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 129: As he watched the parade of possessions he wondered what in his effects he could actually pass to Morris that would even remotely look personal.
As he watched the parade of possessions he wondered what in his effects he could actually pass to Morris that would even remotely look personal. The taped up boxes labeled with generic terms like clothing, shoes, books, kitchen and bedroom weren’t enlightening.
‘Perhaps something will stand out when I unpack,’ He thought. James shifted the thought to the side as he directed the movers. While James wasn’t certain what was in each box, he directed as much of it as possible upstairs to one of the bedrooms figuring that it was at least something he wouldn’t have to haul upstairs himself. In the end the tools remained in the garage, furniture was scattered throughout the house and most of the boxes were in one of the bedrooms.
The movers finished and James signed off on the delivery. He was given copies of paperwork and a number to call if he found anything broken or missing from the boxes. With everything signed, the movers closed up the van and drove away. James closed and locked the garage door and Tucker drove the vehicles back into the driveway, making certain James’ Studebaker was first in and not blocking his own car.
The two men went back into the house and Tucker handed James his car keys. Having nowhere else to put them, he shoved them and the house keys into his back pocket. He looked around. Furniture was scattered and mostly pushed against the wall instead of placed in any sort of usable pattern. James was surprised to find there were several boxes marked kitchen now resting on counter tops. He hadn’t been aware of the fact that he had enough kitchen tools to actually fill one box let alone the several that he saw.
“How about I help you set up your bedframe and get your mattress on and then we can set up the television?” Tucker half said, half asked.
Figuring an extra set of hands would be useful for both tasks, James nodded. While he was reasonably certain he could fit the bed frame together, he didn’t have the same confidence with the television. He paid extra to have it set up and connected when he purchased it and had no idea where all of the cords went.
The two of them went upstairs and found all of the bedroom boxes stacked in the closet leaving much of the floor space free. The parts of the bed frame were stacked against one wall and the mattress and box spring were leaning against a different wall.
‘Good choice,’ James decided. One of the walls had the doors for the closet and bathroom bunched into the surface while the other had windows. The two supporting walls were bare and plain. Together James and Tucker took the bed frame from the wall and laid the pieces out along the floor. As each slotted together in and easy way, four hands made short work of it and soon the bedframe was assembled and in the center of the room. Tucker helped him move it so the headrest was against one wall and then the two of them shifted the box spring and then mattress on top of it.
Tucker dusted his hands off as though pleased with their accomplishment. “Television then?” he said.
“Yeah,” James replied. Somehow without it’s bedding and extensive pillow collection, the bed looked smaller and less substantial than he remembered. He shook the thought away and followed Tucker back downstairs. Here the two of them took a little time debating television placement and then shuffled furniture around so the television stand could be moved into place. Once in place it was a search for the television and its associated parts.
“Someone will be by between noon and two to hook up cable and internet,” Tucker told him as they hunted out cables. “They just need the television set up first.”
Ten til Midnight 