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 29: “What would I do with the time I’m not working?” he asked himself.
“What would I do with the time I’m not working?” he asked himself. Disposing of free time had never been much of an issue with him. When James could eke out a little free time he worked on restoring old cars, all of his other time was spent. Even when he was at school he worked part time for the family company. It was expected that he have at least a little experience doing every job and as it was a big company with many different sorts of jobs, it took a long time to work through them. For the jobs requiring specialized skills that he didn’t poses, James worked as an intern. While he learned the ins and outs of the department, he served as a general gopher and paperwork monkey. He was very good at filling out paperwork.
He doubted the entry level position would demand the overtime that his previous work required as a matter of course. “Mostly because I doubt any company would want to pay for that much overtime.”
James shook his head, parked his newly purchased car in the lot and crossed the wide expanse of parking lot to get into the store. At this time of day, the store wasn’t too busy, for which James was grateful. He was too preoccupied with himself at the moment to worry over much about anyone else. He took a cart and picked up the items on his list. He was certain both his ex-wife and mother would be appalled at the cavalier way he chose items like shower curtains and bath mats, but as neither one of them was present he simply chose the quickest and most durable looking item and then moved on.
“Besides it’s amusing to think of either of them agreeing on anything.” He muttered to himself. The basic household items were quickly piled into the cart and James was pleased to see that one side of the home goods store featured a grocery. This grocery had a much wider selectin on offer and James happily added items he was missing from the first grocery to his cart.
When he was loaded down, and felt that he had done his duty, James meandered to the automotive section of the store.
While the array of air fresheners on display was quite spectacular, tool wise, basic was the way to go. He added a basic tool kit in case something came loose as well as an emergency kit to add to the trunk in case something broke down. He added some cleaner for the glass and dash and then spent awhile sorting through the various seat covers on display. To his surprise, finding something in a plain, neutral color was harder than he thought it would be. Were he inclined to decorate his seats in decorative hearts, polka dots, plaids od generic geometric designs then he would be set, but blain black, brown and gray seemed rare. Finally he found one set that was a pale blue and would fit his seats. Deciding to take it before it disappeared behind seat covers featuring rampaging dinosaurs, he added it to his cart.
Thinking he might want to do something for the place he was to call home, James detoured back through home goods and picked up a slip cover for his couch and a comforter and sheet set for his bedroom. He also added a fluffy pillow to the large mound of items now protruding from his cart. Considering himself done, James carefully wheeled his cart up to the teller.
His teller was an older woman with her straight gray hair cut into a bob.. Her earrings had a multitude of multicolored feathers dangling from them that made James think she scalped a parrot on her way into work that morning. “Just moving in?” she asked as he began placing items on the conveyor belt.
Ten til Midnight 