Stars in our Scars

Stars in our Scars

“Papi.” Deenoh came in, panting, tears drenched his eyes and pink crumpled his face. 

“Yes, son?”, he replied after a round of seconds, in a calm, unruffled voice. He was preparing dinner in his favorite blue apron. Deenoh heard the pleasant clattering sound of frying pork. 

“She,” he sighed. “She failed me!”, he blurted into tears. “She slathered my love away!”

It was a rather tranquil night, Melanie, his mother, was out of town for official business. She’d be home in a couple of days. It is evident that the man in his royal blue apron can’t hand his ears as of the moment. 

He turned back and shot Deenoh with a sympathetic look. “How?”

He consciously collapsed down the couch, for he’s knackered out. “Why?” He punched the couch a million times. In tears he swam in the sofa. He sniveled, “Whyyyyyyyyyy? She’s a bickt. BICKT. BICKT. BICKT. She doesn’t deserve the profuse love I GAVE her. That heartless woman!”

He stormed out of the living room, trekked outside the terrace and scowled at the galactic canopy of stars. “How, huh? She’s never Satisfied!”, he shrieked. He was in his tantrum episodes, childishly whining and stomping his feet. His words were barely audible and it seemed to his father, Dennis, that he was simply garbling. 

Nonchalantly, Dennis ambled out of the house as if the frying pork did not, at all, exist. He proceeded to pat and solace his only, yet disheartened son.

“Do you actually know why I allowed you to have a girlfriend?”, Dennis began.

“Why???”

“Simple. Aside from the fact the child which was once cuddled in my arms and sucked in his thumb, the one who once wore diapers, who, peed in our bed for 5 years, is now ‘old enough’-“

“Papi, get to the point. Why?”, he interrupted. 

“Fine. Well, the reason is, scars light up truths.”, he sternly stated. 

Baffled, he asked, “Huh?”

“Pay attention to those stars.”, he instructed. 

Deenoh gazed up and gasped at God’s marvelous creation. To some degree, the stars managed to ease his pain. He marveled at them while they twinkled before his sapphire slit eyes. He was speechless. His hands rested behind his back and his feet were a foot apart. 

A few continuous moments were silenced. They were given the chance to ponder on life. Deenoh glanced around and unseized himself from the bind spell of the stars. He watched his neighborhood switch off their light bulbs telling them it’s time to snore off their buttocks. He saw the splashing of the remnants of droplets of rain from yesterday’s precipitation. He smiled and reminisced his childhood days. Temporarily, sadness fled his heart as happiness chased it away. He thought of how God was so good to their lives, having triumphed numerous obstacles and adversities with God’s grace and love. Dennis gestured to raise his chin up to fix his attention back to the gleaming stars. 

“Imma tell you a story that you think you heard before. “, he broke through the somnolent silence. “Gregory Canon.”

“Oh, ma great-grandpa.”, he recalled, “What ‘bout him?” 

“Well, sure enough, you heard his bedtime stories. But never did he mention the story of his life, yeah, you were too young back then. Anyway, Gregory, the owner of Starkey’s WHICH I, we happen to manage, was a valiant man, a mighty man of valor. He was in the time of sunset, when nighttime was rapidly approaching. That was when things were going smooth yet worries and apprehensions rattled him. He was, a Christian, just like us. However, when the dark season of his life conquered him, he wandered away from God. It all started when, his father was doin’ well, sauntered the streets when a gunman shot his dad- ma great-grandpa. He saw the bullet roar its way to his head. How, you ask. He stalked his surreptitious dad, and when that sound of a rifle blew like firecrackers, and made its way to murder the only person who believed in his capability in God’s will, he screamed in terror. That scream did not stop the gun from striking his head.

“He watched him smack his head to the rocky ground. His father’s head was soaked in a pool of blood, lifeless. Tears slid off his cheeks, down to the ground, and ran as swift as a missile to check if life hadn’t departed him yet. Too late, he was on the other side of the street, crossed it as fast as he could, but, but a car gravely crushed his right thigh as it unnoticeably drove over it. He howled and hollered for help, called for God but seemed He was, distant. He asked questions, millions of em’ that only crushed his soul more. He disregarded his newly claimed injury, and used his hands and left leg to assist him. 

“His vision went obscure because of the excruciating pain, as soldiers came to carry away the body of his father. He pleaded to touch him once more, but his request was denied. It as in the WWII era, maybe 1942, I guess. He was filled with innumerable questions, if-only’s. All that was left of him to touch was his father’s blood which immediately dried up under the heat of the sun. He didn’t know how exactly the car managed to pass over him unnoticed, or at least offer help or check on his condition. It was as if, the driver thought that the man in the middle of the road never existed. It was as if, he was alone facing the cruel, ruthless world he was living. 

“A good Samaritan hitchhiked him and asked where he lives. He was speechless, just pointed the directions. The driver saw his glum, numb countenance. 

