Gemotions

He’d been so proud, so certain. He'd even framed the acceptance letter and hung it above his desk. Now, it mocked him. He sat in his library, surrounded by the books he'd bought using the scholarship money. Each volume seemed to weigh more heavily than before.

The note from the university, carefully worded and apologetic, sat on the table. A simple administrative error. The money would be reallocated. He pushed the letter away. The carefully crafted argument he'd been planning, the one he had rehearsed to justify his existence to the world, had suddenly collapsed.

He reached for the nearest book, a well-worn copy of “The Odyssey,” and felt a sense of displacement. Even Odysseus knew where he belonged, and now he didn't.