Inner Writing
A short story for Epiphany
This was my very first story. I was a Hospital Chaplain in Milton Keynes. Each year we held a Christmas Tree Service, usually a week before Christmas. The service was for parents who had suffered the death of a child that year or in previous years. They would come, weep and put a shiny ball on the Christmas Tree as a symbolic action to remember the child who died. It was a time of solidarity and support for the parents but it was hoped these grieving folk could remember their dead child at the Christmas Tree service enabling them to then devote the Christmas season to their other children and family.
I was asked to tell a story at the event. It had to be a children’s story as there would also be children present. It must have a Christmas theme and speak to the parents. I tried to hunt around for a suitable story but in the end decided to write one.
That was over twenty years ago and I am sure I would write it very differently now – but whatever – here it is.
Salifu’s Secret
Once upon a time in the broad rich land of Nigeria there lived a boy called Salifu-Ojo. In many ways Salifu was like any other boy in the city of Abuja, he was tall and had dark short hair and a round handsome face. Each morning his mother would rub oil into his skin and say, “one day, my son, you will know the greatest secret, and all the world will be your home”.
But that was a strange thing to say because Salifu already thought he knew the greatest secret in the world and the earth was already his home, you see, Salifu was no ordinary boy – he was a prince.
Salifu lived in a palace with his mother and brothers. It was a huge palace with think walls to keep out the sun. Gold and red patterns criss-crossed the ceiling and in some rooms bright thick rugs carpeted the floor.
Because Salifu was a prince it was expected that one day he would be very wise and know almost everything in the world. So each day he went to school to learn mathematics and how plants grew and how to make pretty colours by mixing together spices. His brothers would take him to school and say, “Salifu, you be wise and one day you will know the greatest secret and the world will be your home”.
Salifu thought he knew the greatest secret because his favourite subject at school was astronomy, the study of the stars. Each night, before bed, Salifu would climb to the very roof-top of the palace and there, with his books and maps, he would watch many millions of stars as the danced across the sky.
It all began on one such night. Salifu climbed the stairs to the roof-top and took out his books and maps and watched the stars as they performed their usual dance in the sky. But this night was different, he noticed a brighter star which seemed to be dancing in a new way and moving faster than the rest. It was almost as if this star was saying, “follow me, young Salifu, and you will know the greatest secret and the world will be your home.” Salifu consulted his books and opened old maps of the sky and to his surprise he discovered that indeed he must follow that star and begin a long journey.
The very next day Salifu and his brothers loaded their camels and donkeys with clothes and tents, and enough food and water for a long journey in the desert. They were excited and yet they were sad – they were to follow a star and no one had done that since the days of Jasper the Great, Caliph of the Niger river. But they were also leaving their home and perhaps never to return.
They travelled all that day and all the day after, each night looking for the star which seemed to call a little louder, “Salifu, follow me and you will know the greatest secret and the world will be your home”.
They came to the pyramids of Egypt where the east wind blew sand in their faces and bowing low they consulted the great Pharaoh of the Nile. He showed them the palaces of Luxor and the Phoenix of Cairo, but he knew nothing of the night star and was unable to tell them the greatest secret or give him the world as a home.
So they travelled across the plains of Egypt and on to the hot sands of Arabia until, in the distance, they spotted the great walls of Babylon. For thousands of years, in Babylon, craftsmen and women in stone and metal have shaped pictures of the earth and stars. Mystics and Viziers have told exciting stories about the beginning of the world. But when Salifu asked, none knew of the dancing star nor could tell young Salifu-Ojo the greatest secret nor give him the world as his home.
Young Salifu and his brothers decided to turn West and follow the star each night as it seemed to go before them. After cold mountain tops and vast flat lands the star led them to a small dark town on the side of a hill. Salifu and his brothers enquired at the rich houses with walls around them and they asked the important people of the town, those who would know. But none knew the greatest secret and, even though they were rich and important, they could not give Salifu the world as his home.
Salifu and his brothers were tired, they had travelled for too long. It seemed that the star had led them astray, perhaps they had been mistaken. It was then that Salifu saw the barn with a dim light spilling out from the half closed door. He could just make out someone singing very quietly and also muffled voices. They crept up to the door stepping over bits of straw and twigs not wanting to make a noise or disturb.
Something strong was drawing them in, and opening the door they saw the baby bathed in splendid light and his mother exhausted and sleeping. Angels were quietly singing …….
“Gloria in excelsis Deo – Glory to God on high,”
they sang. ”et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis – and on earth peace to all who desire good freedom”
And Salifu knew deep within himself that the greatest secret was in the words of the angels and he bowed and worshipped the child, which he knew somehow to be God with us.
Leaving the barn Salifu knew life had changed, the greatest secret was somehow that child, but it was also something which was unfolding within him. The secret was this child gave him friendship with the world, and such was that friendship he could call the earth and stars and the heavens above the stars his home.
We will never know if Salifu returned to his palace in Nigeria. But we do know that he travelled around his new home, the earth, with the greatest secret of the child in his heart, and somehow that was enough.
space photo by Vincentiu Solomon on Unsplash
