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 190: With luck, she thought she might have time.
With luck, she thought she might have time. Sophie went up to her apartment and as she had mostly skipped lunch, she decided dinner was her first priority. She cooked a quick and simple meal and as she ate, she looked over her schedule. If she was going to take a vacation then things would have to change. Like her office work there were things she wanted to clear off her to do list before she left.
Knowing there was a time difference she would have to readjust her body to when she returned, she knew she would have to build in some time to settle after her trip and before she went back to the office. ‘While I will have time off to reset my body clock I don’t want to have to rush through things when I first get back either.’
By the time she finished eating and cleaning up from dinner, Sophie had a rough estimate of time for her trip. ‘Just need to figure out exactly where I am going and what days I am leaving.’
Knowing that the flight was key to figuring out the dates, instead of going to her sewing room to start work, Sophie took her laptop to the living room and sat on the couch. She opened the laptop and navigated to see what flights were available in her window of vacation time. The flights weren’t cheap but she did find one that worked with her timing and wasn’t too expensive. Part of the reason was that it was toward the end of her travel window. The more time between booking her flight and the actual flight, the cheaper the fares were.
‘Plus I think I am missing holidays and events.’ There were other events she saw with packaged deals for people attending events like fashion week or who wanted holiday adventures around Christmas or New Years. Her trip would miss them all.
“But it might also help with hotel room booking,” she thought. Sophie pulled up another tab and looked at possible hotels. She knew she didn’t want to drive and decided that maybe she could simply pick one town for her visit, tour and then plan another trip to expand.
‘It isn’t a though I am going to use next year’s vacation time for anything else either,’ she decided. With that in mind she decided Milan would be her city of choice. It would require only one hotel booking and a limited amount of travel from the airport to the hotel and city proper. Sophie was nervous about making the reservations. Normally this was the sort of thing she would want to plan for months in advance. ‘And then talk myself out of taking,’ she reminded herself.
She took a deep breath and pressed the correct buttons to reserve the flight and hotel for the length of her stay. She received confirmation e-mails and when she checked saw that no one lost any time in taking the money from her account. With that very large detail taken care of, Sophie could begin to plan.
‘My passport is up to date at least,’ she thought. She had always planned on going on a trip and as one of her assurances to herself that eventually she would, Sophie made certain to keep the passport ready. “So that’s one less thing to think about.” She shifted her laptop to the side and picked up her notebook. It was time to make a list.
Ten til Midnight 