Aladdin - the Arabian Nights

Chapter 6

Aladdin slept until well past noon, and when he woke up, he was hungry again.

Aladdin's mother came into his room to see if he needed anything, something else she hadn't done since he was a little boy. Abu was perched by Aladdin's side on the floor next to the couple of purple and blue pillows that passed for his bed, as though he had not left Aladdin's side the entire time. When Aladdin told his mother he was hungry, instead of scolding him about wanting even more food when he'd just eaten the last of what she had and wasn't even contributing, Aladdin's mother merely said there was no more food left to give him, but if he would wait a while she would go to the marketplace and sell some yarn and thread she had, and buy him some food with that.

Aladdin poked his head over the makeshift stairs as his mother began to go down. "Take something I got from the Cave of Wonders," he suggested. "They've got to be worth a lot more than thread and yarn."

It was now that Aladdin's mother dared to take another look at the huge pile of shiny, sparkly things heaped on the table in the middle of her humble house. Aladdin had brought home jewels – dozens and dozens of gigantic, flawless jewels, each one probably worth more than she had ever earned in her entire life. Aladdin's mother hardly dared to look at these jewels, never mind try and sell one!

But there, in the middle of the sparkling pile, she could see as her eyes adjusted to it – there was an old bronze oil lamp, unassuming and grubby, except for one single streak in the grime as though Aladdin had tried to rub it clean but had given up after one stroke. Shaking her head at her son's laziness, but not without some fondness this time, Aladdin's mother took the lamp – which felt much more comfortable in her hands than the priceless jewels – and gave it a rub....

And dropped it with a shriek as the lamp came to life, spilling out large quantities of sparks and smoke, and a large blue thing materialized in her hovel.

The Genie greeted her in a friendly way, remarking that she didn't look like Al and suggesting she must be Al's mother, all the while never keeping the same shape for more than a second. He offered to grant her a wish, but all this was too much for Aladdin's poor old sensible mother, and she fainted.

"...I'll take that as a no," Genie said.

Aladdin appeared at the bottom of the stairs, having heard the commotion. Genie turned to see him. "I think I gave her a shock coming out of there. You'd think she'd never seen a Genie before." Right... Aladdin supposed he had forgotten to tell her about that part of his story. He glanced at Genie, and they both began to laugh.

"Maybe you should go until I get the smelling-salts and explain everything to her," Aladdin suggested, still not quite able to repress a smile. Then, "But first, as long as you're here... Genie, I wish for some lunch."

"You got it, Al!" The Genie produced a cookbook out of nowhere and went through a number of recipes, mostly for dishes Aladdin had never even heard of, pulling random ingredients out of thin air and tossing them over his shoulder where they promptly disappeared, making remarks about them that Aladdin didn't quite understand but might have if he'd known what the dishes were. All this was apparently just for show, however, because next minute Genie simply pointed his finger at the table and an enormous tray of pure silver appeared on the table, loaded to bursting with the most tantalizing juicy meats and the softest white bread Aladdin had ever seen.

Genie presented this with great pride, then announced he would slip back into the lamp before Aladdin's mother fainted from his sight again, sounding just the tiniest bit annoyed that this was necessary. Aladdin thanked him and waved a cheerful goodbye, after which he ran for the smelling-salts and waved them under his mother's nose.