Ruwa walked to her friend, Nura’s house. Nura had only been married a short time, though they were both only fifteen years old. Nura’s husband was a very important man, who worked closely to the Sultan of Agrabah. Even though Nura had always complained about the marriage ever since she had been married, Ruwa knew she wasn’t as miserable as she liked to say she was. Ruwa smiled, and shook her head. That was just like Nura. To spend hours and hours complaining to anyone who would listen, and as that someone was really only her, and now her eunuch, Abbas, they were the ones who listened, and nodded sympathetically. She walked through the marketplace, greeting he vendors. Everyone in the market loved Ruwa. She was such a friendly, pretty girl, who could always find the good in everyone. On her way to Nura’s house, she saw a young man, around her own age, standing next to one of the shops, and speaking to the shopkeeper. Their eyes met, and he smiled Ruwa. Ruwa walked to one of the finest houses in the city, and was let in by one of the black eunuchs.
“I think I’m going to go mad!”exclaimed Nura when she saw her.
“Why is that?”asked Ruwa, pretending to be shocked.
“Why? Why? Why else, Ruwa, but that I wish I was still only an unmarried girl. I never understood the point of getting married. Other than it makes life even more impossible than it already is.”
“Oh, it can’t be that bad.”said Ruwa gently.
“That just shows how much you know. My only company is Abbas, my eunuch. At least he had the decency to get me a good eunuch. You don’t find them everyday in the marketplace, from what I know.”
“Well, I suppose Hanif wants you to be happy.”
“Which I probably shall never be from the way things are looking.”exclaimed Nura.
“Oh, but what else! What else than to just have everything be perfect, but no, you will always find an imperfection in something. All my life, my parents have been nagging at me to get married, and now that I am, you know, they could at least have had the decency to let me choose whom I married, but no. My father simply chose for me.”
Ruwa giggled.
“So now you think it’s funny, do you?!”Nura rolled her eyes. “Just what I needed. Someone who finds this unbearable situation amusing!”
“You always make everything amusing, Nura.”
“Do I? Well, you’re the first to think that. No one I know does.”
“Well, you convinced me.”
Nura smiled.
“I guess that’s something. And tell me what’s been happening to you these last couple of days.”
“But I came to see how the Sultana’s birthday party was? I know you went.”
“Yes, I did.”answered Nura wearily.
“Wasn’t it splendid?”
“Oh, it was, believe it or not.”
“Oh, I believe it.”said Ruwa, dreamily.
“In a gigantic room, probably bigger than this whole house, and, let’s see, well, they had the best food, that’s for sure. And the walls and floor were marble, oh, you get the idea.”
“Tell me everything!”
Nura told her as much as she could remember.
“I envy you.”said Ruwa.
“You shouldn’t envy me.”said Nura darkly. “I couldn’t get up the next day. Not to mention that those social functions are always an agony. You never what could happen. What if I am possessed during one of them?”
Ruwa remained silent.
“You won’t.”she assured Nura.
Nura sighed.
“Perhaps it might work out for the best.”she said.
Ruwa did not know what to say, so she simply nodded. She noticed the eunuch standing behind Nura.
“Your own eunuch?”she asked.
“Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed him before? I introduced him to you the first day.”
“Does he ever go to the marketplace?”
“Ruwa’s asking you a question, Abbas.”Nura said to the eunuch.
“Yes, my lady.”he turned to Ruwa. “Whenever my lady asks for something, yes.”
“Oh, I don’t suppose you go the tailor’s then?”
“What could Abbas possibly have to do at the tailor’s? Other than get something for himself? Mind you, he wears things out pretty quickly.”said Nura, as she shook her finger at Abbas.
“Do you know the tailor very well?”
“Don’t tell me you’re interested in asking him for something?”asked Nura. “But now that you mention the marketplace, I’m sick of sitting here all day. I want to go out. Abbas, my veil! You never know what you might find. Perhaps something that’s worth the money you pay for it.”
“Perhaps.”
They went out of the house, and walked down the crowded street with Abbas following close behind, while Nura peered at all the merchandise.
“Just look at this!”she exclaimed, as she looked at a bunch of glass ornaments. “Where I couldn’t put all these cute little figures?”
“Oh, you’ll never run out of room, that’s for sure.”
“I wouldn’t mind.”
She selected a few, paid for them, and walked away to look at the jewelry. Here, they were in complete view from the window of the tailor’s shop.
Cassim, the same boy whom had seen Ruwa, earlier, looked up, and saw that same girl, accompanied with another girl, her own age, but obviously, with much more money, as she wore finer clothes, and behind her stood an eunuch, who usually bought the most expensive garments.
“Isn’t that eunuch, the same one who came a few weeks ago?”he asked the tailor.
The tailor looked up from his work, with a stern expression on his face.
“I don’t pay you to stare out the window and moon around all day!”he exclaimed. “Now get back to work!”
Cassim threw an ugly look at him. He hated this man, but he was the only one who would give him a job, and he could see why no one else wanted to work for him. As soon as he found something else, something better, he would certainly quit. As he was the best tailor in Agrabah, usually the people who came to buy from him, were well-dressed, and obviously people of money.
“Oh, look,”said Ruwa. “I saw that boy before.”
Nura looked up, from her preocupiation with the jewelry.
“Who?”
“That one. I haven’t seen him before.”
“Oh, probably just some new boy, I guess. No one works for that man for very long. I’ve heard he has the most disagreeable attitude, but he’s exceptionally good at what he does.”
Ruwa nodded.
Ruwa by persian85033