Gemotions

The phone on the counter was vibrating, her name flashing across the screen. He let it ring. He already knew what she’d tell him. He’d found the notebooks, filled with painstakingly neat handwriting, the pages crammed with vocabulary he knew from his youth. The television flickered in the background, a meaningless distraction.

He listened to the message as it beeped, the words swirling in the speaker, words in the language he had grown up with. He already anticipated the awkward attempts, the forced conversations. He rubbed his temples. He knew exactly what was coming, the predictable trajectory of their life together. He looked out the window. The world continued to spin. He sat down.