Fatidic

Word of the Day Sunday, March 21, 2010

fatidic

\fuh-TID-ik\ , adjective;

1. Of, relating to, or characterized by prophecy; prophetic.

Diane breathed in a deep sign hoping it would release the huge burden of weight off of her chest. She found that she had been sighing frequently these days. And for the record, it didn't help.

She had dumped her bags in the foyer of their old Seattle house, the one they had been renting under her sister's management for years, and had crawled into bed.

She had hated L.A. when they first moved there, she actually missed the rain and clouds. After a while she had started to see them as a protective layer of skin. A shield keeping her from being exposed and naked to the sun.

Well, she thought wryly, there is always the smog. Of course, she considered as an after thought, only in L.A. would you consider something as nasty and harmful as smog as protective.

L.A. had left her bare and now she was hiding.

She remembered the first luncheon she had in L.A. with the wife of one of Marvin's business associates. She had been nice enough to actually make an effort with Diane.

"It all comes down to money," she had told her simply, "It always comes down to money." At the time Diane had felt repulsed at this notion. She had been four months pregnant at the time and was completely in love with the idea of finding the best in everyone and everything. But that woman's comment, Diane couldn't even remember her name now, had been depressingly fatidic.

She had been shocked and then numbed by the superficiality, the shiny image hiding the lack of substance, and the piles and piles of money. Each bit of peeling away a layer of humanity and replacing it with Botox and laser surgery to tighten the loose places.

Now she was back in Seattle where the rain eroded her hardened exterior and let her feel vulnerable again. Vulnerable but protected. And she had her daffodils back. They had greeted her with their silent, humble dance as she had plowed her way through the front door.