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 20: “I will deal with it,” he told her.
“I will deal with it,” he told her. Mr. Evers gave her another pursed lipped look and she nodded.
“Then I’ll get back to work,” she said.
He nodded and Sophie backed out of the door and continued on to her cubicle. The spark of anger remained. She had never been late with any of her work and often stayed late to help others complete theirs. And yet when told she needed to take leave time his first question was to ask if she would just let the leave time go.
‘I suspect if it was an option, it wouldn’t have been a question.’ Sophie shook her head and looked to her stack of work. She frowned and realized that two new folders were added to the stack while she was gone. Sophie pulled the top file over and after flipping through realized it was Ryan’s project. Sophie rolled her eyes and looked at the second one. It was the file Carrie couldn’t justify asking her to take on.
‘Apparently it is just easier to leave when I am not here and can’t say no.’
Sophie shook her head and set the folders to the side. As she logged back into her computer she wondered what would happen when the others were asked to take on her work instead of her doing theirs. ‘I also wonder what will be added to my work load before Friday so that I can complete it before I leave. Sophie suspected that this was going to be a very long week.
It took less than an hour for the news that she was going to be on vacation for a month to spread through the office. She heard only snippets as she still had her earbuds in much of the time. She found out that everyone knew when Kristen came by with a stack of five folders.
“A month off,” Kristen said. “I wish they would give me a month off, you are so lucky.”
“It’s accumulated leave time I have to use up,” Sophie said. “They aren’t giving me a month off.”
Kristen rolled her eyes. “I never seem to manage to get leave time saved up. But if you could take care of these before you leave it would be a life saver.”
“I really…” She began to frame the refusal, but Kristen dropped the files on her desk and sauntered off before she could finish the short sentence.
It was the theme of the day. She was told how lucky she was to get a vacation and then files were passed to her. Sophie worked through lunch and at the end of the day found herself once again working late. It set the tone of the week and each night Sophie put in extra hours before leaving. All week she expected to have Mr. Evers talk to her about delegating her workload while she was gone, but while he came by to drop files off for her to take care of before she left, he never mentioned it. ‘He does seem to think I am going somewhere tropical.’ She wasn’t certain why, but as the week progressed more and more people seemed to believe she was going away for a tropical holiday. ‘At least from the gossip I’ve overheard.’ No one directly asked her about it.
Ten til Midnight 