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 152: Sophie pulled out her cell phone and navigated to Elizabeth’s phone number.
Sophie pulled out her cell phone and navigated to Elizabeth’s phone number. The phone rang and Sophie wondered what would happen if Elizabeth left for the day already. There were two rings and the phone was picked up.
”Havers’ Limited, Elizabeth Walker speaking.”
“Hi, this is Sophie Daniels. I am in the parking lot with Linda Martin and there is a screwdriver jammed into her tire. As she is parked next to me and our cars look alike I thought it might be advisable to repot it, she is talking with security right now.”
“Okay,” Elizabeth said carefully. I will be right down just stay where you are an we’ll sort this out with security.”
Sophie agreed and stood waiting by the cars. Linda had gone into the building to get security and she was standing alone next to Linda’s car. She looked down at the screwdriver. It wa deeply imbedded in the tire. Sophie studied it. he wondered how much force it had taken to actually jam the tool so deeply in the tire.
‘It’s in the treads so maybe they are shallower and easer to puncture,’ Sophie thought looing at it. Even though she knew there was air inside the tire the thick rubber exterior always seemed so thick and solid to her.
“You shouldn’t have told stories about me,” Sophie blinked and looked over. Kristen was standing only a few feet away. Somehow Sophie expected she would be long gone by now.
“I didn’t tell any stories about you,” Sophie said. “Why are you here anyway. Didn’t you get fired?”
Sophie glanced past Kristen and saw that Linda, along with someone from security was walking towards her. Behind them she could see both Elizabeth and Sean exit the building. As Kristen was facing her, she didn’t see anyone approaching.
“You got me fired,” Kristen declared. “And probably sent my husband that e-mail.”
“Look I didn’t say anything to get you fired,” Sophie said trying to use a calm and reasonable voice. From the look on her face, Sophie knew Kristen was not in the mood to be calm and reasonable. “And I didn’t send anyone any e-mail.”
“Then how did he know I had an affair with Ryan?” Kristen demanded.
“I have no idea,” Sophie said.
Kristen snorted. “Sure you do. You tattled to everyone and that’s why I got fired and you got promoted.”
“Kristen, I hate to tell you this but you are not someone I ever really think about if I don’t have to, let alone discuss.”
“Please, what else would you and Kevin talk about?” she said.
“Certainly not you,” Sophie replied.
Kristen rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Whatever. I just stuck around so I could see your face when you saw your car.”
“You did this?” Sophie asked. She gestured to the car tire. Elizabeth and Sean caught up with Linda and the man from Security and they were close enough to hear the conversation, in fact they almost seemed to be waiting.
“Of course,” Kristen said. “Who else would it be? Seriously, you really are dim.”
Ten til Midnight 