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

Second Date

Taking my hand, he helped me reach the top. We could see for miles. Tiny cars, unaware of us, travelled ribbon roads. We were alone. I wrapped my scarf tighter to keep out the December chill. “I had a dream about you,” he said. How should I reply to that? Both of us were late developers where romance was concerned, inexperienced and unsure of the correct things to say on a second date. I felt the heat rising to my face as I blushed. I unwound the scarf and stared out into the distance. Where was that blue car heading?

Unexpectedly widowed ten years ago, Sarah Nicholson started the blog Unravelling Edges. She’s now turning it into a book and writing flash fiction to procrastinate. Find Sarah online at www.insearchoflostglitter.blogspot.com and on Twitter @reravelling.

Not a Pop Star

The Seedkeeper