Gemotions

A wave of lightness swept over Michael. He took a deep breath, the stale air of the stuffy church hall suddenly feeling fresher. His sister, Emily, had just declared her intention to embrace Buddhism. His father’s face was a study in controlled anger; his mother's, a mask of polite disappointment. Michael, however, felt a strange sense of liberation.

He found himself tapping his foot, a little rhythm he hadn’t been aware of until that moment. The tight knot in his stomach loosened. He glanced at Emily, then down at his clasped hands. He felt a new kind of freedom bloom within him, a sense that the family dynamics, so rigidly structured for so long, might finally shift.