Gemotions

The heat was stifling, the dust clinging to everything. Clara had come hoping to find some vintage scarves. She'd been searching for an hour and was starting to feel the pressure of the clock.

Then she saw it: a familiar, somewhat repulsive, and definitely moth-eaten teddy bear. It had a missing eye and smelled faintly of old attic. She knew it. She had to recognize it.

She felt a flicker of something she'd thought was buried. "How much?" she asked the woman, her voice strained. The woman, with a huge grin on her face, launched into a detailed description of the bear's "character."

Clara felt a knot of tightness in her chest.