Gemotions

The car keys slipped from her grasp, clattering onto the gravel. She didn't bother to pick them up. The eucalyptus, a sapling she’d nurtured through scorching summers, was gone. Erased. All that remained was a smooth, clean cut, a testament to efficiency and a complete absence of sentiment.

Her vision blurred. She blinked, hard, trying to clear the mist. She ran her hand through her hair, over and over again, as if trying to smooth out the jagged edges of a broken thought.

*What?* The word barely crossed her lips. It was a question aimed at a universe that seemed to have stopped listening.