Gemotions

“Just get it done,” Leo muttered, staring at the overflowing box. His aunt had passed, leaving behind a mountain of memories to sift through. He was finding it hard to cope with the task. He felt a knot in his stomach every time he entered the apartment, now shrouded in a stillness that was all wrong.

Buried beneath a collection of old photographs and bills, he found it: a letter, the draft of his aunt’s resignation from her teaching job. He remembered her, the vibrant woman, full of life, now revealed in the letter as weary and diminished. Her carefully crafted words detailed the battles she'd fought, the compromises she'd made.

Leo sat down abruptly on the floor, the letter falling from his trembling fingers. He felt a wave of nausea, a sensation he'd been fighting all morning. The box, filled with her possessions, seemed to taunt him, a constant reminder of loss. The colors of the room seemed to fade.