Gemotions

He’d arrived early to avoid the crowds, but the atmosphere still grated on his nerves. The relentless cheerfulness, the forced camaraderie, it all felt… wrong. His eye caught on something sitting on a rickety stool: a teddy bear, its fur matted and discolored, one ear half-detached. He frowned.

He picked it up, feeling a wave of… something akin to anger. It looked pathetic, utterly useless. He tossed it back on the stool, feeling a familiar tightness in his chest. A useless object. A relic of the past.

The seller, a jovial man with a sunburnt face, approached. “Find anything you like, son?”

He shook his head, unable to speak, the image of the forlorn bear seared into his memory. He turned and walked away, the cheerful banter of the yard sale fading into the background.