Summary: This tells my version of how Aladdin and Abu came to be together. Please read and review.
Rating: G
Categories: Aladdin
Characters: Abu, Aladdin, Carpet, Genie, Iago, Jasmine, Original Characters, Sultan
Genres: Action/Adventure
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Published: 03/26/06
Updated: 12/29/06
Index
Chapter 1: Chapter 1
Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Chapter 3: Chapter 3
Chapter 4: Chapter 4
Chapter 5: Chapter 5
Chapter 6: Chapter 6
Chapter 1: Chapter 1
Author's Notes: Yeah, I found out that there had been a series episode or two done on Abu and Aladdin shortly after I had done this, but I still felt like posting it after all the work I put into it. So, I hope you like it anyway.
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the Aladdin characters. They belong to Disney and I am in no way associated with that company. However, I do own all other characters.
Chapter 1:
Aladdin awoke that morning in the hovel to a loud snoring sound coming from Iago. It was obvious he was fighting someone in his sleep, because he was punching and kicking. The teenager stood up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. This was followed by a glance out the “window” toward the palace. Jasmine had invited them over for breakfast, so he supposed he’d better start waking them all up now.
He decided to start with Iago, since he’d take the longest to finally get up and out of the bed. He walked over to the bird and tapped him on the beak.
“Iago?” He whispered. “It’s time to get up. “We’ve got to go to the palace this morning, remember?”
At the word ‘palace’, Iago’s eyes sprung open and he was up and flying. Well, that was easier than I thought it would be, Aladdin thought to himself.
“Up, Monkey! Up!” Aladdin watched in horror as Iago picked up the sleeping form of Abu by the tail and lifted him out of his bed. This made Abu mad, and before Aladdin could tell Iago to put him down, the parrot dropped Abu and the chase was on. Abu ran around the hovel screeching and trying to get a hold of Iago. Meanwhile Aladdin was trying to grab Abu to make him stop the horrible racket.
When Aladdin dived for his monkey, Abu jumped out of the way and Aladdin slid into Genie’s lamp, knocking clear to the other side of the room. This caused Genie to pop out of the lamp, still in his nightcap and pajamas. “What’s going on around here?” He questioned sleepily. It didn’t take him long to figure out. No more than a couple of seconds later, Iago came flying toward his face and Genie barely ducked just in time.
“Abu, get off that ledge!” Aladdin yelled.
The capuchin ignored his friend though, and jumped after Iago. The noise was growing louder, and there were a couple of murmurs from the street about the commotion. Genie thought he’d better do something before the guards got suspicious so he hollered, “Quiet!” His whole body was red, showing just how much he meant what he said.
The hovel did that indeed, and the three making all the noise seemed to freeze. None of them had even realized his presence in the room. Abu had been grabbing Iago’s tail feathers, trying to pluck a couple out. Iago was making his noise worth with all the screaming, and Aladdin, still trying to break them up, had been in the middle of them. Carpet still stayed against the wall where he’d been since the fight had started.
“Now, do you mind if we could get a little piece and quiet around here? There are some genies who are trying to get some beauty sleep.” He commented, turning back to his normal blue.
His seriousness was hilarious to Iago, who just had to make a comment back. “Well, your royal Genie, we’re going to the palace remember? You can’t exactly sleep in today.”
Genie just shot a jolt of magic at his beak, and a lock appeared on it. Iago got mad and flew over to the window, ignoring him now. But Genie didn’t care. “Oh yeah! I almost forgot!” He poofed into a huge calendar with an X on that day. “We’ve got breakfast scheduled with Jasmine. I don’t know how I could forget.”
I know how, Iago thought sarcastically.
“Well, now that one of us has gotten us all up,” Aladdin replied with a glance toward Iago. “We can head up toward the palace.”
Iago’s clamp disappeared all of the sudden and he replied, “It’s not my fault the monkey wouldn’t get up. I just took some… necessary measures to get him out of bed.”
