Closure

She quietly rose from the table and simply walked out of the building, then headed home through the underpass.

She spoke to no one, and no one spoke to her. The others went about their business in silence, while the hurrying crowd on the street had troubles of its own. Besides, they were strangers. They didn't even look at one another.

She felt nothing. Or rather, there was a calm lightness within her. A sense of floating on the edge of the certainty that this was right. She felt content, if not happy. That was no small thing after the resignation of the past few years.

Later, everyone said it must have been hormones, menopause, a "last-chance" panic, a midlife crisis, depression, or perhaps a nervous breakdown. But she knew it was none of those things.

She had simply closed one door and opened another.