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 44: She knew which boy in Amelia’s circle delighted in tormenting those weaker then themselves and which ones had a good sense of humor.
She knew which boy in Amelia’s circle delighted in tormenting those weaker than themselves and which ones had a good sense of humor. There wasn’t a lot of stiffness in her writing and Amelia believed that no one would ever bother to read her volumes even if they were filed with the others. It was a fact she seemed to think delightful.
‘Imagine,’ she wrote. ‘My silly little thoughts filed away with all of the important tomes. Can you imagine. In some distant future someone coming into the library, the weight of responsibility sitting heavy on their shoulders and coming across my recap of the spring fete. I rather imagine they’d toss it aside in a fit of annoyance as they continue on their quest for important knowledge.’
Penelope was amused by the spring fete and the courting that seemed to go along with it. Amelia was both amused and intrigued by the courtships.
‘It is strange,’ Amelia wrote. ‘To think of the little boys who used to sneak frogs into my desk and put garden snakes on our tutor’s chair as potential husbands. I find it difficult to put out of my mind, much more difficult than others. I reminded Justine of the snake the other day when she started gushing about Peter Sanderson and she shook her head and said he was just a child then and prone to childish things. As the incident was no more than six months prior I wanted to argue the case, but she would have none of it. She told me to forget it. But I find myself unable to do so. I fear that if I am to find a suitor I will have to look further afield than our district. I am certain suitors from elsewhere have similar stories in their background but I wouldn’t have been there to see it.’
Penelope laughed and picked up another cookie. Amelia had described the snake incident and at the time pointed out that the joke was more cruel than comical as their tutor had an absolute horror of snakes and had been deeply affected by the incident. She had also remarked upon the cruel smile Peter wore at the time and that the joke had come swiftly on the heels of an award Peter wanted being given to another child. Amelia mentioned that while childish pranks could be out grown, cruelness of nature was not so easily left behind.
“I don’t think I’d like Peter much either,” Penelope decided. She finished the last cooking and drank the last of her milk before curling her feet under her and delving back into Amelia’s journal. While she found the story itself interesting and she wondered where Peter would end up and if Amelia would find a suitor, she reached a section where Amelia’s magic started to develop.
‘The strangest thing happened today,’ Amelia wrote. ‘I went for a ride out in the south meadow. There is a path that winds around it and as the path reaches the river it branches. One path goes to the left and is a pleasant ride that I often take and indeed had planned to take today. The other path turns right. It is a pleasant enough trail but there is less of interest and it is generally longer than I wish. Today even though I planned to take the trail to the left, I simply could not force myself to do so. My body rejected the idea and I found myself turning Willow’s head towards the right-hand path instead.’
Penelope blinked and read the passage again.
Ten til Midnight 