“Necessary measures?” Abu repeated in his monkey accent. “Yeah right.”
I should have known that this mess had something to do with Iago, Genie thought. Out loud, he said nothing, which was a surprise to everyone. In fact, all the way to the palace, the group was relatively silent.
When they got to the gate though, Iago whispered in Aladdin’s ear, “Oh, look who got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.”
Aladdin didn’t follow at first, but when he looked down from the rug and caught a glance of Rasoul, he knew exactly who the parrot was talking about. And it was true, he had a grumpy look on his face, and when his eyes got a look at Aladdin, the “street rat”, the expression went to a mean one.
“Good morning, Rasoul!” Genie said cheerfully.
No reply came from the head guard, and once they’d gotten far enough so that he couldn’t hear them, Genie remarked, “What’s gotten his goat?” The rest of the gang just rolled their eyes.
When the group arrived on the balcony of Jasmine’s room, she opened the doors and let them in. They were in awe at the beauty of her in her new outfit that she had the royal seamstress make for her. It was pink and had a strapless top. The pants were like the normal ones that she wore. She had a veil to complete this ensemble. Her hair hung down to her waist and she was beautiful beyond comprehension.
Aladdin slowly walked over to her and gave her a passionate kiss, one that didn’t seem to end, just slowly fade like the sun setting. Yet the sun seemed to shine brighter on the couple just because of their love that burned in their hearts for each other.
Iago and Abu looked at each other and made gagging faces. If there was something neither of them could stand, it was the sight of love in the air. Yet the pair of Genie and Carpet watched, enchanted by the passion of the two lovers.
“Romeo, Romeo. Wherefore art thou Romeo?” Genie quoted, thinking of the balcony scene between two similar lovebirds.
A round of weird glances followed this, for none of the occupants in the room knew anything of what he was talking about. Iago interrupted though and said, “Okay, that’s enough mushy stuff. Can we go eat now?”
Jasmine just laughed. “Of course we can.”
Down in the dining hall, all of them sat down and began eating, along with the Sultan who joined them there. The topics of discussion were merry ones, and everyone had a good time talking about the fiasco that occurred that morning in the hovel.
“Dearest, don’t forget we have to go through some of those old maps and stuff in the back room. We need to find that one of Gebekistan before their leader comes in two weeks,” Hamed reminded his daughter.
Jasmine sighed. “I know, Father.” Aladdin gave her a questioning look, and Jasmine explained. “Sultan Jehan is coming in two weeks to come talk about a treaty that they are making for a water supply. It’s always good to know things about the other’s city, so that you can make a wise decision on whether or not to sign the treaty.”
“Oh,” Aladdin commented. “If you would like us to stay and help you, we could.”
Sultan Hamed smiled. “You know, that would be a wonderful idea. I’m sure it would make the process go a lot faster!” The Sultan loved Aladdin for his generosity. He was always willing to do anything to help someone out, and it was truly Aladdin’s heart that made him who he was.
“Hold on a second. YOU can stay and help. As for me, I’ll be out in the menagerie, trying to get a suntan. You know, good-looking people like me aren’t just born with good looks.” He told his friend, in a snobby manner.
“Don’t flatter yourself Iago,” Aladdin replied.
He poofed into a dress and pretended to be a second-place contestant in the Miss. America pageant. “Yeah, who knows? If you look too good, you might get chosen to participate in the Miss. Agrabah pageant, and have to wear all that make-up, beautiful dresses, and perfume… just to get beaten by your best friend and then…” Tears were running down his face, and he realized what a scene he was making. He felt embarrassed and his face got red. “Not that it ever happened to me.”
Iago just muttered, “I think I’ll just help you all anyway, but on one condition: keep Cry-Baby over there away from me.”
Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Chapter 2:Jasmine coughed as the dust from the years reached her eyes and mouth. She supposed they hadn’t cleaned in here forever, and they hadn’t had many visitors lately. In fact, no one had come to Agrabah from a neighboring city that she could remember since she had met Aladdin.
