Gemotions

He slammed the shovel into the earth, the impact resonating through his arms, but not quieting his thoughts. David had always been a man of action, but now, faced with this news about a fence, he felt frozen. He kept hammering at the earth, a desperate attempt to channel his tension.

He pictured the fence, a stark line bisecting the green expanse, a wall between them. A sense of confinement pressed upon him. The freedom he enjoyed in their shared space was vanishing. He felt as if someone had punched him in the gut.

He stopped, leaned on the shovel, and wiped the sweat from his brow. The sun beat down on his back, but he was cold. His neighbor had always been a solitary man, but now the isolation suddenly felt as though he was a perpetrator, or at least complicit in it.