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 44: Gwen closed her eyes.
Gwen closed her eyes. In sleep, she dreamed. Gwen found herself being escorted on stage by a man dressed in a tuxedo. It was a strange tuxedo and at first she thought it was part of a magic shop. She wondered if she was a volunteer from the audience, chosen to participate. She hated audience participation moments and always shied away when volunteers were asked for. Both Toby and Lisa always raised their hands eagerly while she slipped down in her chair and hoped they would pass her buy without noticing.
‘But neither of them are here now,’ Gwen thought. ‘Maybe that’s why I was chosen.’ Gwen tried to look at the audience but could not see past the flood lights. If there was an audience she couldn’t see them or hear them in the darkness beyond the stage lights.
Gwen looked away and instead of seeing the set up for a magician’s act, she saw that she was set up on some sort of game show. She wasn’t sure which as it seemed to combine elements from different games. There was a giant spinning wheel, but she couldn’t see what was written on the tabs. There was something that looked suspiciously like a strong man’s test where players brought a hammer down to see how hard they could hit the thing. There was also a dunk take and in the back of the stage was what looked like the board from a game of jeopardy.
It was an odd mix of carnival fun fair and game show and Gwen wasn’t sur she liked it. On stage the host was waiting. She didn’t watch many game shows but she had seen enough of them to recognize the hosts. She was hoping that identifying the hose would let her know what game she was actually playing. The host was not someone she recognized. He was wearing a yellow and red stripped jacket and holding a microphone. He had a straw boaters hat on his head and looked like he came out of an old painting featuring men rowing on the lake with their sweethearts. As she was brought on stage, He faced the audience and swept his hat off his head.
“And here she is, our first contestant of the night, Gwen Barrett.” He tossed his hat into the audience and Gwen could hear the sound of applause and laughter. It sounded prerecorded rather than live and she wondered if there actually was anyone out there.
The host turned to her and smiled. Gwen blinked. His hair looked like it was a plastic wig fitted on top of his head. She remembered a set of dolls she had as a child where the hair came in different varieties and clipped on to the doll’s head. There was one doll but about twenty different hair pieces so she could be changed at will. It was like a human shaped potato head doll. That was the sort of hair the host had and Gwen really hoped he didn’t plan to change it out during the show.
“So Gwen are you ready to play today’s game of Who Are You?”
Ten til Midnight 