HOW THE CHRISTMAS TREE SHONE GLOOMY

By: Arcylie R. Acabado

Ever and ever so long ago, when it was once upon a time. . .

It was before Christmas and the tree was all trimmed with pop-corn and silver nuts and pretty glass balls and little wooden toys, and stood safely out of sight in a room where the doors were locked, so that the children should not see it before it was time.

But ever so many other little house-people had seen it. The big black pussycat saw it with her great green eyes; the little gray kitty saw it with her little blue eyes, the kind house dog saw it with his steady brown eyes; the parrot saw it with his wise, bright eyes. Even the wee, wee mice that were so afraid of the cat had peeped one peek when no one was by.

But there was someone who hadn’t seen the Christmas tree. It was the upcoming baby of the family, my expected cousin!

Just two weeks before the Christmas, a great cleaning-up began in the house. My mother and the rest of my aunt came sweeping and dusting and wiping and scrubbing, to make everything grand and clean for the Christ-child’s birthday. Broom went into all the corners when suddenly my aunt came shouting from the other corner of the house, “hoo.hoo. mugawas na guro xa!” (woooh.. he’s going out!) Then, everybody stopped everything they’re doing and immediately helped my aunt out then rushed through the hospital.

After giving birth, the baby boy was in a large intensive care room with many other sick infants. His father stood next to a plastic box where the baby lies with a respirator, the monitors and tubes connected to the baby’s little body. He held his son’s tiny hand, feeling his thumb and four fingers believing that the baby would be coming home soon even there were many times hearing the unsound words from doctors that he has a few days left to live.

Watching over my uncle and feeling the pain of a very ill baby disrupted my emotion. For some, faith is just another word but I and the rest of the family just kept on praying for our little baby boy. And God just granted our prayers, the doctor were now saying that the baby would be going home tomorrow. We were very happy for the good news so I went home and told everyone that the baby is coming home. Everybody were fixing the house while I was looking at the Christmas tree thinking that if the baby would see it, he would be very happy because of its bright lights and other features.

The day before Christmas, while everybody’s waiting for them to arrived. My other aunt received a call from the father’s baby saying that the baby had no signs of life, no heartbeat, no blood pressure and that he was not breathing.

Tears ran down my face while fixing the Christmas tree with the thought that our little baby boy won’t come home for Christmas and will never get the chance to see the beautiful bright tree which suddenly turned out  with a strange sight, like it was covered with dreariness from its trunk to its tip.