The Star Junior Novelization

by Tracey West

  “Different? What different?” Joseph asked. “Like, baby’s coming now different?”

  Mary nodded. “We’ve got some time. But, yeah. I think so.”

  Joseph stood up and started moving in circles.

  “Okay, nobody panic!” he cried. He started pulling bundles off Bo’s back. “I’ve got the clothes, I’ve got the bag, I’ve got the sheep—why do I have the sheep?”

  In his excitement, he had accidentally picked up Ruth. He put her back down.

  He cleared off the rest of the bundles.

  “Bo, can you carry her?” he asked.

  Bo nodded. Joseph helped Mary climb onto the donkey’s back. He hoisted the bundles over his shoulder.

  Then Mary, Joseph, Bo, Dave, and Ruth continued down the road, following the Star.

  Chapter Seventeen

  No Room at the Inn

  Along with Mary, Joseph, and Bo, people from all over headed to Bethlehem to be counted for the census. Among the weary travelers were the three wise men, moving through the desert on their camels. The Hunter was headed there too, holding Rufus and Thaddeus on a chain.

  When Mary and Joseph arrived, it was nighttime, and the small town was overcrowded. Long lines of people waited in front of the census table.

  Bo pulled up in front of a nearby inn. Joseph helped Mary off the cart and brought her inside. Bo looked around, searching for any signs of trouble. He looked up to the sky to get comfort from the Star, but it was covered by storm clouds.

  “Aaaaand, they’re in the inn!” Dave cheered. “Thank goodness. This has been so stressful. Hoo! Don’t know how I held it together.”

  “Well, we made it,” Ruth said happily. “Safe and sound in Bethlehem.”

  Bo frowned. “Something’s not right.”

  He looked up and briefly saw the Star as the clouds parted. When he looked back down—he saw the Miller staring at him! Bo gasped.

  “You!” the Miller shouted.

  “No, no, no!” Bo wailed.

  “Easy, easy, it’s okay,” the Miller said. “Just hold still!”

  Before Bo could get away, the Miller lunged at him. He slipped a rope around Bo’s neck.

  “Let me go!” Bo yelled.

  Dave flew into the Miller’s face.

  “Oh no, you don’t, you crazy-eyed donkey-eating miller. That’s my best friend!” he cried.

  The Miller swatted Dave away, and he fell to the ground. Ruth ran over and helped him up with her snout.

  “Dave, are you okay?” she asked. Then she raised her head. “Where’d they go? Who was that?”

  “Bad news,” Dave answered.

  Meanwhile, inside the inn, Mary and Joseph were speaking to the innkeeper.

  “I’m sorry, the inn is full,” he told them.

  “What? No, can’t you see? She’s about to have a child,” Joseph pleaded.

  The innkeeper shrugged. “What can I do? Blame the census.”

  He motioned to the hallway, where a number of guests were asleep on mats.

  Joseph looked at Mary, concerned. Then he had an idea.

  “You know what? We’ll pay double! Just hold that thought! I’ll be right back!” he said. “I left the money with Bo.”

  He ran out of the inn and then stopped, shocked.

  “Bo? Where’s Bo?”

  The donkey was gone, along with all their bags! His face turned pale with fear. Dave flapped his wings, trying to get Joseph’s attention. Ruth baaaa’ed at him.

  Mary staggered out of the inn, taking short, quick breaths.

  “Joseph, we’re running out of time!” she warned.

  “Mary!” Joseph cried. He rushed to her side to help her.

  Ruth ran down the street and Dave flew above her. They were both in a panic.

  “Bo! Where are you?” Ruth yelled.

  “Ruth, I know we have had our personal issues, but we need to set them aside and find Bo,” Dave said.

  “We have personal issues?” Ruth asked, puzzled. “Dave, I think you are a delight!”

  Dave grinned. “I am a delight. Thank you for noticing.” Then he pointed forward. “Okay, time to activate Operation Rescue Bo!”

  Up ahead, the Miller dragged Bo toward a stable. At the same time, Bo could see the Hunter and his dogs enter the town.

  “You’re going back to the mill, donkey!” the Miller said.

  “What? No, no, no!” Bo protested.

