The Palm Reader's Prescription

Marcus stared at the orange prescription bottle on his marble countertop. Vitamin D3, the doctor had called it—the supplement for men who spent their lives inside buildings, harvesting quarterly reports instead of sunlight. At forty-two, he'd achieved everything his father hadn't: the corner office, the portfolio, the beautiful wife who drank too much chardonnay and asked questions he couldn't answer.

He was running. That was the truth of it. Running from the hollow feeling in his chest, running from the way Elena looked at him across the dinner table like he was a stranger she'd agreed to lease a condo with. So he ran—first on the treadmill at his building's gym, then through the park at dawn, then longer, further, until his lungs burned and his legs trembled. The physical pain was easier than the other kind.

The work conference in Miami should've been just another three days of lukewarm coffee and panels about synergy. Instead, he found himself at a hotel bar, where a woman with silver-streaked hair and skin like creased paper was reading a colleague's palm.

"Your turn, darling," she said, catching his eye. Marcus laughed—actually laughed—and sat down. What did he have to lose?

She took his hand, her fingers tracing the lines on his palm like she was reading a map. "You've been running a long time," she said softly. "But you can't outrun what's inside."

Marcus pulled his hand back. "You don't know me."

"I know the look." She gestured toward his glass. "The vitamin bottles in your hotel room. The way you check your phone like you're waiting for permission to feel something."

He left without tipping. But at 3 AM, staring at the ceiling of his sterile hotel room, Marcus realized she was right. He'd been living on supplements and avoidance, nourishing a body while his soul starved.

The divorce took eight months. The running shoes stayed by the door, but now he ran because he wanted to, not because he was fleeing. And sometimes, when the sun hit his face just right, he didn't need the vitamins at all.