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 244: Suddenly, a light bulb flickered.
Suddenly, a light bulb flickered. He thought of the gas station where he routinely stopped for gas when driving to and from work. He was fairly certain he remembered a rack of cheap cell phones and calling cards for sale inside the building. He didn’t often go into the building, mostly just paying at the pump. Occasionally he went in to pick up a coffee.
‘If I stopped for gas Monday and went in for a coffee I could pick up a second cell phone and card there.’ While James was certain that if he was paying attention, Tucker would easily spot the extra charge on a credit card, James thought it would take enough time that he could call Morris before the very expensive gas station coffee was spotted. He doubted Tucker was monitoring his debit card on a day to day basis.
‘And if I am being paranoid, then I’d only need to use the phone once. So even if it was traced it wouldn’t be a problem.’
The thought of buying a second phone for a clandestine call to a government agent made James feel somewhat foolish, but he knew that he would feel a little better after he talked to Morris. Even if the agent laughed at him. There would be relief. Not asking someone about what was going on would just eat at him.
‘It may be silly but it is for my own piece of mind.’
Decision to stop in and put his plan into action on Monday morning made James feel easier in his mind about the whole idea. He decided he would not check any of his e-mail accounts until after he checked with Morris, just for safety. ‘Then everything will be settled and I can put this all behind me.’
Realizing that he had no interest in the sitcom, James turned off the show and navigated to one of his Shakespearian movies. As he followed the tale Prospero and the aftermath of the storm that was created to cause the fateful shipwreck, James decided that the casting director made choices he certainly wouldn’t have.
“Well one choice actually,” James said. Most of the actors were superb. One of the actors, while doing a fine job of acting, had an accent that kept pulling him out of the tale and making him frown at the screen. After the actor’s second appearance on screen, James decided he had enough of the ill-fitting accent and shifted to a different film adaptation of the play.
It suited him much better and James settled in. When he decided he was hungry, James ordered Chinese, reveling in the self-granted release from cooking over the weekend. He ended up with left overs and promised himself a left over lunch after grocery shopping the following day.
With his mind at least settled on asking Morris about Tucker, James felt easier in his mind and slept well. The following morning he woke and made certain that his grocery list was tucked into his pocket before heading out to the club and his morning swim. At the pool, James pushed himself until his limbs were ready to give out. He then climbed out of the pool, went to the locker room and changed back into street clothes. He went straight from the gym to the grocery store. As he drove he thought about Tucker following him into the Old Town District and looked around as he drove, trying to spot a tail. Usually he went home before running back out for groceries. This was a break in his routine. Would the break be noticed. If anyone was following him, James couldn’t see it.
Ten til Midnight 