“Where would the map be?” Aladdin asked, pushing away the cobwebs that were covering some of the scrolls in the room.
“Probably over there in that stack of stuff,” Jasmine replied.
Iago, Genie, Abu, and Carpet followed them, stepping around the messy piles. None of them had ever seen so many documents in their life, except Iago of course, who’d been introduced to writings by his time he’d spent early on with Jafar. The sultan hadn’t come with them since Jasmine had other people to help her. He had other things to do as well.
It was a slow process nonetheless, even though all the help they had. Unrolling every scroll, and then re-rolling it back when it wasn’t the right one took a while to do. The only noise in the room was some grumbling coming from Iago about how big of a waste of time this was and the occasional cough from the excessive amount of dust from the items.
In a little while, Iago began to get up and walk around, trying to find something else that the map might be in. There was a trunk in the back of the room, and he struggled to open it. When he did, he fell inside and the lid closed on top of him. Unfortunately, the lid was too heavy and he couldn’t get it back open.
The group laughed, and for a second, the business-like mood that had settled among them was lifted. Aladdin went over to the trunk and lifted up the lid, and Iago was coughing and had tears coming out his eyes.
“Whew! I don’t think I could’ve inhaled one more ounce of dust or I’d have died!” Iago panted, still having coughing fits.
But surprisingly, no comment came from Aladdin. He was intrigued by what lay in the bottom of the trunk that Iago had stumbled upon. “Jasmine, come here for a second.” She walked over and knelt beside him. “Who is that person?”
Everyone wanted to see what he was talking about, and he held up a picture of a young boy about the age of eleven. No one understood why this portrait would mean so much to him. “I think it’s a painting of one of the young princes that used to live here. I couldn’t tell you exactly who it was, but I’m sure Father could if you really wanted to know.”
“That’s fine,” he sighed, keeping his eyes on the portrait. “I don’t want him to go through the trouble.”
“What is it Al?” Genie asked, noticing the way that he stared at the painting, as if it meant something to him, something from his past that he was remembering.
Aladdin shook his head. “It bears so close of a resemblance to a friend I once had, one that died a long time ago. Seeing this reminded me of him.” For some reason, Aladdin looked down at Abu and smiled in sad sort of way. “It’s how Abu and I first met.”
“Who was it?” Jasmine asked.
“His name was Kadin,” and Aladdin’s story began there.
Chapter 3: Chapter 3
Author's Notes: Sorry it's taken me so long! I didn't finish posting it here, but it's been done at fanfiction.net forever.
Chapter 3:
Aladdin was out on the streets once again hiding from the guards, having just stolen some fruit from Amal, one of the vendors on the main road through Agrabah. It was a warm fall day, for it never seemed to get really cold unless it was a night, but then it froze.
He darted in an alley, and watched as Rasoul ran past him. Even then, Rasoul was the head guard, and had been for as long as Aladdin could remember. “Get back here, you good-for-nothing street rat!” He yelled as he ran, looking for the young, ten-year-old kid.
Just then, Aladdin’s eyes caught the glance of another kid, one who was just coming up to Omar, who sold apples to the citizens of Agrabah. He wore a shirt that was ripped on the right sleeve and brown pants resembling Aladdin’s though with more patches. Aladdin knew he’d seen his days of rougher times and knew that some probably consisted of some fights with the guards.
He’d seen him around before, but always avoided him. He looked like trouble, although he wasn’t but a year older than Aladdin. He was always causing the guards to run from their posts after him, and Aladdin supposed he was doing a favor by taking off some of the suspicion from him by having the guards on his own case.
Aladdin watched the kid, who was so good at the art of stealing. He would pay for an apple only, but yet get four instead. He was amazed at how he did this, and although he knew that it wasn’t necessarily right for him to steal, he sort of looked up to the kid.
It didn’t take him long to do his business with Omar, and soon he crept into the very alleyway that Aladdin was hiding in. The older kid looked at Aladdin. “Hurry, we need to get out of here. The guards are coming this way. You don’t want them to find you.”
