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 92: Gwen nodded and left her grandmother to arrange the details.
Gwen nodded and left her grandmother to arrange the details. There was something of relief in letting her grandmother take over. When she was smaller Mrs. Lewis tended to arrange things. When Sharron moved in she continued to let Mrs. Lewis arrange things until Gwen was deemed old enough to arrange them herself. Once she was then Gwen pretty much took over, letting her father know when a signature or a fee was involved.
While it made her feel a lot smaller there was some comfort in the way her grandmother neatly arranged things and gathered the lists of what was need for both sets of classes. It wasn’t something she wanted to get used to but for once it was nice not to have to handle everything on her own.
“Well,” Margaret said when she was finished. “There was a lot of overlap so the list isn’t as long as it seemed and most of it can be picked up in a few separate stores. We will need a driver though.” She looked at the clock on the shelf.
“We could combine the shopping with lunch and then maybe think about an afternoon gallery visit before returning home to dinner and your grandfather?” It was phrased as a question and Gwen nodded.
“That sounds nice,” she said. She knew Margaret really wanted to go to one of the galleries so she had no problem adding it in.
“Excellent.” Margaret tapped the page. “I know where the stores are but I don’t know of any restaurants near there,” she said. “But if we figure out which gallery to go to then we can see what is between the two and then have lunch between them.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Gwen said. Margaret stood up and retrieved a laptop from the drawer in the side board. It seemed like a strange place to stash it.
“I was looking things up in the living room and just put it there to get it out of the way,” Margaret said. “I figured it wouldn’t do any harm to the linens.”
Back at the kitchen table, she powered up the laptop and brought up a map of the city. She navigated to the stores and then looked for galleries. “Oh The Winthrop has an exhibit I wanted to see. I remember seeing the announcement and thinking I wanted to go but then forgot to put it on my schedule. I wonder if it is still up.”
Margaret opened a second tab and navigated towards the gallery website. “Oh up through this weekend. That’s a lucky draw. We can go there,” she looked to Gwen. “If that is alright with you?”
“Sounds fine,” Gwen answered. She was beginning to realize the c=gallery visits were a little more for her grandmother than they were for her. While she liked the idea, they weren’t her top priority. ‘
‘But a class on drawing could be fun,’ she thought.
Ten til Midnight 