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 69: Gwen smiled, relieved not to be seen as a burden.
Gwen smiled, relieved not to be seen as a burden. They reached the elevator and the doors dinged open. They exited and there was only the night guard at the front desk to see them in their running gear.
“Morning Ms. Barret,” he said nodding. “You enjoy your morning run.”
“Thank you,” she replied. She tried not to look confused by the fact that he knew who she was. She didn’t think she was introduced the day before.
‘And that was another person. The day time one,’ Gwen realized.
They left the building and began walking. Gwen tried to put the guard out of her mind. She focused on the pathway to the park.
“It’s not far then?” she asked.
Alan shook his head. “Not far at all actually. But it is nice to get the legs stretched.”
As they walked he talked about the group and how they were all meeting there this morning but dividing into different groups by running speed so that everyone could train with someone who ran at more or less the same speed they did.
“Plus it gets us into smaller groups. While we will all run in a crowd in the marathon of course it is better to train in a smaller group. Or at least I find it more fun.”
As Gwen was used to running more or less by herself, at least since she left the track team, she nodded. They reached the park and Gwen was surprised to find Alan was the leader of this gathering. He started splitting everyone up into smaller groups, or at least designating spots for groups to gather. To Gwen’s relief, he was actually in her group.
Once split out, the groups went their separate ways. She heard some discussing times and days to meet while others decided on routes. Apparently this park had several trails that were perfect for running.
‘A bit different then my run through downtown and then out around the school and back,’ she thought.
As the group was from her grandfather’s office, they were all older than she was, although some not by more than a few years. There were five in her group, including herself and Alan. Tracy worked in accounts management and looked to be in her mid-twenties. Peter was from human resources and Gwen guessed he was probably closer to thirty. Mindy was one of the receptionists and only looked a year or two older than Gwen.
Over all it didn’t seem like a bad group. Gwen listened as they decided on the trail. Not knowing one form the other she had no real opinion and was content to go along with the group. They decided this time worked well for them and they set the days of the week to meet. As Gwen had nothing on her schedule at the moment, this too worked well for her.
‘Anything I add can be moved around it,’ she decided. ‘And it is nice to have something set.’ The schedule, even if it was a simple one made her feel less like she was drifting and made Gwen feel somehow more solid.
Despite the warm up of the walk, she stretched with the others, limbering up her muscles. She noticed Peter looked at her shoes with approval before they all moved to the chose trail and began the first of their morning training runs. Gwen felt slightly irritated by the look of approval but couldn’t really say why.
Ten til Midnight 