Gemotions

David dragged himself through the dusty garage. His father’s things. A task he had avoided for months, but the inevitable had arrived. The task felt like wading through mud. He found a stack of old photos, tied with a faded ribbon. One photo showed his father, beaming, standing in front of a car that hadn't been mentioned in any family stories. A woman with dark hair stood next to him.

She was beautiful, laughing. A woman with a happiness David had never seen in his father, a man who always seemed weighed down by the world. It was a painful contrast to his memories. The weight in his chest intensified. He felt like his chest was being compressed.

He felt a deep sense of wrongness, of being deceived. He slowly began going through the other photos, the weight growing with each one, suffocating him. He was losing something he didn't even understand.