Give Me Your Teeth
By Amirah Al Wassif
Once upon a time, in a very far land called Orshalim, three innocent boys sat under an immense fig tree.
tern.
The three cheerful boys, Ali, Peter, and Abraham, played with their poor toys non stop, their playthings were very old and dirty.
By trying imagine their toys as clean and new,, they felt better and continued playing with joy.
One night, the three boys gathered around a massive mysterious thing.
The strange thing started moving from side to side, from alley to alley. But in the dark they couldn’t see what it was.
Ali, Peter, and Abraham looked at the moving thing carefully, watching how this weird thing danced and jumped without rest.
dt.
When this big moving thing shook all the trees around them, the friendly boys approached it a bit too close this time. All of them saw what the strange flying object really was:
it was a flying plate, full of the most splendid and delicious kinds of desserts.
The boys were taken by the extraordinary behavior of this flying plate, they watched it closely, then the marvellous desserts, which were found on the plate rolled and performed a crazy dance, each piece of this wonderful candy went out from the plate, landed suddenly and jumped on the three boy's toes.
Ali, Peter, and Abraham became very frightened and astonished, so, they stopped for a long time, watched and watched again,
they waited all night and did not go home.
Now the long night was spent, and the boys were still sitting down next to the magnificent plate, but, when the sun arrived at its position in the sky,
the flying plate-full of desserts had disappeared.
"Oh! Where is the plate?" Ali cried in fear.
"I cannot believe my eyes," Peter whispered to himself, and Abraham said in a loud tone, "It's like a dream."
The three boys were talking and talking, not sure if they saw a true flying plate with wonderful candy, which could dance and jump to all sides.
Ali, Peter, and Abraham went back to their home, the three kind boys all neighbours.
They reached their country Orshalim and gathered together in the common yard, then they kissed and hugged each other,
and all of them said "goodbye" in peaceful manner.
However, the kind boys did not know the harsh manner that awaited them in their houses.
When the boys knocked their doors simultaneously, their mothers opened quickly, each boy entered his house, and each door closed.
After that, the three mothers asked their boys the reason for their delay during the night.
Their mothers would punish them if they would not respond, so the boys told them about the wonderful flying plate, and they talked for an hour describing its desserts, its crazy dance, but their mothers did not believe them, and all of them decided to punish the boys.
The punishment was very, very hard for the boys because it prevented them from playing, and going anywhere together again.
Ali, Peter, and Abraham were very angry and felt bad.
They used to go to the wide garden every night where they had seen the wondrous flying plate.
hwever, their mothers still did not believe what they said and discarded this story as a lie.
So, the three boys were punished for many days, and were not allowed to go anywhere.
Peter pondered those long days about a magical solution to their problem.
He asked himself, each day more and more how could they prove the flying plate as a truth for their mothers?
Finally, good idea popped into Peter's soul like a light; a light, a candle that might help them.
Peter decided to go to Ali and Abraham homes, as he wanted to tell them about his new plan.
Peter went to Abrahams house, knocked softly on the glass window, hoping Abraham's mother would not see him.
Abraham, after listening to peter, dagreed with the new plan, so they decided to go to Ali's house and tell him as well.
Only minutes later, the boys were on their way to the garden where the flying plate sat at the center of the massive fig tree.
The boys arrived at the tree, watching the splendid plate, delighted because of its charm, but suddenly Peter remembered their new
plan. The flying plate! The truth! Their mothers!
Peter said to Ali and Abraham, quickly in vast agitation:
“lift me, lift me, we shall get this plate. We shall hold it and show it wonderous ability to our mothers. Then they will believe us, and won’t not punish us again."
Ali and Abraham were very excited, and did so.
Peter, carried by his fellows, tried to touch the plate, which found in the center of the fig tree, but when he go close to it the plate disappeared.
Peter repeated, trying many times to catch the plate, but every time, the plate seemed to be hidden from the boy's eyes.
They did not know the logical reason for what was happening, but could not stop trying.
This night spent, the boys had failed to catch the wonderous plate. They were tired.
Suddenly, all of them fell down, Peter's leg broken, Ali's trouser torn.
Only Abraham was well.
For that reason, he helped his friends go home as fast as they could.
Just as the first time, mothers of the boys punished them, but this time the matter was worse because all the people in Orshalim repeated that Ali, Peter, and Abraham were liars, and because of their lies, God punished them by breaking Peter's leg and tearing Ali trousers.
"God punished Abraham too, cause he made him a foolish boy, a boy who believes his friends lies,”
As a result of his foolish behavior, everybody in Orshalim made fun of him.
Many days spent, and everyone in Orshalim repeated these words daily:
"Ali, Peter, and Abraham are fools and liars.”
Peter and Ali were locked in their houses, their mothers treated them harshly, and all people laugh at them.
One day, Abraham woke early, thought of his friends,
he wanted to prove the truth of the flying plate to all, and the only question, which filled his mind
"How?"
After hours of thinking, Abraham decided to go to the wide and amazing garden.
He didn’t want his friends to get into more trouble so he went alone straight to the place where they had found the wonderous plate.
When the dusk covered the sky, Abraham approached to the center of the fig tree.
At that time, the flying plate danced up and down.
Abraham watched the plate's performance. Suddenly, he tried to catch it, but as with Peter, the plate disappeared.
Abraham never gave up, he tried and tried and tried, by the way, he fell down many times, his leg broken, his clothes torn,
but he decided to never go home without the evidence of his friends innocence.
Abraham spent three nights trying to catch the flying plate with no rest. Ffinally, he cried, his tears, covered his face, but he did not give up.
Then something very strange happened.
When Abraham caught the plate! When he did so, a piece of paper fell down from the fig tree!
Abraham was thirsting to read the paper, he grabbed it and read the paper with wide eyes and mouth.
something was written in it a single sentence:
"Give me your teeth!"
Abraham's arms shook with fear, he did not understand what the strange paper meant, so he wrote on the back of the same paper “How?”
The flying plate sent another piece of paper to Abraham, then he picked it up and read these words:
"When you give me your teeth, I will reveal myself to you, and everybody."
Abraham feared this more and more, but decided to never go home without this evidence for his best friends Ali and Peter,
so he wrote on the back of the paper:
"How many teeth"?
Then, the plate replied:
"One tooth equals one piece."
Now, Abraham understood the game, so he started giving the plate as many teeth which he owned,
wanting to catch all the wonderful pieces of desserts, and show them to all his people.
After a week spent, Abraham went back to his home Orshalim, all the people gathered around him, even the mothers and his friends Ali and Peter,
All these folks were waiting for the wondrous flying plate.
Abraham showed it to everyone, all the people watching with staring eyes.
Everyone believed the three boys, after that.
The people in this country wrote a proverb on the wall honouring Abraham courage in wonderful friendship between him and Ali and Peter:
"Courage is as rare as the flying plate of desserts, as singular as the numbers of teeth that Abraham could keep”
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Amirah Al Wassif is a freelance writer. She has written articles, novels, short stories poems and songs. Five of her books were written in Arabic and many of her English works have been published in various cultural magazines. Amirah is passionate about producing literary works for children, teens, and adults which represent cultures from around the world. Her first book, Who do not Eat Chocolate was published in 2014 and her latest illustrated book, The Cocoa Book and Other Stories is forthcoming.