Gemotions

The typed list, found tucked into a cookbook, felt heavy in her hand. *Visit Japan. Become a painter. Fall in love again.* Claire reread the final entry, her throat tightening. Her grandmother, widowed for twenty years, had wanted to *fall in love again*?

She sank into the kitchen chair, the wood cold against her skin. The room, usually vibrant with the smells of baking, now felt sterile, devoid of life. She felt a profound sense of…displacement.

She ran her fingers over the chipped surface of the table, a connection to the woman she thought she knew so well. It wasn’t enough.