Gemotions

“It’s just… it feels unfair,” Elias confessed, his voice barely a whisper. He’d spent his life savings on the prototype for his self-folding laundry machine. Now, another company had beaten him to the punch. The patent was registered.

He picked up a screw from his workbench, fiddling with it, his knuckles turning white. He remembered the thrill of the design, the satisfaction of watching the clothes neatly folded, one after another. Now, that accomplishment felt tainted.

He wanted to scream, to lash out. The silence in his workshop amplified the emptiness inside him. He felt the weight of the loss, the loss of his ambition.