Gemotions

“Just a quarter, dear,” the woman selling the items said, pointing to the bear. It was a faded blue, missing an eye. It was Spot, or what was left of him. A wave of sorrow, swift and unexpected, overcame Eleanor.

She remembered the day she lost him. The tears, the desperate searching, the way her world had seemed to tilt on its axis. She’d always blamed her brother for letting him go. Now, seeing Spot, she felt the echo of that loss, not of anger.

She took the bear, paid the quarter, and felt a tenderness towards the toy, a surge of compassion for the girl who had loved him so fiercely. She clutched him, her fingers tracing the faded blue fur. She would give him a place where he would be safe.