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 91: Penelope blinked and woke up in her bed.
Penelope blinked and woke up in her bed. The first thing she did was look at her arms. Thee were no words on them. No sign there had been words on them. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. Everyone warned her of strange dreams. She shivered.
Unwilling to think about it Penelope reached for her phone on the nightstand. Her intention had been to take a short nap. She let the screen light up wanting to see how long she slept. She blinked hard and sat up in surprise as she looked at the time. 6:28 am.
She slept the entire night through.
“I must have been tired,” she thought. Her belly rumbled. She felt hollow and hungry.
“Breakfast it is then,” she told herself. She slipped out of bed and because the clothes were still there she picked them up off the floor and pulled them on. She then walked to the bathroom.
Penelope relieved herself, washed her hand and ran a brush through her hair. She considered her efforts complete and then went to the kitchen in search of breakfast.
Given that she intended for a nap and somehow ended up sleeping through the night, Penelope didn’t feel like normal breakfast foods. ‘I’ll probably want those around lunchtime,’ she decided. Instead of any of her normal breakfast items she put together a sandwich and put it on the plate. She thought about eating at the breakfast bar but decided she didn’t want to. She glanced upwards towards the ceiling thinking of the rooftop garden.
She was surprised that she didn’t dream of the house collapsing.
Now that she thought of it, Penelope couldn’t help but fixate on the roof top garden. “I’m feeling calm and rested,” she told herself. She hadn’t been feeling particularly uncalm the last time she was up on the roof but she decided that curiosity was too strong to let that bother her. She picked up her plate and went upstairs. She opened the door to the roof with some trepidation and realized as it swung open that she was holding her plat as though ready to hurl it and her sandwich discus like at any attacking plants.
The door opened. No plants attacked. The sun was barely over the horizon and the light was soft and new. It was cooler than she thought it would be and she shivered slightly. The garden looked lush and full of new growth but it didn’t look like an all encompassing, let alone building collapsing jungle.
Penelope felt intense relief at the sight. The plants here may have grown, but they didn’t go as crazy as the succulent at the bank. “Not to self,” she decided. “Don’t go near plants when angry.”
She moved to the chair and placed the plate down on the side table. ‘Of course I wasn’t angry when I went to the bank.”
Looking at the plants she decided now was probably not the time to dwell on it. She decided now was not the time to dwell on much. She didn’t want her anger to spill over, but she also didn’t want her confusion from the dream affecting anything either. She decided a calm moment of zen as she ate her sandwich was the best option.
Ten til Midnight 