Aladdin motioned for him to follow. “I’ll take you to where I live.”
The kid signaled for him to be silent, but nodded. So both street rats scrambled up the barrels in the back of the alley just as Rasoul ran past where they’d been standing. Aladdin didn’t look back though; he just kept his mind on getting them out of there. He couldn’t believe his luck. This guy that he’d always dreamed of talking to was asking him to show him where he lived.
When they got to the hovel, the older one asked, “So what’s your name kid?”
“I’m Aladdin. Who are you?” He replied back.
“Kadin’s the name,” he informed him, taking a bite of an apple as he told him this. “I’ve seen you around here before, Aladdin. You’re pretty good for a beginner at this stealing stuff.”
Aladdin took this a little offensively and retorted, “Hey! I’m better than ‘pretty good’!”
Kadin chuckled. “Okay, don’t bite my head off Alan. You don’t mind if I call you Alan, do you? I hate long names. And besides, I said you’re good at for your years of experience. But I could show you a couple of things that would make you a lot better.”
“Really?” Aladdin said, not caring about Kadin saying anything about how bad he was. “Could you show me some things?” It was his dreams come true. This expert was going to show him how to improve his craft.
“Of course! They don’t call me the king of the streets for nothing. I could show you a couple of pointers for the streets, especially with Omar. He’s tough to steal from.” Then he took a glance around the room. “So, does anyone live here with you?”
He shook his head, “I’m an orphan. My mom died when I was younger, and my dad left us.”
“Sorry to hear that.” Kadin sighed, “I’ve got an uncle who I go visit sometimes, but he’s too poor to support me so I have to live out here on the streets.” But then he shrugged his shoulders. “Life’s a pain in the butt, and there’s nothing you can do about it though. No use wasting tears on it, ‘cause it sure isn’t going to cry over you.”
Aladdin smiled and said, “I guess you’re right.” Then he got an idea. “Well, if you don’t have any where else to live, you’re welcome to stay with me. I’d enjoy the company.”
Then Kadin stood up and held out his hand. “Do we have a deal then?”
Aladdin shook it, and they shared a smile together. Little did they know of the adventures they had ahead of them from that warm morning.
Chapter 4: Chapter 4
Chapter Four:Aladdin awoke that morning with the sun slowly creeping up on his face, bringing with it the heat. He looked down from the window of the hovel, and saw everything already stirring. “It must be nearly eleven,” he commented to himself. Then he looked over and realized that Kadin was gone. He wondered where he would have to go, and then he realized that Kadin didn’t have to stay here. He’d seen the older kid every morning, stealing himself something to eat, and he figured the same out of him now.
Just then, Kadin shouted from the bottom of the stairs, “Hey Alan, you up yet?” knowing that if he was, he’d surely answer. When Aladdin called back, he bounded up the steps to stand beside his friend.
“You want something to eat?” He asked.
“Sure, what have you got?”
“Apples.” Kadin then rolled one off his shoulder and Aladdin caught it perfectly. He stared at him in awe for a couple of seconds then replied, “How on Earth did you do that?”
“Oh, that trick? It’s easy. Let me show you.” For half an hour, Kadin showed him exactly how to move his arm and roll his shoulder, so that the apple rolled off perfectly into Kadin’s hands. “Not too bad for your first time, but your technique could use a little more work.”
“So what were you doing earlier this morning?” Aladdin asked.
“Oh yeah! That reminds me! My uncle, the one that I told you about, well, he’s got a surprise for me, and he told me to come by some time today to come pick it up. Would you care to come along and see what it is?” Kadin offered.
“I’d love to,” Aladdin replied. He picked up another apple and began eating it as they climbed down the path from the hovel to the alley. They then walked out into the street where they met someone that they weren’t too happy to see standing in front of their way.
