A. locks his file cabinet because he
has nothing to hide. B. locks her
file cabinet because, if A.
is going to hide the fact that he
has nothing to hide, she cannot
leave herself vulnerable. C. locks
his file cabinet to hide this poem
which he has written about his friends
A. and B.
C. and D. are lovers. They live
in a house with A. and B., who are also
lovers. All four keep diaries, scraps
of paper with notes, coded or incomp-
rehensible, poems, etc. hidden
from their respective lovers. (As
mentioned, A., B. and C. keep theirs
locked in file cabinets.) Nevertheless,
C. knows that A. and B. have read
these secret papers. He knows that
D. has read his. He knows this
because D. has written in her diary
that she has read C.’s diary. C.
knows this because he has read
D.’s diary. While all of this is known,
none of it can be spoken of.
On certain
afternoons, this is all that C. can know
of love affairs. Or of the strategies
of cold wars.