Gemotions

The air inside the dusty museum was thick and still. Michael moved slowly through the exhibits, the weight of the day pressing down on him. He had been assigned to catalog the family archives, a request that had been made by his mother, and he was dreading the task.

He discovered a set of portraits. One depicted his great-great-grandmother, a woman who always described her courtship with his great-great grandfather as a classic fairytale, a romance of unwavering devotion. The portrait, however, showed her arm-in-arm with a man that was *not* his great-great-grandfather. He felt a wave of disorientation, a sense of having been misled. He slumped onto a bench, feeling a hollowness open up in his chest.