Week 5 Story: Sindbad's Newfound Love in the Sea
Note: This story was added to my Portfolio.
Sindbad was an immature, greedy, and selfish kid. His parents, who made massive fortunes by trading with other countries, loved Sindbad no matter how unruly and immature he was. Sindbad grew up without having been disciplined once by his parents. In fact, school teachers hated Sindbad and his parents even more because Sindbad always behaved unruly, bragged his family wealth, and hit other pupils to show his wealth and dominance. Sindbad was an ugly, spoiled kid.
In an unfortunate and tearful accident, Sindbad's parents, while on the way to China for their biggest trade deal ever, were swept away by massive sea currents. Their huge cargo ship, carrying all of their wealth including gold, diamonds, slaves, and wealth-claim documents (real estate and stock receipts), was flipped upside down, drowning fast due to Sindbad's parents' ginormous wealth.
Heartbroken and sorrowful, Sindbad was left alone. He couldn't even hold his parents' funeral because their bodies were drowned in the sea. Besides being heartbroken, Sindbad also became financially broken. Sindbad used to be the richest kid in his school. Teachers, who had always hated Sindbad, suspended and kicked Sindbad out of the school.
Sindbad, 17 year-old kid who was left with nothing but his 6-foot-tall, healthy body, looked at the endless horizon of the sea. Thinking about his parents' tragic accident, Sindbad decided to go on board. He talked to Captain Cadabra who was a local merchant trading with nearby Arabic countries.
"Captain Cadabra, don't you wanna make more money? You have to trade with China", asked the young Sindbad.
"No, no, no. I don't even know where that is. And what if my little ship gets wrecked like your parents'?", replied the frightened captain.
"Captain, I promise you'll be fine. We won't go the route my parents took. It'll take longer, but we'll go around.", said Sindbad in an attempt to calm the frightened old captain.
So they decided to go on board to Beijing, China. On their way to China, which was a long voyage that would take several months, they stopped in Sumatra island of Indonesia. They decided to take a short, one-week break in Sumatra.
There, they encountered a strange, new environment. Cadabra and Sindbad spoke Arabic to Sumatrans, the native people of the island Sumatra, but they couldn't understand each other.
So they had to communicate using body language. Although Cadabra and Sindbad were foreign to the natives, they were welcomed by Sumatrans because they showed no contempt, arrogance, or desire to conquer.
They treated Cadabra and Sindbad with delicious local cuisine and warm hospitality. Furthermore, Sumatrans decided to throw a welcome party for their humble visitors. Among the joyful, dancing crowd, Sindbad saw a shy, quietly smiling young little girl.
Because they couldn't talk to each other, Sindbad had to act. In a rather impetuous, clumsy show of masculinity, Sindbad abruptly did 20 push-ups in front of the girl.
The shy girl wanted to laugh, but she refrained because Sindbad looked kind of serious.
She thought, 'What kind of fool is this dude? Haha!!'
Pumped with a sudden high-intensity workout, Sindbad rolled up his sleeves and flexed his not-so-big biceps. The girl had enough with this comic. She couldn't hold anymore, so she burst into loud laughter. The whole crowd suddenly stopped dancing and looked at the shy girl with surprise. They had always regarded the girl as someone who was very shy, introverted, and reserved from laughing so loudly.
Among the crowd was Captain Cadabra. The 34-year-old who had never married saw the girl and felt a crush. Cadabra saw the girl's face subtly turning pink when she was looking at the silly Sindbad.
Cadabra's face was turning red with a burst of inner anger and jealousy. Being a 34-year-old, he couldn't embarrass himself by doing the same silly push-up that Sindbad did.
So Cadabra decided to do something evil and wicked instead. He decided to secretly poison Sindbad. He put the "suicide powder" that he had always prepared into Sindbad's toast glass. Cadabra had always thought it's better to kill himself rather than being eaten by sharks in case his ship got wrecked.
