Gemotions

The musty scent of mothballs and old cardboard hit Amelia like a physical blow as she surveyed the yard sale. Everything was cheap and dusty, a testament to someone else's forgotten past. A chipped porcelain doll leered from a table, its painted eyes seeming to follow her. Then she saw it – a worn, brown teddy bear, missing an eye and with a stitched-up seam on its arm. Her childhood bear. The one she’d sworn was lost decades ago.

“How much for the bear?” she asked, her voice sounding oddly flat even to her own ears. The woman, a sun-weathered creature with a floral housedress, peered over her thick glasses.

“Oh, that old thing? A dollar. He’s seen better days.” Amelia reached for it, her fingers brushing against the faded fur. It felt… small, somehow. Less imposing than she remembered. She held it close, a knot of something twisting in her stomach. A dollar. Too easy.