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 28: “It runs better than I thought something this old would,” James said keeping his tone grudging.
“It runs better than I thought something this old would,” James said keeping his tone grudging. He could feel the excitement in him building, but he knew better than to let his interest show to the salesman, Gary.
“It does,” Gary said. “We like to keep all of our cars running as well, if not better.” Gary said.
The two men exited the car and James allowed Gary to show him other cars, each as forgettable as his agent could have hoped for. James allowed him to talk the cars up and every so often he would compare it to the Studebaker. They test drove a couple and always James circled back to the Studebaker. When they finally got down to price, James listed to the price of the forgettable ones and then asked, about the Studebaker.
“I don’t actually know the price on that,” Gary admitted.
“Really?” James asked.
“It’s been her so long that I think they slated to sell it for scrap metal to the local junk yard,” Gary admitted.
“Well that seems a shame since it actually still runs,” James said. “Would you mind seeing what their best offer is on it?”
With a shrug Gary went to talk to the dealership owner and a few minutes later came back with a low enough price that James felt his eyebrows lift to his hair line.
“I think I’d like to take you up on that offer,” James told him. This time Gary looked surprised. Still he wasn’t one to miss a sale and soon enough the papers were signed, the money transferred and temporary insurance papers drawn up and James was leaving the lot with the worn down Studebaker and a full tank of gas.
On his way out of the yard, James checked the map and aimed the Studebaker towards the nearest big box store, figuring that now he had a car to transport larger items like trash cans, he might as well pick one up.
“I suspect it will be easier than on the bus,” He told the car. “And don’t worry, we’ll at least get you some new seat covers.” James wasn’t certain what lurked underneath the electric blue seat covers and the searing yellow lightning bolts but he figured he could at least get a new set of slip covers to go over the old ones making them more non-descript.
As he drove James wondered what Carson would say about his purchase. He suspected a car would be useful as the town didn’t seem to be laid out in a way that made the existing public transportation feasible and truthfully the public transportation looked only to be a good option if he worked a standard office job.
“Which to be fair Carson is trying to secure for me.”
Officially his job had been a standard office job, however there were often late nights and early morning meetings. There were weekends where the office needed him as well. The schedule he checked took none of those things into account and he could easily see himself stranded at the office over a weekend.
“Of course I might not be working those hours either,” James said. He turned into the parking lot of the big box store and realized he might actually be working a nine to five job that only lasted from nine to five. The thought seemed almost incomprehensible.
“What would I do with the time I’m not working?” he asked himself.
Ten til Midnight 