Curse Upon a Star

By Zuha Masood

A merchant was fleeting through the desert under a starry night. The dust specked wind howled past him while the stars twinkled above his head.  The man shielded his face with a head scarf and staggered on the sandy plains along with his camel. As he was toiling to find safety for the night, he suddenly tripped over an obstacle. The merchant looked back for the source of his misery and found a lamp sunk in the sand. He yanked it out and felt the intricate carving on its surface with his fingertips. 

Curiosity took over the merchant and he began to rub the grime off the lamp in order to evaluate its value for money. Scribblings of foreign language embedded on it no longer remained interesting when the lamp began to glow with a blinding vivacity that he had to cover his eyes. The miracle faded and the merchant’s now unfazed vision withheld the presence of a jinn.

It wore a white turban on its head and a pitch black kaftan covered its humungous and strange body. However, the merchant squinted his eyes as he looked down and found a smoky whirl of air in place of a lower body. The jinn broke the unusual silence and spoke with a commanding voice, “You woke me up from my eternal slumber and I make you my Master. I will grant you any four wishes but nothing comes without a price. You make your four wishes and give up something in return. Be careful what you wish for as a dream can also be a nightmare”

The merchant was flabbergasted by the mystical jinn and for a brief moment thought that he had gone mad with hunger but he willed for it to be true and asked the jinn to grant his first wish.

“Take us to a refuge for the night”

The jinn frowned at his wish but with the snap of his fingers brought them to a cave. The sturdy stonewalls withstood the wailing winds and enclosed over the merchant and his camel like a mother’s womb. The jinn was hovering around the cave when the man uttered, “So…you are jinn?”

The jinn did not respond to his question so the trader blabbered again, “I suppose you are. Tell me can you really make any wish come true?”

The jinn flared his nostrils with annoyance but decided to answer the merchant’s obvious questions. 

“I can grant any wish except for bringing the dead to life and giving immortality to a person” 

“Why can’t you?” he asked perplexed.

The man felt as if the air had turned solid for a split second under the distressing gaze of the jinn. 

“I am a jinn not a divine entity. You have already used your one wish for shelter. I have said before and will say again, choose your wishes wisely” he admonished. 

“A destitute man has no dreams but only needs. If my stomach was full and wealth never ending in my pockets I may have dreamt of far beyond. I am a mere traveler laboring to get past one day at a time” the traveler countered.

“Dreams are just like food for humans. If you have no dreams let alone a chance to live them then you’re no better than dead. Unleash your inner desires no matter their origin and choose what you want the most”

The merchant fell silent for a while and spoke with his head swarmed with thoughts, “There was a girl I liked, Sajda. She lived in a small village and brought her cattle to graze in the pasture. I would rush there with hard earned silk so that I could see her face. I wanted to ask for her hand but I did not have the courage to do so. No honorable father would give away his daughter to an irresponsible man. The people will snicker and gossip at the unfortunate destiny of the bride and I could not live with that. I am a penniless wanderer who could not have cared for a wife or children… but, if I could have another chance, then I would like to spend my life with her.”

“Then tell me merchant what is it that you wish for?” the jinn urged.

The merchant’s eyes suddenly sparkled with determination and he spoke with confidence, “My wish, is to have never ending wealth and fortune. Secondly, I wish to become a person that people love and bow before. And Lastly, I wish to have Sajda as my wife and build a family with her”

“I grant your three wishes, merchant. Now tell me what are you willing to give up as a price?” Jinn implored.

The trader went silent for a moment and pondered over what he might have that he could give up for his dreams. He had no bundle of money neither was his life worth something. He only had a camel, left over bread crumbs and a sack filled with water. He could not give up his health nor heart as he wanted to live long with his beloved. After some time, he found what he might be able to give up, sadness. He had lived each moment of his life experiencing such an emotion. In his new life, he did not want to have anything to do with it. So, he decided to give up an emotion he no longer wanted but he could not fathom that his heart would plead to feel the intensity of such an emotion…he could not realize that the price for his desires was too hefty.

“I will give up my ability to express remorse. I will give away my emotion of sadness which had been my partner till now”

“Your wishes have been granted, merchant” the jinn snapped his fingers again and the wanderer fell into a deep slumber. 