  The Miller dragged him away, and he watched, helpless as the Hunter and his dogs made their way toward Mary. They stopped in front of the inn. Thaddeus sniffed the door.

  “She’s here,” he said.

  But Mary and Joseph had already left that inn. The couple had tried another inn, but that was full too.

  “Where do we go now?” Mary wondered.

  “We’ll just have to keep looking,” Joseph said.

  As they walked off down the road, the three wise men entered the town. They led their camels by the reins.

  “So this is Bethleham!” Felix said.

  “It’s pronounced Bethlehem,” Cyrus corrected him.

  “That’s what I said. Bethleham,” Felix repeated.

  “HEM,” Cyrus corrected him again. “As in ‘ahem,’ as though clearing the throat.”

  “That’s what I’ve been saying!” Felix protested. He shook his head. “You need to get your ears checked.”

  “Boys, focus!” Deborah scolded. “We gotta find the new King and tell him he’s in danger.”

  “Right, let’s go find him!” Felix said.

  The three camels tried to walk off—but they realized that the wise men had tied their reins to a fountain.

  “Ack! They’ve secured our restraints!” Cyrus complained.

  “Yeah, and they tied us up too!” Felix added.

  “We have to find the new King!” Deborah said anxiously.

  They watched the wise men walk into Bethlehem and start knocking on doors.

  Cyrus shook his head. “Wise men, indeed!”

  “We’ll never find him if we’re tied up here,” Deborah said. “We have to go out and search!”

  “That’s it!” Felix said. “I’m biting through the reins.”

  Cyrus gasped. “You wouldn’t dare. That’s fine Corinthian leather. It’s expensive.”

  “You kidding me?” Felix asked. He looked to Deborah for moral support.

  “No, Cyrus is right,” Deborah said.

  “We’ll have to untie the knots ourselves,” Cyrus said. “First, Felix, we’ll need you in the middle. Deborah on the far left.”

  The camels awkwardly stepped over one another, ducking under one another’s reins.

  “No, the other left,” Cyrus said.

  “You mean right?” Deborah asked.

  Soon, they were tied together in a giant tangled knot.

  • • •

  Nearby, the Miller pulled Bo into a stable. He roughly tied Bo to a post in the middle of a barn.

  “No, no! Don’t do this, please!” Bo begged. He pulled against the rope, but it wouldn’t break.

  The Miller left, and Bo kept pulling and pulling. “I can’t let down Mary and Joseph,” he said.

  Defeated, he stopped pulling. He dropped his head in complete despair.

  Then he began to pray.

  “God, hello, um, I don’t really know how this works,” he said. “Or if you listen to prayers from donkeys, but I’ve seen Mary do this many times and I don’t know what else to do. I need to help them. I’ll walk in circles for the rest of my life in that mill if you want me to! Just please let me go help my friends!”

  Bo sighed. Then suddenly, from out of the darkness, a voice spoke.

  “Who is that?”

  Chapter Eighteen

  New Friends

  “God?” Bo asked.

  A goat with bulging eyes stepped out of the shadows. He had a patchy gray, brown, and white coat.

  “I’m freaking out here!” the goat wailed. “I’m seeing things, guys! There’s a donk
ey in the corner and he’s talking to God and he won’t stop looking at me!”

  A cow with a smooth brown coat stepped up next to the goat.

  “Zach! Pull yourself together!” she told the goat. Then she nodded to Bo. “What’s your name, sweetie?”

  “Bo,” the donkey replied.

  A gray-haired horse emerged from the back of the stable.

  “Bo is a funny word,” she said in a dreamy voice. “Bo. Bo, bo. Boooo. Bo, bo, bo . . .”

  Bo eyed the three barn animals.

  “Oh, I’m doomed,” he groaned.

  “I’m Edith,” the cow said, “and Zach and Leah aren’t usually like this. You caught us at a bad time.”

  Leah giggled. “Yeah, we haven’t slept in nine months.”

  Bo’s eyes widened. “Nine months?”

  “Not a wink!” Zach confirmed.

  Bo nodded. “Oh, so that explains your eyes.”

  “What? What’s wrong with my eyes?” Zach asked, his eyes spinning wildly in his head.

  Bo didn’t want to upset him. “Nothing.”

  “Yep, no sleep at all since that giant night-light turned on,” Edith explained.

