Closets

Miranda Tully didn't believe in closets. Oh, she knew they existed, but disagreed with them on principle. Too many connotations of secrets and shames long hidden. Skeletons in the closet, closet alcoholics. She wouldn't abide a closet's use in her home. Instead, she would pile and stack things in front of them, which she realized hid the place where shame hid. The closet became her secret, for to even have them suggested she encouraged such deceptions.

“Oh,” her friends would say. “I never realized there was a door back there.”

And Miranda would blush for shame.

- Originally mailed to L. Sims of Hattiesburg, MS