Site Info
We are the home of 167 authors from among our 746 members. There have been 2011 reviews written about our 530 stories. A special welcome to our newest member, Disneygirl19.
Agrabah's Market: The Year of Survival by Merkal
[Reviews - 1] Printer

- Text Size +
Agrabah's Market: The Year of Survival

By Marco Merkelijn


I'll be your Angel
No mountains to high
For you to climb
All you have to do
Is have some climbing faith,
No rivers too wide
For you to make it across,
All you have to do is believe it when you pray,
And then you will see that the morning will come,
and every day will be bright as the sun,
all of your fears cast them on me
I just want you to see
I'll be your cloud up in the sky,
I'll be your shoulder when you cry,
I hear your voices when you call me,
I am your angel
And when all hope is gone up here
No matter how far you are from here,
It makes no difference who you are,
I am your angel,
I saw your tear drops,
And I heard you cry,
All you need is time,
Seek me and you shall find,
You have everything,
and your still lonely
It don't have to be this way,
Let me show you a better way,




A boy around 12 years old wandered through the dark alleys of the city. The boy was skinny, he hadn't eaten enough in the last months. His clothes where dirty, his shirt was missing most of it's left sleeve. He stopped at a door and knocked, a woman answered the door. Looking down at the boy she gave him a tiny, hardly noticeable, smile then stepped aside. The boy stepped in the twilight room only lighted by a lamp standing on a wooden table.

The woman walked to a cupboard, opening the door she grabbed a plate then she looked over her shoulder at the boy asking.
"Do you want something to eat?"
The boy shook his head. "I'm not hungry."
"Something to drink then?" the woman asked.
"Yes, water." The boy sat down on a chair at the table.
The woman left the room leaving the boy alone. He sunk with his chin on his arms laying crossed on the table staring at the wall. The boy was young Merkal, son of Omar a former merchant at Agrabah's Market. Omar died only 3 months earlier. The unfortunate man was at the wrong place on the wrong time.

Before his father died Merkal was a happy, exciting boy who loved his father very much. Now this boy was replaced by a sad, hopeless boy of 12 years young. He had spend many days and nights outside in the cold desert nights. His mother couldn't help him she was still trying to overcome the loss of her husband. She could only hope that her son would be strong enough to overcome his loss. In the past year Merkal had fallen to the dark side of life, he was stealing from people mostly things of value. He didn't want it too but his "friends" made him do that to pay for the use of the "medicine" that made his life a bit better. His mother knew about what he was doing but every time she tried to teach him stealing was wrong but he always got mad at her. One time he almost attacked with a spoon, he was mad at everyone but mostly at himself. He was blaming himself for the loss of his father and she knew that. Merkal's uncle lived with Aabad and Merkal for the first months. Jed tried to take over the father role Omar had filled in Merkal's life but failed hopelessly. Eventually Jed, Merkal's uncle and Omar's brother, was forced to go back to his home city.
Aabad looked at her son standing in the doorway. She tried to be strong for him but she knew Merkal saw trough it. His mother couldn't help him she tried but was still trying to overcome the loss of her husband herself. She could only hope that her son would be strong enough to overcome his loss before it was too late.

Aabad walked in with 2 glasses of water in her hands. "Here you are," she said giving her son the glass. He didn't made any effort to take it from her so she put it down on the table. She made her dinner and took place on the second chair she looked at her son. "So what's up?" she asked hoping to get his attention.
Merkal looked at his mother and shrugged "Nothing, mom." Then zipped from his glass of water. Aabad frowned. "Merkal you should make some friends."
"Friends?"
"Yes, friends can help you through this."
"Maybe," the boy shrugged.
Dinnertime passed by without another word.

Merkal told his mother that he went on a walk before bedtime. Aabad let him go after he promised to be careful and to be back in an hour. With his pet and best friend Rafeek, a young camel Merkal got from his father a little more then a year ago for his birthday. Lately the boy and camel hang out allot together inside and outside the city. Pulling pranks on people or just to go to an oasis. When he and Rafeek pulled pranks Merkal felt a little better.

