Gemotions

The ringing phone was the last straw. Emily slammed the file closed with a thud. Another missed deadline, another angry client email, and now, this. She snatched up the receiver, her grip tight enough to leave indentations on the plastic.

"Emily speaking," she barked, her voice sharp.

It was Kevin from IT, apologizing for the system outage. "Yeah, yeah," she responded, barely listening.

He kept talking, something about a software update and a potential fix. Then, he said, “You know, it reminded me of that canoe trip at Clearwater, how the paddle just…”

Emily slammed the phone down. The sound echoed in the empty office. Clearwater. Of all the places. She hadn’t thought about the place in decades, but here, in this moment, the memories came flooding back – the terrible food, the incessant mosquitoes, and the constant humiliation.