THE BLACK CHILDREN’S CHRISTMAS

A short story by Cyro de Mattos

Translated by Fred Ellison

          They lived up on the hill, the sister was named Bel, her brother Nel.  Life for Bel had none of the sweetness of milk and honey. And Nel knew all about the hard life, he would go to the top of the hill, as if he were in heaven. Their mother was called Maria.   Her dresses were very  plain and worn out with daily use. She never wore a blue silk cloak that shimmered in the daylight, like you’d see in church with the Virgin Mary’s image.

         Bel and Nel’s mother took in washing.  Her hands were calloused and  thick from always  pounding clothes in the clear flowing water.  During the week she’d  come down the steep path along the river bank with the can of dirty clothes on top of her head. When she got to the river’s edge, she would set the can of clothes down on top of a big rock, near the sandbar.  She wasted no time taking the clothes our of her bundle. She’d wet them, soap them, rub, rinse, and wring them.  Then she’d lay the clothes out on the black stones to dry in the sun. The black stones, covered with clothes all laid out, suddenly  looked many-colored  along that stretch of the river.

         Bel and Nel’s father was called José, he was a carpenter. He was skilled in the use of the tools he worked with: hammer, saw, adze,  plane, and chisel.  His small hands made chairs, tables, benches. They could fix doors, windows, gates.  The month that Bel reached six years of age, José the carpenter began to feel pains in his back.  Inflammation in his bones, trembling of his hands, his whole body hurting.  At night, in his room he’d moan. In his heart there was less and less  room for the love he used to have for Saint José, the city’s patron saint, because of the sickness afflicting him.  Finally, one day, Bel and Nel’s father lost forever his steady faith in Saint José, the saint protector of carpenters.

         Christmastime had come. Nel wanted a big airplane, Bel a doll that would cry. They saw the round figure of the old man with his pink cheeks for the first time on the television at the store.  On his back he was carrying a bagful of toys.  He had a white beard and his hair was silky.  He was wearing a red suit, he had on black boots. In one of the scenes in which he appeared on the tiny screen, he made his pink face into a smile that conveyed a sense of happiness and peace to every child who went up to talk with him and be held.  The kids standing on the sidewalk outside the store couldn’t take their eyes off the television.  They noted that the old man gave toys to all the kids, without wanting anything in return.  They would smile when the old man appeared on the TV screen dressed in his ample robes.  Their little eyes all fixed upon their wishes, they seemed to sparkle with enchantment.

         Alert of eye and with giggles behind their little teeth, Bel and Nel went inside to look at the tree, decorated with little balls and tiny lights, set up in one of the corners of the store.  By night the tiny lights would go on and off.  The star at the top made them marvel.  Next they discovered in another corner the Nativity scene, with field hands, shepherds and animals.  They stood admiring the little stable in the manger, whose roof was covered with palm leaves. A rooster with a red comb was on the roof.  On the  ridgepole, a star was all aglow with God.  Our Lady and Saint José showed their happy faces, alongside the Christ-child, who was sleeping his blessed  sleep in the warm, pure cradle of straw.  The three wise kings, there in the manger, gave the impression that they weren’t worthy of touching the straw, where the Christ-child was serenely asleep

         Sitting on the curb in front of the store’s sidewalk, now Bel and Nel were listening to the Christmas music coming joyfully from the loud-speaker on  the lamp post.  From time to time the volume of the loud-speaker would be turned down.  Then the Christmas  melodies  would serve as  musical background at the very moment when the announcer in his measured  voice would break in.  His voice brought the word that the most beautiful of stars was coming from Bethlehem.  It was brought in the hands of the greatest of dawns.  Its immense  brilliance was descending from heaven and came to shine on the grass where the animals were announcing and singing of the birth of the child Jesus.  The announcer’s voice choked with emotion when he communicated that on that very day the child of poverty was being born in the stable. That child-God was coming to drive out evil from all the world.  The gentle voice of the announcer was concluding his message of eternal peace with rising emotion at the end when he revealed that the bells throughout the world were pealing: It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas!

         Once more the loud-speaker was playing its happy Christmas music, featuring  this time a catchy tune.  Bel and Nel continued sitting on the street curb.  They could feel the touch of the breeze that was blowing in the street, at the end of the day. The breeze softened the faces of the two, both of them in silence, while their childish  hearts were touched by the songs that were repeated and that started thus:

I set out my little shoe

on the window-sill

Father Noël left me

my Christmas gift

         The Christmas song said something else, that the little old man would always visit every child’s  room, and, then and there, he would leave a toy as a present on that special night. Whether rich or poor, whether white or black like Bel and Nel, the smiling and generous little old man doesn’t forget anyone.

         Bel and Nel placed their old shoes on the window-sill of their room.  They found nothing the next day. From the highest point on the hillside, they stood there watching the white clouds,  coming and going like pillows.  A few of the smaller clouds took the shape of toys as they passed softly in front of the saddened eyes of the two of them. 

         They could see at that moment the city below them, at their feet. They imagined the excitement on that festive morning.  On the sidewalk, in the garden, in whatsoever  part  of the house.  Every child would be showing off his toy. He’d be leaping, dancing, running, dreaming, flying, smiling.

         At that moment they knew that the world had turned its back on Jesus.  It didn’t want to see Maria. It hid itself away from José.  Christmas was the tear that was rolling down both their faces.

         And a Christmas song was losing its sweetness.

                   

* Fred Ellison was born in 1922,  in Denton, Texas, EUA. He received his Bachelor’s degree in French and Spanish in 1941 from the University of Texas, at Austin, USA.  Received the doctoral degree in Romance Languages, with a dissertation, later appearing  as a  monograph The Novel of Brazil's Northeast: Four Northeastern Masters (Rachel de Queiroz, Jorge Amado, Graciliano Ramos, José  Lins do Rego. He is Professor Emeritus of the University of Texas.