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 38: She angled her cart towards one of the manned check out lines.
She angled her cart towards one of the manned checkout lines. Penelope got in line and waited. The line moved forward slowly as items were laid out on the conveyer belt, checked by the clerk, the price talleyed and then paid for as someone put the items in bags. As Penelope moved up the line she saw a rack with reusable bags for sale on it. She added a few to her cart.
‘If there aren’t enough I can use the plastic bags as garbage bags in the bathroom and do better next time,’ she consoled herself. She was used to just grabbing the reusable bags from the stash Mrs. Lucas kept when she needed to go to the store. It was one more thing Penelope never thought about before she left to live on her own.
‘Given I made the decision in less than an hour I’m sure there is a lot I didn’t think about,’ she mused as she moved forward in the line. As she waited Penelope ran through her normal life trying to determine if there was anything else she took for granted as being around. Nothing came to mind. ‘I’m sure there is something though. Probably turn up when I need it.’
She decided not to worry about it and as she reached the conveyor belt she began unloading her groceries on it, getting ready for her run to the clerk and payment. She felt a little conspicuous because of the amount of things she was buying but there was not even a flicker of interest paid to her groceries. They were simply swiped across the bar code reader, the price tallied and the bill given. Penelope used her debit card at the machine as a bagger loaded her filled grocery bags into the cart and then moved to another aisle.
Other than telling her the price no one seemed intent on talking to her. ‘Which is fine,” Penelope thought. She felt a little twitchy though. She felt as though she was being watched although she couldn’t say why. The clerk paid her no attention. The bagger seemed to focus on arranging the items in as compact a way to fill each of the bags without crushing her eggs and bread. He didn’t even look in her direction let alone pay her any attention.
Pretending an interest in the magazines and candy, Penelope turned slightly. The person behind her was placing their items on the conveyor belt and not looking at her. A sweep of her gaze around the store revealed no one was looking at her.
She tried to let the feeling go as she turned away and wheeled her cart to the door. The feeling remained as she walked to the door. At the door she double checked that she still had her wallet, while letting her gaze sweep behind her again.
Nothing.
‘Just a weird feeling,’ she decided.
Penelope wheeled her cart through the doors and into the parking lot. She crossed the lot and pressed the button to open her trunk as she approached the car. Groceries were quickly loaded in and she closed the trunk, slipping her keys back into her pocket. Penelope looked around for a cart return. There was one further out in the parking lot and one at the store front. Seeing she was closer to the one at the store front she chose that one. She rolled the cart a few feet and then stopped.
She looked backwards. ‘I should take it to the other one,’ she thought. She frowned at the thought. The one in front of her was closer. She started forward but stopped before she could complete a step. Penelope swung the cart around and went towards the cart return at the back of the lot.
“I’m just making it available for whoever parks there to take,” she told herself. Her body it seemed had no problems taking the cart to the back return. In fact as she moved she found that the feeling of being watched faded.
‘Weird,’ she decided. Penelope slotted the cart into the return. As she did, she heard the squeal of tires and the loud crunch and screech of metal.
Ten til Midnight 