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

Carmela

“You don’t believe me,” my stricken mother said between sobs. She swore two men had broken into her house, but police had found no sign of forced entry. When asked to describe the men, she said they had no faces. The officers smiled and shut their notepads. I showed them out, apologizing. Third time that month we had to call the police. The other two times she’d lost her way home from bingo. She continued sobbing unconsolably. I grabbed my car keys. “Where are you going?” my sister asked. “To find those bastards,” I said, fighting back my own tears.

Salvatore Difalco lives in Toronto, Canada.

Alyx

Beyond Words