Sindbad, immediately after sipping the poisoned glass, felt heavily into the ground. His whole body started to tremble and he screamed in pain. Sindbad started to bleed from every hole in his body including eyes, nose, mouth, fingernails, and toenails. The shy girl kneel her knees to pray to her Sumatran gods, who had always protected her family, tribe, and country. While praying, she burst into tears and her genuine, sincere tears touched Sindbad's body. The Sumatran gods in the heaven who were listening to her prayer were moved, so they also burst into tears.
A sudden, squall-like heavy rain fell, extinguishing all the fireworks in the festival. It was the gods' tears. The rain touched all over Sindbad's body, washing away the blood and vomit.
Hours later, the dawn came. Sindbad slowly opened his eyes and saw the girl kneeling right next to him. He asked, "What happened? Why are you kneeling?". Indeed, she didn't understand the Arabic, but she knew what he was talking about.
Captain Cadabra, who had seen all the terrible suffering of Sindbad that was caused by his evil deed, couldn't stand himself anymore. He felt a deep sense of remorse and pain. He obviously attempted to brutally kill his fellow comrade.
So he went into the woods alone. In the deep forest where he could only hear humming of animals and bugs, he hanged himself with a thick rope.
The girl and Sindbad later married each other. After being told about his forgotten excruciating experience, Sindbad realized Cadabra tried to kill him.
Nonetheless, Sindbad forgave Cadabra and felt into deep sorrow for his unfortunate death.
The girl and Sindbad had two children (one son and one daughter), and they lived happily ever after traveling Arabia and Sumatra back and forth with their beautiful kids.
Author's Note: I created this story of the Voyages of Sindbad in my own version of the story. Original content may be different from my re-created story, so you are advised to visit the website in my bibliography for the original content of the story.
Sindbad was an immature, greedy, and selfish kid. His parents, who made massive fortunes by trading with other countries, loved Sindbad no matter how unruly and immature he was. Sindbad grew up without having been disciplined once by his parents. In fact, school teachers hated Sindbad and his parents even more because Sindbad always behaved unruly, bragged his family wealth, and hit other pupils to show his wealth and dominance. Sindbad was an ugly, spoiled kid.
In an unfortunate and tearful accident, Sindbad's parents, while on the way to China for their biggest trade deal ever, were swept away by massive sea currents. Their huge cargo ship, carrying all of their wealth including gold, diamonds, slaves, and wealth-claim documents (real estate and stock receipts), was flipped upside down, drowning fast due to Sindbad's parents' ginormous wealth.
Heartbroken and sorrowful, Sindbad was left alone. He couldn't even hold his parents' funeral because their bodies were drowned in the sea. Besides being heartbroken, Sindbad also became financially broken. Sindbad used to be the richest kid in his school. Teachers, who had always hated Sindbad, suspended and kicked Sindbad out of the school.
Sindbad, 17 year-old kid who was left with nothing but his 6-foot-tall, healthy body, looked at the endless horizon of the sea. Thinking about his parents' tragic accident, Sindbad decided to go on board. He talked to Captain Cadabra who was a local merchant trading with nearby Arabic countries.
"Captain Cadabra, don't you wanna make more money? You have to trade with China", asked the young Sindbad.
"No, no, no. I don't even know where that is. And what if my little ship gets wrecked like your parents'?", replied the frightened captain.
"Captain, I promise you'll be fine. We won't go the route my parents took. It'll take longer, but we'll go around.", said Sindbad in an attempt to calm the frightened old captain.
So they decided to go on board to Beijing, China. On their way to China, which was a long voyage that would take several months, they stopped in Sumatra island of Indonesia. They decided to take a short, one-week break in Sumatra.
There, they encountered a strange, new environment. Cadabra and Sindbad spoke Arabic to Sumatrans, the native people of the island Sumatra, but they couldn't understand each other.
So they had to communicate using body language. Although Cadabra and Sindbad were foreign to the natives, they were welcomed by Sumatrans because they showed no contempt, arrogance, or desire to conquer.
