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 31: Penelope studied the image of the cut brake line.
Penelope studied the image of the cut brake line. ‘Deliberately cut,’ she thought. ‘Not an accident.’
She flipped the page and found a sheet with the image of a body drawn on one side and notations marked. There were marks on the body where injury was taken. Thankfully though there were no accompanying pictures in the file. Penelope read through what the coroner recorded.
Her mother was completely sober with no trace of any alcohol, sedative or other drug in her system. She was healthy and physically fit. She died when her neck was snapped although it was nearly at the same time as the tree limb that pierced the shattered windshield. If she hadn’t died from the neck and head injury then the tree limb would have killed her.
Either way, there was no chance she was making it out of the accident alive. Penelope read through all of the coroner’s report. It was slow going as some of the medical terms weren’t ones she was familiar with. Occasionally she had to use her phone to look up some of the medical terms. In the end she found out that it was simply the crash that killed her mother and it was not helped by any form of chemical agent.
Penelope turned the pages back to the accident report and found that the Old Briarwood road had several curves in it as it followed the river rather than being set out on a grid pattern like many of the city roads. Also there were several steep hills. The car was going down one of the steep hills that ended in a curve when her mother lost control.
With the brake line cut, the car accelerated on the down hill slope and her mother lost control on the curve, plowing directly into a tree. Penelope frowned. She flipped between the autopsy and the accident reports. There was something there. Something she couldn’t put her finger on. Reading and rereading wasn’t helping. She closed the file and flopped backwards against the pillows, leaving her legs still crossed underneath her.
Something wasn’t right. Penelope rolled her eyes. ‘Other than the brake line,’ she told herself.
She stared at the ceiling for a little while. Nothing came to her. She still knew something wasn’t right but couldn’t put her finger on it. She sat up and stretched her legs out as she slipped off the bed. She picked up the file and walked over to the desk. She planned to put it in the desk drawer but when she walked over she saw the files the lawyer gave her. Inside was the information about the estate.
‘Off Old Briarwood Road.’
Penelope blinked. She hadn’t known her mother’s family had an estate. While it was known in certain circles that the family had an estate, She didn’t think it was common knowledge. ‘Even those who know the family had an estate might not know the location,’ she thought. Penelope had never visited so she didn’t think the estate saw a lot of visitors.
Ten til Midnight 