Gemotions

The invitation felt like a physical weight in Amelia's purse. She crumpled it absentmindedly as she waited for the bus, the glossy paper crinkling under her fingers. Her mother’s retirement. A joyous occasion, everyone kept saying. Amelia, on the other hand, felt a tightness in her chest, a knot that seemed to grow with each passing hour. She had rehearsed the speech a dozen times, but each attempt ended with a sigh and a frustrated toss of the crumpled paper into the trash. The words felt hollow, inadequate to express the complicated mixture of emotions swirling inside her.

The speech was due in three days.