Gemotions

The smell of mothballs filled the small, cramped room as Sarah looked through the old albums. Her Aunt Clara was the family matriarch, a woman of great wisdom and strength. Her stories were of duty, sacrifice, and loyalty.

But the photographs showed a different Clara. One photo revealed her with a group of friends, all dressed in flapper dresses, at a party, all smoking and drinking. The other photos showed her alone with a man who was not her husband.

She felt a hollowness inside her, a feeling like a bottomless pit. Sarah kept replaying the stories in her head, and how none of it fit. The foundations of her family's narrative had crumbled. She closed the album, her hands trembling, and retreated to her room.