Five Minutes explores five minutes of a life in one hundred words. Five minutes is edited by Susanna Baird, with editorial support from managing editor Maria s. picone, newsletter editor kate meen, and founding reader bobbi lerman, plus our rotating team of guest readers, who you can meet in the latest newsletteR. Five Minutes was founded in October 2020, with the Salem (Mass.)-based writing group Carrot Cake Writers supplying the journal’s first pieces. We’d love to read your five. Submit here

Before/After

It was a sunny day. I arrived home on time, checked my watch. Kids milling about. I settled onto a stool and asked my partner about his day. Jasper raced into the house and hollered, “Adrian’s been hit by a car.” I rolled my eyes. (Jasper lived a life of excitement even when none existed.) My partner heard something I did not. He moved fast. Adrian’s body askew at the side of the road, bike, helmet, shoes scattered. Unconscious, bleeding, broken, scraped but alive. I called 911. Four minutes since I got home. Life now measured in before and after.

Cathy Gilbert lives on a boat on Vancouver Island, Canada with her partner, and two dogs.

Exoskeletons

Departure