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 84: Rollinson stepped forward.
Rollinson stepped forward. Fairchild shook his hand and Michaelson opened the door gesturing for Penelope to walk through.
“Thank you for everything,” she told the bank manager.
“You are more than welcome, Ms. Douglas.” Penelope stepped out of the bank and Michaelson followed. As the door closed behind them, Fairchild locked the doors.
The bank was officially closed for the evening. As she followed Michaelson to his car she wondered how long it would take to clear up her plant-tastic mishap. She glanced back but decided she didn’t want to know.
She turned away from the bank and was surprised to find that Agent Michaelson was not driving one of the standard government issue vehicles. He smiled at her surprise.
“We try to look non federal when we can,” he told her.
“For doing nefarious things like following people?” she asked.
He chuckled. “I rarely follow people. I do get called to deal with things like this and sometimes when taking people home they don’t like their neighbors thinking a government agent dropped them off.”
Penlope nodded. She thought of the happy hour group. Given the time she suspected that she missed the happy hour gathering but considering all of her neighbors would have been outside, she would have hated being dropped off by a government vehicle.
‘It somehow makes me feel like I did something wrong.’
Michaelson unlocked the doors and Penelope slid into the passengers side while he settled himself behind the wheel.
“So,” She asked as she fastened her seatbelt. “So people make plants attack often?”
He smiled. “This is my first killer cacti,” he told her. “But accounts and sabotage are not uncommon.”
“Someone is running around cutting break lines?” she asked. “You’d think there would be some sort of PSA about that.”
“Not exactly,” Michaelson said. He started the engine and backed out of the parking space. As her car was towed and the other employees were gone only the official looking vehicle and a car she assumed belonged to the bank manager remained. She was, all things considered pleased to leave the bank behind.
“There are sometimes sabotages for interfamily rivalries or when someone wants another person with magic to do something for them that the person with magic doesn’t want to do. As far as I know there hadn’t really been a spate of sabotaged brakes.
“Did you know about the one at the grocery store?” Penelope asked.
“No but that could be because it didn’t involve anyone with magic.” He glanced at her. “That we knew of. I will be checking into it.”
“And my mother’s death?” she asked.
“Also on my investigation list.”
Penelope nodded. Investigating such things wasn’t her strong suit so she was happy to have someone who was trained for that sort of thing deal with it. ‘I’ve got enough to do figuring out who my family enemies might be and trying not to explode plants.’
Penelope supposed that as long as he was on her side then she would be fine with him investigating.
Ten til Midnight 