CHAPTER FIVE -SECRETS
1412 Words
Monday mornings had a particular kind of cruelty.
Zinnia decided this at exactly 6:43 a.m., when Grace pulled open her curtains and sunlight landed directly on her face.
“Wake up.”
Zinnia pulled the blanket over her head.
“No.”
Grace folded her arms.
“Excuse me?”
“I said good morning.”
“You said no.”
“I was greeting you.”
Grace laughed despite herself.
“Get up before you’re late.”
Zinnia peeked out from beneath the blanket.
“Is it really Monday?”
“Yes.”
“Can we cancel it?”
“Go and tell the government.”
Zinnia groaned.
“I hate school.”
“You said you loved school yesterday.”
“I love school on Friday.”
“That’s not how school works.”
Grace left the room.
Zinnia remained still for exactly ten seconds.
Then she jumped out of bed.
“I’m late!”
From the hallway, Uriel shouted,
“You’ve been saying that since Primary One!”
“Leave me alone!”
⸻
By 7:18, Zinnia was downstairs.
Her shirt was tucked in badly.
One ribbon was crooked.
Her socks didn’t match.
And she was trying to eat bread while putting on her shoes.
Grace stared at her.
“Did you sleep all night?”
“Yes.”
“Then why do you look like you fought with your bed?”
“Because my bed won.”
Uriel laughed.
Novara reached over and fixed Zinnia’s ribbon.
“Stand still.”
“I can do it.”
“You clearly can’t.”
Zinnia allowed her to fix it.
Daniel picked up his car keys.
“I’ll drop her today.”
Zinnia’s face brightened.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Can we stop somewhere?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you are already late.”
Her face fell.
“Okay.”
Daniel smiled.
“Come on.”
As Zinnia followed him outside, she glanced back at the house.
For a moment, her eyes rested on the window of her bedroom.
Her journal was inside.
The photograph was still in her mind.
She hadn’t told anyone.
Not Novara.
Not Uriel.
Not even Ryan.
It was hers.
A small secret she wasn’t ready to share.
She turned away.
“Zinnia!”
“Coming!”
⸻
The drive to school was unusually quiet.
Rain from the previous day had left the roads damp, and the morning traffic was already building.
Daniel glanced at her through the rear-view mirror.
“You’re quiet.”
“I’m thinking.”
“About?”
“Nothing.”
He smiled.
“That’s what people say when they’re thinking about something.”
Zinnia looked outside.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Can children keep secrets?”
Daniel’s hands remained on the steering wheel.
“Of course.”
“From their parents?”
He glanced at her again.
“Some things children don’t tell their parents.”
“Is that good?”
“Not always.”
Zinnia looked down at her hands.
“Why?”
Daniel was silent for a moment.
“Because secrets can become heavy.”
She looked at him.
“Have you ever kept a secret?”
Daniel smiled faintly.
“Everybody has.”
“Even Mummy?”
“Especially your mother.”
Zinnia’s eyes widened.
“What secret?”
Daniel laughed.
“That’s a secret.”
She frowned.
“Daddy!”
“You’ll understand when you’re older.”
She groaned.
“Again with the older thing.”
Daniel laughed.
“Life doesn’t explain everything at once.”
The car stopped outside the school gate.
Before she got down, Daniel touched her shoulder.
“Whatever you’re thinking about, don’t let it distract you from school.”
“I won’t.”
“And Zinnia?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t be afraid to ask questions.”
She smiled.
“Okay.”
She closed the door.
Daniel watched her walk through the gate.
⸻
The first lesson was English.
Then mathematics.
Then basic science.
By break time, Zinnia had forgotten about almost everything.
Almost.
She sat with her friends beneath the usual tree, eating from her lunchbox.
Her friend pointed at the purple notebook sticking out of Zinnia’s bag.
“Is that new?”
Zinnia nodded.
“Who gave you that?”
“Someone.”
“Who?”
“Nobody.”
Her friend narrowed her eyes.
“You’re hiding something.”
Zinnia laughed.
“Maybe.”
Before she could say anything else, a teacher approached.
“Zinnia.”
She stood immediately.
“Yes, ma?”
“You were one of the students who answered the questions correctly last week, weren’t you?”
“Yes, ma.”
“I’ve put your name down for the school’s Bible quiz practice.”
Zinnia blinked.
“Bible quiz?”
“Yes. Practice begins Wednesday.”
Her friend immediately gasped.
“You’re joining?”
Zinnia looked at the teacher.
“I don’t know if I’m good enough.”
“You’ll find out.”
The teacher walked away.
Her friend grabbed her arm.
“You have to do it!”
“What if I embarrass myself?”
“You won’t.”
“How do you know?”
“Because you’re always reading.”
Zinnia smiled.
Maybe this could be fun.
She looked at the notebook in her bag.
Then toward the school building.
For the first time that morning, Monday didn’t seem so terrible.
⸻
After school, Zinnia waited by the gate.
She was halfway through a conversation with her friend when she noticed a familiar face across the road.
Ryan.
He was waiting beside the church van.
He spotted her.
“Zinnia!”
She waved.
Her friend immediately looked between them.
“Who’s that?”
“My friend.”
“Your friend?”
“Yes.”
“He’s older.”
“So?”
“Nothing.”
Zinnia frowned.
“Why are you smiling?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You’re thinking something.”
Her friend laughed.
Zinnia ignored her and walked toward Ryan.
“You’re here again?”
“Church work.”
“You’re always doing church work.”
“Somebody has to.”
He looked at her bag.
“Still writing?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Zinnia remembered his advice from Sunday.
Write what you see.
She smiled.
“I started.”
Ryan smiled back.
“Then don’t stop.”
She nodded.
She almost told him about the Bible.
About the photograph.
About the woman whose face had stayed in her mind all weekend.
But she stopped.
She didn’t know him well enough.
Not yet.
And some secrets needed time before they became words.
Ryan turned toward the church van.
“I have to go.”
“Okay.”
“See you Sunday?”
“Maybe.”
“You’ll be there.”
“Maybe.”
He laughed.
Zinnia watched him leave.
Her friend came up beside her.
“You like him.”
Zinnia nearly choked.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“I don’t!”
“Okay.”
“I don’t!”
Her friend laughed.
“Sure.”
Zinnia pushed her playfully.
“Stop it.”
They laughed all the way to the bus.
⸻
That night, Zinnia opened her journal.
She wrote about the Bible quiz.
About school.
About Ryan.
Then she stopped.
She looked at the page for a long time.
Finally, she wrote:
I almost told Ryan about the woman in Mummy’s Bible today.
But I didn’t.
I don’t know why.
Maybe Daddy was right.
Some secrets become heavy when you carry them alone.
But I’m not ready to put this one down yet.
She closed the journal.
For a moment, she considered telling Novara.
Then she shook her head.
Not yet.
She slipped the journal beneath her pillow and turned off the light.
Downstairs, Grace was speaking quietly with Daniel.
Zinnia couldn’t hear what they were saying.
She didn’t know that the adults were discussing something completely unrelated.
She didn’t know that her mother’s old photograph had nothing to do with Ryan.
And she certainly didn’t know that the question she had been asking all weekend—
“Who is that woman?”
—would eventually become much more important than she could imagine.
For now, Monday was over.
Tomorrow was Tuesday.
And Zinnia had school.
A Bible quiz to prepare for.
A new notebook waiting to be filled.
And a secret she had chosen to keep.
For now.
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