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

The Mystery Man

My headlights slash through the night, a white rectangle flashing over a gritty highway. I’m alone when he vrooms past me with taillights bright as Christmas. Don’t go. Drive a while with me on this lonely road and let me imagine your fabulous life. I speed up, keeping a respectable distance from the mystery man in his sleek white car. Maybe he misses someone he loves. Perhaps he hurries home to a woman waiting between warm cotton sheets. They’ll talk, laugh, make love, and drift into blissful sleep. He veers to the exit ramp and his blinker winks goodbye. Goodbye.

Ellen Y. Mueller writes fiction and nonfiction stories. She is an avid reader and lives in Arkansas with her husband, three dogs, and three cats. Find Ellen online at ellenymueller.blogspot.com/ and on Twitter @EllenYMueller.

Worst Day

Good Morning