STAR II

They met in the morning of the appointed day, below the highest peak of the mountain range of Zagros, exactly where the merchants’ road forked. The first one to arrive was Balthazar as he collapsed over a big rock because his legs were tired from the trip. Once he recovered his breath, he took out the water left and drank it all.

He spent hours contemplating details throughout the landscape: the shapes of the mountains, the stones on the ground, and the road that lay ahead. The sun shined on his face, so did the wind.

After a while, in the distance, he recognized the shape of a camel. As it approached, he was able to identify the face of the man on top of it. It was Gaspar. He looked just like I had shown him: grey hair and beard, embroidered clothes, with expressive gestures showing confusion. When he finally saw Balthazar sitting on the rock, he realized he had just arrived at the meeting point and hurried to the encounter. Five meters before he reached him, he jumped off the camel, arranged his clothes, and walked towards Balthazar. The latter stood up to welcome him, and they greeted each other even though they did not speak the same dialects.

Gaspar tied the camel to the branch of a small tree. They sat together on the same rock as if they were old acquaintances. It did not take long before they started to understand each other. Both of them shared the excitement of meeting personally. They knew they were in the right place at the right time. 

Gaspar explained he was an astronomer and declared himself a moon lover. He took out the maps, trying to show the calculations that brought him there, but he could not unfold them because the wind swirled, making clouds of dust. The wind and us, the stars, we are great friends. Many times the wind helps us hush humans. Balthazar listened to Gaspar in silence, who could not stop talking till finally, he started asking some questions:

‘So, how did you get here? I can’t see your maps anywhere. But I believe I’ve seen you in a dream.’

Forced now to break his silence, Balthazar introduced himself. Instead of maps and calculations, he showed him his hands, told him about his healing gift and about everything he had learned with his grandfather in the desert when he was a child. He always carried his childhood memories very vividly. Gaspar listened, paying attention to every word that came out of his partner’s mouth. Gesticulating with his hands, he asked again:

‘But, how did you get here?’

‘Well,’ said Balthazar with a firm voice. ‘Like you, some people study each movement of the sky through maps, instruments, and complicated calculations. Others, like me… let’s say there are many ways to speak with the stars.’

Gaspar kept looking at him in silence, waiting for Balthazar to continue.

‘When I was a boy, I learned how to talk with the Universe in the desert from my grandfather. One day, when I was seven years old, he left me alone. With my white clothes and little water, I stayed staring silently at the vastness of the sand that was before my eyes. Wherever I looked, that was the only thing there was. It was nothingness. I felt very lonely. The hours passed, and the only thing I had was water and the illusion of receiving a message from the Universe.’

He paused while he settled over the rock, and Gaspar offered him water. He continued:

‘My grandfather had told me that if I survived the night alone in the desert, the Universe would communicate with me, and I would become a wise man like him. The wind started to blow hard at sunset, and my disappointment grew because nothing extraordinary had occurred, and it was already night. I lied on the sand, which was still hot while the wind was getting colder. In that moment of absolute silence when my mind ceased to search, I realized that the nothingness that I felt was All there it was. And I was a part of that nothingness, of that wholeness. That I was a part of the Universe, and that was the message itself. A message that was already inside of me. I returned home before I forgot the way back, thanks to the moonlight. When I arrived, my grandfather smiled because I had learned the messages of the sky that are within us. And in that same way, I came here: listening to the voice of a star that guided me.’

‘And what else did the star say? What brought us here?’

Balthazar smiled. As I had told him, he was the only one who knew the plan from the beginning. And his mission was to share it with the others at the meeting point.

He thought for a while before answering and said:

‘We are on the road to magic.’

‘Magic? What is that?’ Gaspar asked – that was a word he certainly had never heard before. 

‘Some people believe magic is to bring information from the sky to earth. But to me, in this world, a true magician is someone who just is oneself.’

Brief flashes of Gaspar’s life surged up inside his head unexpectedly: childhood memories, random moments shared with his wife, the castle, and all those nights spent staring at the moon.

‘I believe then that I’ve always been on the road of magic,’ Gaspar concluded.

‘It’s possible. We are not here today by chance.’

‘But in my dream, I saw someone else. We were three.’

‘Yes, it’s him whom we are waiting for. His name is Melchior’

Gaspar stared at him, feeling more confused:

 ‘Where to?’

‘Bethlehem.’

‘What are we going to do in Bethlehem?’

That precise moment, over the horizon in the dusk, another figure appeared. Barefoot, a very ill man, was riding a donkey. Beaten up and almost unconscious, Melchior arrived. He collapsed in front of Gaspar and Balthazar. He was dirty and his clothes torn. From the ground, he was able to say:

‘The Son of God’.

Gaspar and Balthazar stared at each other, and as they looked down, Melchior fainted. They lifted him and put him over the camel. Balthazar rode the donkey. They left towards the nearest village, searching for a place to rest.