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 185: Mixed in with the frustration was a thread of determination.
Mixed in with the frustration was a thread of determination. James dressed in his jeans and shirt and wrapped his wet swimming trunks in his towel so it would not drip through the canvas bag. He walked out of the changing room and left the pool area. In the more general use pool zone he saw that a water aerobics class was just getting started as quite a few elderly people were forming roughly straight lines under the guidance of their instructor.
The gym too was in more use as people tried to get in their morning workouts before the start of the work day. James watched them on the machines and wondered if any of them would help him in his swimming or if using them would simply hinder his efforts.
He decided to hold off on the experiment and kept walking. He signed out at the front desk so that the staff knew there was no one missing in the water and he left the club. His car was less isolated and less conspicuous for the additional company of the other vehicles. James got into his car and turned the key in the ignition. He fastened his seatbelt and sighed.
He had never been so forcibly reminded of time passing. James pulled out of the parking lot and started the drive home. He supposed people who had children were more cognizant of time passing. They would have their age noted if only by the yardstick of watching a child grow. Without children, James often forgot the passage of time. When planning to swim laps it never occurred to him that he couldn’t do the same things he did when he was younger.
‘Although I suppose I had to build up my muscle there as well,’ James thought. He couldn’t now remember but he doubted he just jumped in and swam a bunch of laps his first time in the pool. He was certain that the number of laps build up as his muscles grew used to the movements.
‘But it doesn’t feel that way,’ he thought. ‘At least I don’t remember my muscles hurting so much.’
He wondered if that was something he would have forgotten or if his body was just showing age and lack of use by paining him now. “I could just be falling to pieces.” He thought.
It wasn’t his favorite thought, so James contented himself with a mental list of all of the items he needed to pick up that he didn’t have. While he wasn’t a huge fan of shopping, the thought of the list was comforting in its own way. The fact that he didn’t have the basic tools needed for his morning swim meant that it hadn’t been a part of his life in a long enough time for anyone to remember it. If it wasn’t a part of his old life, then he was free to add it to his new one. Or at least that is how James thought of it.
‘I suppose that means even the aches are a good thing.’
Traffic was heavier than when he left, but James still managed to make it home with plenty of time to change for the office. James showered off the pool, dressed in his standard office clothes, and took his travel mug of coffee and prepacked lunch out to the car. He checked his watch and realized he was even leaving a few minutes early.
On the drive in, James shifted his thoughts into work mode. He parked and went inside. The day spiraled out as expected. His muscles were sore, but not unbearably so. There was even a small pleasure in having sore muscles. As though he used his body for the first time in a long time. Like coming out of hibernation. At lunch he recalled his questions and comments from the episodes he watched and the discussion was pleasant. After work he left and picked up the items he needed. Upon arriving home, James even managed to make the spaghetti for his dinner without too much trouble. He suspected he overcooked the noodles as they were mushier than he remembered pasta being when someone competent fixed it, but it was still edible.
The next morning, he woke, his body stiff and sore, but James was more or less expecting it and pushed through. He stretched and by the time he arrived at the club, he thought his body was ready to try the laps again.
His daily life began to fall into a pattern.
Ten til Midnight 