Once upon a time, there lived a prince named Arif, the only son of the king and queen in the kingdom we call Sulawesi.
Arif was a kind young man who loved the many creatures of his island and the seas surrounding it. Often he wandered the island, visiting hot springs and swimming in emerald green lakes, walking across the hot sand near bubbling volcanoes.
But more than anything, Arif cherished the beauty and quiet of his own garden. Each day he spent hours tending his irises and lilies, bougainvillea and hibiscus, and especially his fragile orchids. He built a great pond in the center of the vast garden, and a waterfall that poured crystal-clear water into it.
Arif never tired of the scents and sights of his garden, and he hoped one day to share all this beauty with a princess.
Arif often sat in his garden and dreamed of the young woman he would love, when one day, after a hard rainstorm, Arif walked into to his garden and saw, arching from one end of the pond to the other, a magnificent rainbow.
He was delighted by the sight and more delighted still to see seven doves flying above the rainbow. He could not help but admire their ballet-like movements in the bright blue sky. As he sat and watched, those dancing doves suddenly transformed into seven beautiful angels.
Arif gasped when he saw the angels drifting down into his garden. He quickly hid behind a giant palm, and he stared in wonder as the angels removed the delicate shawls of lace they wore around their shoulders. These they placed upon the ground, and then they dived into the pond.
Arif had never seen such a lovely sight women as sweet and delicate as his orchids. Their laughter filled the air, and Arif felt his heart nearly bursting with joy. Soon he decided he must make one of these angels his wife.
Quietly he slipped from behind his palm and plucked one of the shawls from the ground and quickly hid it beneath his shirt.
Moments later the angels stepped out of the pond, and each one picked up her shawl. As they wrapped the shawls around their shoulders, they turned back into doves and flew into the sky.
But the seventh angel could not find her shawl. "Help," she cried to her sisters, but the others had flown so high, they didn‘t notice their sister down below, frantic as she searched.
She began to weep, and Arif stepped forward. "Please, may I help you?" he asked as gently as he could.
"I cannot find my shawl," she wept. "I must have it if I wish to return to heaven."
Arif pretended to search with her, and they combed the garden, looking under every leaf and bloom. "I shall marry whoever finds my shawl," she said, and Arif swelled with pleasure. If he released her shawl, perhaps she would marry him.
But he could not risk losing her, for he had fallen deeply in love, and so he decided instead he would hide the shawl and would offer her a happy home here on Earth.
"We will never stop searching," he said gently, "but it is growing dark. Come to the palace and stay with me. I promise I shall care for you."
The angel had no other choice, and so she walked with Arif to the palace. Before long she grew to love the kind prince. When he asked her to marry him, she agreed, for now she understood she could never return home. Arif, she thought, was the next best thing to heaven.
For many years they lived together happily. They had one son, a handsome lad with the wit and wisdom of his father, the beauty of his mother, the gentleness of both. They loved their boy with all their hearts.
Still, the angel never stopped dreaming of heaven, and sometimes her son would catch her looking wistfully into the sky.
One day as the child was running through the palace, he came upon a trunk he had never noticed, and he saw that it was unlocked. He opened it and found a silvery shawl, and just as he lifted it, his mother walked into the room.
When she saw her shawl, she burst into tears. Now she understood that her beloved husband had tricked her, and she was overcome with sadness.
She pulled the shawl over her shoulders and walked to the garden where Arif was tending his flowers.
"Arif," she whispered, "I have found it." When he turned, he saw a sight he hoped that he would never see, and he suddenly remembered. Sometimes he would check the trunk to make sure the precious shawl was there still, and this time he had forgotten to lock it again. "Don‘t leave me," he wept. "I love you."
The angel looked into her husband‘s eyes. She did love him, and she loved her son, but she knew she must return to heaven. "Whenever you miss me, search for a rainbow," she told them, and with those words, she pulled her shawl around her and slowly rose into the sky, dancing toward her home in heaven.
And for the rest of their years, whenever a rainbow arched across the sky, Arif and his son would smile at each other, for they knew their beloved angel was dancing in the sky.
Source: http://www.silive.com (September 09, 2008)