  “Light?” Bo asked.

  “Every single night,” Zach explained. “It’s making us a little crazy.”

  Edith nodded her head, motioning for Bo to follow her. The four animals walked around a wall in the stable.

  “Ta-daaa!” Edith said.

  Incredibly bright light from the Star shone into the stable, directly on a wooden food trough filled with hay—a manger. The light shining on it illuminated the manger with a miraculous glow.

  “Aaaaaaaah!” Leah sang. “Sorry, so excited. Zach and Edith don’t like the spotlight, but I think it’s beautiful.”

  The sight filled Bo with excitement. “It’s here!” he said. “I can’t believe this!”

  “Me neither,” Edith said with a sigh.

  “You don’t understand,” Bo told her. “That light—that’s the Star! This is where it’s been leading me. But . . . Mary, Joseph.”

  Bo knew he had to get Mary and Joseph to the stable somehow. He turned to the animals.

  “Guys, I gotta get out of here. Can you help me?” Bo asked, looking down at the rope around his neck.

  “I’ll chew him free!” Zach cheered.

  Zach walked up to Bo—but instead of chewing on the rope, he started chomping on the wooden post the rope was tied to.

  “Woody,” Zach complained.

  “Wait, no,” Bo said. “Try biting—”

  Leah interrupted him. “I know! I’ll sing you free!”

  She started singing random, joyful notes.

  “That was beautiful, but not helpful,” Bo said, feeling more anxious by the minute.

  Zach stuck out his tongue. “I dink I got a thplinter in my tongue.”

  “Step aside,” Edith said. Then she bit down on the rope, freeing Bo from the post.

  “Yes! That’s perfect!” Bo cheered. “Now I just gotta get past that gate.”

  He lowered his head and charged the gate, ramming it. The gate didn’t budge, and he fell back, dizzy.

  “Has that ever worked for you?” Edith asked.

  “No, actually,” Bo admitted.

  The three animals lined up against the stable gate. First Zach, then Edith, then Leah. Bo climbed up on each one like he was climbing up steps. Then he hopped over the gate.

  “Thanks, guys!” Bo said. “I’ll be back. Get the place ready. Mary’s having a baby!”

  “I love babies!” Leah squealed.

  Edith sighed. “Great. Now we’ll never sleep.”

  Bo charged down the street, searching for Mary. He turned a corner—and ran right into Dave and Ruth!

  “Oh, hey, Bo,” Ruth said calmly. Then it hit her—they’d found their lost friend. She gasped. “Bo!”

  “Ruth!” Bo cried.

  “Bo, you’re here!” Dave said happily. “We’ve gotta help Mary and Joseph.”

  “I know,” Bo said. “Where are they?”

  “We don’t know,” Ruth admitted.

  “The dogs are here,” Bo informed them. “We can’t take them on our own. We have to find help!”

  “You can count on us, Bo!” Dave said.

  “We won’t let you down!” Ruth promised.

  Bo turned and ran down the road. Dave and Ruth took off in two different directions.

  Dave frantically flapped his wings, darting around people and animals.

  “We’re not going to stop those giant scary dogs with a fluffy sheep and a tiny donkey,” he muttered. “Even with a very masculine and brave dove.”

  He scanned the travelers and frowned. “We need backup. Where do you find a dog-eating hippopotamus in Bethlehem?”

  He wasn’t paying attention to where he was flying, and he crashed right into a camel. He fell to the ground—and looked up to see the three camels, still tangled together in their reins.

  “A three-headed camel? Nice!” Dave cried happily. “Guys, you gotta help me. My best friend’s up against two vicious dogs and this bloodthirsty maniac with a long knife and a helmet who’s seriously straight out of your nightmares.”

  Felix looked at Deborah. “Are you hearing this little guy?” He had to be talking about the Hunter and his dogs—the one who was after the new King!

  While Dave convinced the camels to help them, Ruth ran to the green hills outside of town.

  “Help! Help! Anybody!” she yelled.

  Then she stopped. Just over the hill she spotted a flock of sheep grazing in the grass while a shepherd watched over them.

  “Oh, look, a flock of sheep,” she said, and then she realized something. “Oh, that’s my f-f-f-flock!”