They treated Cadabra and Sindbad with delicious local cuisine and warm hospitality. Furthermore, Sumatrans decided to throw a welcome party for their humble visitors. Among the joyful, dancing crowd, Sindbad saw a shy, quietly smiling young little girl.
Because they couldn't talk to each other, Sindbad had to act. In a rather impetuous, clumsy show of masculinity, Sindbad abruptly did 20 push-ups in front of the girl.
The shy girl wanted to laugh, but she refrained because Sindbad looked kind of serious.
She thought, 'What kind of fool is this dude? Haha!!'
Pumped with a sudden high-intensity workout, Sindbad rolled up his sleeves and flexed his not-so-big biceps. The girl had enough with this comic. She couldn't hold anymore, so she burst into loud laughter. The whole crowd suddenly stopped dancing and looked at the shy girl with surprise. They had always regarded the girl as someone who was very shy, introverted, and reserved from laughing so loudly.
Among the crowd was Captain Cadabra. The 34-year-old who had never married saw the girl and felt a crush. Cadabra saw the girl's face subtly turning pink when she was looking at the silly Sindbad.
Cadabra's face was turning red with a burst of inner anger and jealousy. Being a 34-year-old, he couldn't embarrass himself by doing the same silly push-up that Sindbad did.
So Cadabra decided to do something evil and wicked instead. He decided to secretly poison Sindbad. He put the "suicide powder" that he had always prepared into Sindbad's toast glass. Cadabra had always thought it's better to kill himself rather than being eaten by sharks in case his ship got wrecked.
Sindbad, immediately after sipping the poisoned glass, felt heavily into the ground. His whole body started to tremble and he screamed in pain. Sindbad started to bleed from every hole in his body including eyes, nose, mouth, fingernails, and toenails. The shy girl kneel her knees to pray to her Sumatran gods, who had always protected her family, tribe, and country. While praying, she burst into tears and her genuine, sincere tears touched Sindbad's body. The Sumatran gods in the heaven who were listening to her prayer were moved, so they also burst into tears.
A sudden, squall-like heavy rain fell, extinguishing all the fireworks in the festival. It was the gods' tears. The rain touched all over Sindbad's body, washing away the blood and vomit.
Hours later, the dawn came. Sindbad slowly opened his eyes and saw the girl kneeling right next to him. He asked, "What happened? Why are you kneeling?". Indeed, she didn't understand the Arabic, but she knew what he was talking about.
Captain Cadabra, who had seen all the terrible suffering of Sindbad that was caused by his evil deed, couldn't stand himself anymore. He felt a deep sense of remorse and pain. He obviously attempted to brutally kill his fellow comrade.
So he went into the woods alone. In the deep forest where he could only hear humming of animals and bugs, he hanged himself with a thick rope.
The girl and Sindbad later married each other. After being told about his forgotten excruciating experience, Sindbad realized Cadabra tried to kill him.
Nonetheless, Sindbad forgave Cadabra and felt into deep sorrow for his unfortunate death.
The girl and Sindbad had two children (one son and one daughter), and they lived happily ever after traveling Arabia and Sumatra back and forth with their beautiful kids.
Triangular couples. Source: Love Triangle
Bibliography:
The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).
Author's Note: I created this story of the Voyages of Sindbad in my own version of the story. Original content may be different from my re-created story, so you are advised to visit the website in my bibliography for the original content of the story.
Hi Peter! I really enjoyed your story because you tell a narrative of a once very greedy man, but because he lost everything, he had to adapt to a new life. How did Sindbad so easily forgive the man that tried to kill him? Great job, and if I had to give one piece of advice, I would have you make the author’s note a little bit longer and a little more detailed. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHi Peter, I enjoyed reading your story. I like how it takes you on a journey through Sindbad’s life, including the highs and the lows. The story flows well and was easy to follow. It was interesting to see the ironic turn of events for Sindbad—going from being the richest to the poorest. This provides a unique perspective into his life.
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