“Well, look who it is,” snarled Rasoul. “Just the thieves I was looking for.” He tried to grab them, but they split up into two directions: Kadin heading for the top of one of the vendor’s carts, and Aladdin onto a couple of barrels, trying to climb onto the roof from there. Rasoul went after Aladdin and he began to climb the wooden barrels also. Unfortunately, they were not strong enough to hold both of their weight, and they collapsed, sending flour over the pair and a couple of citizens, who were quite perturbed.
This gave Aladdin just enough time to squirm from his grasp, and he wiggled out of the mighty guard’s arms. Kadin helped him off the ground, and the two stealers ran off toward the bread stand Kadin had been in the first place. Rasoul was back up now though. Aladdin hurried up the stand and onto a joining roof of the bakery, and Kadin followed. He wasn’t fast enough however, and Rasoul grabbed his ankle.
“Gotcha!” Rasoul sneered. He pulled out his sword and exclaimed, “I’ll make you pay a price for all those things you’ve stolen!”
In the nick of time, Aladdin took the core of the apple and pelted it at Rasoul, hitting him square in the head. It stunned him and he fell backwards, hitting his head on the wood of the vendor’s stand.
“Whoops!” Aladdin muttered, and they ran off together laughing, but knowing they had to get as far away as possible.
Kadin seemed to jog forever until they came upon an older looking house. He knocked on the door, and in a moment, a gray-haired man answered.
“Well if it isn’t my young nephew Kadin? And I see you’ve brought a friend. Come on in you both.” Aladdin was taken aback for a moment by the cheerfulness of the old man, but quickly received it and took the man’s advice. They needed to get off the streets as soon as possible.
They walked inside, and Aladdin saw that it was fairly well furnished, but it was obvious that a non-wealthy person lived here. “Hello young fellow. I’m Kadin’s uncle, Jerem. What’s your name?”
“Uh, Aladdin,” he admitted shyly.
The man smiled. “That’s a nice name. Would you boys like anything to drink?” When both shook their heads, he realized what they were there for. “I guess there’s no use in wasting my time. In the back room, there’s a box. Go open it Kadin.”
Kadin walked over and saw a box that was moving. He lifted the lid and out jumped a capuchin monkey, munching on an apple that Uncle Jerem must have put in there for it. “Oh Uncle! It’s great! Thanks. But where did you get him?”
“Well you know I had to go out of town two days ago, right? Anyway, I got him on my way when I met a traveler on the road. He wanted to get rid of him saying that he was tired of having a monkey around. His wife complained that it was too hyper. I thought of you when I saw it, and thought it would be a great present for you.”
The monkey had a hat on and he lifted it to the both of the boys, resembling a welcome gesture. The brown animal was smart, that was for sure.
“Thanks,” he told him once more. “I think I’ll call him… Abu.”
Chapter 5: Chapter 5
Chapter 5:They walked out the door, and Kadin couldn’t have been prouder with that monkey sitting on top of his shoulder. He had fell in love with it immediately. Abu liked both of the kids and as they were walking down the street, he would jump from one shoulder to another. They would laugh, and of course, Abu had to join in with a squeak himself.
“Hey, look who’s there,” a voice thundered behind them. The voice was deathly familiar.
“Rasoul!” They both screamed. The boys tried to run, but the guard, heavier and stronger than both of them, held them tightly by the backs of their shirts. As much as they struggled, it wasn’t any use. They weren’t going to get away.
Then, they heard, “What in the name of Allah? I can’t see! Get off that you stupid monkey!” This was enough of a distraction to get away from his grasp, and they turned around to see Abu hopping on top of the man’s turban, and Rasoul struggling to get it above his eyes so he could see again.
“Come on Abu. Let’s get out of here!” Kadin called, and Aladdin and Abu ran off in the direction of the hovel, laughing the whole way.
Back at their home, both boys were still cracking up, but thanked Abu for his help just the same. He’d saved their lives, and that meant more to them than the monkey realized. “I can’t believe that. It was perfect! Thanks for your help Abu! We’d have been toast without you.”
