Gemotions

He’d expected some old love letters, maybe a diary. Instead, Mark was confronted with a wall of paper. His mother’s entire scholastic history, cataloged and preserved. She had even kept the tests.

He picked up a history exam, the answers in her neat script. He felt oddly out of sorts, a sense of disconnect. His mouth was dry, his throat constricted.

He ran a hand over his face. The enormity of the collection was unsettling, a portrait of a woman he thought he knew, revealed in a way he hadn't anticipated. He started back, as if afraid to break the surface of the thing.