identity, name, past, everything,” the agent said. James nodded as he knew this was why he was here.
“It is important that you have no contact with anyone from your former life. You have been…disentangled from your former life as much as possible already. The company stocks were sold to other family members, your finances have all been transferred over to your new name and new accounts. I have your identification here. An apartment has been arranged for you for the next six months, and we will assist you with finding employment, after those six months it will be up to you.”
James nodded and the agent looked him square in the eyes for the first time.
“We can’t protect you if you do not follow the rules. If you violate the rules, you will be out of the program.”
“I understand,” James replied.
The agent snorted as though he didn’t believe him. James was not used to having his word doubted but decided it was not worth taking offense over. The agent, opened the file and began taking items out, Driver’s license, crisp social security card, passport, bank book and even a set of apartment keys.
James looked over the driver’s license. The photo was the same as his old one. He learned his new name. He managed to keep his first name, but lose his surname. James looked oddly strange sitting next to the name Ferris.
“I’m still James?” he asked.
Ten til Midnight 