DEAR DIARY

I was sitting in the middle of the laundry room floor with spiral notebooks all around me when my son Alex came into the room with his laundry hamper filled with dirty clothes.

“Hey, what are you doing?” He asked as he went over to the washer and dryer and placed his hamper on top of the dryer.

“Remember when we had that sump pump problem the other day?” I asked as I turned another page in one of the notebooks.

“Yeah,” He began pulling the whites from the hamper and tossing them in the washer. “One of the reasons I’m doing laundry now. We couldn’t do any while the pump was broken.”

“I’m way ahead of you on that one.” I nodded over to the dryer that was tumbling something with a zipper on it as we listened to it clank against the metal drum every few seconds. I smiled then went back to glancing through the notebooks.

“So, what are you looking at?” He asked again.

“Oh yeah.” I closed the notebook and looked over at Alex. “When I had to pull everything out of the closet, so the plumber could get to the pump, I realized these were in there.”

“And?” Alex looked confused as he reached for the laundry detergent on the shelf above the washer.

“My old diaries.” I laughed as I opened it again. “I’m going to say I must have been about fifteen when I was writing in this one.”

Alex’s eyebrows went up. “Some good stuff in there?”

I shook my head and laughed again. “Nope. I think I was so worried that someone would read it that besides talking about the books I’d read, I seem to be talking in code so no one would be able to decipher it.”

“Like how?” Alex put the detergent back on the shelf, closed the lid on the washer and turned it on before turning around and facing me.

“Okay, here’s one.” I placed my finger on the passage I wanted to read. “Unbelievable how some people act when they’re in a group! I don’t even have to say their name!” I looked up at Alex and laughed. “Clearly I needed to write down their name because I don’t have a clue who I was so upset with here.”

Alex nodded his head.

“I think it’s right up there with another one I’d read a little while ago where I started by saying ‘I’ll never forget this day ever!” I shook my head and laughed. “But I never said what it was so I don’t even know if I was never going to forget that day because something good happened or something bad.” I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m going to go with something good.” I looked over at Alex. “That makes me feel better.”

Alex shook his head. “So what are you going to do with them?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I guess I’ll keep them.”

“But you said they didn’t make any sense.”

I pulled the milk crate they’d been in a little closer to me. “These are my childhood diaries! I can’t throw them out!”

Alex sighed and shook his head. “I never said to throw them out.”

“I’ll make sure I put that in my journal tonight.”

“You still keep a diary?” Alex looked surprised.

“Nope.” I laughed. “Like I’ve said, I’ve always been afraid that someone would read them.”

Alex shook his head. “What could you possibly write that you wouldn’t want anyone to read?”

I pointed to my head. “There’s a lot of things I think about that I don’t want to share.”

Alex picked up his empty hamper. “Well, that’s a scary thought.” He said as he left the laundry room.

“Don’t worry!” I called after him. “You’re safe! Nothing but good thoughts about you!”

“Thanks!” He called back.