Gemotions

Maya stared out the window, watching the rain blur the city lights. She felt a profound emptiness, a hollowness that even the comfort of her own home couldn't fill. Her phone buzzed. It was a message from "StarryNight," her online pen pal, who lived "somewhere in the midwest." They'd been exchanging letters, sharing their hopes and fears, for almost a year.

The message read: "I'm at the library on Pine Street. Come on down if you'd like. There's a poetry reading." Maya’s breath caught in her throat. Pine Street? She knew the library. She walked by it everyday.

She hesitated, then slowly typed back: "What time are you leaving?" Her life, or at least her mood, was about to change.