Gemotions

The old photographs, brittle and faded, lay scattered across the kitchen table. Emily felt as if the air was being sucked from her lungs. Her great-aunt, the woman who had lived a life of quiet dignity and unwavering religious faith, was laughing, dancing, and generally letting loose in these pictures, but not with her husband.

She couldn’t catch her breath. The curated narratives, the family stories, all of them—a house of cards, collapsing.

Emily leaned her forearms on the table, trying to steady herself. The images seemed to burn into her retinas. The past and the present blurred together, and she felt profoundly...empty.