Photo Prompt, Short Story, Word Challenge, Wordle

The Journey

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for Sunday Whirl Wordle – #741. Our host is
Brenda Warren; her prompt words for this week are
shown below. The image I used is borrowed from
Blog 57 entitled “onestà svizzera” (Swiss honesty).
Here’s where the prompts took me.

wonderland, bound, morning, ice, knees,
hope, wheel, three, cape, head, and cross

Image Courtesy of Blog 57

The red train carved through Switzerland’s winter wonderland, bound for Rome. Cardinal Alessio pressed his forehead against the frosted glass, watching ice crystals catch the morning light.

Three days until the conclave. Three decades since he’d taken his vows.

His knees ached from years of prayer, yet lately the words felt hollow. He touched the cross at his chest; the weight of it different now, heavier somehow. Through the window, he watched the great wheel of the train as it rolled  past the mountains, their peaks dusted white like a monk’s cape.

There was a letter in his pocket, unopened, from Massimo. His childhood friend had chosen a different path …. marriage, children, a bookshop in Lugano. Massimo’s annual letters always came in winter, filled with ordinary joys that made Alessio’s head spin with what-ifs.

The train climbed higher. Soon they’d cross the border, and he’d be swept into the machinery of the Vatican again, the decision-making, the politics, the absolute certainty expected of him.

But here, suspended between countries, between the man he was and the man he’d become, Alessio allowed himself one dangerous thing: hope. Not for answers, but for the courage to ask the right questions.

The mountains stood silent, keeping his secrets.

NAR©2026

This is “The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret” by Queens of the Stone Age

Wordle 741
onestà svizzera

All text and graphics are copyright for Nancy Richy and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

19 thoughts on “The Journey”

  6. So much said/described/implied in such a well written short story Nancy, …you feel for the characters, jumping into their lives, wanting them to be, at the very least, happy with choices made, … Alessio and Massimo, and the ‘what ifs?’ … we hope, …always live in hope, …AND saying that, I hope you’re having a great Tuesday, and your week is going well. ( or at least as well as can be expected, …I’m covering all the bases!) …💙🤗

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  9. A probing story into what is the right thing to do …
    And I too always wander
    About the “what if’s”
    Sometimes it’s a guilty conscience
    Sometimes it’s a wishful conscience

    Lyrics, I’m Gonna Get Me To The Road

    My tired legs brought me to this place
    My tired eyes just to see your face
    My worn heart can’t take it anymore
    My poor heart, what’s it waiting for?
    They play what they call music in my ears
    They’re playing something I don’t want to hear
    The king of the night just gave me such a fright
    I think those are hands around my waist
    But I’ve been drinking so long I can’t taste
    And who is he? Who is she? What they saying to me?
    I know I’ve met that one before
    Does my face deserve to be ignored?
    I’ve had about enough, tonight I can’t be tough
    Call someone, get them, pick me up
    Call someone, I just dropped my cup
    There’s plenty around to see me going down
    My tired legs brought me to this place
    My tired eyes just to see your face
    My worn heart can’t take it anymore
    My poor heart has seen all this before
    I’m gonna get me to the road
    I’m gonna get me where I know
    A cowboy come along, I’ll screw my head back on
    And I’ll be feeling better in the morn

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