Aladdin - the Arabian Nights

Chapter 3

Aladdin's mother rarely saw her son anymore, and when she did see him, he made a point of staying as far away from her notice as possible, almost never speaking to her and certainly not inviting conversation. So she was very surprised when as she stood in the tiny kitchen area of their home's bottom level, fixing some meat-cakes for dinner with what ingredients she had managed to buy with that day's earnings, Aladdin came rushing inside and called to her eagerly.

Aladdin opened his hand to show his mother a gold coin resting in his palm. His mother couldn't believe it. Where had Aladdin gotten a gold coin? He couldn't possibly have earned it, and surely he wouldn't be foolish enough to steal something like that, even though she had figured out by now that he probably was stealing. And even if he had stolen a gold coin, he wouldn't have brought it to her. Even as a thief, the boy never contributed anything.

All in a rush, Aladdin told his story, which had something to do with meeting his Uncle Jafar in the marketplace today, who wanted to have dinner with his sister-in-law and his nephew, and had given them this coin so they could afford to feed someone extra. Aladdin's mother didn't know whether to believe this story. She knew perfectly well that her husband had never mentioned a brother of any description! "This man Jafar must have gotten the wrong family," she scolded Aladdin, "and you shouldn't have accepted that money from him."

Aladdin admitted he didn't know of any brother his father had had either (even talking about Aladdin's father in this context brought up an unspoken stress for both of them), but Jafar had seemed so sure... "Couldn't Father have lost touch with Uncle Jafar so long ago that even you'd never have heard of him?"

Aladdin's mother was unsure, but she had to admit it was possible. Besides, the idea that they might discover some well-off relative who could help support her in her old age, and possibly instruct Aladdin and guide him onto a better path, was as tempting to her as it was to Aladdin. And they did need to eat. If this Jafar was willing to buy them supper for one night, in exchange for having him over and hearing what he had to say – well, why shouldn't they have him? The worst that could happen was that after hearing Jafar's story they would realize that he had indeed made a mistake and he would go off again in search of his real brother. So Aladdin's mother told Aladdin to give her the gold coin and she would go and buy something suitable to serve their distinguished guest. (Aladdin also mentioned to her that Jafar had a parrot and she should probably get something for him, too.)

At dinner, Jafar appeared very out of place in the little hovel with his regal garb, but he was very polite, greeting his nephew and sister-in-law and saying nothing about eating dinner in a hovel when he was doubtlessly used to much better. Even Iago behaved himself for the most part, munching almost contentedly from the bowl of fruit Aladdin's mother had bought from the market for him. Over dinner, Jafar told them the story of how he had lost touch with his dear brother, whom he had been so close with when they were boys, how they had grown apart as they got older, and how their paths had taken them in such different directions, especially with Jafar's travels through Africa when he was a young man that had kept him away from Agrabah for some years, it was little wonder they had not seen each other in all this time. Jafar said he regretted deeply how his last meeting with his brother had not been a pleasant one, which could explain why his brother never saw fit to mention him again, because, Jafar said, it was a long time before his own pride would allow him to acknowledge that he had a brother. Aladdin glanced quickly up at his mother here, but she was deliberately not looking at him. This sounded disturbingly like what their own relationship had been like since the death of Aladdin's father....

Jafar said he regretted not coming back to find his brother sooner, not only because he had missed the chance to ever reconcile or see him again, but because his brother's family had been living in such terrible conditions while he, Jafar, had done quite well for himself and could long ago have given them aid if he had known they needed it. After all, he had been fortunate enough to secure the position of Royal Vizier to the Sultan.