Abraham and Sarah were twins, their family had emigrated to America earlier on that year. Everything was very different from the town in which they had grown up where souks bustled with traders calling out what they had to sell, and the smell of spices filled the air, as sweet potatoes cooked over an open range. There were no longer fresh vegetable and fruit markets where villagers brought the produce they had grown into town on trucks, carts or bikes. Now, there were supermarkets with their bright lights, shopping carts and prepackaged fruit and vegetables. They looked nice, but somehow they didn't taste the same as the one's in the old country.
Back home Sarah and Abraham always knew when it was time to say their prayers, because at the corner of nearly every street was a mosque and the call to prayer would ring throughout the city like an echo when prayer time arrived. Now, it was easy to forget it was time for prayer, because there were no mosques that called the Adhan to remind them, and what was more the prayer times kept changing!
The twins, Abraham and Sarah, were surprised to find that school was also different in America. Back home, boys and girls went to separate schools, but here, they were in the same class in the same school. It was very strange and they felt shy, but at least they had each other.
After a little while they started to settle in well and made some friends, but they missed their grand parents, uncles aunts, and cousins back home.
It was the end of November, the children had just recovered from chickenpox. They had not been out of the house for two weeks or so. First Sarah had caught it and then Abraham. But now they were better and the doctor told them they could go back to school. Winter had come early, and their mother had made a nice warm fire in the living room and the logs of wood crackled away as the flames danced their way up the chimney.
The twins were tired of watching television and were looking out of the window at the cars going by -- everything looked so cold outside! Then, suddenly, little white snow-flakes started to flutter down from the gray sky above -- they had never seen snow before and called excitedly for their mother to come and see.
It wasn't long before everything outside was covered in white. The street lights flickered, magic filled the air as the snow sparkled and glistened like tiny diamonds falling from the sky. The trees and bushes all took on funny shapes -- everything looked so different.
Sarah and Abraham wanted to go outside and play in the snow, but it was getting late and their mother told them they must wait until tomorrow, after all they had only just got over chickenpox!
Abraham was the first to wake up the next morning. He rushed to the window to see if the snow was still there. It was! so he ran into Sarah's room and woke her up to tell her the good news. She was very excited and together they looked out of the window at a new world cloaked in white. The snow had stopped falling, everywhere looked so beautiful, and the winter's sun made everything sparkle -- it all looked very inviting!
Just then their mother called: "Sarah, Abraham have you said your Fajr prayer yet?" With all the excitement they had quite forgotten, so they quickly made ablution and prayed. When they came downstairs their breakfast was ready on the table, and they ate it up in record time.
They wanted to go out and play in the snow -- but they knew they had to go to school, but, there was a little time. Their mother gave them their packed lunches and told them to put them in their school bags. They were so anxious to go outside in the snow that their mother did not have to tell them to put their coats and boots on -- they were ready in no time! Their mother told them that she would drive them to school that day instead of catching the school bus.
Just then the telephone rang and their mother answered. She seemed to be talking for such a long time, and the children could not wait to go outside. Abraham opened the front door and peered out and a gust of icy wind made their noses twitch. "Come on Sarah" said Abraham, "we'll wait for Mum outside!" And as they walked down the garden path they felt the snow scrunch beneath their feet with a squeaky kind of sound.
Abraham picked up a handful of snow. He made it into a ball and threw it at Sarah -- it hit her right on top of her hat and bits of icy cold snow melted and slipped down onto her nose. This was fun, they thought as they started throwing snowballs at each other.
All too soon, the front door opened, and their mother with their school bags in hand, called to them to go to the car and wait there. They ran over to the snow-covered car and scraped the snow away from the front and back windows with their gloves. It was a good thing they had waterproof gloves, but even so their hands got very cold.
They had just finished removing the snow from the windows when their mother came, opened the car doors and told the children to knock their boots together to get rid of the snow before getting in. Then the children got into the back of the car but they hadn't had time to scrape the snow away from the side windows so it looked just as if they were in a house made of snow. Mother got out, and brushed the side windows clear and they were ready to go.
The warm breath of the children soon made crystals form on the inside of the windows -- this had never happened to them before. Not long after the car was nice and warm and the crystals melted and the children reached school on time. They kissed their mother, said: "As-Salamu alaykum" and went inside.
The school bell rang and the children settled down to work. Time just flew by and it was nearly time to go home when Mrs. Short, their teacher, told them that tomorrow they would decorate the classroom ready for Christmas. This was a new word for the children, they had never heard it before, so they asked their friends what it meant.
Jane, Sarah's friend told her that Christmas was the time she liked most; everyone made their houses look pretty with paper chains, tinsel, lights and a Christmas tree. There were parties and everyone got presents. Jane was surprised that Sarah had never heard of Christmas, but Sarah told her that although she had never heard of Christmas they had something like it back home called Eid, which is the time they celebrated the end of the fast of Ramadan and that there was another Eid to celebrate the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca.
In the meantime, Abraham went to Mrs. Short and told her that he did not understand what Christmas was, so Mrs. Short told him that it was the day they celebrated Jesus' birthday. It sounded good Abraham and he wondered why they had not heard of it back home, after all everyone there knew about Prophet Jesus.
The next day, Mrs. Short arrived at school carrying two large boxes. Abraham rushed to open the door for her, she thanked him and went into the classroom and put the boxes on her desk.
The school bell rang and the children settled down in their places. Mrs. Short opened the first box and took out lots of pretty things and the children set about pinning the decorations around the classroom, yes, it looked just like Eid back home.
Now that they had finished decorating the classroom Mrs. Short told the children she had a surprise for them, but she had to go out to her car to fetch it. She told the children that they had to be good and left Abraham in charge of the class.
A few minutes later, Mrs. Short returned with a tree. That's funny thought Sarah, I thought Mrs. Short was going to get a nice surprise, why had she brought a tree into the classroom? Abraham looked surprised as well while the rest of the class cried out: "Oh look, a Christmas Tree!" The twins could not understand what all the excitement was about -- it was funny to have a tree inside!
Mrs. Short placed the tree firmly on a stand. Then she went back to her desk, opened the other box and took out some tiny lights, brightly colored balls, ornaments, and more tinsel. The children decorated the tree and Mrs. Short arranged the tiny lights on its branches. Once they had finished decorating it, Mrs. Short switched on the tiny lights. The little lights, in all their colors flashed on and off and everyone clapped. Abraham and Sarah just stood and stared at the tree, it was the first time they had ever seen a tree decorated like this and it looked so beautiful.
That afternoon on the way home from school, Sarah and Abraham could not stop talking about the Christmas tree and decided they were going to ask their parents if they could have one.
The school bus slowed down outside their house, and the children got off and turned to wave to their friends on the bus as they ran up the path, kicking the snow up into the air as they went.
Mother was waiting for them at the door, but the children forgot to say "As-Salamu alaykum", all they could think about was the Christmas tree. "Mummy, mummy," they cried, "can we have a Christmas Tree. We've got one in our classroom at school, it looks so pretty, please Mummy, please?" "Calm down, calm down!" said mother, "come in and take off your coats, have your tea, and we will talk about it when daddy comes home."
To be continued...................
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