Welcome to the Fifteen Minute Novel. Each morning I spend fifteen minutes writing on a singular story line. Each morning starts with the last line of the previous day. The goal is to get a (very) rough draft out of the simple story idea and to avoid letting the story idea languish in limbo forever, actually writing it out. This is the third year I have done this writing experiment and each year I learn just a little bit about myself and the way I write as well as creating a framework for the story. But without further ado…
Day 2: Gwen stood and gathered her things.
Gwen stood and gathered her things. As she left the diner she was certain she passed other people she knew. They impinged upon her awareness as ghosts. Things were said to her and she recalled dimly forming replies. No one sounded an alarm or sounded concerned so she was fairly certain the responses she gave were correct ones. However by the time she walked the three blocks from the diner to her family house, Gwen couldn’t name a single person she passed.
She moved on auto pilot a strange prickly sensation all over her body. She let herself into the house and climbed the stairs to her room. The dress she chose was in its semitransparent bag and hung up on the outside of the closet door so it wouldn’t wrinkle. The shoes were placed in a bag on the floor below and all of the other items, from jewelry to hair combs were lined up in the shelf below her bulletin board. Her eyes danced over the carefully chosen, perfectly suitable items. How long had she spent choosing them so that everything would be just right? So that everything would be perfect. Not only was this dance the highlight of the year every year but each year it was also the scene of many engagements. Many of the long time sweethearts of their class decided to make things more official.
She and Toby had been together for eight years. He was her first and only boyfriend and he had been seen shopping for rings earlier that week. Everyone knew he would be taking over his father’s business when he retired and in fact had been working there off and on for the past few years. It was why everything had to be perfect. Gwen, along with everyone else, thought it would be her engagement day as well as the final school dance for their class.
‘Except that he’s been seeing Lisa.’
Gwen allowed her eyes to flick up to the bulletin board pinned to the wall above the shelf holding all of her dance accoutrements. There were many of her and Toby of course but as Lisa had been her best friend since the first grade, there were many more of Lisa.
There were a few photos of Lisa and her long time beau Ron as well and a lot of recent pictures of the four of them.
‘Seeing Lisa for a while.’
Gwen stepped forward and looked at the photos. All four of them looked happy. In many of them Ron gazed at Lisa with adoration but the rest of them looked at the camera. Gwen studied the images an wondered what a while meant. Had it been a week, a month, a year? The pictures gave her no indication. She studied the faces. If there was anything there to see, she was still blind.
The ring of her cell phone called her out of her study and she lifted it from her bag automatically. Her eyes flicked towards the screen and she froze, her thumb a millimeter away from pressing accept.
Lisa.
Lisa was calling.
Ten til Midnight 