Abu saluted, which ended up leading to another round of a laughing fit. What Aladdin couldn’t imagine was how Abu could understand what they were saying. It was as if he knew exactly what they meant. And he could even say a couple of words. It made him wonder who was the owner before Kadin’s uncle got him.
“Hey Abu! You hungry?” The capuchin nodded, and Kadin threw him an apple over to the window, where he was sitting next to. The monkey took a big bite out of it and started chomping away at it.
Kadin walked over and sat down next to Aladdin. “That Abu sure is something, isn’t he?” Kadin asked.
Aladdin replied, “Yeah, that he is. Don’t you think it’s weird that he can understand us though? I mean, he can even almost speak to us.”
His friend nodded. “I know what you mean. I don’t know how he does, but I think it’s awesome. He’s going to be a lot of help with Rasoul. He’ll come in handy getting out of tough situations, especially if we keep having episodes like today. We might even have to get two of them.”
Aladdin chuckled. “Yep, we just might.” Then he stared over to where the monkey sat looking at the palace. It reminded him a lot of himself, and he wondered what would interest an animal so much about a palace, besides the fact that it was a wonderful view. That was what made this monkey so different from any other animal he’d ever met before. It had these human-like qualities to his attitude, and the fact of the matter was: that in itself was weird. The monkey’s eyes were glued to the building that stood far off, as if an idol to everyone, including the capuchin’s.
“Wow, the sun set fast today, did it not Alan?” Kadin mentioned, bringing Aladdin out of his trance.
He noticed the background outside the window and realized what his friend said was indeed true. The sun was getting lower in the sky. The day had gone by so fast, it hardly seemed like they had a full day. He supposed that the whole Abu thing had taken up more time than it seemed. Time was precious, and it flew by as a bird, speeding past all the inhabitants of the Earth. This brought back memories of what Aladdin’s mother used to say.
“Aladdin,” she would call out to him. “You’ve got to stop wanting to grow up. It will happen in good time. Meanwhile, enjoy the time you have with those that you love. You never know when it might all be taken away from you.”
He’d never heard truer words spoken. Not too long after that, his mother had become sick, and he had lost her, the one who’d loved him through it all. He could still recall her soft touch on his face, and the ever-soft voice that she had. His mother had been beautiful, both inside and outside. She would light up the room with her beauty, and it was from her that Aladdin got his strong spirit and will to keep fighting.
Aladdin now wondered about his Dad too. Did he ever think like that? What did he look like? Did he have dreams like his mom did? His mother often told him that his father would look up at the palace and tell her that one day, they would have more than they could dream about. They would live there someday. That was the only wish that she’d never believed in. She knew that though it wasn’t right, the poverty-stricken would never get a passing glance from someone like the sultan. It was just nearly impossible for anyone to be able to go from living in a dump like that to a mansion like that. Never would Aladdin think that he might actually cross that barrier.
“Well, I guess we’d better say goodnight. Abu, come over here. I’ll fix you a place to sleep.”
And so Aladdin did, right in the middle of Kadin and his own bed. Abu just snuggled right in and muttered something along the lines of, “G’night!” That was all that had to be said, before all three went into their own dreams, wishing upon their own stars that night.
Chapter 6: Chapter 6
Chapter 6:The world was shaking. Aladdin felt his whole bed moving underneath him. His eyes popped open and he tried to figure out what was happening. Just then he saw Abu at the foot of the bed, shaking it. “Abu!” He scolded. “You nearly gave me a heart attack there. Don’t do that to me.”
Abu cooed sadly at him. “Sorry,” the monkey muttered.
“What were you wanting?”
He rubbed his stomach. “Food!”
Aladdin opened his eyes wide in surprise. “You’re hungry? We didn’t eat but an hour before we went to bed. You ate three apples.”
“Hungry!!!”
