Sometimes

Fae Varriale's "Wonderlands" - LEA6 2012

Sometimes it’s a rather insignificant event that changes our whole life. Sometimes that event goes unnoticed till the moment when destiny pushes us to the side and says “no”. This time it was a torn skirt. It got caught in the rotating mechanism of the conveyer belt. With the movement, it got ripped, the skirt. She had other skirts, even better skirts. This one was old and worn. But this was the skirt she wore when she won that prize; the skirt that she took on the trip to Brussels a few years ago. She liked this skirt. When she realized it was ripped beyond repair, there was a fraction of a second of horror, as if it were a child being ripped apart; then she composed herself and thought of how ridiculous a thought that had been, it was just a skirt. Days went by and she didn’t throw the skirt in the garbage. She kept it in the wardrobe, “uselessly” she thought. But she couldn’t make herself throw it away. Perhaps it wasn’t meant to be thrown away; perhaps it was meant to remind her of something. And that’s when she decided to sell everything she owned and move. She got rid of the car, the country property, the apartment in the city, even the factory and the company. She retired to a house by the beach; the torn skirt in her wardrobe. Sometimes all it takes is a rather insignificant event for us to decide to take destiny into our own hands.