A Picture Has Appeared on the Mantlepiece

This is me really testing whether anyone is reading this blog... I would be so dead if I was caught doing this... but I'm enjoying the mixture of the public and private. A personal confessional that takes place in a public space.

I would though be completely dead if Lucinda found this site.

You see, I haven't seen this picture for a longtime - her mother died a long time ago - when she was a teenager. She hasn't really told me how, well she has but for the most part I've forgotten the details... does that sound harsh... well given that NO ONE is reading this nonsense why should I care...

Sorry, where was I?

Yeah Lucinda's mother, the venerated figure of whom no ill can or will ever be spoken, and suddenly there she was - in our living room - gazing softly out at me... all black and white and cool and beautiful. There are some kids in the background of the picture - I'm not sure if Lucinda is amongst them...who's to say.

I asked her about this picture and she looked sad and said it would have been her mother's birthday this week - she would have been 50 - and Lucinda said she had been on her mind. Her whole family had been on her mind. In that moment I thought about the photo I found, in the cereal packet, the little photo of her sister. I wondered if I should tell her I knew about it - that she needn't keep that part of her life secret anymore - that I wouldn't judge her no matter what - those words were just on the tip of my tongue - I was on the cusp of saying them...

And then Lucinda looked at me with such warmth - such affection - and she took me in her arms.

She told me: "You don't need to say or do anything... you're my family now... all I need."

And the moment was gone. The truths I had to speak were left unsaid. We would carry on living with our secrets.

I took this photo of her photo though... I really am so completely dead if she finds this...