Gemotions

The old shoebox in the attic, stuffed with her late brother's things, yielded a trove of forgotten treasures. Sarah ran her fingers over a worn envelope, addressed in a familiar hand. The return address was a name she hadn't spoken in years: "Jenny". It was a name that used to set her brother's heart alight.

The letter was filled with longing, with the yearning of a boy's first crush. The words, written in his untidy scrawl, spoke of a devotion that had never been fully realized. She could almost hear his voice, see the flush on his cheeks.

She felt a strange kinship with him now, a shared understanding of those intense, youthful feelings. She felt a sudden, sharp pang of missing him, mixed with a bittersweet tenderness for that almost-romance.