“That rug…It moved all on its own.”
“Oh…” Ali reached down and smoothed out the carpet with his hand. “No, I don’t think so. Probably a gust of wind that came through the opened door. So, your clothes,” he said, quickly changing the subject. “Please do come back this evening, and we’ll get you some food to go with it as well.”
The man did not reply. Instead, he stared at the carpet. His eyes narrowed.
“If that is all…” Omar approached the man. “I can help show you the way out.”
The man looked at Omar and then at both Jasmine and Ali before he turned and stalked out the door.
“That was strange,” Ali said, watching him leave.
“Yes, it was,” Jasmine agreed. She kept her eyes on the man as he stomped down the hallway and out the door. She waited until his figure had disappeared from view and breathed a sigh of relief once he was finally gone.
DONE WITH the open forum, Jasmine and Aladdin returned to the courtyard and stepped into the resplendent palace gardens. Flowers of every shape, size, and color bloomed around them. Sunflowers as tall as he was swayed in the distance. Tulips, poinsettias, and daffodils were spread throughout the grounds. Aladdin leaned down and brushed a hand against a patch of orchids to his left. They were as soft as silk.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a tree sculpted into a flamingo before.” Jasmine pointed to a shrub that did in fact look like a green flamingo, complete with a stick leg raised in midair.
“Me either,” said Aladdin. “I mean, I’ve seen many other designs. I guess I never paid attention to this one before.”
That was close. He was trying his best to act like trees sculpted into stars and birds and animals were ordinary for him, but it was difficult.
“I must admit you were right. This is a lovely surprise,” she said.
“What is?”
“This.” She gestured at the shrubbery. “The designs are very creative.”
“You think this is the surprise? Wait until you see what it actually is.” He pretended to be confident about the direction they were headed. Hopefully by following the paved walkway, the menagerie would pop up eventually.
“What on earth could be more fascinating than…wait a minute…” Her voice trailed off as they approached a white picket fence bordering a large expanse of land. “Is that…” She pointed to a red barnlike structure in the distance. “Is that a horse pen?”
“Looks like it,” Aladdin said, relieved. The horses meant other animals had to be close. They walked over to the stable. There were at least twenty horses inside. Some were snow white, like the one in the foyer painting, but there were all sorts of colors, from black to chocolate brown to golden yellow.
Two chestnut horses approached them and nuzzled against Aladdin’s hands.
“Hey there.” Aladdin leaned down, pulled some orange carrots from a basket next to his feet, and proffered some. They inhaled the vegetables and rubbed their noses against him.
“Prince Ali.” A freckled teenager, the stable hand, approached. He wore brown slacks and a yellow shirt. “Are you here to tour the menagerie?”
“Menagerie?” Jasmine repeated. She glanced toward the horizon and her eyes widened. “Is that a giraffe?”
“Surprise.” Aladdin grinned.
“It’s a fairly big place,” the stable hand told the princess. “I can get saddles for these two horses so you can see as much as you can.”
“Sounds great,” Aladdin said.
The stable hand fitted both horses with saddles and then assisted Aladdin and Jasmine in mounting the steeds.
“Ready, friend?” Aladdin patted the horse’s side once they were both seated. Holding on to the reins, together, Jasmine and Aladdin trotted deeper into the open field.
“Are those rhinos?” she asked incredulously after they had turned the bend past a thicket of trees. Sure enough, there was a family of four in the distance. Three of them were eating grass while one napped under a shade tree. “And ostriches?” She turned to her left. “And camels. And llamas and bears. Just how many animals do you have here?”
“A lot.” Aladdin laughed.
“And those birds.” Jasmine pointed to the sky at the pink birds with silver henna-like patterns. “They were the ones we saw when we first came to Ababwa. They were welcoming you because they live here! You didn’t let on!”
“Well, it had to be a surprise,” Aladdin said, thinking quickly.
“This is incredible,” she said.
Yep, thought Aladdin. Genie had outdone himself with this menagerie, and Aladdin could see Jasmine was enraptured by all of it.
An elephant calf that had been lounging with her parents by a mud patch near a pond waddled over to them now. Lifting her ridged gray trunk, she tickled Jasmine’s feet. Jasmine laughed and leaned down to rub her ears before continuing on. The menagerie was filled with all sorts of other creatures, too: spider monkeys, peacocks, llamas, iguanas, even zebras. He hoped Jasmine didn’t ask him to catalogue them all, because he would have no way to know just how many there were.
Farther out into a wide meadow, a cheetah approached, walking gracefully through a patch of tall grass.
“Is it dangerous?” she asked and glanced nervously at Aladdin. “I know I’m not one to talk what with Raja as my companion, but still…”
They watched from atop their horses as the cheetah approached until it was face to face with them. Then, to their surprise, it flopped down on its back.
“I think it wants a belly rub?” Aladdin said.
Dismounting, Jasmine bent down and petted the graceful creature. It let out a loud purr.
“I think she likes me!” Jasmine said.
