Prologue
429 Words
The greatest story ever told
Was told on Christmas day
Of the Jew who came to Bethlehem
Who came a long long way..
Very tired dusty walk
They knocked at every inn…..
“Help….please help me…please,” came a faint pleading groan from the back end of her porch.
Sonia stopped singing the Christmas carol and turned back with a sudden jerking movement. Their house was the only one in the town so close to the forest. And her husband being a botanist and conservationist made it easier for him to work. But the dark evenings and the nights when she stayed alone in the house still spooked her sometimes after all these years.
But she could not ignore the distressed cries of this woman either. Sonia took the flashlight and then walked towards the direction from where the groans and the shallow breathing was coming.
There were no wild animals here in this forest, except a few occasional deer and a bear in the winter.
Soon she could see that there was woman in tattered white gown shivering in the cold lying beneath a tree. She was heavily pregnant.
“Holy molly…dear lord, how did you get here in this state girlie?” asked Sonia. She was an older woman herself, with no children of her own.
“Please…no time…baby is coming, help,” said the woman who was as pale as a corpse and cold like ice..her hands were clammy. Sonia had a feeling she was touching a living corpse. But she knew that it was because of this condition…
“Let’s get you some place warm,” said Sonia as she tried lifting the woman but she let out a wail and Sonia let her go immediately in fright.
“No time…please..baby…” said the woman again as she pointed at her stomach.
Sonia had no idea what she needed to do but she trusted her instincts.
After some time the cry of a new born baby girl pierced the cold night air of the forest. Sonia placed the baby in the jacket that she had been wearing.
“Congratulations honey…you have a baby girl…beautiful that she is…” said Sonia as she showed the mother her child.
The girl smiled at her…sadly…she knew she did not have much time left.
“Eloa,” said the girl as she kissed the baby’s forehead and breathed her last.
- Writer
