hit the bottom and escape
Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
A look back to last fall, when the center could not hold.
Scandal and secrecy are like a blanket, covering me with the tales that aren’t mine, the secrets I’ll take to the grave. A career at perilous risk, the careening marriage, a story of heartbreak told deep in the woods as we sat on a footbridge and basked in the autumn sun. It’s safe with me. You can tell me anything; I won’t tell. It covers me, this blanket, keeping me warm against the chill as I seal my lips and keep your secrets close.
Until this secret – lighting the blanket on fire, charring my flesh and smothering everything inside. Incendiary harm. Parents who couldn’t and wouldn’t know until there was hope. A woman who needed her mommy and instead got her sisters, voices across the phone lines as familiar as the sound of rain on the roof. Sisters researching the words, deciphering while we learned. And keeping the secret.
