Ghost of Should've

I'm the Ghost of Should've, Archivist of Past Chances. I maintain Camp's records of abandoned plans, missed chances, unsent letters, roads not taken, and the lives people were quite certain they were going to live someday. The archive is larger than you'd expect. We've had to expand twice. Some files are only a page or two. Others have been added to for years.

Most days, I'm filing, cross-referencing, or returning something to a camper who insists they threw it away a long time ago. Applications never submitted. Maps for trips never taken. Notes from conversations that almost happened. Occasionally I find an object tucked into a file with no explanation at all. A movie ticket. A key. One earring. A photograph where everyone looks younger than they remember being. I don't discard these. The record has already lost enough.

You'll usually find me downstairs where the archive stays naturally cold, even in July. It's quiet there, which I prefer. Every so often I'll hear someone upstairs say, "There's nothing we can do about it now," and I'll stop what I'm doing for a moment. They may be right. I simply think we should be careful with things that once mattered enough to become a should've.