🎃 Imagine this. You are in a kitchen. Not your kitchen, of course. Your kitchen is soft and cozy and sacred. THIS kitchen is hard and cold and purely functional. You work tirelessly, sweat pooling on your brow, to make this meal, assisted by a team of chefs. It’s an ambitious feast in the making, and everyone must play their role, without flaw or hesitation. You are set to debut an exclusive menu, never before seen. Its value is in the secrecy as much as it is in the flavors themselves. An oven timer goes off. And another. You turn, drawn by the smell of smoke and a spike of worry. Someone is leaving early, abandoning their station. They stuff a recipe card in their pocket as they go. “Hey!” You shout, but their mind won’t be changed. They are bowing out, leaving you with double the workload, now half burnt and smoking. Their duties weren’t finished, and yet there is nothing you can do to make them stay. Shaken by this loss, chaos descends upon the team. Most roll up their sleeves to work harder. You will love these people eternally, unspeakably grateful for their loyalty. Some strip from their aprons and follow the first traitor out the golden door. But you have never been one to lay your armor down. When you fail, you fail gloriously. When you go, you go kicking and screaming. The cherry red telephone on the wall rings, and it is with intuitive dread that you answer the call. You recognize the voice. Of course you do. “If you still somehow manage to serve that secret menu, it won’t be before the entire world already knows every dish. Every ingredient.” You want to call their bluff. This threat has been made a thousand times, by a thousand others, and yet people line up around the block for your restaurant, never swayed. But this time is different. Because you know this person actually has the means to share the secret menu, and that they have enough proof to make the awaiting guests believe them. Of course they do. You saw them take the recipe card with your own eyes. Another oven timer goes off. 🎃

-submitted May 15, 2023