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 117: She turned to look for the stall owner to ask the price and found a narrow chest of drawers she thought might be good for storing materials.
She turned to look for the stall owner to ask the price and found a narrow chest of drawers she thought might be good for storing materials. Deciding to ask about both, Sophie went in search of the owner. After a little haggling, both items were hers and she even had someone willing to use a furniture dolly to help her get it to the car.
Judging the time right for meeting Janine, she led the man with the dresser back towards the area. Janine had just arrived and had bags of her own. “Found something then?” Janine aid eyeing the dresser and clothing rack, ass well ass Sophie’s bags.
“I did,” she said. “Let’s just hope it fits in the car.”
“Oh that’ll go easy,” Janine said as they moved towards the car. It’s about the same size as one of my small display cabinets and it fit just fine.” Janine was correct and soon the dresser was loaded into the back, their other purchases packed around it and the man with the dolly wishing them well before trundling off back to the stall.
“I have the dolly I used in the store,” Janine told her. “It won’t be a problem getting it upstairs.”
“Good,” Sophie told her. “I actually didn’t think about that when I bought it. “I mostly just thought it would be good for storage.”
“How about we grab lunch on the way, unload and then eat while I look over your drawings?” Janine suggested.
“Sonds good,” Sophie said. “My treat. To make up for the ga and heavy lifting.”
“Deal,” Janine told her. After a bit more discussion they chose a lunch destination and Janine angled their course to go past the restaurant on the way back to the building. It was a sandwich place so there was no worries about anything getting cold as they got the dresser upstairs.
That was surprisingly easy. ‘Or at least easier than I expected,’ Sophie thought.
Janine retrieved the dollie, and they took it up in the elevator. As the dresser was more tall than wide, it went in easily. In her apartment, Sophie shifted things around quickly, mostly getting them out of the way so that Janine could slot the dresser into place against the wall in her work room. Sophie suspected she would spend most of the rest of the day organizing and shifting things about, but the dresser was in place. Janine took the dolly back to her place and Sophie went back down for the other bags and their lunch. Soon enough they were seated at Sophies small kitchen table with their sandwiches and Sophie’s drawing laid out across its top.
Sophie ate nervously a Janine flipped through the drawings. “What were the emotions again,” Janine asked.
Sophie handed her the list of the emotions she chose to draw out and Janine started matching them to the drawings. Some she got, others she didn’t.
“A few more right than there were wrong,” Janine said. “Not bad. They then started discussing the designs and debating the merits of each. Sophie had her favorites and Janine hers. Sometimes they overlapped and other times they didn’t. It was nice to discuss them. In addition to the general appreciation of the designs, there were several that Janine thought might sell well should Sophie wish to continue with them. It gave Sophie a lot to think about.
Ten til Midnight 