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 246: There weren’t many and when completed he found himself unable to settle.
There weren’t many and when completed he found himself unable to settle. James suddenly found the house confining. All he could think about was his laptop, the e-mails and his sneaky new cell phone. He remembered halfway between his house there was a park. It had some sort of pedestrian trail beside it.
“I can always use more practice running outside,” he decided. “Besides it might be fun to run without the group.”
The idea seemed like a much better one than staying in the house for the moment and James quickly changed into his running gear. His gear was simple, t-shirt, shorts socks and sneakers. There was nothing complicated about it and it took only moments to throw on before James was back out of the door and into his car.
He felt better on the move. Even though he wasn’t going far, he was at least going somewhere and felt as though he wasn’t welded into one spot and forced to simply wait until Monday morning. James supposed he could have taken the phone to the park with him, but as the park was not one of his routine stops he suspected he might be even more watched there.
‘If anyone is watching today.’
Thus far he hadn’t seen any signs of it. ‘But maybe I wouldn’t.’
He suspected that when he did see Tucker following him before, it was by Tucker’s design and not through any real skill of his own. ‘After all I didn’t see him in the old town district.’
When he reached the park, James added his car to the paced lot at its edge, got out and locked his vehicle, slipping his keys into his pocket but leaving his own cell phone in the car. He walked over towards a semi circular concrete area at the start or the main path. The area was devoid of people and the path looked empty. What people there were in the park seemed to be in the central grassy areas. Most of them appeared to have dogs or children, sometimes both.
James used the open area to stretch and limber up his muscles. When he felt he was warmed up enough, he turned to the head of the trail and began his run. There was something exciting about running like this. James didn’t know the trail and no one timed it for him and ran alongside him helping him pace himself. James didn’t have to run with the group and he didn’t have to run Gary’s set course. He could just run and see where the path took him. When he decided he was finished running, he could stop, or at least shift into a cooling walk. There was no one who was out here to care. He could finish a lap around the park if that’s where the trail went or simply decide he was done, turn around and go back to his car.
The sound of the people enjoying the park ended up being little flutters of sound off to his right as he made his circuit. They were easy to ignore, but he found he liked the sound as background. No one was close enough for him to make out actual conversations, they were just background, like having the television on when he was thinking.
‘Minus the canned laughter,’ he thought.
As he ran his practice kicked in and his body moved in the established rhythm. His breathing steadied and as he sunk into the movements of his moving body, his mind stilled.
Ten til Midnight 