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 24: “All right just send me an e-mail as soon as you talk to him.”
“All right just send me an e-mail as soon as you talk to him.”
“I will,” Sophie promised. The call ended and Sophie turned back to the computer, eyes darting down to check the time every minute or so. It was twelve after three when she finally heard the rest of her coworkers troupe in. A part of her was relieved that nothing happened to them. Then she heard the giggles and realized from the timbre that lunch might have included a few after hours beverages.
Sophie waited a moment or two to let everyone settle and then she stood and walked over to her supervisor’s office. She looked in to find Mr. Evers slightly pink cheeked and staring owlishly at his computer screen. He looked up and blinked at her a moment as she arrived. He looked as though he had to work to bring her into a sharper focus.
“I just wanted to check in and see if there was anything I needed to do to transfer my work while I am gone,” She asked. “Do I need to answer any questions or go over anything?”
“Ah yes, your upcoming vacation,” Evers said. “Going somewhere tropical isn’t it?”
“No actually I’m not traveling. I was just required to take the time off by the upper floor because I had too much accumulated leave time,” Sophie reminded him.
“Yes, well,” He said. “I suppose we will have to muddle through without you.”
Sophie suspected he had more than one drink with his long lunch. He wasn’t slurring words, but his speech had an airy quality to it and he made several sweeping gestures with his arms, nearly knocking over his desk lamp.
“Right,” Sophie said. “So do I need to talk to anyone about anything?”
“You can’t expect someone else to do your work for you just because you can’t be bothered to come in. I expect it will all be waiting for you when you return. Of course, that WILL look bad on your quarterly performance review, but I suppose that can’t be helped since you HAVE to take a vacation.”
Sophie stared at him for a moment. She took in his glassy eyes and realized arguing with him might be more trouble than it was worth and little likely to change anything. “Okay then,” she said slowly. “So I don’t need to talk to anyone about anything before I go.”
“Not at all.”
Sophie nodded and as she couldn’t think of anything else to say, she turned and walked back to her cubicle. She could feel her anger bubbling to the surface. She took a deep breath and reminded herself the day was almost over. ‘And I’ll be damned if I am staying late today.’
She knew that instead of waiting a few minutes for the others to clear out, she would be leaving at exactly the end of the day today. Sophie reached her cubicle and took a deep breath. Remembering Elizabeth’s insistence on letting her know what was decided, she pulled up a blank e-mail and began typing. She kept it short.
‘I have been informed that I can not expect anyone to cover my work while I am gone and that it will be waiting for me and that the lack of completion will be taken into account during my quarterly review.’
Sophie looked at the e-mail. The words were curt and she could practically see her temper rising, but decided to leave it as it stood. ‘No mention of anyone drinking.’ She thought that covered her being nice today. She was angry, but not petty enough to report it.
Ten til Midnight 