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 122: He opened the door anyway and was relieved to find Morris sitting up in the bed.
He opened the door anyway and was relieved to find Morris sitting up in the bed. Morris had reading glasses perched on his nose and he looked at James over them. James was reminded of one of his junior high school principals and tried not to feel guilty of some sort of crime as he stepped into the room.
Morris was looking through files. To James they looked like different ones form before. Morris started gathering them up as he approached. The gestures weren’t hurried, but James suspected Morris wasn’t going to be sharing the information in those files.
“What an opportune arrival,” Morris said.
“Really?”
“We just received word that your belongings have arrived. They have been gone over to make certain none of the boxes was tampered with and we are certain that no one managed to track them here.”
“Well that’s good news,” James said. He thought of his small apartment. “Although I have nowhere to put anything.” He thought of his large dining table. “The apartment came furnished.”
“Yes that had occurred.” Morris replied. “It was decided that at the moment it might be safer simply to move you. “A house has been rented. Your things have been collected from the apartment and tomorrow morning you will oversee the arrival of your moving van at your new home.”
“I see,” James nodded. In theory it made sense to move him and he wasn’t all that concerned about losing the apartment, but Thomas Grant came to the Sports Bar where he was having happy hour afte work on a Friday. He didn’t come to the apartment.
“And will I be keeping the same job or transferring to a new one?”
“The same,” Morris replied. “It has been determined that Grant was there because it was near his motel.”
“So it was coincidence that he was there when I was?” James asked. Somehow he didn’t buy it and he was unsurprised when Morris wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“It appears so.”
James decided he would be skipping out on happy hour for a while.
“There is one more thing,” Morris said. The statement was issued casually, but again Morris wouldn’t meet his eyes. “To really sell the death thing, we will have to send a few of your belongings back to your family. Small keep sakes to prove you are really gone.”
“If I was really gone, they’d want the money,” James told him. “I can’t see them interested in any of my knickknacks.”
“We plan to tell them you donated everything to charity and only left them a few keepsakes.”
“Really?” Despite everything James found himself amused.
“We are telling them you had a new will made up when you joined us as a precaution. If, when you are looking for a few items to send back, you could think of a few plausible charities. Keeping them large scale enough so that it can’t easily be checked would be best, but make sure they are things that wouldn’t seem out of place for your family.”
“I’ll work on that,” James told him.
Ten til Midnight 