The Stolen Star

by Halyna Franko

Michael’s favourite pastime was his computer. He could sit for hours behind it and loved helping his father with his.

  At school Michael preferred the company of girls, although not without some incidents of course. It was just the way he was. If he liked someone, he would nearly always be clumsy in some way and end up saying or doing the wrong thing.

  Michael returned home immersed in his own thoughts. He was struck by an idea that would explain who he was and what chance he had of being like his close relations. Then he recalled a phrase about a spring that he had heard:

  “It is not possible for sweet and bitter water to spring from the same source.”

  “That was it. What a wonderful idea!”

  If mum and dad were such a wonderful source then it meant that he must be just as pure and fresh. He may just be a small brook, running swiftly next to his close relations but steady streams will always find their way to the big river. And a tired traveller might stop at this small brook, take a sip of its divine water and feel his strength immediately return.

  Michael ran home like the wind.

  “Mum, mum! The most wonderful phrase has just come into my head.”

  All Michael’s ideas about the spring came pouring out of him like a torrent.

  Mum got the Bible out and read:

  “Can sweet and bitter water spring from one source? Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine - figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh water?” It was from one of the letters of Saint James.

  “But I didn’t read it in the Bible!”

  “All things come in their own good time, in much the same way that you are becoming a grown up."

  Michael was the most extraordinary dreamer. He knew that when he was only one he had been given an inoculation from a defective batch. Michael had fallen seriously ill. It was hard to say whether the mistake had been made by the doctor or not. Like many other events in the family’s history this situation was full of mystery and seemed to be a part of the eternal struggle between good and evil. And Michael was not alone in thinking and feeling that an evil spirit had tried to abduct him at the time. Things hadn't been easy in the family at the time. There were certain people who just couldn’t accept that it is love and mutual understanding that must reign in the family and evil spirits had tried to take advantage and break and destroy everything by stealing away the child's Spirit using cunning and diabolic ruses. Michael became very ill after the inoculations and his life hung in the balance.

  Michael’s spirit sent forth a signal that the child was in danger. He had been given a defective injection and he had been running a fever for over ten days. But the most terrible thing was that evil forces were trying to drive his Spirit from the body of this child. The Spirit was in a pandemonium. It had received no reply. And of course, how could the Spirit’s message reach where it needed to go if there was such a great black cloud of negative energy hanging over the child.

  His Guardian Angel still failed to appear. The black cloud continued to rage and out of it several evil spirits simultaneously flashed like arrows into the child thus harming his aura. The Spirit could feel its energy ebbing away and tried to send another signal, while the black cloud briefly retreated in order to steal away the child’s health-giving energy. At that moment the Angel appeared. He received the Spirit’s message but needed to find out who had had the audacity to attempt to take the life of a child.

  So the Angel set out to investigate the cause of this dark case. The Angel covered himself with a black shroud so that he would not be recognised and set off in search of the perpetrators. Having followed the black cloud he managed to break into a dark chamber. In the middle of a big room stood three warlocks masquerading as faith healers who were weaving spells over some scientific apparatus. These warlocks had been performing their magic under the guise of a scientific experiment. They had been given their errand by the Evil one to destroy the small child. The Evil one was their overseer.

  “This child has the most wonderful parents," the Angel explained to the baby's Spirit, "And the Evil one has been overcome by a deep and dark envy. The Evil one wanted to transfer you into a weak and evil person in order to strengthen his overall position. But thank God, he has not succeeded, because the child’s parents and relatives turned to God and the forces of good in the nick of time.”

  “But, the forces of evil have still managed to take away some of the child’s energy. He has become severely weakened and lost much of his life force,” the Spirit noted with sadness.

  “How will things turn out later on in life?” asked the Spirit in some agitation.

  "The child’s future lies in the hands of his parents. They will need a lot of strength, patience and love in order to restore and return all the wonderful things that have been sent from above. Therefore they are going to have to take the child far away,” said the Angel with great hope in his voice.

  So in order to keep the child away from the Evil one’s “experiments”, the parents moved with the child to another country. And that was how Michael ended up in Bulgaria. The child was greatly bothered by the change of circumstance and the huge distance that he now found himself from those that he loved. The baby grew up into a highly strung and naughty little boy. His mother had to summon on huge reserves of patience and even courage and she and her son studied and played sport together.

  The child gradually recovered but his Spirit had been affected. After all, a part of his energy had simply been stolen. It was vital that this energy be returned. In order to achieve this, his relations needed to collect the necessary spiritual gifts from God. And the Angel told Michael’s relations how to do this.

  It later turned out that the Evil one was punished in real life but those who had carried out the experiment remained at large. They opened up their own “schools” and companies. Gullible people went to them for help. Many failed to understand that you mustn't try to heal the soul with dark energy. Evil can never do well!

  Michael knew that the warlocks and sorcerers were continuing to persecute him and his parents. Therefore in order to stand up to such a force of evil his soul had to work hard constantly. His whole family persevered with their mission and produced good results! They followed their son’s progress with great interest and hope and constantly thanked God that their boy was on the mend.

  Michael loved to discuss all sorts of things with grown-ups. But it was his grandmother who he bombarded most with his questions, whenever she came to stay. Grandmother would patiently deal with all the questions he asked her. But the most interesting thing was that with age, Michael’s interest in various questions just grew and grew. However, since his early childhood, his grandmother had always tried to steer the conversation towards the most important things.

  “Grandmother, is God love?"

  “Yes, you’ve remembered well.”

  “Then why do we need faith?”

  “Faith gives us hope and hope brings salvation. It provides us with an anchor in life.”

  “So that our boat won’t float away in any direction?”

  “That’s exactly it, my dear.”

  “Do you have to have faith because God is invisible?”

  “Faith is more a spiritual feeling than a physical one.”

  “But God created the world for us and the world is physical.”

  “Everything was made by God’s word including the world and everything that fills it.”

  “Grandmother, what about those who don’t believe? They live for themselves and do what they want?”

  “God is extremely patient and is giving them a chance. But when the moment comes when they have to fight evil one to one, then as the old prophet wisely advised: “Do not be slow to turn to God but don’t follow any path to get there."

  “And will God hear us?”

  “Yes, God will hear if you ask him sincerely."

  “
And how should we understand evil?"

  “Evil is the opposite of good and there is a constant battle being fought between the two."

  “What is the greatest evil that children face?"

  “Laziness… I think. It's vital that a child studies in order to gain knowledge. Knowledge opens the whole world up for a person and then as the old prophet said: “in the greyness of your old age you will find wisdom.”

  “But how can we overcome this evil, I mean this laziness?”

  “Hard work conquers laziness. You must look at everything you do with interest and always invest just a little bit of love."

  "Why love?”

  “Love brings you closer to God and then everything you do will work out.”

  Michael had already been living in London for two years. London is one of the most beautiful capitals in the world. A magnificent giant of a city with its wonderful architecture, parks, lakes and the most radiant flowers planted right outside people’s houses. It was the architecture that struck Michael the most. The city had its own bright aura. In London Michael felt free and at ease.

  Michael’s first pleasant impressions of London began at school. Michael found it a pleasure to go to his school. He was amazed by his school with its clever, kind and attentive teachers who were so patient with Michael because he wasn't the easiest boy in the world by a long chalk. But his teachers even learned to understand his foibles. That year Michael had