Gemotions

“This can’t be right,” muttered Chloe, tracing her finger over the glossy surface of the photograph. The photo showed her grandmother, a woman whose entire life had been defined by religious devotion, laughing uproariously in a flapper dress, holding a cigarette. The stories spoke of a woman of unwavering piety. This image was entirely at odds with it.

She felt a strange disconnect, as though she were observing a play on a distant stage. The church bells that rang every Sunday, the hymns, the rosary beads… all of it seemed to recede, blurred. Her head swam.

Chloe quickly flipped through the rest of the album, each image contradicting the family history. A life she thought she knew was revealed to be a carefully constructed myth. Her heart pounded in her chest, a drumbeat of confusion.