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 133: James thought about running, but wasn’t sure it would do any good.
James thought about running, but wasn’t sure it would do any good. Something in his stance or some slight movement must have communicated potential movement to the man with a gun because he tilted his head at James.
“Running won’t help,” he said. “I’ll just shoot you here and frighten the children next door.”
“So instead you’ll shoot me in the house where no one but me will be traumatized?” James asked.
The edge of a smile twitched at the gunman’s lips. “I just want to talk.”
“So we talk and then what?” James said. Tucker said he was on his way. James wasn’t sure how far he had to travel but he figured extending the time outside wasn’t a bad thing. He suspected being alone in a closed environment with the gunman would be a bad thing. It was a simple equation. Stalling was his best option. “You just let me go? You walk away?”
“Well that would depend on your answers wouldn’t it?”
“So if I give you the right answers you walk away?”
“If you give me the answers I want then I leave,” he said.
“But how do I know that the answers I give you are the ones you want?” James said. “The ones you want to hear could be entirely different from the actual answers. You could be disappointed in the truth. Expectations not matching reality and all that.”
“You don’t want me disappointed,” the gunman replied. Any trace of humor faded and James thought that his statement might not have penetrated his brain in quite the same pseudo -philosophical way he expected.
“No I don’t want you disappointed,” James clarified. “I also don’t want to get shot.”
“I’m not going to shoot you,” the gunman said. “This is just how I’m getting you inside.” He looked around. “And I think we are going inside now. Move.”
The gunman stepped forward and James stepped back. Slowly the gunman herded him towards the front door. It wasn’t slow enough. The front door was left open and James stepped into the house. The gunman followed.
James realized that from the outside it looked like James stepped out to take a call and the cable gyuy came to fetch him when there was a problem during installation. With outside eyes, it didn’t look suspicious at all.
‘It would only look suspicious if the van stays parked there too long,’ James thought as the gunman walked James into the living room and indicated he should take a seat on the sofa. James sat down and wondered how long was too long for a cable van to be parked outside a house in a residential neighborhood. The thought steadied him and kept him from wondering what the gunman was planning to do now that they were alone.
“There,” the gunman said, sinking into an easy chair. “All nice and cozy.”
Ten til Midnight 