Undisclosed Recipients
Hello out there dear reader.
Hello and welcome to my words.
Hope they measure up to your expectations.
You want tragedy? Hope? Insight?
A profound message?
Or just a quirky little diversion from your everyday trials?
Step right up folks.
See the wild and provocative non-conformist do his stuff.
Get your money's worth.
Step right up to the fun house of mirrors.
A reflection of you perhaps?
A deep secret exposed to the light of day.
Is it real or made up?
Does it matter?
As long as you get what you're after.
There are three types of secrets.
One: you will tell someone you have
and if they give you enough in return you'll share it with them.
Two: you tell someone you have a secret and lord it over them,
without revealing it. Watch them squirm and beg for the answer.
Three: The true secret you would never tell ANYONE.
Let's do that.
Let's a tell a true secret.
Let's.
In elementary school, I once spied on a girl I had a terrible crush on.
And I did this strange thing.
Using a reel to reel tape recorder and a telephone microphone,
I recorded her conversation on the phone with a friend of mine.
A sexy conversation.
She set up a date for this friend with one of her friends.
She never knew I was involved.
We went to meet them, a shopping center a few miles away.
My friend and I got a ride over there and waited.
I wanted to watch him make love to her in the woods.
He was experienced with girls. I wasn’t.
Not so much because I was a voyeur, but I wanted to see how it was done.
For future reference.
But now with the one I had a crush on coming,
I guessed that was out. No peep show.
The girls never showed up.
My friend left the next day for his home in California.
I called back the girl I had the terrible crush on.
I told her we were not impressed with them standing us up.
She started to give some silly excuse,
but instead I turned on the tape recorder
and played some of her conversation back over the phone.
Then I hung up.
It caused her father to ask for an unlisted phone number.
30 years later I got involved with this very girl.
We had a long term relationship.
Almost got married.
I never told her about my secret.
I kept quiet.
I was embarrassed. Felt a little foolish.
I worried it might make her think I was too strange for her.
I might lose her.
So I kept my trap shut.
To this day she doesn't know.
There are some secrets we will never tell.
You have some of your own.
Yes you do.
Your turn.
(Above drawing: phone_tap_12x9_ink_on_paper, by Allen Forrest)