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 30: It was a plan and one Sophie liked.
It was a plan and one Sophie liked. ‘Its also an extra reason to go crazy with the shopping at the fabric emporium.’ Sophie started to smile and then found herself yawning. “Bed time,” she decided. It was already later than she usually stayed up and she wanted to be fresh for her drive in the morning.
She changed into pajamas, made certain her apartment was secure for the night and happily slipped under the covers. Sophie slept and for the first time in a while had no dreams of rushing about or racing to catch up. She slept deeply, but still ended up walking up around the same time as her alarm would have sounded. She thought about slipping back into sleep, but decided that as she had a drive ahead of her, she would just go ahead and rise.
“And as my reward I will just go through a drive through on my way,” Sophie decided. She rarely indulged in fast food and with her pizza the night before she felt quite decadent with the breakfast sandwich and paper coffee cup. “It is a vacation,” she told herself.
Sophie ate while she drove, not wanting to wase time. Traffic was light since it was both Saturday and still early. The light traffic made the trip easy. Parking however was not the easiest thing. While the Fabric Emporium took over a space that was larger than most department stores, it didn’t have a dedicated parking lot. It did have loading docks but even though she planned hefty purchases, she didn’t think she’d need to take advantage of them.
She did bring a messenger bag packed with extra canvas bags however and after finally finding a spot and parking, Sophie took it out of the back seat and slung it across her body. She locked her car and slipped her keys into her pocket. With a sense of giddiness, Sophie walked down the street to the main doors of the building.
As the emporium catered mostly to commercial enterprises there were not a lot of customers circling and Sophie was able to take her time. It felt like, in a way the entire store was laid out for he to play in. She smiled.
‘I don’t have to race home to start anything before Monday,’ she reminded herself as she took a large cart from those waiting. With the month off, Sophie could look at anything she wanted, stroll down each long aisle and revel in the different colors and textures to her hearts content. She did not have to worry about lost time on her few precious days off.
Slowly Sophie started down the first aisle. Bolts of fabric in every shade imaginable greeted her. The aisle she turned into was for cottons and her mind immediately turned to the sleep wear. ‘Even if the contract doesn’t go anywhere I will eventually use it,’ she told herself. She lifted her hand to the cloth, automatically going for the softest and highest quality they had available.
Sophie began piling bolts of fabric into her cart.
Ten til Midnight 