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 78: What was going on in his life a year or even two before his divorce?
What was going on in his life a year or even two before his divorce? James tried to think back. He had never been close with his half-brothers Eric and Mark. There was enough distance between their ages that few aspects of their life over lapped. They were twelve and fourteen years younger than he was respectively and were still quite small when he left for university.
When he called home he received updates of school events and personal details, but he never really knew them. They were background noise. The first time he spent with them was when they came to work for the company.
He remembered being irked that they hadn’t been required to climb the company ladder as he had. While he knew his pathway was eased by the family, James was still required to learn every department from the inside out, from Janitorial to the CEO’s office. Eric and Mark were given their positions straight out of school.
James set aside his irritation in favor of a professional working environment and things went well. His interests didn’t line up with either Eric or Mark and so he spent little time with them out of the office that wasn’t company related.
James tried to recall if there was anything special about the past few years. He recalled seeing them less. He would attend family dinners only to find that both of them had prior engagements. As that happened many times over the years, it barely registered as a change.
In public he saw less of them. Places where their paths normally crossed, they didn’t. James suspected they were avoiding him. At first he thought it was out of a sense of wounded pride or even shame. The accounting department brought evidence to him of their padding of the expense accounts. It hadn’t been a small few hundred dollars but padding that was in the thousands. James thought that the accounting division might have attempted to turn a blind eye to the smaller amounts due to the family connection and that Eric and Mark had just grown bolder when the small amounts weren’t corrected.
It seemed very much in keeping with their personalities. They tended to think of things like that as games. They liked to see what they could get away with. The money wasn’t’ the issue. While neither would object to having more, neither were hurting. It was the game that was the thing. James corrected the accounts and had a talk with them.
Losing always stung and he expected them to pout afterwards.
Later, with the whole messy divorce laid bare before him he suspected that the avoidance was due to their involvement with Faith. A part of him thought they might be ashamed of being caught there too. Looking back now he realized that too was just another game. They wouldn’t have wanted Faith any more than they wanted the extra funds. It was nice to have them, but not really the point.
James ran a hand through his hair and took another bite of the cookie. He wondered if part of their distance was their attempts to get him out of the company. He knew they wanted full control and resented his senior position. They resented that he was in charge. He suspected this is why they worked with Cassie and her book. Each of them mutually using each other to achieve their own goals.
‘I’m betting the book started right about the time I caught them skimming,’ James decided. It was mostly irrelevant, but it seemed to fit. Having it fit in his mind settled something inside him. In the morning he would go in, he would bail them out once again. He would be paid handsomely for it and he would make sure everyone else knew that this was the last time. Eric and Mark might not listen, but James suspected Agent Morris would.
Ten til Midnight 