Gemotions

He bounced on the balls of his feet, the old house’s floorboards creaking in protest. Thomas had finally cornered his uncle, the family historian, into letting him dig through the boxes in the basement. “Just old stuff, you won’t find anything interesting,” his uncle had said, dismissively. He’d spent hours meticulously sifting through the archives. Then, buried deep within a forgotten box, he’d unearthed a series of photographs. Each one depicted his grandfather, a man always portrayed as stoic and reserved, in wildly different scenarios: clowning around on a beach, arm-in-arm with a woman who wasn't his grandmother. Thomas threw his head back and let out a whoop of pure joy.