  She looked around. “Help? Is there anybody else? No? Okay.”

  She took a deep breath. “Bo needs my help,” she said. It didn’t matter that she and her flock hadn’t agreed on things in the past. Bo needed help, and these sheep could help him.

  “Bo needs my help. Bo needs my help. Bo needs my help,” she repeated as she ran to the meadow.

  “H-h-h-h-heeeeey, everybody,” Ruth said. “What’s up? It’s me, Ruth! Do you remember me?”

  A few sheep looked up. Then every member of the flock took two steps back, away from Ruth.

  Ruth took a deep breath. This was going to be harder than she thought.

  “Okay,” Ruth said. “Guys, I know you thought I was crazy when I went following that Star, but you wouldn’t believe all the adventures I’ve had out there.”

  The sheep just stared at her.

  “And the biggest one of all is happening tonight!” Ruth continued. “I’ve made new friends, and they need our help.”

  The sheep ignored her. Ruth climbed up onto a rock.

  “So this time you gotta follow me,” she told them.

  A few sheep stared blankly at her. Ruth started to feel angry.

  “Guys, this is IMPORTANT!” she yelled.

  She stomped her hoof on the rock. A jagged streak of lightning shot down from the clouds and hit the ground behind her.

  The sheep looked up at Ruth, surprised. She looked down at her hoof. Had she done that?

  A wind kicked up. Blue particles of light descended from the heavens and lit up the meadow. Behind Ruth, a chorus of winged angels appeared. Ruth looked behind her and stared at them in awe.

  One of the angels looked directly at the shepherd.

  “Fear not. I bring tidings of great joy,” the angel said. “For unto you is born this day a Savior, Christ the Lord.”

  The flock of sheep looked from the shepherd to the angels. Then they all stared at Ruth.

  “Told you it was important!” Ruth said.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Away in a Manger

  Mary and Joseph still didn’t know the King’s hunter and his dogs were after them. They walked through the streets of Bethlehem, knocking on doors. They had to find a safe place for Mary to have the baby.

  Aft
er another door slammed in their faces, Mary put a hand to her belly.

  “Joseph, I can’t go any farther,” she said.

  “Okay,” Joseph said. “Uh, here.”

  He took off his cloak and laid it on the ground. Then he helped Mary lie down on it and lean back against the house.

  “Mary, look at me!” he said. His voice was commanding, but calm. “You’re doing great. Remember: God chose us for a reason. This must be part of His plan.”

  Mary nodded. Joseph turned away from her and began to pray in a low voice.

  “Help us. Help us. Please, God, help us.”

  Storm clouds swept across the sky, covering the Star. Bo ran through Bethlehem, looking for Mary and Joseph.

  Suddenly, he heard distant barking. He hurried to the edge of a cliff overlooking the town square and skidded to a stop.

  He looked right and he saw the Hunter and his dogs!

  “Not good,” Bo said.

  Then he looked left and saw Mary and Joseph, alone on a street corner. The Hunter would reach them in just minutes.

  “Oh no. That’s not good at all,” he said. “Mary! Joseph!”

  He sped down the cliff and raced through the streets, jumping over baskets and bins and dodging travelers. As he neared Mary and Joseph, he began to bray urgently.

  Thaddeus and Rufus heard Bo and snapped their heads in his direction. They began to bark viciously, and the Hunter drew his sword. He marched toward Mary and Joseph.

  Bo tugged on Joseph’s shirt.

  “Bo, you’re back!” Joseph greeted him. “Buddy, we need somewhere to go.”

  Bo had an idea. He turned away from Joseph, showing his back.

  “You know a place?” Joseph asked.

  Bo crouched, ready to go.

  “Mary, let’s go,” Joseph said.

  He helped Mary onto the donkey’s back. As soon as she was settled, Bo broke into a run. Joseph ran beside him.

  Bo ran faster than he’d ever run before, heading back to the stable. He looked up and saw the clouds part, revealing the Star. He ran even faster.

  They quickly arrived at the stable. Joseph opened the gate and then helped Mary off Bo’s back. Bo rushed inside.

  “Guys! Guys! Sorry to barge in, but Mary’s about to have a baby!” he announced.

  “They’re here!” Zach said.

  “I love babies!” Leah cried.