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 158: He nodded and Gwen put her bag away and followed him out of the classroom, through the connecting corridor and into the bakery.
He nodded and Gwen put her bag away and followed him out of the classroom, through the connecting corridor and into the bakery. The bakery was fragrant and in full swing. The man she was following walked her over to a man only a couple of years older than her.
“Austin,” he said. The man looked up. “This is…” he looked to Gwen.
“Gwen,” she supplied.
“You’re Gwen?” he asked. She nodded. “Huh. Good. This is Gwen.” He told Austin. “She’ll be helping you out. Gwen, just follow Austin. You’ll be doing basic grunt work, but if you have questions, he’ll be the one to ask.”
Gwen nodded and the man turned and left her with Austin, He walked over to a counter and began working with some dough.
“Nice to meetcha,” Austin said. He smiled. “Especially today. We had five people call in sick. Come on.” He tilted his head towards the side and then turned in that direction Gwen followed him.
For the first half hour it felt like she did nothing but follow him as they ferried necessary items to the bakers so they could continue working without moving too far from their stations. It was clear the work for stocking the cases that morning had already been done but because of the lack of staff due to illness, they were behind on everything else and working hard to keep the case stacked for the morning rush.
The rush ended but the pace continued as items on order were assembled and sent out. Gwen moved constantly during her time and did a lot of lifting and carrying. When the bakery looked as though it was slowing to a normal pace, the staff finally catching up. Gwen was set at a work bench to mix up batters for a variety of cookies. She stuck to the recipe given with now improvisations and felt the eyes of several of the older staff on her, watching to see how she performed.
No one complained and when she was let go from the bakery, she received no complaints from her efforts. She was released and thanked for her efforts. Gwen left, feeling quite good about things and hoped it would be possible to actually get a part time job at the bakery when she returned from picking up her things.
She walked home, the clothes she wore trailing more flour than usual. During class she managed to stay pretty neat. With so many people moving around and so many different items in motion at the same time, she was less neat. Most of the flower that was going to fall off was blown off in the wind as she walked home so Gwen wasn’t too worried about leaving a trail of flour across the lobby and up to the apartment.
When she got to the apartment, she felt the desk clerk look at her. She held out her empty hands and he shrugged. Today she had no treats to leave.
Ten til Midnight 