Gemotions

The bookstore was crammed with people, but Maya felt utterly alone. She’d been feeling adrift since the loss of her cat, Mittens. She selected a volume of poetry and found a letter folded within its pages. The writer spoke of their loneliness, their struggles to find meaning in a chaotic world. Maya’s breath caught in her throat. The words resonated with a painful truth she understood intimately. She didn't feel as though she should keep the letter. She knew the agony of being without someone. She held the letter against her chest for a long moment, before carefully slipping it back between the poems, as if returning a vital piece of a lost puzzle.