{"id":1649,"date":"2025-06-19T11:20:31","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T17:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.duchessmennonite.ca\/?p=1649"},"modified":"2025-06-19T11:20:31","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T17:20:31","slug":"secretarys-corner-30-june-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.duchessmennonite.ca\/index.php\/2025\/06\/secretarys-corner-30-june-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Secretary’s Corner 30 – June 19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This week I\u2019m going to try something a little\u2026different from my regular Secretary\u2019s Corners. I was inspired by the May From the Pastor\u2019s Desk<\/em> and figured here would be a good place to try out this idea. So without further ado, I present to you\u2026a story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smack!<\/em> My hand knocked against stone, halting me in my tracks. Another dead end. The sixth in a row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDead end!\u201d I called over my shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A collective groan rose through the line of people behind me. Mumbled complaints rolled off the damp stone that surrounded us, echoing ominously down the corridors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I turned around, hands stretched out in front of me. One was held close to my face\u2014a shield against whatever might fly at me from the darkness. The other was extended straight forward, a guide through the caverns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My fingers brushed fabric, so I stopped, waiting for our train to backtrack down the tunnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCeceleah?\u201d The voice came from near me, lower to the ground than me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes?\u201d I replied, impatiently leaning from one foot to the other. How long does it take for a dozen people to move back a pace?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAre we lost?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I paused. Were we lost? That sounded a lot worse than this felt. \u201cDefine lost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My sister sighed a long-suffering sigh. \u201cDo we know where we are going?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell\u2026we know where we\u2019re trying <\/em>to go,\u201d I said,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat is not the same and you know it,\u201d Elonyah said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll get there eventually. We always do.\u201d Footsteps rang out, moving away from me. \u201cFinally!\u201d I started forward, resting the fingertips of my outstretched hand on the side on the tunnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLeah, there must be more than this! This\u2026this darkness! This getting lost every time we travel to the river!\u201d Elonyah said, hand on my shoulder as we walked forward in unison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had thought the same thing two years ago, when I was her age. Now that I had reached the ripe old age of nineteen, I knew better than to say that out loud. \u201cShh! They\u2019ll hear you, El. I do not care what goes on inside that head of yours, but you know better than to speak such…\u201d Treason.<\/em> The word was right there in my head, but somehow the thought of speaking it gave it much more power. So I let the sentence die away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy else would it be forbidden to speak of?\u201d Elonyah said, voice hushed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cElonyah!\u201d I whispered sharply. \u201cAre you trying<\/em> to get us in trouble? You know what happened to Mum and Dad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They had spoken out too. They had spoken out\u2026too much. And now they were gone. They left us here alone.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I shook away my angry thoughts. It doesn\u2019t matter anyway.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My toe struck a fissure in the rock beneath me. I let out a hiss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStub your toe?\u201d Elonyah asked knowingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, hush,\u201d I said, irritated,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have eyes for a reason, Leah. Surely if there wasn\u2019t always darkness, they would help guide us instead of our hands and feet. Have you looked at the scrolls? They have something marked on them that can\u2019t be read with our fingers. Maybe there\u2019s a world outside this cave\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I whirled around. \u201cEl. Stop. That\u2019s what got them killed, remember?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She felt silent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t ever talk about it again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I woke up suddenly, rolling over on my mat to face the center of the room. We\u2019d arrived back at the colony late, so tired we could barely keep our feet moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elonyah hadn\u2019t spoken to me the rest of the journey back. Instead, she\u2019d moved away from me to walk next to her friends. Their whispers had joined the hum of voices coming from the rest of the group who had made the trek to get water from the underground river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sighed, then reached over the few feet of space between our mats. \u201cEl? Sorry I snapped at you\u2026\u201d I trailed off as my fingers brushed cold, hard stone. No mat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEl?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sat up, frantically patting the ground. \u201cElonyah, this is not funny.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is funny.<\/em> I heard her voice in my head, but not out loud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I stood, striding back and forth across the room, sweeping all the corners\u2026no Elonyah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, on the table in the corner\u2026a clay tablet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I snatched it up, running my fingers hurriedly across the glyphs pressed into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sorry, Leah. I had to go. I have to see if there is something else out there. Something\u2026better.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo!\u201d I dropped the tablet. It thudded to the table, no doubt muddling the letters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cElonyah, what have you done?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The End of Part I<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week I\u2019m going to try something a little\u2026different from my regular Secretary\u2019s Corners. I was inspired by the May From the Pastor\u2019s Desk and figured here would be a good place to try out this idea. So without further ado, I present to you\u2026<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[13,85,12,86,84],"class_list":["post-1649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-secretarys-corner","tag-blog","tag-darknessandlight","tag-secretary","tag-serial","tag-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.duchessmennonite.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.duchessmennonite.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.duchessmennonite.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.duchessmennonite.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.duchessmennonite.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.duchessmennonite.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1650,"href":"http:\/\/www.duchessmennonite.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649\/revisions\/1650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.duchessmennonite.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.duchessmennonite.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.duchessmennonite.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.duchessmennonite.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}