Gemotions

The flickering candlelight cast dancing shadows on the walls of the old bookstore. Elias, his fingers tracing the fragile paper, felt a strange chill despite the warm fire. He had discovered the letter tucked inside a first edition of "Moby Dick" – a letter he had written to his father, a man who had been gone for a decade. His father was a man who, if you looked at him sideways, would send you into another room. He could still remember the way the world seemed to shrink when his father was angry. Each word was a painful reminder of a past he couldn't change, of apologies he never offered. He needed a drink, immediately.