Someone Else's Secret

by Julia Spiro

minefield, like a game of emotional hopscotch with endless rules: careful not to offend this person by saying that, careful not to ask about this topic, only talk about those things with those people, and on and on. It made no sense to her that information about one person’s life sometimes had to be kept secret just to protect someone else who wasn’t even involved. With all these rules, Georgie felt that it was safer for her to say nothing at all going forward, for fear that she’d let something slip.