Five More Minutes

Chicago-based public-school art teacher Clara Bingham is heading home to Fayetteville, North Carolina for the Christmas holidays to help her mother, Bonnie Bingham, at the family store, Candy Cane Confectionary, following the recent death of its founder and co-operator, Clara's paternal grandfather Jerry Bingham. Clara is sad that she didn't have the opportunity to say goodbye to him; he had largely shaped her life, especially her philosophy that wishes are the contents of one's heart spoken aloud. Before heading to Fayetteville, Clara unexpectedly discovers two things: that her schoolteacher boyfriend Blake was about to propose to her; and that despite being named one of her school's Teachers of the Year, she is being laid off at the end of this school year because of cuts to the arts program and her lack of seniority. The Binghams' collective stories are shaped by Fayetteville being adjacent to Fort Bragg: Jerry served in the Korean War, Clara's father/Bonnie's husband was killed in battle overseas, and Clara's first love, Logan, was also in the Army. It wasn't the fact that Logan was shipped overseas that led to them breaking up, but that he had already acted on the unilateral decision to enlist before he told her. In Fayetteville, Clara runs into Logan, who, after reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, left active duty a year ago and is now a reservist. Clara and Logan end up spending much time together, partly in sleuthing together in Clara's discovery of a journal Jerry kept when he was a young man, in which he talks about being in love with an unknown "Martha" (who didn't end up being Clara's grandmother). A spark still exists between Clara and Logan; will it be affected by what they discover about Jerry's romance with Martha? And what of the story of Jay, the awkward young man Clara hired on a whim to help at the store?