Upon turning into an alley Merkal saw a group of people standing in the light of the full moon. A guy saw him and came to the boy and his camel.
"Hello."
"Hello," Merkal said back.
"Come," the guy walked to the group.
"Stay here." Merkal ordered his camel. Rafeek stayed but it was clear he wasn't happy. The face of the camel would tell everyone that his master was about to do something stupid.
Merkal nodded to the other 2 guys and the girl, Merkal was the youngest of this group. The other guys and the girl where in their late teens. One of the guys wore a fez he was the oldest with 20 years old. The second guy of the group was wearing a shirt without sleeves it was too short too. It was a big guy. The girl has short hair, she once told the boy that she cut of her hair when she was 10. The guy that Merkal greeted at the begriming of the alley was bare chested. Merkal guessed it attracted girls because the girl was all around him the whole time.

"You have it?" the guy with the sleeveless shirt asked. Merkal nodded and handed him a leather bag. It was his allowance of the past week. The guy turned the bag so the coins fell on his hand he counted it then made a head gesture to the "fez guy" who took something out of his pocket. A round bar of less then 2 centimeters the top and bottom where of a brown color, it was a cigarette a joint as the "fez guy" calls it.
"Here try this one, it will give you such a happy feeling. Nothing like the other normal one" the big guy said taking the joint and handing it to Merkal.
"I don't know." Merkal said. "The normal one was good enough for me."
"Give it a try you won't regret it." the guy insisted. The boy was uncertain what to do, eventually he too the joint and puts it between his lips.
He was told to light it just like he did with the other one. "How can I light it, I've no fire." The joint fell out of his mouth on the ground. The girl picked it up and put it between his lips she danced around him and flirted. "Smoke it and I'll give you a reward." It made Merkal more nervous. He was asking himself how he ended up in this mess. He took the joint out of his mouth and handed it to the "fez guy"
"Take it back Diron and give me my money back."
"So you want your money back uh?"
Merkal nodded hopeful but was grabbed from behind by the big guy. Diron held a knife in front of Merkal's nose. "Nobody plays games with me!"
"Please Diron let me go." Merkal begged.
The group laughed him in the face. "Baby wants to go to his mommy" the sleeveless guy made fun of him. Merkal tried to get free but failed instead the grip around him tightens. "You're hurting me!" he cried out. "That's the idea, boy!"
Diron lighted the joint with the fire of a torch the sleeveless guy brought. Diron blew the smoke right in Merkal's face. It made him gag. "No one is going to gag around here!" Diron said holding the knife near Merkal's stomach. "If you want I can make another hole." He was grinning and the others laughed. "Wait! I know what we'll do with him." The girl said having an evil look in her eyes. Her eyes where red of smoking and who knows what else.
Reality was gaining up to the young boy, he had a big problem. He was about to die and he couldn't do a thing about it. "Help!" he yelled. He was ordered to shut up but didn't listen and kept yelling for help. Then a pain at the back of his head and everything turned black, he was knocked out cold.

A tongue stroke the side of his face, it was little Rafeek waking him up. His eyes needed a few seconds to adjust to the glaring sunlight. They where in a small alley. But where they still in Agrabah? Merkal only knew his head was hurting from the blow. "We need to get home, mother must be worried. Merkal said petting his camel friend on the head. The alley lead to a street, the street led to another street and so on. "We're still in Agrabah, that I know." Merkal said looking at the buildings he walked by. Rafeek rubbed his head at Merkal's hand.
"I know, but where are we? I need to find the market place from there I know how to get home. At least I learned my lesson, Diron and his gang never where my friends. They only wanted money." Merkal sighed and sat down on a high doorstep. His hand stroke Rafeek's head the 12-year-old boy looked at the ground. He wasn't robbed of his money but he also lost hope and the urge to survive. It wasn't the first time people used him and then dumped him hard.
"Maybe it's better that I leave Agrabah for good. I mean, what future would I have? I'm to young to work and without parents I can't go to school either." Merkal started crying. It was the first time he cried since his father passed away. He cried for many hours when he stopped he noticed that Rafeek was gone.
"Even Rafeek left me" he stood up and walked away from the doorstep.

