Joe was worried. Too worried. He fixed his hand into his jeans and looked around. ‘we’d have to find another hotel’ he said to anita who was sweating profusely due to heat of uncomfortable circumstances.
They’d tried fifteen hotels in the dead hour of the night and they were already filled up with or reserved for people coming in for the census. He tried to drive steadily along the unsteady road, washed away by heavy rain in the summer. The ninth month of gestation was always very stressful, Anita thought to herself even though she knew her mothers and aunts hadn’t missed a day of work on their ninths months of gestation just excluding delivery day and the periods after.
She clutched tightly to her belly. Her water just broke and even though not being too much of a science freak, she knew that the amniotic sac had broken and there wasn’t too much too worry about. But the stress of the journey made her weak and if she was correct, the baby had kicked once or twice along the way. She wasn’t going to alarm him but after child birth, she was going to point accusing fingers at the government. She didn’t know why they would call a census at this time, when only a few months back they had their census. She could have been in the comfort of a civilized city with less people in a good hospital but for the census. She stared at her worry dazed husband. She could see the lines on his arched forehead. He was so caring, if it were some other man, they won’t have cared. At least the child wasn’t his.
He looked her and smiled after giving her a tight squeeze on her palm. He parked the car and walked out to a small motel. He wondered if the press would somehow get there and find out their little front page princess was going to birth to her ‘strange’ baby in a cheap motel in bayelsa. He smiled at the thought. He didn’t care about the press as long as the child and Anita were well. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and walked into the motel. He walked up to the front desk. The woman shook her head disdainfully as if she already knew what he was going to ask
‘no rooms available sir’ she said sorry.
A man walked in as joe was about to leave. Joe turned back immediately
‘pleaase, my wife is about to go into labour!’
‘oh my’ the man said ‘well there is little I can do. All I have is a barn filled with animals with little or no spaceand my wife is a midwife. That’s the best this motel can do’ he said and immediately joe realized he had to be the manager.
‘I’m sure you wouldn’t want that’ the front desk lady said and the man nodded
‘but the offer is still open.’ The man said and Joe noticed the worry in his voice. ‘I doubt if you’ll get any hotel or even a hospital at this hour in this town, on this day. But if-’
‘no no, she is crying in the car now’ he cried out loud ‘I’ll take anything’ joe said
‘then we have to hurry’ the hotel manager said and rushed to his barn. He had never done this and he didn’t know why he was giving a room meant for aanimals to a human being. But his spirit pushed him to it and deep down, he knew he was doing the right thing for the young couple.
the inn keeper gave a room meant for animals for the king of kings to be born. He could have sent them away like all the other inn keepers did and said ‘this room is for animals not humans’ or something. But he didn’t. his offer plays a key part in the story of christmas as it is said Christ was born in manger that the animals ate from. What a noble way of being born. Though, the inn keeper till today isn’t remembered for anything significant, I must say, his offer went a long way in history.
Christmas is about offering one thing or the other not just to those we know, but also to strangers e.g the less priviledged. As it is popularly said, it is more blessed to give than to receive J so, go look for that human or animal you want to bless this christmas.
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