“Eh, How’d the driver carry him? Hmm, I’d presume he couldn’t stand on his feet just yet, HOW?”, asked Deenoh. His question showed that he was listening- word for word.

“Ahh, I forgot to tell you that, the good Samaritan allayed his wound with white cloth and carried him inside, beside the driver’s seat. It was a small, rigged jeep he rode on to.”

“Ohhh,”, he nodded. “Go on.”

“The Good Samaritan drove him home. Said he witnessed the whole incident as he was about 350-400 meters away. How a car overtook his and neglectfully rolled over Gregory’s thigh bone. How heartless soldiers carried the body in just a matter of seconds, as if they had it coming. He was utterly devastated, speechless, and downright depressed. Later on, he went, irascible. Which led to the separation of he and his GF. Yes, his mood and peevishness made him repellent. People, some people once close to him gave him a cold shoulder. His life began tearing apart because, he was, living in the past. One incident changed his pace in life. A revelation clenched his fists more, when his father was a missionary soldier, who saved lives but wasn’t able to save his own. It instigated more and more questions about God, such as, why could he allow his servant to undergo such horrendous death? One somber afternoon, he was seated in his wheel chair, when a knife glistened before his eyes. He ran towards it as if it was the solution to end all his problems. His mother came in and saw what his son was about to do, so she said, ‘You don’t have to do this’. His mother soothingly spoke. He was bewildered once again. Confusion was at the summit. Questions like: why should I not, why am I not free to end all this problems, why, huh? Then a woman he could recognize, her ex-GF walked in the house with a crying baby nestled within her arms. That is, your grandpa. That prompted the beginning of his healing process, for the first time in years he smiled just looking at his offspring. Their relationship was restored, well, he was lucky to have such a considerate and loving spouse.

“Years later, he returned to God. He sat in a folding chair and insouciantly laid his head at the white of his palm. His feet remained to be crippled, yet, like what happened to Jacob in his wrestling with God, God wants us to depend on Him more. He gazed at the stars, marveled at his creation, and the stars reminded him of something, a saying which he passed on to generations: wounds light up truths. ‘When adversities come, it unravels the true you.’, he explains. God allows tribulations to let us shine like stars in the dark skies. The moment, my great-grandpapi perished, and when things abruptly went rough, when the night dominated the skies, it shows how strong our faith is. It shows that we must depend on him, and that He will never forsake us. When the good Samaritan assisted him, when a child became a head start for his recovery, when it prevented him from committing suicide, it is evident that God has always been Good to us It showed him that the night is where we feel God’s strength and light more in our lives. When we don’t allow afflictions to crumple and tear our world apart, we’ll shine, like, stars in the night sky. The questions he was asking were gradually answered, and by that he used his keen in cooking for founding Starkey’s. That’s how God’s servants view imbroglios, they rise and shine like stars. As he looked back, it wasn’t the fact that he was about to end his life that made him remorse the most, that he deserted God, the only One who knows the way out of his problems, the only One who loves him the most, the only One who can make his life more beautiful than ever, the only One who is God. He ended up more valiant than he was before, he grew stronger and mightier and sturdier, it strengthened his faith and his dependence on him. It made him shine, and, gleam, and dazzle at the end of the adversity. Fin. By the way, how’s the story?”

“Done with your speech?”, he slyly sneered. Deenoh was relieved when the irksome narrative was over. He stretched out his body and wandered around. “Nah, JK. Woah. I never thought I had such a phenomenal grandpa. What’s the implication?”

His father thought about it for a moment or two, then he retorted, “The bare statement you broke up with her, it shows the extent of your patience. It shows the extent of your love. See, told ya wounds light up truths. What really happened tho?”

Deenoh contemplated for it in moment, he stared blankly to the ground. Answering his father’s question would have his memories with her racing down to inflict him with pain. He forgot he was actually gloomy but the story managed to alter it with a concoction of emotions. “She, she told me she loved me. Just days later, I saw her with a guy I never saw before. As I said, she’ll never be satisfied. I was about to give her flowers and chocolates, as a typical man would do, but, then I couldn’t bare the pain! So I trashed the flowers and ran my way back hear.”

“Jeez. OHHH, now I see. You drew conclusions. What if it was just a friend, or an acquaintance, a cousin, or a workmate, c’mon, son, I didn’t raise to be such a nitwit.” 

“Yeah, you have a point.” He shrugged. “I guess we should talk then.”

“Your love was juvenile enough for you to dwell on mere assumptions. See, wounds light up truths.”, Dennis pointed out.

The smell of overcooked food wafted through their nostrils, his father scurried to turn off the stove. Deenoh shook his head and grimaced at the face of their black dinner. Disgruntled, Dennis suggested, “Let’s both, go to Starkey’s.”, he hummed Shakey’s theme song.

To God Be the Glory