It was sunset when Merkal stopped again, he had been walking around Agrabah without any goal. He didn't want to go home, he had no idea where his home was anyway. Thirsty and hungry but most of all tired Merkal sunk to his knees then his butt in a corner. He closed his eyes but he wasn't allowed much sleep.
"Hey you!"
"What?" Merkal asked sleepy opening his eyes.
"Be gone, you should know it's forbidden for street kids to sleep on the streets." Rough the guards dragged him to his feet. "But I'm not a street kid, I've a home but I'm lost." Merkal's instincts told him to say that. He heard that sometimes children where thrown in jail if they where found sleeping on the streets near the palace.
"Don't lie! Go before you're locked up." The guard said poking him with the back of a spear. Merkal tried to tell them again that he didn't know where his home was but then a joint fell out of pocket. He didn't even know he had one on him.
"So you're that kind of a kid." The guard shook his head and locked him into chains. "A shame, you're still young." the guard with the spear and another one dragged him with them. A third guard followed them a few meters behind lighting their way.
"I can walk" Merkal said glaring at the rough guards.

They went trough a port then Merkal knew where had been sleeping, the walls around the palace. Now they where inside and heading right to the dungeons.
"Ssstt, don't wake the Sultan." A post warned his collogues. "The Sultan! Let me talk to the Sultan he will understand and help me find my home." The boy pleaded his captives. Their response was, "Why do you think you're arrested? The Sultan approved a law to deal with your kind only last week. You are a danger to society, you rob and steal to feet your need. Some of you even are willing to kill for it."

They entered the palace at the eastside trough a door with a short tunnel then a stairs down. The stairs could be seen because of the lamps hanging on the ceiling out of reach of any possible escaping prisoner. The stairs ended at a wooden door. A guard knocked and Merkal heard a key turning then the door swung open behind it a wide tunnel with several side tunnels where revealed to the boy. The boy was told that he would be judged in front of the sultan tomorrow. "There you can say what you've to say" where the last words of his guard. Then the door was shut behind the boy he was locked up in a cell. "Well you did it Merkal, you're not only lost but now you are also locked up." He hit the wall with his fist.
"The wall can't help it that you're locked up." Merkal was startled by the voice.
"Who, who is there?"
"Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you. I'm a street kid just like you." Merkal's mouth dropped when a girl stepped into the faith light of the room. The reason why his jaw dropped was that the girl was a beauty. Merkal was young but he knew when a girl was pretty and this girl was very pretty. Black hair with a pair of light Braun eyes. She was a bit taller then himself and was wearing black pants and a light blue shirt with ripped white sleeves made her appearance even more impressive.
"I'm Rima, I'm a girl, but by looking at your face I think you already know that." She giggled.
"Oh I'm sorry for starring, it's just that you make such a..." the boy was in a loss of words. Rima smiled, "I hear that allot, I guess I got that from my mother. Is Merkal your name?" she asked. Merkal nodded. They talked for the rest of the night, Rima was 16 and from the eastside of the city. Her parents neglected her because they where to busy earning a living. She also fell into the world of drugs but other then Merkal she had been addicted to it since her 14th. She had been caught using it earlier that day but it was too late to be judged. Merkal told his story about the loss of his father and this feeling of loneliness and not knowing what to do without his father. Rima was wise for her age, maybe because what she had been trough the past years or because she went to a good school. She listened with patience to Merkal's story.
"You're young Merkal, younger then me at least." She said the last sentence looking away. A moment she turned her look back to the young boy in front of her. "And you're not addicted to the drugs yet. You have still a chance if you get out, I don't think they will set you to prison because of your young age. And you go back to your mother and let her help you processing you loss. It will help if you find a good friend, and I don't mean friends like Diron." She warned him.
"I think you're right but I feel so alone without the guidance of my father. My mother or any friend can't fill that gap." He said. "True. But friends, true friends will help you come over it. I know cause before I... well you know. I had this wonderful friend who sadly moved away months after I started to use drugs what made it all worse. I still miss her." Rima looked away at the small window with bars. It was almost dawn.
"Only a few more hours and your second chance begins."
"If I can talk the sultan into setting me free." Rima heard the uncertainly in his voice.
"He will, our sultan is a man of honor and good will."

When the guards came to get him Rima hugged the boy and hold it for a minute. "Good luck my friend." Merkal smiled, she was the first to call him friend and meant it. "Will we meet again someday?" Merkal asked quickly when the guard opened the cell door.

"I don't think so. But always remember this, if you really want something you can put your mind and heart to it and accomplish it. You can stop stealing and using drugs and smoking before it's too late and you can find a friend that really cares about you for who you are not what they want you too be."

