Gemotions

The parchment crackled in Elias’s fingers, each crease a fresh wound. He held the letter away from himself, like a contaminated object. It was twenty years gone, a lifetime. Twenty years since Bethany had, in front of the entire sixth grade, declared his science project “a pile of smelly garbage.” He felt his stomach churn, a bitter taste rising in his throat. He balled the paper and tossed it into the fireplace, watching the flames consume it, a feeble attempt at purging the old affront.