Gemotions

“Well, this is just great,” muttered Clara under her breath, staring at the long line snaking its way down the street. She was not a morning person, and this pre-dawn start to the yard sale circuit felt like a cruel punishment. The thought of fighting over someone’s cast-offs filled her with a sense of weary resignation.

She had to walk through several yards and tables to get to the one she wanted to visit. Everything was just awful. She looked at the first table and glared, and passed the next one with her jaw clenched.

Finally, she arrived at the table she was really looking for, but her eyes were still scanning the items when she saw it. There among the faded children's books and broken plastic toys was a teddy bear. She knew that bear. A wave of… something… washed over her, a feeling she couldn't quite identify. It had a missing eye and was held together with crude stitches, but it was unmistakably the bear she had loved as a child. “How much?” she asked, her voice unexpectedly soft.