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 135: There was an extra chart for fruit and nut trees showing bearing loads along with the other information.
There was an extra chart for fruit and nut trees showing bearing loads along with the other information. ‘All I have is the roof top garden,’ Penelope thought. She doubted testing out evergreens or nut beating varieties would be a good option. ‘Maybe at the estate.’
Penelope wondered if heading out and getting away for a bit might not be the best option. The estate would presumably be in seclusion so she could work on any skills that developed and then return when she had a handle on what she could reveal to others.
‘Except my mother died on the road out to the estate and seclusion might make me an easier target.’ She momentarily debated between the safety of being able to call for help immediately but having untrustworthy neighbors versus being away from other people but completely on her own.
‘The neighbors seem more information gathering than anything else,’ Penelope thought. ‘Unless they are the ones cutting the break lines.’ She shook her head. As much as she wanted her ‘enemies list’ contained, she couldn’t see her neighbors sneaking to the bank to tamper with her breaks.
‘Probably better stay in town a bit.’ She decided. Penelope turned back to Jaron’s volume. While he seemed to have a lot of success with trees and plants he mentioned failures with property identification. His notes were sparse but Penelope remembered the term mentioned in the book of abilities she tried to use before. ‘The one with the string of rings,’ she remembered.
Penelope retrieved the book, found the reference and found a list of the abilities that could be a part of that plant inclined bloodlines. Several were underlined in the text, and she thought that might be the ones related to the bloodline in her family carrying them.
‘A cheat sheet,’ she thought happily. It would be nice not to have to read through all of the journals to compile a list. Penelope looked over the possibilities. Property identification seemed to be the ability to tell the plants’ uses. ‘Sort of like a built-in field guide,’ Penelope thought. She thought of the plants upstairs in the garden. She still hadn’t identified most of them. ‘If I can get the ability to work then I’d have a head start.’
Her biggest fear was that she would think something was good for a salad and accidentally poison herself. ‘Not doing that would be a help.’
Penelope passed the morning taking notes on the various plant centric abilities and used a packet of post it notes to mark pages in the book for when she wanted to try using the abilities. Given that she was to go with Agent Michaelson to get her car that afternoon, she thought waiting to practice things might be a good idea.
She read and made notes, organizing her plans for practice as the morning progressed. Penelope also made a list of things she would need to pick up. Nearly all were items more commonly found at greenhouses or nurseries. ‘If I’m going to be experimenting with seeds I’m at least going to make them ones I know won’t kill me.’
At lunch she made a sandwich and then went back to her plotting and planning. When it was close to time to expect Agent Michaelson, Penelope reshelved all of the books she was using, put away her notes and tore out the page with her shopping list. While she knew she was doing nothing wrong, somehow leaving out the items she was researching seemed like a little more information than she wanted to share.
Penelope slipped the shopping list into her back pocket.
Ten til Midnight 