You could hardly see him sitting at the stairs of his school and
mumbling alone words from the book “Old Egypt” by his dear
writer Naguib Mahfouz. No one was there near him to help or just
sitting with him. His name was Aladdin and now he was in a hurry
because he must go to his classroom. It was his first day at
school he believed that the other children would welcome him,
although he had not seen any sign, yet. Well these were strange
for him: teachers, classmates, books and many more that are
related to school in which he had never gone. He sat next to a
boy at his height as he could see. ‘Good morning’, he said but
there was no answer. The teacher introduced Aladdin to the other
children who did not say ‘hello’ but they were just looking at
him strangely. He was a pale and short boy with dark hair and
black eyes. The lesson started and he could hardly understand
what the teacher was saying. You could possibly guess that he
could not speak so good Egyptian although his mother was coming
from Egypt. He was born in Iraq. His father was coming from Iran
but he had died because of the wars in Iraq. For this reason his
mother had brought him here in Egypt.
He did not like the way his classmates welcomed him, but this
should be the last thing he would have in mind. In Maths he
solved a very difficult problem and the others were looking at
him angrily. He did not like the way they looked and then he was
shown unfortunately had right: on his way home the children
were throwing rocks at him as if he was a stray dog, without
reason. In his trying to avoid the rocks he had turn right into
a narrow alley. He decided to sit and wait there until the
others got bored looking for him and go away. It was very quiet
there so he heard immediately some steps coming from someone who
entered the alley. It was a strange man who was heading to him.
He was wearing some old glasses. When he reached him he noticed
that he was some kind of bald with a short beard.
-“What is doing a child like you here in this dirty, old, alley?
You should be at home and eat some soup” he said and a feeble
smile had drawn on his old and moth-eaten face.
-“I …I can’t because these children are throwing me rocks”, said
Aladdin.
-“Really?” said the old man whose eyes flashed. “What’s your
name boy?” Aladdin did not want to tell the truth but something
in man’s eyes forced him to.
-“Aladdin” he answered.
-“Aladdin” repeated the man as if he had said something strange,
something that he could not imagine or think. “Do you know what
does it mean?”
- “No” of course he didn’t, he didn’t even know that names mean
something.
-“Well, Aladdin means
‘nobility of faith’. So if you
trust me I will trust you. But will you trust me?” his eyes
looked at him like a scanner.
-“Yes I will. But how can you help
me?”
-“That’s an interesting question” he
said smiling, “I will take you home” he said and he gave him a
hand to stand up. They began walking when Aladdin asked:
-“Why are you helping me? Are you a
jinnee?” The old man now was
smiling and then Aladdin feared more: he had heard about jinee
the most terrible things.
-“No, of course I am not a jinee! Do you expect to see a jinee
so easily and as old as me? I am helping you because I was
different, like you.”
-“And how will you help me? Are you a magician or something…?”
-“No, I am not my little boy. As I said I was different like you
but the others got over it.”
-“How?” asked Aladdin with his dark eyes sinking at the strange
old man’s brown eyes.
-“You must be better than the others. You must rise upon them.
You should gain their respect.”
-“How?”
-“I don’t know you must be good at something.”
-“But I’m not”
-“Nonsense, everyone is at something good. You must just
discover it. Well, here’s your house. Goodbye!” and then he just
disappeared. As simple as the wind takes feathers away.
-“Too strange to believe it is true” said poor Aladdin and he
climbed into his warm bed. The other day he went to school with
many cautions. When he reached an alley near the school he saw
some thieves running away. Without thinking he started running
like the wind and reached the thieves in front of his school.
Then he caught and stopped them with a strange power which was
not his. The thieves were some children from his classroom who
were teasing the others as well. Children were so happy that
these ‘guys’ went away that they chaired him and they patted him
his back.
-“You have now gained their respect. That was the main target.
Congratulations. You don’t need me any more.” Aladdin heard in
his head and he imagined the old man flying in the sky...
By Chris Mourelatos
noni_peers