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 174: Sophie looked around for Linda and Petra thinking that if anyone knew what was going on it would be one of them.
Sophie looked around for Linda and Petra thinking that if anyone knew what was going on it would be one of them. Neither seemed to be present. Sophie wondered if they made it to their cars before the excitement or if they were somehow mixed up in it. As she stood with the others looking around, she wondered if this had something to do with Kristen. She saw a couple of people from HR that she knew and went to stand with them. They didn’t seem to know what was going on any more than she did.
Sophie stood with them, waiting to be told either what was going on or to be allowed to go home. ‘It can’t be Kristen,’ she thought. There is no reason she would be anywhere near here.’ Sophie was certain if there was some sort of legal case than she was probably told that she needed to stay away at least until it was settled. The law wasn’t Sophie’s strong suit but that always seemed to be the way it worked on television and in movies. ‘And then someone violates the rules and drama ensues.’
Sophie wondered if this was drama ensuing.
She saw a uniformed police officer step to the door. He spoke for a moment with the security guard and they all quieted straining to hear what was going on. The guard nodded and turned to the crowd. “Anyone not parked in the east lot can leave, but please avoid the east lot. Sophoie blinked. Normally she parked in the east lot but this morning all of the spaces were full when she arrived so she had parked in the west lot. She remembered thinking that one of the reasons there were extra spaces in the west lot was because Evers, Ryan and Kristen were gone. She was running late by only a couple of minutes, but it had been enough to change her parking habit.
‘At least that means I get to leave,’ she told herself. ‘Still it was strange. She filed out of the building with the others and went to her car. The east lot was blocked off and there was a fire engine between them and whatever happened in the east lot. there was the scent of hot metal and burning rubber in the air. Sophie was pushed past the scene with the crowd. As there were uniformed officers standing around no one paused to study whatever was going on.
Sophie got into her car and remembered thinking that parking in the west might be better in case Kristen felt like sticking any more screwdrivers into car tires. She smelled the scent of burning and wondered what had happened. ‘Surely Kristen hadn’t shifted from tire puncturing to arson.’ That seemed like a pretty big leap.
Sophie drove home and even though it was a big mystery, she found herself switching her mental gears. Tonight, not only did she have some garments to finish, but she still had to think about the possibility of accepting another job. After dinner she knew she would sit down and make the initial pros and cons list before doing anything else. she would then start working on things with the list by her side and add to it as thoughts occurred to her. She didn’t expect to have an answer right away but she thought that by Monday she should know what she was planning on doing.
Sophie parked and as she went upstairs she saw Janine’s door open. “You are okay,” she said.
“Um, yeah,” Sophie said. “Why wouldn’t I be okay?”
Ten til Midnight 