Demeter's Musings
3:00 a.m., New York City, NY
The classy, upscale loft was silent, save for the near silent patter of a cat 's paws across the hardwood floors. Moonlight flittered in through translucent red curtains, illuminating the place. One wall was brick, another plain painted gray plaster, and another wall was a mirror, completely bereft of anything. The furniture was all black leather, glass, and dark. Shades of red and black and gold accented the room.
The empty silence was disturbed by the click of a door unlocking, and a drunken, scantily-clad woman stumbling through the door. Kicking off her spiked heels, the woman made her way sluggishly to the couch, falling back onto the cushions. She pulled out a cigarette, lighting it and taking a long drag. Evelyn Wallace almost immediately felt the calming effects of the nicotine that relaxed her muscles and slowed her heart rate.
'Thirty-Four.' She thought scornfully, a scowl marring her pretty face. 'I'm thirty-four years old.' At the age of sixteen Evelyn discovered her love for the theatre and ran away from her tiny home in Connecticut to start her career in the big apple. It didn't take her long to find out how hard it is to be an aspiring actress in New York City. However, it also didn't take her long to snatch up a rich twenty-something boyfriend to introduce her to all the big players in the city. She was pretty enough; big brown eyes, long black hair, a body to die for, and a skill for acting that most big time actresses would sell their souls for.
At eighteen, while in the middle of playing the role of Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew, Charles Deetz proposed and they were married. It was obvious to everyone, except Charles Deetz, that his and Evelyn's marriage was one-sided. He needed her. Se needed his money. No one expected the baby.
"I want an abortion."
Charles gasped in horror, a heart-broken look encompassing his features. "Lynn… The baby..? You can't possibly…" A pitiful expression crossed her face and she rested her hands on his shoulders, making him look her in the face.
"Charles, it's not that I don't want her… I can't have her. I just got cast as Velma in Chicago! If I'm pregnant, they'll take the role away and give it to some other actress. You don't want that, do you?"
Charles looked at her hopefully through the blur of tears in his eyes. "Her..? It's a girl..?" Lynn nodded. His hands gripped her forearms desperately. "You want to kill my baby girl… for your career?"
Evelyn shook herself out of his grasp. "Charles, you need to see it from my perspective. Even if we did have her, do I look like mother material?" Rage took over Charles Deetz then. Possibly more anger than he'd ever shown anyone before.
"No, Lynn. You need to see it from my perspective. Have this baby, or we're over."
She never did get another chance to be in Chicago. The little girl was born, and Evelyn named her Lydia. She'd always liked that name. She and Charles managed to hold their sad little marriage together for ten years, for Lydia's sake if for anything at all. However, catching Charles with his pretty, red-headed secretary was the last straw. Without a word to Charles or little Lydia, Evelyn left.
Her career went downhill soon afterwards, but the divorce had left her with enough money to live comfortably for the next ten to fifteen years. Roles dwindled as she aged. She could no longer play the sweet young ingénue, and there was too much competition and too few roles for the late twenties, early thirties woman.
'I'm going to hell.' The woman mused, taking another long drag from her cigarette before snubbing it out in an ashtray. 'Evelyn Wallace-Deetz.' Said woman snorted at the thought, before falling into an alcohol induced slumber. 'Worst mistake of my life.'