As a high-importance fashion magazine editor in chief, located in New York City, Adelle was no stranger to responsibility and control. Forty-six years old, the woman still looked to be in her early thirties due to thousands of dollars of cosmetic procedures, the highest end makeup on the market and a personal stylist for every event. She owned a custom built Maserati GranCabrio, though the company car and driver took her any place she needed to go. The press roasted her often for dating a male model half her age, calling her a “cougar” and “sugar mama,” but Adelle never acknowledged the critics. Everything about the woman was youthful and glamorous, except her spirit. She was forever bogged down with appointments, e-mails, deadlines and details. Though she had achieved everything she’d ever wanted, Adelle found her life to be unfulfilling. A change, however, could not be executed, planned or hoped for because of what Adelle had given up numerous years ago. Any chance for Adelle to lighten up enough for her to thoroughly enjoy her life was dormant in a bottle, buried within the roots of a decaying tree back home in Kentucky.
Daintily pulling on the edges of her eyes in exhaustion, Adelle sat back for a moment to examine the page of the mock-up magazine she had scribbled demanding red lines in, due for printing tomorrow afternoon. The editing needed to get done, and she was the only one around to do it- again. Late nights at the office were beginning to take a beating on her. Her responsibilities as head honcho had her returning home hours after the sun had gone down. Some evenings as she returned home, she found herself kicking off her Loubouiton heels and falling asleep, fully clothed, on top of her imported, hand-sewn silk bed spread. As Adelle began reviewing the mock-up, her head began to slump and her eye lids became heavy; her chair was so comfortable, and she was so sleepy. “I could just take a quick nap… I suppose…” Her blissful moment of siesta was interrupted before it had really even had a chance it began when Elise, a long time friend, knocked loudly on the already opened, glass door. “Adelle, you’re getting out of that chair for a few hours and coming to grab a drink with me! We’ve been so out of touch lately, it’s like your job stole you away from me,” Elise announced as she walked through the door, forcing a pathetic puppy-dog face. Adelle had completely forgotten about her “date” with her closest acquaintance.
“I’m sorry, I can’t, Elise. Not tonight. This issue has to be completely revised by the morning. The crazy writers at this place like to push off writing their articles until the deadline so I’m forced to sit around until--”
“You’ve got to be kidding me right now. This is the third time you’ve blown me off in the past two weeks! Lighten up, honestly.”
Adelle was shocked. Not only by forcefulness of Elise’s reaction, but by her demand for Adelle to choose play rather than work. It wasn’t that Adelle didn’t want to relax for a few hours, it was that she couldn’t. She had given up the option to forget about her job, her obligations, her commitments to her career, numerous years ago, thinking that she would never decide to make that choice again. “I would lighten up if I could,” Adelle spoke calmly “It’s just that I have rather important responsibilities here and—“
“And being a decent friend obviously doesn’t even make this list.” Elise snapped, and made her dramatic exit, heels clacking against the hardwood floors all the way down the hallway leading to the elevators.
An epiphany flashed in Adelle’s head that very second. Though she had not neglected her responsibilities at the office, she had pushed aside her relationships with her friends and family. It wasn’t possible to concentrate on anything other than work because that was her number one priority. Adelle had a one track mind, an eye for the details, and no desire to act irresponsibly. Her life lacked balance, and she realized in that moment the toll it was taking on her life. She had few friends, but rather many business acquaintances. She did not know her family anymore; she hadn’t spoken to them over a year. Panic struck Adelle, knocking the breath from her. She knew what she needed to do to fix everything she had ruined. Adelle hastily picked up the phone, dialing the familiar number of her family’s farm house. It rang twice before someone answered. “Hello?”
“Mom! Hi! It’s Adelle! I hope I’m not calling at a bad time. I just wanted to let you know, I’m coming to visit Kentucky!”
“Honey, that’s wonderful! We’ve missed you so much. When are you coming here?”
“Tomorrow.”
The flight from New York to Kentucky lasted two and a half hours, followed by an hour drive on gravel roads in a small rental sedan. As she pulled up to the sprawling farm and aged farmhouse, she noticed that very little had changed since she left twenty-eight years ago. The yellowed kitchen curtains could still be seen through the windows, and the siding of the house was still a weathered white color. Adelle ripped the keys from the ignition, threw the trunk open, grabbed her bags and stumbled inside. After giving her parents a quick hug, she excused herself to her bedroom. She dropped her bags on the floor and began her quest for the antique bottle, containing what she needed most but what she never thought she would need again.
The shovel was nowhere to be found. Not in the garage, not in the barn, not in her father’s old pickup truck. Adelle needed that shovel to make it’s grand entrance, otherwise her attempts to reinvent her life would fail. She thought about digging up the old root beer bottle with her thick, acrylic nails, but even they wouldn’t be able to penetrate the compact land of the abandoned field. Adelle looked out the window, and franticly continued searching for the shovel; a storm was forming, and she needed to retrieve that bottle before it hit.
Finally, the shovel made its appearance leaning against the side of the house. Adelle sprinted across her property, through the little patch of trees and into the abandoned field. The cool wind whipped through the dense, muggy air like a blade. The air was heavy and humid, pressing down on the flora and fauna in the deserted field. Grass rustled as it was teased and probed by the wind, whispering in thousands of quiet voices. The only visible tree was half dead and slouching. Adelle quickly made her way to the tree and began digging. She shoveled one scoop after another, quickly and mechanically. The bottle was there, she knew it. After throwing aside 13 scoops of land, Adelle’s shovel clanked against something solid. 4 shovelfuls later, she uncovered the aged, scratched glass bottle. It was a dark, almost black bottle with a nametag on the side reading: “Hello, my name is… DO NOT OPEN. UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.” The bottle had obviously not been touched in many, many years. Adelle twisted and pulled against the cap of the bottle, fastened so tightly on top that it wouldn’t budge. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Adelle shrieked angrily. In a quick fit of frantic behavior, breaking it into a hundred pieces, she smashed the bottle against the tree, releasing its contents.
Adelle became Adie again; the youthful, carefree spirit she had been in her younger years. After she graduated high school, she thought her future would only hold commitments and requirements, not fit for a girl of her nature. Vowing to herself that she would be successful, she buried her youth, her capacity to enjoy life and her desire to live spontaneously in that old bottle, thinking that she would never need those qualities in her life again. Little did she know, what she buried would actually save her from a life she could hardly bear.
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