[Fiction] Secret Keeper

A wishing well? Why would I want to be a wishing well? Aren't there enough of those already? And what would I do with all the coins that would come my way? Mostly of which are going to be coppers, or foreign? Nahh....real job fulfilment comes from being a keeper of something more that just coins. Secrets. That's what I keep, and I'm pretty good at it too.

Actually, I'm the only one, which means I'm the best. (Being the only one means I'm pretty much any superlative quality, so I can be the best as well as the worst, but I try not to dwell on the negatives). Hundreds of years people have been spilling to me, and I've kept every single one. Some just come here and think about what they want to unload, but I know what they're thinking. Some actually talk out loud, feeling as if they're unloading to someone. They are, but they don't know who to. And some had a flair for the theatric, and wrote them on paper. People write to remember, but these wrote to forget.

It is, of course, true, that burdensome secrets, once shared, are halved. And so all of them, all who thought, or spoke, or wrote, found their hearts lighter. If they felt that they had actually shared them with someone....well, they would have been half right. A person, no; but a presence, yes. A few idiots still thought then, as a few still think now, that I was a normal wishing well, and tossed a few coins in. I used to be annoyed, but I saw their thoughts at the moment they threw the coins, and roughly half of these wishes were secrets as well, and so in a sense I was still having secrets shared with me, and was satisfied. The rest, I maintain, are morons.

I've done this for more than a few years now, and whilst you would think there would be recurring themes, there isn't really that much to go on, except for one major thing. More than half have been inspired by guilt, though they need not be - people think that they are worse than they are, or have done things worse than they think they have, especially to the people closest to them. A few poor souls have even gone so far as to think they are unforgivable. Poor souls indeed. For most of them, the obvious answer would simply be to go to the person, and ask forgiveness. But I can't tell them that. I can only take their secrets, and help them feel lighter.

Anyway, enough about me. Let's talk about you.

What ails you? Your secret is safe with me.....