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 132: Instead nearly all of the incidents used as examples were where the person with magic faced extreme emotional situations and the ‘defense’ seemed to come after the trauma, not as a means of preventing it.
Instead nearly all of the incidents used as examples were where the person with magic faced extreme emotional situations and the ‘defense’ seemed to come after the trauma, not as a means of preventing it. Penelope frowned.
Had anything happened after those incidents that could be viewed as her magic protecting her? She couldn’t think of anything. ‘But maybe that’s because I am so focused on the incidents themselves.’
They were, she had to admit, hard to get past and not things she thought about much. “So maybe I think about them,” she decided. “Or at least one of them.”
She thought for a moment and decided to focus on the vacation. She remembered the excitement of the vacation in the days before. She remembered having to use the older suitcase that always had a strange sour smell because Trinity was using the others. All of the clothes she was taking fit into the one smaller bag. They were her only summer clothes at the moment and all of them fit. Not knowing what she would need to wear she put all of them in. The swimsuit was far too tight, the fabric stretched too thin in places and partially see through from age and wear so she knew even when wearing it at the beach she would need to put a t-shirt over it.
She figured if she packed everything then she would at least not have to end up wearing a damp shirt later but have dry ones to spare. Penelope closed her eyes and inhaled. She could almost smell the sour scent of that suitcase, her irritation at the thought of it transferring to her clothes, making her smell sour on vacation. But she was still pleased to go and hoped the scent of the sea would wash some of it away.
Remembering someone telling her never to take anything she didn’t want to risk losing on a trip, Penelope only packed the too tight clothing. She took a large purse as a carry-on item and in it she put the only things she cared about.
‘Good thing too,’ she recalled. While she wore the garments on the trip, all of their luggage had been lost on the return. Trinity was distraught at not only her newer garments, but her souvenirs were gone. When they returned all of them needed new things. Jeanette reluctantly handed her some money and sent her off to the thrift store while she took Trinity shopping.
‘Even she wasn’t willing to let me run around naked for the rest of the summer.’
In the end Penelope had gotten some desperately needed new clothing. She concentrated on pieces that could transition into fall, willing to sweat a little if it meant she wouldn’t need to wear ill-fitting clothing from the previous year once the weather turned.
‘I also realized I was old enough to get an afterschool job.’ Penelope thought. For the most part when they weren’t required to deal with her, Penelope was left to her own devices. She was required to attend school, family dinners and the occasional event where the entire family was required, but otherwise, she was left to her own devices. They seemed happiest when she was quietly out of sight.
She got her first job after their vacation and kept it afterschool and on weekends once the school year started and no one even noticed. ‘And I could slip in new garments occasionally when I needed them.’
Penelope learned that one garment every now and then attracted no notice and soon became a part of ‘the wardrobe collection’, especially if the items Jeanette knew she purchased remained in rotation.
Ten til Midnight 