Gemotions

The old house felt cozy with the fire crackling in the hearth. Rain pattered softly against the windowpanes. She knew he had been working late, so she was not expecting him to be here yet. The music seemed different this evening, not the usual music.

He came through the door, his face flushed and his eyes sparkling. He walked over to her, his smile bright. “I have a present for you,” he said, his English slightly stiff. Then, he switched, and he said, in perfectly clear Mandarin, “How did your day go, sweetheart?”

Her heart leaped. The words echoed in the room. She felt a kind of weightlessness, a desire to burst into spontaneous movement. She felt an overwhelming surge of something akin to euphoria.