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 56: There was no evidence of powder or mold spores on it.
There was no evidence of powder or mold spores on it. There was nothing but a white sheet of paper. Still given the strange way it was delivered, Penelope still felt cautious. She kept the cloth between her skin and the paper. She lifted one corner of the folded page and with her arm extended as far as she could, shook the paper so that it unfolded way from her.
Nothing fell out. There was no dust cloud of chemicals. There was nothing out of the ordinary. She lay the paper on the counter so that the words were facing upwards. She set the cloth down and looked at the note, careful not to touch it.
The penmanship was neat and even, the words printed out neatly. She didn’t recognize the handwriting. Penelope snorted at the thought. She probably couldn’t identify anyone’s handwriting. Most of the notes she was given came from Jeanette and she preferred text messages so there was less likelihood of Penelope pretending she hadn’t seen them. Most messages she got from friends were also via text as well. She could probably identify the scrawl of the clients whose books she organized but that was about it.
‘So not recognizing this isn’t a surprise and at least just means it isn’t someone I did accounting work for,’ Penelope thought. It didn’t narrow the field much.
She read the note.
‘There is concern by some that you will inherit certain familial traits. Others find the thought problematic. Until you have a handle on your magic you may wish to limit your contact to others. The happy hours are safe as long as you consume only your own items. Check out your Frazier, Chapter Three. Pages 68 through 92 should be helpful.’
“My Frazier?” Penelope mused. “Well chapter and page does make me think book.”
She left the warning where it was and walked towards the library. Once in the library she began scanning the spines of the books. She reached the third shelf when she smelled smoke. Penelope sniffed and raced back to the kitchen. The letter and envelope were smoking. She used the dish cloth to pick up both and transferred them to the sink. She ran water on them but it didn’t affect the flames. Both letter and envelope continued to burn. Realizing she was in danger of setting off the smoke alarm she turned the fan on high for the stove. Looking around she saw the smoke alarm and took a plastic cutting board over. She fanned the smoke away from the alarm as the letter was consumed. Luckily the letter was only one page and despite the water running over the fire it burned quickly. The envelope took a little longer to burn. The flames were an odd sort of green color.
‘I guess water doesn’t put out green fire.’
Penelope continued to fan the smoke away from the smoke detector until both the end of the fire and the oven fan managed to pull enough smoke from the air that she no longer feared the alarm going off. Slowly Penelope lowered her arms and the plastic cutting board she still held.
Ten til Midnight 