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 208: He popped open the overhead compartment and took his bag out fast before shoving his way towards the end of the aisle.
He popped open the overhead compartment and took his bag out fast before shoving his way towards the end of the aisle. To Sophie he seemed determined to be the first one off the plane.
“Mr. Important has somewhere to be,” Sophie heard someone say. She looked over and saw a man about her age across the aisle from her shaking his head at her former seat partner. He saw her smile and grinned at her. It was a brief moment of shared amusement and was soon lost as the doors opened and everyone shuffled out off the plane.
Sophie made it off the plane and went directly to the restroom. Once relieved she headed towards the baggage claim. Her former seat partner was already there pacing like a panther even though the carousel had yet to be turned on. Sophie ignored him, turned on her phone and texted Janine that she was at the baggage claim area.
The buzzer sounded and the lights went on. The conveyor belt began to move and thumps could be heard as luggage was dropped on the belt and brought through. At first there was space between bags, the handlers moving slowly. As the items looped there became more of them. Sophie saw her bag and leaned in, hauling it off the belt and stepping back out of the way.
When she walked away, she smiled. The in a hurry man was still by the conveyor belt watching and waiting for his luggage. ‘So I still get to leave before him,’ she counted that as travel karma and walked outside. She stepped towards the curb and saw Janine’s care n low approach. She waved and Janine darted towards the curb.
Janine popped the trunk and Sophie dropped her bags into it, closing the trunk and getting into the passenger’s seat before they took up too much time in the pick up lane. As soon as they swooped away from the curb, another car slipped in and someone else began the same process.
“So how was the trip?” Janine asked. “I bet it was fabulous.”
“It was quite fabulous,” Sophie told her.
“And you look quite exhausted,” Janine replied as she glanced over.
“I think part of it is the time change and part was the annoying man next to me,” Sophie said. “He could have been worse but he wasn’t great. Luckily I could mostly ignore him.” Sophie tol her about Mr Important.
“Well it could have been worse I suppose. So did you meet anyone fabulous while you were there?”
“I wasn’t looking for anyone fabulous,” Sophie replied.
“I know which is why you should have fund someone. That’s how all the movies go.”
“I think I was working on a different script. I do think I am going back though. Perhaps you need three trips not expecting an unexpected romance before the romance movie thing kicks in.”
“Already panning to go back?” Janine asked.
Ten til Midnight 