Gemotions

The sterile white of the doctor's office seemed to amplify the silence. She stared at the incorrect file, her gaze drifting toward the window. It had been years since she'd thought about the small town she'd grown up in, the one this other woman had seemingly also called home.

She felt a tightening in her throat, a familiar catch, as she registered the details of this stranger's life. The other woman’s high school graduation photo, the same brick building, the same faded green lawn, the same sun-drenched atmosphere. It felt like watching a movie of her own life that she’d completely forgotten.

A wave of something akin to longing washed over her, a deep and inexplicable ache for a past she thought she’d left far behind. The scent of honeysuckle, like the ones that grew outside her childhood bedroom, seemed to linger in the air.