Christmas Through Their Eyes: Mattias the Innkeeper

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I’ve written a few narratives telling the Christmas story through the eyes of its characters. This is my first attempt at creative writing in a long time, so please, be gracious. That’s all.

I normally would not write a journal entry in the earliest of morning hours, but tonight has been… how do I even describe it? It’s been weird for certain, it’s been inconvenient (see my being awake at this hour), but part of me thinks something about this night is so significant. Well not the night in itself, but the events that have taken place tonight. Man. I’m so scatterbrained. This entry will probably make little sense, but I just have to write for fear of forgetting anything.

Ok. Man. Well I guess the craziness started when I rented out my final room here at the inn. I have Caesar to thank for the boost in customers this month with the census he decreed and all. Unfortunately, once the last room had been rented, the people didn’t stop coming. I had to turn down a fair amount of people from sun-down to past midnight. One of the last couples I turned down is the very reason I’m still awake. I don’t remember their names… the man looked familiar… but his wife was pregnant. Very pregnant. I felt bad that I had no place for them to stay, but there was nothing I could do.

So I fell asleep for what should have been the remainder of the night, but a few hours later (just a little while ago) I heard a group of men bustling down the street outside, talking loudly to one another. I went to the door to see what was happening, fearing that there was a fight or something. By the time I made it to the door though, I only saw the men’s backs; they were heading to the stable down the road. I recognized that the men were shepherds by their clothes, so I figured they were going to the stable to stay. Not the case.

In just over an hour after they first came by to wake the neighborhood up they came back through only this time they were much, much louder. They were knocking on people’s doors (mine included) telling the story of how they’d ended up here tonight. Something about an angel who talked to them out in their fields and told them that a lady was going to have a baby (which is probably true, because that one lady looked like she could have her baby any moment). Well as if the thought of angels coming to tell shepherds ANYTHING isn’t absurd enough, these guys were saying that this woman’s baby was the Messiah… I was amazed. Shortly after they finished telling me and the rest of the street about what had happened, they went on into town doing the same thing. Telling people what they’d seen. I don’t know what to think about all this right now. I’m exhausted. I’ll process all of this more in the morning (it already is morning)… I’ve got to sleep now.