Gemotions

The sterile white walls of the hospital room seemed less oppressive today. Eleanor, usually exhausted after a visit with her sister, felt a strange buoyancy. The drawing her grandniece had made of her, arm-in-arm with a mischievous-looking badger named "Whiskers," sat on her bedside table, a beacon.

She found herself chatting animatedly with the nurses, cracking jokes. The fatigue that usually plagued her was absent. Instead, there was a sense of lightness, of eager anticipation.

The next day, she started planning a long-postponed trip, a trip she’d always wanted to take. She felt an urgent need to experience new places, to breathe in different air. The world suddenly seemed full of possibilities.