Gemotions

He stared at the program, rereading the words: "A Speech by David Miller." It was as if he was viewing a document about someone else. The music faded, and all eyes turned towards him. His jaw clenched. He’d always been the quiet one, the observer. And now, he was expected to…perform? To express sentiment? For his mother, a woman who rarely spoke of her feelings, and who had just, amazingly, actually *retired*?

He felt a strange lightness in his head, a disconnect between his brain and his body. He fumbled with the microphone cord, his fingers clumsy and uncoordinated. *This is real*, he thought.