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

Birthday Party

December. I am turning five years old (I think). We are having a party for my birthday. My dad rented out part of a resort. Loot bags, each waiting to be taken home by a party guest, stand neatly arranged in rows, like soldiers on a training field. Lots of people have come, but I don’t know who they are. So many people, but I don’t recognize any of the kids. Santa even makes an appearance. He wears a red suit, but isn’t fat or jolly. Dark hairs poke out from under his ill-fitting white beard. And he is smoking.

Nia McCash is an IT professional and a writer from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. You can find her on Twitter at @niamccashWrites.

Sinking Unseen

Brothers