Gemotions

The telephone slipped from her grasp, the receiver clattering to the floor. The voice on the other end, the insurance agent, continued speaking, but the words were gibberish. All she could see was the twisted, broken branches, the massive trunk crushing the rose bushes she'd spent years cultivating.

She couldn't feel her hands, her fingers numb. She looked down at them as if they belonged to someone else. Her heart hammered against her ribs, a frantic drumbeat in the sudden, deafening silence. The world seemed to be closing in, the walls of the house shrinking.

"The… the roses," she whispered, the words sounding foreign even to her own ears. Tears streamed down her face, unchecked, unbidden, like a deluge.