Gemotions

They tried to reason with her, to explain, to offer her alternatives. Each offer was met with a stony silence, a resolute stare. The social worker, bless her heart, had grown weary. The neighbors had whispered behind their hands.

She stood in the garden, the roses she'd painstakingly nurtured over the years now wilting from neglect. Her gaze was fixed on the house, the walls that had absorbed a lifetime of laughter and tears.

She would not cooperate.

She felt the thrum of the engine in her chest as the wrecking ball rumbled to life. The first swing... and she took a deep breath, and stood, unmoving, and waited.