Gemotions

He’d been scrolling aimlessly through real estate websites, a habit born of boredom and a vague dissatisfaction with his own life. Suddenly, there it was: 14 Oak Street. His stomach lurched, as if he'd just ridden a particularly jarring rollercoaster.

He almost slammed the laptop shut. He just stared at the picture of the house. He slowly, deliberately, clicked on the photos. The kitchen, unchanged since his tenth birthday party. The living room, where he’d spent countless hours glued to the television, watching cartoons.

A wave of dizziness washed over him, and he had to grip the edge of his desk to steady himself. He felt a phantom pain in his knee, from a tumble he took on the porch steps back when he was seven. He felt an intense need to call his sister, but he wasn’t sure why.