A jury and the current head of the guards with a couple of guards would take care of Merkal's process. He was told that the sultan was out with his daughter Princess Jasmine. The jury of 5 people listened to the accusations Rasoul made against the boy Merkal was allowed to make his defense. Based on that it was the first time Merkal was caught for smoking drugs and because he was only 11 the jury let me go under a few terms. Merkal had to stay home with his mother and learn a craft, he also was forbidden to be in contact with justice for the next two years. Young Merkal was more then willing to follow those terms he knew what craft he would like to learn. The art of selling, he would follow his father footsteps and re-open his father's stall at Agrabah's Market.

A couple of hours later he walked out of the palace to the palace walls, to his surprise his mother and Rafeek where waiting for him at the gate. Rafeek ran to him and jumped up to lick him everywhere he could Merkal laughed "It's good to see you too." He put his camel down and stepped up to this mother. "Mother I, I'm sorry" there was quilt in his voice. She smiled kindly at him and embraced him. "I love you my Merkal"
"I love you too mother. And I know it's not gonna be easy but we will recover and get on with our lives. I will study hard and get a job to buy food and then very soon I will re-opened dad's market stall." Merkal promised his mother. The past year was a year of survival, smoking, stealing and eventually drugs would ruin his live. The 11-year-old had been balancing on the ridge of a bottomless canyon. He managed to keep his balance and step back. Now he had to climb a mountain, the reward of reaching the top would be worth the climb that he knew.

The next few months where the hardest for Merkal, it was almost impossible finding a job at young his age nobody would hire him they all told to go to school and come back in 3 years. Eventually he found a job as messenger-boy he earned just enough money to pay to maintain his mother and study. It was hard work but with positive thinking and a friendly attitude he got some respect from his boss and other people who worked there. They all liked Merkal and so Merkal got things done he normally wouldn't be able too. A florist he was often send too gave him a bouquet for free. It was Aabad's birthday she cried when he gave her the deserts flowers, it where her favorites and she knew he had worked hard to get them.

One day Merkal was sitting on a roof starring at the sky, "Father, if you can hear me, you can be proud of your son. I made it to one quarter of the mountain. I earn a good living for mother and me and I hope to find that special friend soon." After Merkal finished speaking he relaxed at the roof for a while. The sun high in the sky behind him, no wind, sheepish clouds float by slowly. It was a beautiful, quiet even peaceful afternoon. Merkal was content with his life but he still missed his father allot. "How can I find this special friend? I've no idea where to look." He asked himself when he heard voiced screaming below. He went to the edge of the rooftop and peaked down. A couple of palace guards where chasing children.
'I need to help them.' Merkal slide down on a clothesline. He helped the kids getting rid of the guards instead they where now chasing Merkal who took over the loaf of bread from one of the kids. Being a boy he was smarter and faster then the guards pulling their hats over their eyes and even made one trip over his own pants. "Well it's hard to run with your pants on your heels." Merkal teased the guard who was on the ground and was trying to get to his feet again.

Suddenly someone grabbed him by his arm into an alley. He was ready to fight but instead of a guy he saw two girls standing there breathing heavy like they had been running only minute before. The one that was looking at him was about his age, the other one seemed younger but looked a little like the older girl. Before Merkal could speak she introduced herself as Yesenia and the other girl as her sister Crystal. Merkal introduced himself and told about the bread when Yesenia asked him about it. They talked for a minute and they followed Merkal to his home to bring the bread to his mother. What they didn't know was that Merkal left enough money at the bakery to pay for the bread no stealing he learned. He hangout with the girls for the rest of the day and they became friends. Where Yesenia and Crystal the special friends Merkal needed? The only thing Merkal knew was that he liked them allot, Yesenia could be at least a good friend.

He couldn't know that years later he and Yesenia would end up in a dangerous adventure and discover the true feelings they had for each other. Then he would have reached the top of the mountain. All that time his father would watch him from above as his guardian angel.

I'll be your Angel
No mountains too high
For you to climb
All you have to do
Is have some climbing faith,




Disclaimer: Rasoul, sultan and Princess Jasmine are the property of Disney. Michelle Bowen owns Yesenia and Crystal. Aabad, Rima and Diron and gang plus of course Rafeek and Merkal are mine.