Gemotions

The doctor’s waiting room felt stifling. Amelia tapped her foot relentlessly, the repetitive thud a counterpoint to the hushed murmurs around her. She kept glancing at the door, as if willing it to open and signal her escape. The smell of antiseptic, normally unnoticed, today seemed to claw at her nostrils. Her palms were slick with sweat, and she discreetly wiped them on her jeans. The drawing in her niece Lily's hand had appeared again: a stick figure with impossibly long arms and a wide, unsettling grin. It had been “Freddy,” Lily claimed. Freddy, the same name Amelia’s imaginary friend had.