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 20: She was soon across town and parking in the garage.
She was soon across town and parking in the garage. Penelope parked and took the first of her bags out of the car. She started with her laptop bag thinking that might be a bigger target for any potential thieves than her laundry basket or the picnic hamper. She left the car and walked to the house. Everything looked as it did the night before. She opened the gate and unlocked the front door.
Wanting to unload as quickly as possible, Penelope put her things down just out of reach of the entrance. As no one was around, she closed but, didn’t lock the door. She quick-stepped back to the car, walking fast. She took another load of items from the car to the house and returned. She made several circuits until the car was empty.
Once it was empty, she locked the car and went back to the house. It was with some relief that she was able to close the door behind her and lock it.
‘Not that I thought someone would really sneak in while I was unloading,’ Penelope told herself. As she picked up the first of her bags to take upstairs she wondered if she was thinking about people sneaking because she felt a little sneaky herself. She was leaving the house and only told the housekeeper. She told no one of her inheritance. She was essentially dropping out of her own life to hopefully build a new one here.
“Can it be called sneaky if no one asks?” she thought. She recalled Trinity and Jeanette talking over breakfast, neither saying a word to her. “Of course, I didn’t say anything to them either.”
“So maybe a little sneaky she decided as she took her bags upstairs. She left them in the living riim there and returned to the ground floor. As with the car she made circuits until all she brought with her was on the main living space. She then went to scope out the bedrooms. While she looked in the day before, long enough to know the basic furniture was there and that she would need a mattress to go on the bedframes, she hadn’t really paid too much attention to the bedrooms. He mind was filled with thoughts of family and potential magic and not the more prosaic need to choose a bedroom as her own.
Now she wandered the spaces available. One had nice windows that let in a lot of light and presented a good view. Another had the most spacious closet and a third had the best attached bathroom.
After weighing the merits, she chose the one with the best bathroom for herself. She figured that if she needed more closet space she could still put things in other closets in the house. “And I am only in my bedroom when sleeping for the most part. I don’t need a good view when I am asleep.”
Satisfied with her choice, she began unpacking. Clothing went into the closets and the empty chest of drawers. Personal care items went into the bathroom. When empty, the suitcases went into the closet in one of the other bedrooms. “I don’t have to worry about anyone taking it.”
The feeling of being sneaky faded as she unpacked. She went into the kitchen and set the picnic hamper on the counter. Before she could open it, the doorbell rang. The ringing of it startled her and Penelope jumped. Her guilty feelings returned as she went downstairs. At the door she found a delivery man with her new mattress. It was densely packed into a tight bundle.
Ten til Midnight 