Gemotions

She watched the fence rise, brick by brick, a slow, deliberate construction. The workers, sweaty and loud, seemed oblivious to the subtle shift in atmosphere. The once-open expanse between their properties was closing, a visual metaphor for the widening gap between them.

She felt a prickling sensation in her palms, a familiar tension she associated with a looming unpleasantness. Her neighbor, a man she barely knew, seemed to have taken it upon himself to rearrange the neighborhood to suit his whim.

She took a deep breath, fighting the urge to march over there and… and what? She didn’t quite know. But the impulse was strong, a relentless surge of something she couldn't quite name.