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 206: Sophie sipped her coffee and decided she liked the quieter atmosphere.
Sophie sipped her coffee and decided she liked the quieter atmosphere. Given that it was her last day, Sophie made no concrete plans other than the desire to pick up a few last items. While she liked adding the inks and envisioned using them, Sophie was more than happy to find a book shop to provide herself with reading material for the journey home. She found a couple of books on fashion in Italian that she thought looked interesting and was happy to add them to her collection.
She ate leisurely meals and when she returned to the hotel, she made certain all of her electronics were charged up and ready to go. Ass her final thing before packing everything away, Sophie did her on line check in and had everything ready to go. She checked everything and before bed had only the necessities out.
To make sure she got to the airport on time, she set her alarm on her phone for the first time since her vacation began. In the morning she sighed when it went off, but slid out of bed knowing that ignoring it wasn’t an option. She used the hotel’s products to bathe ass her own travel bottles were depleted and she dressed. He pajamas went into the suitcase and Sophie did one more pass through the hotel room.
Nothing was left behind.
Already regretting the need to go back, Sophie headed for the door. She checked out and joined the two other passengers who were taking the shuttle to the airport. The driver was the same as upon her arrival and as the traffic appeared a little lighter, he decided he could go a little faster. Sophie held on to the seat and was relieved to make it to the airport in one piece.
‘I’m certainly awake now,’ she thought as she left the shuttle and took her suitcase into the terminal. Another load of passengers was already lined up and waiting to take the shuttle back to the hotel. She wished them luck and she wound her way through the system and through security.
Once through security, she picked up coffee and some portable snacks for the trip. She then located her gate and waited to board.
The trip home seemed a lot longer than her trip out. She wondered if it was because the longer flight was the first one instead of the se4cond or if it was just because she was leaving her vacation to head back to her real life. Her first flight landed in the airport and Sophie used the layover to get a meal from one of the restaurants. She wasn’t entirely certain if it was breakfast, lunch or dinner, but she knew she was hungry. She ate, went to the bathroom and at the sink splashed water on her face.
‘Only a short leg to go,’ she told her tired looking reflection.
She left the bathroom and went to her gate to wait, standing in front of her carryon filled chair in order to stretch her legs. When the flight boarded she got on and took her seat. Before she put her phone away, she texted Janine to let her know that she was arriving on time.
This time, the flight was full.
Ten til Midnight 