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 221: Movement seemed to keep the thoughts at bay.
Movement seemed to keep the thoughts at bay. As long as he moved he didn’t have to stop and think. James left the house and took the car through the drive through. He ate the burrito in the car, not wanting to slow down long enough to actually stop and eat in the restaurant.
He made it to the office and after crumpling the empty wrapper into the bag, he checked his shirt for spots. Finding none, James picked up his coffee and went into the office.
He was a little earlier than usual, but not noticeably so. James drank his coffee as he powered up his computer. In his head he ordered his work load for the day. When other thougths started to intrude, he added more items to his to do list. The computer woke and James dove into his work. He barely twitched from his desk as he worked. Lunch time came and as he hadn’t bothered to pack anything, he decided to work through it and stayed at his desk.
He finished all of the work before him and started on the items he would need to complete on Monday. He knew it would throw off his schedule, but he didn’t want to stop. About twenty minutes before the official end to his work day, James reached the end of what he could reasonably accomplish. Every other task left to him would need to wait until Monday simply because the files had not yet arrived. He couldn’t complete what he didn’t have.
He was forced to stop. To rest. To think. He wondered what thoughts would surface first. There was both death and Cassie to consider. Instead, James found his first thought was of Tucker. Tucker was looking for Cassie. He could keep her safe from those who wanted to hurt her. He asked James if he knew where she would run and James had gone and given her a place to run to. He thought about it.
He realized he could sacrifice his James Monroe connections if he had to, that part didn’t bother him. It was more that he felt he would be betraying Cassie if he told Tucker about her.
‘Right now she just needs a place to stay that is safe,’ James thought. ‘The fewer people who know about her the safer she is.’ He leaned back in his desk chair, uncertain if he was doing the right thing or not. ‘Safer with, safer without.’ The words kept echoing in his mind.
The litany continued until the end of the work day and his release from the office. James closed down his computer and left. He waved to the others as he saw them down the hall, but didn’t engage them in conversation. Today he felt like a man apart.
He went to the club, changed in the locker room and joined the others in the stretches. They were still on the track today and the same drive to push himself that he had in the pool that morning drove him as he ran along the track. James found himself increasing his speed as he ran. Remembering the designer couple from the first day, he monitored his pace and didn’t try to do too much too fast. Still he began pulling away from the pack, running in front of the others, passing them as they moved around and around doing their laps. He felt Gary’s eyes watching him.
Terry still huffed and puffed. Not as much as at the beginning of the training, but still it was a noticeable sound, a constant to his left. As James ran and the distance grew, the sound faded away.
Ten til Midnight 