5:00 and All's Well

American Contemporary Fiction

Written in response to: "Include a number or time in your story’s title. " as part of Gone in a Flash.

So I was walking along and this guy asked me if I had a dollar. And I said, well, if I did, I would give it to you, but I don't, I'm low myself, and he said, okay, and kept walking, then on the way back from the store, I was 10 blocks away, I went the back way but I saw the guy again and he was picking up stuff off. The ground I had just actually got paidafter I went to the store, so I told him if he went with me, I could Get change and give him a dollar. If we went to the store and he said, oh, can you buy me something? I said, well, what do you want? It can't be more than like a couple dollars, because I can't just spend my money on people. I don't know, and he said, oh I just want something for my mom. It's her birthday and how about this ring because the store we were in had a fabulous selection of rings, I said, how much for the ring the store owner said. I'll give it to you for $3. I said, well, okay, since it's Mother's Day, I'll buy this little jeweled ring for you. And your mom and he said, thanks and tucked it away and ran out the door of the store then later I was sitting at my desk in my apartment and I was thinking of Mother's Day and how I should get something for my mother. And that the man had reminded me, and I said, Gee, you do get thanked in mysterious ways from the universe when you help another, I was like I had forgotten all about Mother's Day and then there was some sort of knock on the door rather loud and my boyfriend was there with the landlord and they said they wanted to check the ceiling in the bathroom. I said all right? But I said, why don't you ever give me notice before you come over because I was in the middle of something? And they said, oh, we won't bother you, just continue on what you were doing, and I said, okay, and so I was looking online and my money had been transferred. To my bank, which was down the road the other way from the store, I had gone to that day. I went there before, I went home today, and I could order my mom something online, but I didn't know what to get. I mean, she wouldn't really be specific in anything that And then there was a big flood that came through the ceiling, I said, whoa, what the and they said, oh, we'll fix it. We'll fix it. And then I said, hmm, my mom would probably rather, I take care of myself than I buy her anything so I'm just gonna ask them if they need any supplies and I can order it and they were like, yeah, we need some plywood. We need some screws. And we need a drill, and I said, okay, and some plaster a bucket of plaster, I said, okay, and then I said, but why don't you fix the source of the problem, which is on the roof I mean, it's just going to keep flowing through the plaster every time and they said we'll get to it. And then they rushed me away and I ordered the stuff. And it came in a couple weeks and then they worked on the bathroom, my boyfriend and the landlord and it was all sealed up. And then I said, wow, it looks nice, but why don't they just fix the roof I don't understand I mean it may be an expenditure, but it's better in the long run financially, and they never got back to me. And the rain started to flow through and the plaster started dripping, and there was a big hole again and my mom and my dad were saying why don't you like either move or tell someone or just demand that they do it or tell your program. Subsidy , I don't know , mom , I don't know , dad , I don't wanna get evicted , I said and then that was the end of the story.

Epilogue, then the landlord finally fixed the roof and I was so happy. I felt so relieved that I wouldn't have to worry anymore about the inspection et. Cetera I didn't have to worry about trying to pass the inspection, so I wouldn't get kicked out for a uninhabitable house. And I wouldn't have to worry about them tramping through my house at anytime of day or night and any catching me in any any awkward position, I might be in doing whatever I'm doing as a privacy, I thought I had, but then after that, and I lived happily ever after, and the landlord took us on a vacation to show appreciation for Being\n Such good tenants and fixing everything. Because my boyfriend was good at that. And then everyone his wife told me I could sit next to her in the first class section of the airplane and we took a plane to Guam in the south Pacific, when I told them that's where I'd always dreamed of going. And then we stopped back at Alaska. And then later, 2 years later, we took a cruise around Greenland, in Independence Bay. I had wanted that, too And it was just a forever, beautiful story.And then I died , and now i'm in heaven , and I don't know what to say anymore , but I am very happy that things worked out.

PS there was some other things that happened, but they are too petty to consider to be part of the story, but I'll tell you one of them is that the person that left the ladder in the hall finally got the ladder out, so we could traverse through the hall better and also everyone cleaned up after themselvesAfter they did the work on the ceiling in the bathroom, I was very happy.They even let me stay during the inspection.I was happy , and then I just took a walk to stewart's down the road and celebrated on my own , because I actually do like being by myself, sometimes.

Posted Mar 12, 2026
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