Gemotions

The doorbell rang. I peered through the peephole to see the delivery driver holding a small, brown parcel. The name on the label – "Daniel Bellwether" – was completely unfamiliar. The previous tenant’s name was something like “Frank,” I thought.

I signed for the package, a sense of something unfamiliar – maybe curiosity – mixed with it. Inside, wrapped in tissue paper, was a cassette tape. The label was handwritten, in elegant cursive: "The Best of 1988." I put it in the old boombox in my living room, the one I rarely used anymore.

As the music began, a surge of warmth enveloped me. The synthesized sounds of late 80s pop filled the room, bringing with it a flood of half-remembered sensations. The world seemed to shrink, and I was suddenly sixteen again, cruising around with my friends, the summer stretching out before us, impossibly long.