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

Little Incident

Twelve years his junior, I look to my husband for landmarks and landmines when it comes to aging. Today, he comes back from the store, tells me he had a “little incident” at the self-checkout lane. His norm is to put his bags in the cart before paying. Today, he pays first, looks in his empty cart, and thinks the man a few steps ahead of him stole his groceries. Indignant, he chases after him. I chuckle but temper my response, thinking of my own recent faux pas. Am I destined to be his caregiver or his cohort in crime?

Sandra Hudson is a semi-retired nurse, Michigan native, entrepreneur, artist, and writer. Her writing interests are diverse—poetry, essays, short stories, and fiction.

Encouragement