Back to the Arabian Nights

the Bazaar

**

My sights were beholding a place that I thought could have only existed in fairy tales. 

In front of me was a beautiful navy blue skyline with diamond bright stars that glowed all around. The harsh desert sands shifted to golden, shimmery carpet. Fire torches lit around the cities looked as if fireflies were flying around in a melody. And amidst all of the magical golden mansions and huts stood a grand and a magnificent castle, with a golden crown. It's regality and elegance had left me in awe. It looked too beautiful, and no one was ashamed of gaping their mouths open.

"Where are we?" I asked, not leaving my eyes off the sight in front of me.

"Agrabah" She said as she too looked around, yet her eyes looked like they were equally in awe, "You weren't ready to believe us earlier".

I knitted my eyebrows at her claim, but I found myself distracted from my ongoing dismay as the view of the magnificent palace became more clearer through the sedan chair window.

"This way!" The old woman, in a camel few foot away from us, peeked her head out of her sedan  and yelled with her hands open.

The camels descended down from the sandy deserts to the crowded city's entrance walls. The guards protecting the bordered walls extended their hands to ask for some kind of document. The women looked inside of her silk bag and took out a green scroll and gave it to the guards. After having a good look at it, they let us enter.

"Welcome to Agrabah" They said. My stomach fell in a pit when he said that as it brought me closer to a realisation that I was entering something stranger than my imagination.

"No way", a pit in the stomach began to deepen as the camels entered the bordered walls and into the protected city.

The woman sitting next to me pointed at the exquisite castle, "I live here, but this view-- This view always makes me feel like I'm seeing it for the first time." She guided the camel to continue moving, but never leaving her eyes off of the majestic artistry.

The camels now looked at ease, as if they knew that they were home. I was taking in everything; The enthusiastic street performers, the overly nice- persuading-bribing merchants, the smell of thousand different spices, shopkeepers that threw out free compliments in hopes of attracting customers, mules/horses carrying the more privileged citizens, the smell and the smokes of hookah and tobacco.

The camels walked inside the narrow streets of the bazaar, which faded into a more quiet and dark area than the bazaar. Each house in the lane had men outside in their pedestals, smoking and laughing with alcohol filled glasses.

"What is this place?" I asked softly, but deep inside, I did not want to know the answer to that.

"Stop here!" The old woman shouted as the camels came near a giant red building, protected by two buffed men in a white turban.

Her sons stopped the other camels on cue, "This is where we get off", they said as they knocked on the sedan chair.

The woman got off the camel sedan and helped me get off of it as well.

"You need to stay out here a while. We need to talk to someone before we let you stay over with us for the night. Can you do that? Stay still?" The woman asked as she helped the men carry their huge luggage inside the building

I nodded at her as I stood where I had, awkwardly wondering if I should have helped them with the luggage or not.

She pursed her lips into tight smile, "And if I were you, I'd put the shawl over my head. It'd be wise to cover yourself up a little. Especially during the night" She whispered in my ear. I covered my head with a white shawl, trying to cover most of my face with the loose fabric.