Gemotions

The realtor had described the house as "charming," and Olivia, always attuned to nuances, understood it immediately. She was drawn to the house from the moment she walked in. She found the hidden room tucked behind a bookshelf in the library. Inside were dozens of journals.

She opened the first one, the brittle pages whispering as she turned them. The handwriting was elegant, filled with observations of the natural world, of heartache and small joys. Olivia read of a broken heart, a dream deferred. She felt a pang in her chest, a physical ache as if the writer’s sorrow was now her own.

Olivia carefully closed the journal, placing it back on the shelf. She decided she would start taking care of the room as if it was her own. She began by carefully cleaning the dust and arranging the journals in chronological order. She felt a responsibility, a need to protect the words contained within.