"Five Minutes More" by Diana Neunkirchner

 – Faint music drifted through the rows of vendors.

Our stories entwined like dancing angels, each part fulfilling the whole.

Diana Neunkirchner is a retired teacher living in Rougemont, North Carolina. An avid reader and writer, she is a member of the Durham Writers Group, the Writers’ Inspirational Network, and the Writers’ Critique Group. When she’s not writing short stories, personal essays, or memoir, she is hiking along the Eno River or playing the flute at Your Saving Grace, the family farm.

Author’s Talk

Diana Neunkirchner

When a friend told me about the Personal Story Publishing Project, “Sooner or Later,” I was intrigued. I'm a freelancer so I thought, why not give this project a thumbs up. With less time than I thought, I went dumpster diving through my personal narratives and found zilch. No doubt about it, I needed a fresh idea for this one. As the deadline approached, all I had was a concept and no storyline. Then something amazing happened while I was hiking—someone sold me a flute, and not just any flute. This artifact from the 1970s was the thread I needed to write my story. While I was still breathing and time was a reasonable asset, I believed I could write it in eight hundred words or less and do it before the deadline. On June 30, at three minutes before midnight, I hit the send button.  

I realized that sooner or later, all of us will confront the ultimate terminus, where time abandons us altogether. How does anyone deal with endings? Sooner or later, I'm going to ask for five more minutes.

Thank you, Randell Jones, for your editorial assistance, insight, and the generous amount of time to grow my story, and for giving me "Five Minutes More."—Diana Keunkirchner