Gemotions

The email notification popped up on Elena’s phone as she sat in her dorm room, sketching. The words blurred before her eyes, but the gist was clear. The university was shutting down. A current shot up her spine, leaving her fingertips tingling. She threw the pencil onto the table, the graphite smearing across the page. A laugh, almost hysterical, bubbled up from within. She stood up, paced the length of the room, and then began grabbing her books off the shelves, feeling an urgency, a compulsion she couldn’t quite name. She wanted to hurl them all out the window, but she stopped herself. Instead, she opened the window and took a long breath.