Reflections on Shuffle-Play
(Secret in the Church Tower #2)
Outside it was still raining and there was a clap of thunder intermittently. She wondered what to do. She had no attachment to this church at all. She would be gone by now if it weren’t for this rainstorm and a sudden decision to explore the belfry. Part of her felt as though the letter belonged in the box where it had rested, in the quiet place it had been hidden all these years. She could just put it back and leave.
But first she wanted to try to figure out some of what it said. She had studied Norwegian just a little bit. Perhaps if she got into some better light and out of the grimy belfry, she would have a chance of deciphering what the letter was about.
She stood and lifted the trap door, carefully stepping onto the tiny, wooden stairs and went back down the steps with the letter and box tucked in the crook of her arm. She felt like a thief, or at least as though she were disturbing the peace, the long-held secrets of that church.
She sat down on a pew near one of the large stained glass windows in the balcony and opened the letter again. It began, “Kjaere Johanne.” She assumed this must mean “dear Johanne”. As she looked at the words on the page, she realized that between the tiny, faded letters, and the language she just barely understood, she was not going to get anywhere with understanding the content. There was only a stray word here and there she understood. However, toward the very end of the letter, she caught sight of a phrase she did know, “Jeg elsker deg.” Jeg elsker deg means, “I love you” – this was a love letter!
She laughed out loud with glee. She had just found a very old love letter! Tucked away in a church belfry!
She knew right then she would take it with her. She felt it had somehow been meant for her to find this letter and she needed to know the message intended for dear Johanne. Maybe once she knew what the letter said she could even find family members of this Johanne and give the letter to them! What a great surprise this would be for the family and even for the church community here! In the meantime, she would be the caretaker of this precious piece of history.
She tucked the letter back into its’ envelope and placed it in the box. She stood, grabbed her camera and her cell phone (which remarkably appeared to be unharmed) and headed to the staircase leading down from the balcony to the main level. At the main door she paused to look at the front of the church one more time. Johanne’s church.
On the way back home, she couldn’t stop thinking about the letter in the box on the seat next to her. All she needed was a little time and her Google translate program on her computer and she would know the secrets the letter held.
She had expected the rain to subside by now. It seemed that usually the rainstorms didn’t last for terribly long but this one was continuing and even intensifying.
In addition, it appeared that she was a little lost. Her phone may have been damaged in its’ fall down the stairs after all because its’ GPS was no longer working. She had started driving east and hoping that she was going in sort of the right direction or spot something familiar but right now she was a little worried. Nothing looked familiar, or maybe everything looked familiar. It was just the same view out her windows of more rain, more corn fields, more endless North Dakota sky with clouds that were now black as mud.
She grabbed the Marlboro Lights out of her glove box along with the lighter. Stormy weather was yet another perfect time to smoke.
As she inhaled deeply she thought how she had always hated severe storms. When she was a child, she would lie awake for hours at night and pray for the thunder and lightning to stop, pray that she wouldn’t hear the rumble of a tornado coming at them through the darkness. The wind began to shove violently at her car. She felt a catch of fear in her chest. She realized just how vulnerable she was. She was not exactly sure where she was, she was in her tiny car in a remote area. She hadn’t told a soul where she was going. If something happened to her, how long would it be before anyone found her?
Here Comes the Rain Again
by the Eurythmics
Here comes the rain again
Falling on my head like a memory
Falling on my head like a new emotion
I want to walk in the open wind
I want to talk like lovers do
I want to dive into your ocean
Is it raining with you
So baby talk to me
Like lovers do
Walk with me
Like lovers do
Talk to me
Like lovers do
Here comes the rain again
Raining in my head like a tragedy
Tearing me apart like a new emotion
Oooooh
I want to breathe in the open wind
I want to kiss like lovers do
I want to dive into your ocean
Is it raining with you
So baby talk to me
Like lovers do
Here comes the rain again
Falling on my head like a memory
Falling on my head like a new emotion
(Here it comes again, here it comes again)
I want to walk in the open wind
I want to talk like lovers do
I want to dive into your ocean
Is it raining with you
