The Window Of Delight

Erasto was just a little boy of eight years yet his name meant Peaceful Man; now that he and his Christian family had managed to flee Somalia, his parents were indeed hopeful that Erasto would make it to manhood.

It was the beginning of Advent and already the Christmas lights in the city were illuminating Erasto’s life with such happiness he thought he would burst; never had he witnessed such a sight.

His eyes became as big and round and dark brown as the chocolate and toffee Rolo sweeties he loved to chew so much since he had first tasted the agreeable things, they flashed with excitement moving and darting around quickly from one breathtaking spectacle to another. His nose twitched as he became aware of the delicious smell of the hot dogs and fried onions cooked by the street vendors. At last he let them rest as he saw the most magical scene of all. It was the window of a large department store the kind that Erasto still had trouble believing existed.

The whole exhibit was housed in one of their largest windows and depicted the Nativity. Erasto marvelled at the vision. There were Angels flying around the Heavens, there were shepherds with Lambs, Oxen, Donkey’s then the most splendid of all. The three Wise Kings from the East.

A large star hung glistening and twinkling amongst other smaller stars in a dark blue sky and directly beneath it were the Holy family. Joseph standing tall by a kneeling Mary; hands together in prayer, the baby Jesus lying in a manger swathed in an old raggedy blanket.

Erasto feasted his eyes on the window display wanting to remember every detail, suddenly he heard the high pitched voice of the tiny blond girl next to him.
“ Mam, look at this mam, what is it? who’s that?”
she whined pointing to the baby. The woman took the girl by the hand and dragging her away replied impatiently,
“C’mon Trace if yer dawdle about yer’ll miss Santa’s parade and yer wouldn’t wanna do that would yer ay?”

Even though Erasto was only very young some flash of momentary maturity touched him then and he wondered how it could be that for him and his family it had been so necessary to escape from their homeland because they believed in the story depicted in the window; yet here in this strange cold northern land no one seemed to give a care to such things.