The Fifteen Minute Novel is an attempt to take a single prompt and use the last sentence written each day as a start for the next day. This year I had several prompts circling around a similar story, so I have combined them. However, the story starts the same way each day, with the last line from the day before and a timer set for fifteen minutes. The hope is to end up with a complete, if very rough draft by the end of the year. Some stories are better than others, but I always learn a whole lot about my own writing when I do this so for me it is not only a nice way to work out a story, but it is a tool for helping my writing get better. And so, we continue this story for 2024 with…
Day 17: The door was open when Sophie reached it.
The door was open when Sophie reached it. Sophie looked through the open door. “Hello,” she called.
“Sophia, come in,” Sophie relaxed as she saw Elizabeth seated behind the desk. Perhaps she wasn’t going to be fired after all.
“Hi,” Sophie said. “Hope your car is running okay,” she said. She stepped into the office and realized there was a man sitting in one of the visitor’s chairs in front of her desk. “Oh, I’m sorry, did I come at a bad time.”
“Not at all,” Elizabeth said. “Have a seat. Sean here wanted to speak with you and since I wanted to thank you again for your help Friday I offered the use of my office. And yes, it is all worked out. I had to get a new battery over the weekend but now everything is as right as rain.”
“Good to know,” Sophie said. “Especially of it does rain.”
“Indeed,” Sean said. “Stuck in the rain with a dead battery is never fun.”
Sophie nodded as she slipped into the second visitor’s chair. The nerves that calmed down when she saw Elizabeth began jumping inside her again. “So what exactly did you want to see me about?”
“Well we are beginning an internal audit ahead of a few new contracts the company was able to secure. We want everything running as smoothly as possible. The contracts will last a few years so we thought we would go ahead and make sure every department is functioning as efficiently as possible,” Sean said.
He paused and seemed to want a response. “Seems logical,” Sophie replied carefully.
“Yes, well we have been going over the details of your department and several things have been brought to light.”
“Okay,” Sophie said when he again paused. She wondered why they were not talking to Mr. Evers about this.
“We have noticed that not only have you been staying late most nights and not clocking in and out for lunch, but there have been several projects that have your code on them that should technically be the responsibility of others.” Again he waited. This time there was no simple affirmation she could give.
“Occasionally, I help some of the others out,” Sophie said.
“A bit more than occasionally from the files,” Sean said. “And we are pretty sure that is the reason you end up staying late.”
“Have I broken some sort of rule?” Sophie asked. She wondered if she was about to be fired. She thought about looking for a new job, but she hadn’t actually thought she would be fired.
“No, not really,” Sean said.
“And you aren’t in any trouble,” Elizabeth added. “No one is going to fire you for working more.”
“Oh,” Sophie said. She relaxed slightly. “That’s good to know.”
Sean blinked when he saw her relief. “I should have started with that,” he said. “Sorry, there is no problem with you. But we do need to see how the office functions.”
“For efficiency,” Sophie repeated with a nod. She took a deep breath.
Ten til Midnight 