Her daughter had always been an over-achiever, and had done well at school, even finding time to throw herself into diverse after-school activities, despite the extra load of school-work she’d already taken on.  Later, when Diane had reached the college decision stage, and had had her pick of universities, she’d decided on MIT because it was the most challenging one in the field she’d decided to focus on.  Then, once she finished her MBA at Harvard, she’d been recruited heavily by several banks and high technology companies, but she’d selected a firm that Demeter and her husband hadn’t heard about until Diane told them she was going to work for it.

They’d been supportive of her choice, nevertheless, and were happy that her office was going to be in New York, just a train or plane ride away from their home in Washington, DC.  Much closer than the alternatives Diane had been considering.

Yes: Diane had stayed on the fast track that she’d hopped on ever since middle school all the way through college, quickly snapping up an MBA then moving quickly into the fast-paced work-life of high finance.  Diane had slipped on the wings of Icarus from an early age, and was rising steadily, meteorically until last week, when, all of a sudden, everything in her life had seemingly come to a screeching halt.  And she’d come crashing down to earth.

She’d shown up at their door unannounced in the middle of the week, on a day when the sun had finally come out after successive dreary grey and rainy days of mid-fall in the capital city.  Unfortunately, only Laure, their major domo, had been home.  Demeter had been out for a series of appointments.

Diane had greeted Laure warmly, who was shocked and glad but flustered to see her.  Diane had gone up to her old room almost as soon as she had stepped into the home, however, gently dissuading Laure from having any food prepared for her, after insisting that she didn’t need any help carrying her luggage to her room.

Once Laure had called her, flustered, Demeter had rushed home as soon as she could extricate herself from the board meeting that she chaired, for a charity that she had long been involved with.   But upon getting home, since Diane hadn’t responded to her gentle knocking on the bedroom door, greatly worried, Demeter had nevertheless left her daughter alone.  She, Tyler, her husband, who had rushed home also, and Laure had anxiously tapped on Diane’s door from time to time throughout the day and into the night, but were greeted with “I just want to rest.”  And later, “I’m not hungry.  I’ll just go to sleep.  But I’ll see you for breakfast.”