Gemotions

The letter trembled in Sarah's hand. Her mother's neat script, so familiar, so reassuring, now seemed to mock her. It was a draft resignation, a plea to leave her demanding teaching career, decades before Sarah was born. The words described a longing for a simpler life, for more time. Sarah's chest felt constricted.

She'd been juggling her own career with the needs of her children, their school plays, their doctor's appointments, their everything. Her own to-do list stretched across the kitchen counter, a paper chain of obligations that seemed to never end. Tears pricked her eyes. She felt the urge to run, to escape, to simply vanish. She crumpled the letter, and then, after a moment, smoothed it out again.