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 50: From the sounds, Penelope thought that he passed the phone back to Jeanette.
From the sounds, Penelope thought that he passed the phone back to Jeanette. The thought was confirmed when she heard Jeanette sigh heavily on the other end. “You could have given more notice,” Jeanette snapped.
“I thought you would be pleased I took action so quickly,” Penelope replied. She worked hard to keep her tone pleasant and even. She knew her thoughts were mocking and didn’t want that to leak into her tone.
“I raised the possibility,” Jeanette said. Penelope could tell that her teeth were clenched.
Penelope sighed. “You wanted me to move out closer to Trinity’s birthday so you would have a ready excuse for those who wondered why I wasn’t there,” Penelope said. “I guess you will have to find some other excuse. Now, my dinner is growing cold so if there is nothing else I would like to get back to it.”
“Well if that is the way you want it.” Jeanette ended the call. Penelope rolled her eyes and set the phone down. She felt a little light headed from the conversation. She did not do a lot of speaking to Jeanette. She found that giving minimal answers worked out for the best. Even when Jenette demanded explanations from her, she didn’t really want them and often offering an explanation made things worse.
Penelope was usually able to figure out what her step-mother was up to, her reasonings and her planning, but rarely said anything about it. To actually let Jeanette know that she knew why the order to move came out when it did was a break in pattern.
“But if I am going to break patterns now is the time I suppose,” Penelope told herself as she picked up her fork and went back to her dinner.
She was no longer living under the same roof as Trinity and Jeanette. ‘And my father too I suppose.’ He seemed to pass through the house more than he lived there these days so it was often hard to remember him when thinking about her daily routines. As she ate her dinner, Penelope wondered how he felt about her moving out. She thought through the few sentences exchanged on the call.
‘He sounded pleased he didn’t have to wait longer for dinner,’ she thought.
As always there was a pang of sadness. She and her father were never close. She could not remember spending time with him when it wasn’t a family outing. Before her mother died, she remembered going places with her mother, the park, dance class, play dates. Her father sometimes made it home for dinner, sometimes he didn’t. He rarely addressed her directly and did not appreciate a lot of chatter at the table.
‘Childish prattle,’ Penelope remembered him calling it. When he made it to the dinner table, Penelope remained quiet through the meal. On weekends her father left, sometimes golfing other times claiming business. Later she realized that he was probably going to see Jeanette during much of that time. After they married, he still went out for golf, but was home a little more, for a while.
‘Then he wasn’t,’ Penelope thought. He was out more for golf, drinks with friends and work. Looking back she was certain he was only home more for about a year before his schedule took him back out of the house. It made Penelope wonder.
Ten til Midnight 