A sweet and feminine voice graced the merchant’s ears. It held a familiar ring to it and he wondered who was calling him? He opened his eyes to a beautiful woman with silky jet black hair smiling at him. It was Sajda staring at him, sitting atop a velvet covered bed. After looking at his beloved to his heart’s content, he roamed his eyes around his surroundings and saw a giant room laden with decorations. When he asked Sajda about being in a stranger’s room, she laughed at him. He was shocked when she said it was his chamber and in fact the majestic house was owned by him. Astounded, he narrated, the odd incident, about a jinn and four wishes and how he used to be a poor merchant but she did not recall anything. She comforted him as she thought he had a nightmare and reassured him of his strange achievements. He was a successful business man with properties and factories and that he had proposed to her sometime after he had visited her village. They got married in an extravagant ceremony that is praised by the world to this day.  

The jinn had actually made his desires come true and he was no more a penniless merchant. Those desires that he never dared to achieve had fallen right in his lap. And so he decided that he would forget who he really was and start this new chapter of life with happiness. The merchant turned businessman and his wife continued their life filled with wondrous moments. The people around the globe envied him. 

Sajda and the merchant started a family and had four children. The family enjoyed affection and closeness with each other for a long time until a catastrophe came knocking at their doors. The merchant’s wife died of a heart stroke and a funeral was held in their mansion. People clad in black with grieved faces and tears in their eyes felt sorrow for the merchant. 

‘The businessman’s heart must be torn to shreds’,

‘The poor man loved his wife dearly’,

‘He must be drowning in a pool of sorrow’

Everyone expected the wanderer to drop on his knees and wail to God to return his beloved. To cry until his voice would turn hoarse and face wet with streaks of tears but none of them got to spectate such remorse. Instead, the trader burst into a hearty laughter. The whole mansion fell silent over the bizarre occurrence. The man who loved his late wife dearly was laughing like a madman on her funeral but no one knew that he was chortling as he could not weep. No soul understood that he felt imprudent for giving up his essential emotion. The emotion that he once wanted to forever part with but now he would give anything to cry like a baby once more.

People whispered and gossiped as to how insensitive the business man was. News came and went like a termite devouring everything around it. However, the real problem was being faced by the merchants’ children. They were appalled at their father’s behavior and how he did not even bother to shed a tear for their dead mother. They tried to talk to him about his feelings for her but no hint of sadness or emotion traced his words. They all gave up on their cruel father who couldn’t care about his wife much less care about his children. Everyone left him except his eldest son.

He stayed with his ageing father and didn’t mind his unresponsiveness to grief. He cared for the merchant like his wife used to care for him.

The merchant was reminded of his late wife whenever he saw his son but no pain tore his heart and no tears spilled from his eyes. He wished to express how he felt about her and how she was the star of his life but no words rolled on his tongue.

The son told his father stories of his mother every evening. However, one day, the son didn’t visit his father’s room for hours.

The concerned merchant later found him coughing ounces of blood onto the white marble floor. He held him in his arms and called for the best doctors but even then no cure could be found for his boy. Each day, his son would grow weaker. No drink could pass through his throat, no food could move down his tract…

The specialized doctors attended the patient but the son’s condition did not improve at all. The trader was ready to throw all his wealth into curing his son but no valid treatment existed for the unidentified illness. Defeated, he would sit beside his child holding his hand waiting for a miracle. 

After a week which felt like an eternity, the trader went to his son’s bedroom with a tray full of medicines but he did not find the boy laying atop his bed. Troubled, he went around the manor calling out his name but only listened to the echo of his voice. His eyes frantically searched for him until they landed on an upright figure in the yard. He went outside and saw his child standing barefoot on the lush green grass with his eyes closed. The expression on his face was so endearingly calm that the merchant envied it. 

The boy’s lashes fluttered open but he did not look at his father. 

