Skip to content
Featured 2/22/13 at Daily Science Fiction
We’ve all been there before, or at least seen it happen: Girl’s at the bar, a guy walks up to her, asks to buy her a drink. And everyone certainly knows what happens next: Girl says no, the guy keeps talking anyway, usually about how awesome he is. (“Would this be about his fabulous yacht? His adventures as a war hero? Or would he jump right to penis size?”)
Except this guy talks about something unexpected. He says he can see into the future. Maybe it’s worth the last few sips of flat beer to hear where this is going….
“Five Minutes” is a great little story that gets right to the heart of the matter. It offers both characterization and conflict — not just in the familiar situation of a guy approaching a girl, but also in feeling out the motives, the intentions, the desires of another person, a stranger who randomly approaches you. Powers-Smith expertly captures the little doubts, the vaguely prejudiced insecurities that people feel when they first meet someone. The metaphor here isn’t about lust or love or even friendship. It’s about exploring whether people are, at their most basic level, decent, and overcoming both culture and instinct that would logically lead someone to question that basic goodness.
This story takes a little more than five minutes to read, but it’s definitely worth it.
