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 245: If anyone was following him, James couldn’t see it.
If anyone was following him, James couldn’t see it. James felt a little silly. After all, who would follow him to the grocery store. Still he looked, knowing that Tucker confessed to following him to the old town district.
James went in and began his shopping for the day. While he didn’t spot Tucker in the grocery store, James did spot a rack of cheap cell phones in the pharmacy area. Next to them were a rack of pre paied phone cards to charge the phone.
‘Well that’s handy,’ James thought. ‘And hiding it with my groceries is much easier than hiding it while carrying only a cup of coffee.’ When James thought about getting the phone in the gas station it included remembering to bring his work bag into the gas station with him instead of leaving it in the car. He thought it might look suspicious but could see no other way to conceal the cell phone purchase from prying eyes.
After taking a look around to make certain he wasn’t being watched, James put one of the phones and a card in his cart. He adjusted a bag of pretzels and a box of spaghetti over it to help conceal its presence in his cart should he run into Tucker when making his rounds through the rest of the store.
Having the phone in his shopping cart made it one less thing to worry about. He knew he would need to charge it and activate the calling card before he could use it though. As James continued his shopping he thought of all of the spy thrillers and other movies he saw government agents in. While he knew the movies often took creative license with technology and clandestine activities, he knew that there were ways to overhear cell phone conversations.
‘Since it will need to charge, maybe I should take it to work with me and call from there. Surely he won’t be monitoring all the cell phone calls from the office.’ It sounded like a viable option and as James added the last of his items to his shopping cart and headed to check out, James reminded himself to take the trash from the packaging to the office with him so it could be disposed of there as well. He didn’t think Tucker was going through his trash, but he thought it might not be a bad idea to be extra careful.
‘After all I did help Cassie find a safe place. Leading someone to that safe place would be a violation of trust.’
James paid for his groceries, along with the extras and went out to his car. As he loaded his purchases in the vehicle, James realized that Tucker was one of the people he was worried about leading to Cassie. The thought made him feel paranoid, but it stuck in the back of his mind. Despite everything, all the justifications he told himself, the assurances he gave and the self-ridicule of paranoia, James simply couldn’t shake the feeling that Tucker was up to something…nefarious.
It wasn’t a comfortable thought. ‘Perhaps when I talk to Morris I’ll feel differently.’
James drove back to his house and unloaded his groceries. ‘And going right after my swim saved me time,’ James realized. As he unloaded and put everything away, James realized he was home much earlier than he usually was on Sunday.
While he appreciated the time saving, he didn’t exactly have a long list of things to occupy himself. He ducked upstairs and opened the cell phone, plugging it into charge and slipping the packaging into his bag to be taken to the office for disposal. He then went back down to the kitchen and made himself some blueberry pancakes.
‘Much fluffier than usual,’ he complemented himself.
James ate the pancakes and took care of all of the small chores around the house that needed to be done before the work week started. There weren’t many and when completed he found himself unable to settle.
Ten til Midnight 