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

Family Holiday

We watch the last sunset from the harbour. Salty hair, burnt cheeks, heavy legs. Lulled by the waves. My father and I have screamed at each other every day since we arrived. My sister is starting to get nervous around food. In three weeks, my mother will find out about the affair. But as the night falls and we finish our drinks and my father makes plans to come again next year because we have had such a great time, we're content, and we look at each other and smile—still, and for the last time, a family on holiday.

Irene Cantizano Bescós is a writer and immigrant lost between two languages. Twitter: @IreneCantizano

Disappeared

Off to College