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 147: “Ms. Daniels, if you would please have a seat.”
“Ms. Daniels, if you would please have a seat.” Sophie smiled at the man and took the indicated seat.
“Until recently you were supervised by Donald Evers?” she was asked. Unsure what to do with her hands, Sophie held them in her lap. Under the table she clenched them together but tried to look relaxed as she answered the questions.
“I did,” Sophie replied. One of the men at the table opened a folder and read out her former work title and she nodded.
“That is correct,” She replied. Slowly they went through her work in that department. They started with her previous supervisor, the one who retired and whose place Evers took. Sophie was pleased all of the questions were about work topics and not about the rumors of other’s social lives.
They reached a point where Sophie explained how she was working late and then called into Sean’s office to be told she needed to take a month off.
“I hope you enjoyed your vacation after so much overtime,” one of the women at the table said. It was said with a polite smile instead of the sneer Evers usually offered. “A visit to the tropics wasn’t it?”
Sophie frowned. “No actually,” she said. “Since I wasn’t expecting the time off I had no plans and used the time to do things at home.”
The woman blinked in surprise. “Oh, I must have heard wrong, perhaps you were planning a trip to the tropics?”
“Not really,” Sophie said. “I was hoping to visit Italy at some point, but had no plans for the tropics.”
“I see,” she said. She made some sort of notation on her note pad.
“I can’t blame you,” one of the men said. “L’Italia in primavera è uno spettacolo da vedere.”
Sophie nodded as she automatically translated the words and searched for the appropriate response.
“Ho sentito che può essere molto bello,” Sophie replied. She hoped she used the right tenses and pronunciation as she was much more comfortable listening rather than speaking. The man blinked and then smiled at her.
“Infatti.” He nodded, seeming pleased with her response.
“If we could get back to the matter at hand?” One of the other gentlemen asked.
“Of course,” the woman said. “My apologies.”
“Mine as well,” the man speaking Italian replied.
Sophie was then asked a series of questions about her return, most of which involved the fact that no one took up the slack and the subsequent actions. She explained how long it took her to catch up.
“And then there was the quarterly review?” the man with her folder asked. “Can you explain how that played out?”
“Ms. Walker reviewed my performance and asked me to go through with my review with Mr. Evers so his evaluation process could be tested as a part of his evaluation,” Sophie explained.
They asked for further details and at the end of it she was thanked and let go. Sophie stood and tried not to sag with relief as she left the conference room. All of the questions had been about her work. None had been about the rumors. Sophie left the conference room and walked back to Elizabeth’s office.
Ten til Midnight 