A Christmas tale

Once upon a time, long, long time ago,
In a far away lost land,
There was a hero.
He didn’t look that special, he wasn’t notably handsome, or smart; he didn’t discovered anything, he wasn’t a known or famous poet or artist or author, nothing at all we usually link to heroes.
So sometimes he was sad, asking itself if he was worthy of being a hero. He tried to work hard on being a hero but life has its own ways and kept going on leaving him unnoticed. Sometimes he got tired, sometimes anxious, most of the time he kept going living his life the best way he could. And his life was quite an interesting life if you look at it (afterwards he was a hero): he used to wake up in the morning, kiss his wife, go to work and solve little problems (sometimes the problems were huge but comparing to what goes on in all the world and since the beginning of times they turn into smaller ones), come back home tired sometimes happy sometimes angry, talk to his friends…
But life sometimes got bored and our hero wanted to give up. He wanted to change jobs: to become an astronaut, a scientist, a doctor, a conqueror, he wanted to change the world! How happy he would be! So, he had a dream: to make a difference in life.
He kept his eyes open to the world and doing so he kept learning. He liked to talk to everyone has he knew everyone has his ways of knowledge. He wanted to be a wise man. So he tried to understand the rich and the poor, the good and the bad, the healthy and the sick, the powerful and the homeless,…He a kind of decided to make of his life a pilmigrage, into what? he didn’t know. And life went on…
As everyone knows once a year Christmas come and with it a time of celebration, of Jesus for religious people, of the link between all people and desire of peace in the world for everyone else. And our hero in Christmas evening was preparing for sending his postcards, and gifts, and wishes to friends, looking throw the window at the snow outside (as you know there isn’t Christmas without snow, and if you don’t have it you have to imagine) and suddenly saw a fairy!! How come a fairy was there?! We know there are no fairies in the world and surely not at Christmas stories! So he looked again but there she was: a fairy, a kind of looking cold because you know it was really snowing. So he opened the window and she came inside. She apologised, she got lost from another story. Anyway she could use a little rest and warm by the fire before moving on in her way. He was so amazed he said nothing and just kept looking at her. She quickly slept a deep sleep but a very short one (fairies have their own time different from humans). Then she thanked the hospitality and said goodbye. She was really late to her own story (she probably was Portuguese has everyone knows Portuguese have “brandos costumes” and kept not being on time).
A while after she left he went back to his own business preparing himself for his Christmas evening with his family. He felt happy. Afterwards he had everything worth in life: interesting people to be around, family who loved him and that he loved, friends to feel linked with, and once in a while some fantasy to make life funny. In that Christmas evening he decided to be or not to be a hero wasn’t important no more.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS
Paula Teresa