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 223: It was as though she was somehow detached from her own skin.
It was as though she was somehow detached from her own skin. Someone put something meant to harm her in her car. It wasn’t something that she ever thought might happen to her. ‘Or should,’ she thought. Sophie thought of herself as a quiet and rather inoffensive person. Who would actually find her offensive enough to actually want to hurt her.
As she answer the questions she was asked, Sophie thought about Kristen. They had little interaction, why would she take this much issue with her? ‘She thinks I’m the one that spread the gossip that got her fired,’ Sophie thought. Would that be enough to send her on a rampage? ‘She never seemed to like the job much anyway.’
It seemed an outsized reaction for such a slight. ‘But she did set the parking lot on fire.’ Outsized reactions seemed to be Kristen’s strong suit.
“So do you have any questions?” the detective asked her.
“Wasn’t Kristen locked up after she set fire to the parking lot?” she asked, her mind more on Kristen than her car.
“I don’t know what the outcome of that was, I will have to check, and we don’t know for sure that she was involved. We will be taking fingerprints and such and will get your car back to you as soon as possible.”
Sophie nodded and she took her keyring from the mechanic. She slipped off the car key and took the substantially lighter ring back. She was urged to take precautions and not go out anywhere alone if she could help it and then Janine took her back to the apartment, passing through a drive through along the way instead of going to the café as planned.
“Well, that is certainly a different plan for my Saturday,” Sophie said as they pulled back into the apartment parking lot. She glanced up at the security cameras and wondered how the building management would take the request for available footage. She also wondered how much available footage they had. In television and movies the people who could provide damming footage always just erased the footage so the could clear out storage space.
“Did you have any other errands to run today or this weekend?” Janine asked.
“Groceries and I was thinking of heading to the fabric emporium. That one isn’t a necessity, but groceries probably are.”
“well I have always wanted to see the fabric emporium for myself and I need groceries as well. If you have your lists together we can start with fabric and loop back to the grocery store on the way back in.”
“You wouldn’t mind?” Sophie asked. “It is a few hours away.”
“Not really,” Janine said with a shrug. “I am curious and technically I could say it is selfish of me business wise to help you out. But mostly I am curious. And I do need groceries.”
“I can get the list together while we eat,” Sophie said. “And to be honest it will keep me form sitting and thinking about …this.” Sophie shivered thinking about the car.
Ten til Midnight 