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 85: ‘Can’t keep Alan waiting,’ she told herself.
‘Can’t keep Alan waiting,’ she told herself. Gwen settled into bed and drifted off easily. In her dreams there were dancing cakes in a window. They had spindliy little legs sticking out from underneath the cake pans and for some reason their feet were all clad in sparkly red heels like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz movie.
They did fancy steps and kicked up their heels as they danced in place in the windows. There was evern a row of cream puffs from a caramel encrusted towere. The stepped off of their mountain. The cream puffs had arms as well as legs and they danced with each other and made long chains as they danced around the cakes.
Gwen ran past. She looked behind her and saw a large book of Accountancy chasing her. It flapped open and closed like a large mouth as it chased her. She ran harder and saw a large pool ahead of her. ‘If I can make it to the pool I will be fine,’ she told herself. Gwen put on a little more speed and raced for the pool. Just as she was about to jump in, the alarm on her phone went off startling her out of her slumber.
‘Well that was strange,’ she decided as she turned off the alarm and sat up. She shook off the dream pretty easily as she began to dress for her run in the park. ‘I was looking at cooking and baking things before bed and I went with Grandfather to the office to see what the accountants and other staff members did,’ she decided. ‘Not too hard to figure out.’
She got dressed and gathered what she needed, still wondering what was in the pool that was supposed to save her from the chomping accountancy book and the dancing cakes.
‘Although the cream puffs were worse. Somehow the fact that they had arms as well as legs seemed a bit worse.
Gwen made sure she had her phone and her keys so she wouldn’t have to knock to be let back in and went to the living room. Alan knocked right on time and Gwen let herself out of the still sleeping apartment, making sure the door locked behind her.
Alan nodded and was quiet until they reached the elevator. She suspected it was more to do with the sleeping silence in the hallway than anything else.
“Morning then,” he said when he got into the elevator.
“Morning,” Gwen returned.
“Feeling sore after yesterday?” he asked.
“No, I’m feeling pretty good actually,” she told him. She was a little stiff when she woke but she stretched the stiffness out before he arrived and was feeling limber and ready to run.
“Good,” he said. “I wasn’t sure how long it had been since your last run.”
They reached the lobby and Gwen was again wished a good morning by the desk clerk. She nodded and smiled back. And then she and Alan were back on the street. He seemed to relax a bit more on the street.
“Do you not like going into the apartment building?” she asked.
“Oh no I don’t mind,” he said. “It just feels like I am tiptoeing in when everyone is still asleep. So it feels kind of strange. Plus I think the desk clerk times me.”
“Times you? To see how long you are upstairs?”
Alan nodded. She glanced back. She hadn’t seen any sign that he was timing Alan but she supposed it could be true. “Would you feel better if I just came down and met you in the lobby?” she asked.
Ten til Midnight 