As I stand there for the sixth day in a row, I think, "I am Aladdin's mother. This is my duty. He loves this girl and I love him. I must ask the Sultan for her hand." But each time I think these words, they become less and less passionate and I become more discouraged.
The first day I stood in this place with much hope, holding the napkin hiding many fine jewels beneath it, and knew in my heart that the Sultan would talk to me. But that day passed, as did the next one and the next one and the next and the next one, with no success on my part. I had not even been able to speak to the Sultan and each night, I went home and disappointed my son more and more each night. But I keep coming because with each disappointing night, he asks me with a small amount of hope in my voice if I think tomorrow will be the day that I can ask the Sultan for his love's hand in marriage.
So here I stand. My feet hurt and I am frustrated, but I stand here for Aladdin so that he may be happy and find true love, like I once did long ago. The Sultan whispering something to his vizir catches my attention and brings me out of my daydreaming haze. All of the sudden the vizir is walking straight towards me and I do not know what I am going to say. I have been waiting for this moment for so long and yet I had no clue what I would say to make my case. The vizir approaches me and asks whether it would please me to follow him to kneel before the Sultan. I can't get any words out, so I just feebly nod my head and follow him through the chamber.
I kneel immediately as I reach the Sultan, my son will not lose his happiness because I can't remember my manners and respect. The Sultan tells me to rise and tell him what I want. When I hesitate and look around at the people around me, the Sultan quickly clears the room and tells me to talk to him honestly and that I will not be punished for what I say. How do I begin to ask for his daughter's hand in marriage? Though, he seems kind; I mean he did clear the room so that I could be comfortable enough to be able to ask him my question. Here goes nothing.
I blurt out how much my son loves his princess and explain that, "I prayed for him to forget her but in vain; he threatened to do some desperate deed if I refused to go and ask your Majesty for the hand of the princess. Now I pray you to forgive not me alone, but my son Aladdin."
He's staring at me quietly; is he mad? I hope he heard my desperation when I spoke of Aladdin committing unspeakable acts if he cannot be with the one he loves. I cannot lose my husband and my son. That is too much for an old lady like myself to handle.
Photo of jewel from Pixabay
He is asking to see my napkin. Oh my lord! How could I forget to present him the jewels?! I show him the marvelous jewels that Aladdin found and his face changes and he seems happy. He turns to his vizir and though I can not hear them whisper to each other, the vizir does not seem happy.
I am told that Aladdin will be allowed to marry the princess but I must not return to him for three months. What an odd request. Still I have made my case and I have succeeded. I must hurry home and tell my son the amazing news!
Authors Note:
This story is based on the 2nd part of the story Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp where Aladdin falls in love with the princess when he sees her and asks his mother to take some jewels that he found when searching for the lamp and have her ask the Sultan for the princess's hand in marriage. In the story, she stands in the chamber of the Sultan for 7 days before he talks to her and I thought that it showed so much loyalty on the mother's part to stay for so long and not give up. I thought it would be really cool to write the story in the present tense as if the reader was hearing the mother's thoughts and I think it turned out well! After the mother presents the Sultan with the jewels, he is very impressed and he is about to immediately grant her request, until the vizir interrupts and convinces him to wait for three months, so that his son might have a chance to win her over. I decided that the mother probably couldn't hear this exchange though, because I thought if she did, she probably would've told Aladdin of this, which she doesn't in the story.
Bibliography
Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp from The Arabian Nights' Entertainment by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H.J. Ford (1898).
I enjoyed your story! I think you captured the character of Aladdin's mother very well. I could feel how much she cared for her son's happiness. I usually like to read stories where the body text is broke up with dialogue, but the format you used definitely worked for this story. I look forward to reading more of your stories this semester!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this story! I really enjoyed reading this story about Aladdin and I liked the message behind he story, too. Sometimes stories are easier to read when there are shorter but more sections to read to break up the read and keep the attention, but the story was so interesting to me that it held my attention anyways. This was a great rewrite of the story and I can’t wait to read more about this. Maybe add some dialogue to lets the readers gain a better understanding of the characters if you decide to add anything. ☺
ReplyDeleteGreat story writing again Ann-Marie! It was fun to read the story from Aladdin's mom's point of view. The way you told the readers how she was feeling was really great as I was thinking I was there with Aladdin's mom feeling the same way she was feeling. It would've been amazing if you added some dialogues from Aladdin though as I was expecting him to talk haha. But it was really great!
ReplyDeleteHey really cool story! I love movies and grew up watching Disney movies of course. I like how you took the story we all knew and added one tweak. Oh my gosh, he can't see them for 3 months! Although, I am sure it is worth it for him. Very cool story and keep up the good work. I will be waiting for the next one!
ReplyDeleteHey Anne Marie- awesome job!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, the author's note was really really helpful. After reading it, I went and reread some things because I better understood what was going on. I love Aladdin, and so this was really cool to read as a more traditional story. I think that telling it from the mother's point of view was really creative and well done. I like your intuitiveness as well to decide that the mother probably did not hear the exchange. Nice job!
Hey Anne Marie- awesome job!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, the author's note was really really helpful. After reading it, I went and reread some things because I better understood what was going on. I love Aladdin, and so this was really cool to read as a more traditional story. I think that telling it from the mother's point of view was really creative and well done. I like your intuitiveness as well to decide that the mother probably did not hear the exchange. Nice job!