“I don’t have any regrets, father”, his child uttered meekly. “Life has always been generous to me. I got to eat to my heart’s content, got a promising education and a family with loving parents. No harshness came my way and I wouldn’t be wrong if I say I wasn’t anxious. There are children trolling the streets with grumbling stomachs living in dirt patched slums. Sounds of bombs are deafening the ears of innocents and the corpses of loved ones rotting without graves. I was scared that the skies will never notice me but I’m glad now”, he stopped for a moment and gasped for air and continued with a smile, “Who knows my undiagnosed illness, mother’s death and separation with siblings might be enough to atone for my sins. I always believed that pain is unbearable  but I could never imagine that it might be so sweet” 

He finally looked at his father and the merchant thought he might drown in the intensity of his eyes. 

“I may have told you a lie right now, father.” his words ignited an alarm inside the merchant. “It might not be true…that I have no regrets. I only said so it would not burden you but allow me to be selfish. Permit me to take the burden off my shoulders and place it on yours for the first and last time” he spoke with tears in his eyes. 

“Please” the merchant pleaded “Please share the burden with me. As this might be the only thing I can do for you”. 

The boy fell into a thoughtful silence and finally spoke of his true feelings, “I regret doubting you”.

“I was disappointed with you when mother died. I believed that wife and husband complement each other. Loss of your life partner is equivalent to incompleteness of your soul. And the tears that the unfortunate sheds is the love, the memories and happiness he had shared with his partner. But when your eyes didn’t turn moist and instead you burst into sequence of laughter…I was dreaded by the fact that you didn’t love my mother and perhaps didn’t love me. I wanted to make you cry an ocean for when I die.”

An uncomfortable silence enveloped the father and son until the boy spoke again, “However, I have understood my error of thought. Not everyone expresses their sorrow in the same manner. I have seen you and mother loving and respecting each other and I never saw a moment of doubt pass on your face. However, I am guilty of doubting you, father. I am guilty of leaving you just like all the others. I hope you forgive me, I no longer demand you to cry on my death. I ask you to embrace me and laugh. Laugh when I take my last breath. Please fulfill this wish of mine so that I may rest in peace”

The father leaped for his son and warmly embraced him. He gripped him tightly in order to assure him of his love. The child suddenly lost his ability to stand and fell into his father’s lap weeping silently with a thin lipped smile plastered on his face. His breathing began to slow and his eyes blinked to escape a never ending slumber. He grazed his father’s face with his fingertips and whispered, “I love you”.

The merchant rocked the motionless body of his son and kept on murmuring, “It’s alright, my boy. It’s alright, my love” but his son remained motionless and no warmth exuded from his body. There was only biting iciness. 

The merchant felt the overbearing weight of solitude as he gazed at the corpse of his son and burst into hysterical laughter. He laughed till his throat went dry and his voice turned rough. The intervals were soon filled by high pitched shrieks. He tried to compensate his inability to cry with the ability to scream. 

Night had fallen over his ghostly mansion that mirrored the night he met the jinn. The stars gleamed warning about the arrival of something surreal and then it happened. A violent glow hindered the ear piercing laughter of a father. 

The jinn appeared in front of the merchant leaving him speechless for a while.

“What…what are you doing here?” the merchant asked, confused.

“I came to watch what your wishes cost you, merchant” the jinn’s statement became poison to the traveler and he felt the bile rise up to his mouth.

“My dreams? How can you be so thickheaded! It was not my dreams that were faulty but your unfair deal!”

“I never told you to give up your ability to express remorse. You were the one who surrendered” the jinn corrected. 

“Then what?! What should I have given up in order to prevent this mishap?” he asked.

“You could have given up your greed” the jinn said this and disappeared.

The words reverberated through the merchant’s body. If he wouldn’t have been selfish he could have used his wishes to save his son and wife. Maybe if he hadn’t wished for anything he could have lived his life as a wandering merchant. The death he would have faced originally would have been peaceful but now even the taste of death ticking near him felt like the bites of venomous snakes. He should have had the courage to work for his dreams but his greed had turned him blind to the consequences of his choices. 

Suddenly a voice spoke into the dark night,

“I had warned you merchant. Choose your wishes wisely. The intention you have is what you become” the words of the jinn abounded in the horizon and the merchant was left alone screeching in pitch darkness.  

Zuha Masood is an author who resides in Pakistan. Her short story “Curse upon a star” is a fantasy based short fiction and it has been previously published as well. She loves to read and paint.