Gemotions

Elias sat on the porch swing, the rhythmic creak of the chains a comforting sound. The late afternoon light cast long shadows across the yard, painting the world in warm hues. He’d finally organized his grandmother's things after her passing, a difficult task he had delayed. He'd come across a box of photographs in the process.

He picked up a photo of his great-grandfather, a man his family always described as a stern disciplinarian. The photo showed him, laughing, a small child perched on his shoulders, a playful glint in his eye. It was a picture of pure, unadulterated joy. The world seemed to slow around him.

He looked at another picture, his great-grandmother, a woman who had always seemed to embody sorrow, laughing as she was being lifted into the air by a group of men. A sudden, unexpected lightness filled his chest. Elias leaned back, letting the swing carry him gently back and forth.