Gemotions

The sunlight streaming through the kitchen window illuminated the list clutched in Clara's hand. "Ride a motorcycle across Route 66." Her mother. *Her mother!* The woman who had sworn off anything remotely dangerous after a particularly bad fall on the ice.

Clara paced the kitchen, the hardwood floor creaking under her boots. Each item on the list felt like a physical blow. "Write a novel." "Learn to speak Italian." The list continued. All the things she’d wanted to do, too. Things that they could have done, if only...

A sob escaped her. The unfairness of it! The secret life, the vibrant woman hidden beneath the facade of suburban normalcy. This was not the mother she knew. And now, she felt furious.