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 70: Gwen felt slightly irritated by the look of approval but couldn’t really say why.
Gwen felt slightly irritated by the look of approval but couldn’t really say why. She thought it might simply be because she knew the look meant he was judging her in some way. When they started for the trail Gwen made sure not to stand near Peter. She didn’t avoid him on purpose but ended up standing near the two women who were closer to her age.
No one seemed to mind. They finished warming up and began their training run.
It felt good to run again. Gwen felt the blood pumping through her body and the breath steady and timed. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Her worries and concerns fell away and Gwen was pleased to see she was easily able to keep up with her assigned group.
There was a small part of her that was pleased to see Peter was having a less easy time of it. She tried not to look in his direction.
As always as she ran, her thoughts settled. Worries fell away and the world seemed a clearer and cleaner place. Even though she hadn’t been running regularly in a while, Gwen remembered she always made time for a run after an argument with Sharron or anyone else for that matter. It alswys helped her smooth things out in her mind.
The night after the dress was destroyed was the first time she hadn’t gone on a run after a confrontation with Sharron.
‘I wonder if it would have made much of a difference,’ she asked herself.
It didn’t seem to matter. Now, all of the worries about what her life would be, what she would do with herself, how she would proceed from this spot where she was left, seemed like distant things. They were things that would work themselves out and not something she should worry too much about.
Gwen knew that once she left the park and headed back to the apartment those worries would rise again as she knew she would have to do something, but for now they faded. It was a nice feeling and Gwen felt a little sad when they began their cool down. She realized that she was willing to add another mile to her run but the others were clearly at their end.
She hid her disappointment. A part of her rebelliously wanted to leave them and continue on, but at the moment, she didn’t know the layout of the park well enough to strike out on her own. She was fairly confident she could find her way back to the apartment but it was a bad way to return the consideration Alan showed her.
‘Its not caving to other people’s plans for me,’ Gwen told herself as they reached the end of their cool down and solidified their next time for gathering before going their separate ways. ‘It is being polite.’ She saw the difference between the two as she and Alan turned onto the sidewalk moving away from the others.
“You did really well,” Alan told her. “Your Grandfather said you hadn’t run in a while so I didn’t know if you would need time to get into the rhythm again.”
“Thanks,” Gwen said. “You did well too. Peter seemed to be struggling though.” She surprised herself by letting the words come out of her mouth. She didn’t take them back though and she was surprised to find Alan chuckling.
“That would be Tracy’s fault,” Alan said, “but you didn’t hear it from me.”
“He likes Tracy?” Gwen said. It was odd she hadn’t picked up on that at all. In fact it looked like quite the opposite.
“Oh no,” Alan said hastily. “Nothing like that. They started at the same time and about six months ago she got a promotion and he didn’t. He wasn’t up for it so it isn’t that he lost out on it. The promotion wasn’t even in his department. But since they started together he somehow saw it as her beating him and so he is determined to keep up or beat her. He is something of a competitive guy. He keeps it mostly to himself, but it’s there.”
“So he had to join the group with Tracy to prove he could keep up?” Gwen asked.
Ten til Midnight 