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 and founding reader bobbi lerman; May READERS Darcy alsop, PRERNA BAROOAH, AMITA BASU, Sarina Caragan, Antony Püttschneider, and Elisa Rivera; and May Editorial intern sienna lew. 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

Miss B

It was a Monday, at the vet’s for the second time this month. No crying in the car, she just fell asleep. The vet brought her to me, wrapped in a thick, fluffy, pink blanket. After the first injection, I cradled her in my arms while sitting on the hard wooden bench and looked out the window at a bare tree. Slowly her head dropped with her eyes open but asleep. I fumbled for a tissue with my free hand and called my daughter, then husband. After the final injection I left, placing the empty cat carrier in the trunk.

Sandra Jack is trying to decide when is the right time to get another cat, and coping with the deafening silence in the house.

Mount Mansfield

She Knew