For those just tuning in, this challenge is about taking a story idea from bare bones idea into a fully fledged story by writing consistently every week day for fifteen minutes. The sentence I end with on one day, is the sentence I start with on the following. Part one was Bob’s story and has nothing whatsoever to do with the story below. Part Two follows a character named Penelope. I have a few basic sentences to act as road marks on her journey. I am loosely calling that an outline. We will see where she ends up by the time the story is done. For now, we start Part two of the 2025 Fifteen Minute Writing Challenge.
Day 3: Suiting word to action, Penelope stood up tossing her phone on the bed.
Suiting word to action, Penelope stood up tossing her phone on the bed. She wasn’t entirely certain what to wear to a law office but suspected the ratty t-shirt and holey jeans combo probably wasn’t right. She hadn’t planned to go out today and hadn’t bothered getting ready to see anyone.
“At least I showered,” she told herself as she opened her closet door. She chose a loose pair of wide legged trousers in black and a round neck sweater in emerald green. It had loose almost puffy looking sleeves but tapered in at the wrists.
“And the green looks good on me,” she said.
Penelope quickly changed clothing and added a delicate gold necklace and gold studs to her ears. She twisted her long dark hair into a thick rope, bent it back on itself and tucked the ends under before clipping it into place with a long hair clip. She added a dash of mascara and a smear of clear lip gloss and considered herself good enough for the law office. Contemplating shoes, Penelope looked between the heels and flats.
“If I need to, I can run in the flats,” she decided.
While she was pretty sure the law office was on the level, she chose the flats, just in case.
As ready as she was going to get, Penelope grabbed her purse, tucked the letter inside, made certain her wallet was there and then slung the bag to her shoulder. She left the notebook on the bed, but picked up the pen and cell phone. The cell phone went into the purse and Penelope picked up her keys from the top of her dresser. She unlocked and opened her bedroom door, and before heading downstairs, dropped the pen off by the list of invitations and dinner details.
Leaving the house as it was, Penelope went downstairs, let herself out of the door making certain it locked behind her and went to her car. When she started the engine, Penelope reached for her seatbelt to lock it in place and let her eyes seek out the car’s clock. 1: 53.
“Cutting it close,” she told herself as she clicked the seat belt into place and backed out of the driveway.
She had already looked up her directions and was pleased it was in the opposite direction from the one Jannette and Trinity would be using. She had no desire to pass them and have them wonder where she was off to. Where she was concerned out of sight was out of mind. If she was simply gone, no one would wonder. If they saw her leave, they would be curious.
Until she knew what this was about, she didn’t want them curious.
The law office was not in a section of town she frequented. In fact, she could only remember passing through once or twice when she was small. It was well before her mother died and to be honest, she had not been back since. She wasn’t avoiding it, it simply held nothing she needed in her daily life.
It was to the north of downtown. The buildings were older, brick as opposed to the more glass and steel of the newer parts of downtown. Driving through the area Penelope wondered if it wasn’t the original commercial district. It had never occurred to her before that a central district could move.
“Although I guess it didn’t move, people just build newer buildings and everyone decided to go there.” Penelope smiled to herself thinking of the buildings seeing the new skyscrapers and then heading to the northern edge of the city in a huff. With magic now being acknowledged and used, albeit infrequently, throughout Genera she supposed it was possible.
‘But still not probable.’
The buildings, despite being older, were well kept. While the brick was mostly faded red, the white limestone lintels gleamed softly and every bit of metal or glass she could see looked brightly polished.
Ten til Midnight 