“Ugh,” he groaned. “Come on, let’s go. A loaf of bread alright with you?” A nod assured Aladdin, and he rose out of bed. “What was the problem asking Kadin to get you something?” Abu shrugged his shoulders. He then jumped up on Al’s shoulder and the two began their way down the stairs and toward the marketplace. There were only a few vendors out, which meant guards would be watching well.
Aladdin snuck toward a bread store and walked inside the already-hot building. The furnace had been going a while from what it looked like. He looked around for a plain loaf that wouldn’t be too noticeable when gone. Grabbing a loaf from a large stand, which had assorted kinds on it, he stuffed it into his vest.
Abu meanwhile had snuck away, and Aladdin had to nearly peel him off one of the stands. He had already half-eaten a slice of a warm loaf, and Aladdin shook his head at him. “Are you crazy?” He whispered roughly to him. “That man will be out here any minute and if he sees you, we’ll BOTH be in trouble.”
Abu agreed and they both left, feeling quite lucky. Behind them, they heard a man say to himself, “I could have sworn someone was here.” The pair laughed, but continued back to the hovel.
Sitting back down on the bed, Aladdin broke the loaf and started to hand it to Abu, only to find that the monkey had stolen two for himself. “Why you hairy little thief!” Aladdin scolded, but instead set one half aside for Kadin.
Aladdin nudged his sleeping friend and he arose, looking sleepy. “You want something to eat?”
Kadin took his half of bread and quickly devoured it. After doing this, he jumped up and offered, “Come on Alan. Let’s go do something.”
“What?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ll figure something out.” They walked down the steps and traveled carefully over the wooden ‘bridge’ Aladdin had made. Then Kadin stopped. “Alan, do you have a long pole or something like that?”
Aladdin picked up one and threw it to him. “That’s one that came off when I broke the wooden board in half for the walkway.”
“It’ll do.”
“What do you need it for?”
Kadin shouted, “Watch this, Alan!” He took the vaulting stick and tried to spin while in the air. They all were watching as he slowly came toward the other side.
As he was nearing the edge of the opposite wall, the pole slipped from the notch, making Kadin lose control. “ALAN!” He yelled, but there was nothing either of them could do. Time was in slow motion as Kadin began to fall toward the hard packed ground. Aladdin stretched out his hand only too late, as he was way out of reach.
Bam! Aladdin didn’t even want to look down. He knew what he’d see if he looked. But something turned his head and he watched Kadin struggling on the ground for air. Even so high and far away, he could tell there wasn’t much hope. Still, something gave him hope.
Aladdin scrambled down the steps, scraping his knees as he went. He didn’t care. The only thought in his mind was getting to Kadin. He picked up his friend’s hand, and Kadin looked at Aladdin, his eyes glassy from tears of pain. “Alan,” he whispered.
“Come on! We’ve got to get you to the doctor!” He tried to pick up his hurting friend, but he was too heavy for the ten-year-old to carry.
“Alan, leave me. It’s my time to go.” His words were heavy and slurred.
“No!” Alan yelled back. “You can’t die! You can’t!” The kid couldn’t imagine not having Kadin around, even though it hadn’t been more than three days. Tears were streaming down both faces now.
“Please Alan, I have to.” He took a deep breath, trying to stay awake. “Tell my uncle what has happened. He’ll know what to do. And I… I want you to have Abu.” His vision was blurred, and he couldn’t see but the outline of the form of Aladdin.
“But he’s yours. There’s no reason for me to have him, not if you’re going to make it through this.”
“Alan, I’m sorry. Goodbye,” Alan watched as his head fell to the ground, and Kadin let out his last breath slowly.
“Goodbye,” he whispered to the dead body of his friend. He drowned himself in his tears, knowing he’d never see Kadin again.
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Aladdin sighed to himself, and everyone was intently watching his face, seeing the hurt coming back from the memories. There wasn’t a word said as tears fell down his face.
Finally, Abu crawled up his shoulder. Aladdin looked over at him and smiled, knowing that they meant more to each other than they’d ever know.