Gemotions

The envelope felt strangely heavy in Clara’s hand. She'd been helping her grandmother sort through her late grandfather’s belongings. Inside, a typed draft of a resignation letter from his teaching position lay neatly folded. The date: the year Clara’s mother was born.

The letter mentioned a conflict, an argument with the principal. Clara remembered the stories about her grandfather, the way he'd always championed his students, the way he would fight for them. She’d always painted the principal as a villain, a petty bureaucrat. Now, though...

Reading between the lines, she saw the frustration, the anger, the struggle to reconcile his principles with the demands of the job. She couldn't shake the feeling that she'd been an accessory to a great injustice, even if unknowingly. Her heart felt like a stone in her chest.