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

Walk

I think the world must have stopped hurtling recklessly through space. A pause in our ever-present vertigo for a stroll on the beach, the warm sun beating down on us. Your hand tucked into mine. The water tickles our feet, the sand gives way under our toes, leaving a trail of paired footprints behind. A signpost: This Is Love. We reach the pier. You let go, running ahead to laugh and splash in the waves. But the moment isn’t gone, I’ve swallowed it whole. Like an oyster, I revisit that grain year after year, a shiny pearl of a memory.

When not writing SFF stories, Julia Sung can often be found playing with her semi-feral children and dogs, reading with her geriatric cat, or gardening badly. Find Julia at jamarshauthor.com on Twitter @jamarshauthor1.

Emergency

In October