“What’s he doing here?”
“I’m not sure,” Aladdin said. Was Genie here to give them a message? Or were things so bad that Genie had come to forcibly make him use his wish? But the spider wasn’t paying any attention to either of them as they spoke. Instead it was perched at the top of the cave’s opening, spinning thread across the entrance.
“It’s…I think it’s building a web.”
Jasmine was right! Aladdin watched with fascination as the glittering spider Genie wove a web, thick and dark, covering the entire opening of the cave in a matter of seconds.
“How did he do it so quickly?” Jasmine whispered. “It looks dusty.”
“He’s protecting us,” Aladdin said, realizing what was occurring. “With a web that old-looking still intact, Abbas will walk right by without glancing in; he’ll think we can’t possibly have gotten in here without disturbing it!”
Moments later, the spider had finished, and the cobweb looked so thick Aladdin could hardly see through it.
Not more than fifteen seconds passed before they heard Abbas’s heavy breathing. They saw his outline through the thick veil of cobweb as he walked past them. A trail of scarlet-red blood dripped to the ground with each step he took. Jasmine and Aladdin scooted their backs against the cool interior of the cave wall and sat absolutely still until, at last, he was gone.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are!” the man shouted out as he continued walking. “You can run, but you can’t hide. I’ll find you!” Abbas carried on, his voice growing more and more distant.
They were safe. Aladdin felt nearly giddy with relief.
“Thanks, pal,” Aladdin whispered to the spider. “You saved us.”
“Hey,” hissed the spider in Aladdin’s ear. “I did this for the carpet. It was my friend for centuries while we wasted away in the Cave of Wonders. It didn’t do anything to deserve any of this. I wasn’t going to let anyone hurt it.”
“Fair enough,” Aladdin whispered, and for the first time in a long time, he exhaled. Then, “He’s probably heading toward town,” Aladdin said to Jasmine.
“We don’t need to go back that way, do we?” Jasmine asked.
“No,” said Aladdin. “And once the townspeople find him wandering around there, they’ll capture him anyway. The guards will make sure to lock him up.”
“Good.” Jasmine breathed out a sigh of relief.
“Let’s take a look at you, Carpet,” Aladdin said, gently patting the rug. “Let’s see how bad your injury is.”
With the time in the cave, their eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and they looked at the rug.
“How bad is it?” Jasmine asked Aladdin.
“He’s definitely injured, but it might not be too bad,” Aladdin said. “The singe is a straight line, at least. Maybe I can get it stitched up. Can I have your hairpin?” he asked Jasmine. At the same time, he pulled his hat off and yanked out threads from inside it.
“Thanks,” he said as she handed him her pin.
“Will the string from your hat work on a magic carpet?” she asked.
“It’s not the perfect solution,” he admitted. “But it’s better than nothing.” He quickly got to work weaving the pin in and out of Carpet’s body; in no time there was a tight stitch right through its center.
“All done.” Aladdin handed Jasmine back the hairpin. “How do you feel, buddy?” he asked the magic rug.
The carpet stretched and straightened out and then shook itself from head to toe. A flurry of gold sparks flew about, and then, just like that, the center stitches vanished and the carpet looked good as new! It fluttered and zoomed from one end of the cave to the other, did a cartwheel, and then stretched to its full length and waved.
“Easy there.” Aladdin laughed. “Don’t overdo it. You only just got healed, and we have a long journey home.”
“Thank you so much.” Jasmine turned to the spider perched by the edge of the cave. The spider curtsied and then skittered off into the dark night.
Together they pushed aside the cobweb Genie had made; it parted like a velvet curtain. The carpet hovered next to them.
Aladdin looked at Ababwa in the distance. He was going to miss this place, but he would treasure the memories for the rest of his life. It was time to go home.
“YOU SURE you can get us back to Agrabah? You’ve been through a lot,” Ali said to the carpet as they stood on the gravel road just outside the cave.
“He’s right,” Jasmine said. “It’s a long journey home. If you need some time to recuperate, we’ll understand.”
The carpet zipped straight into the air and somersaulted twice before diving back to earth with a twirl.
“Okay. Okay. We get it.” Ali laughed. “You’re good as new, you show-off.” He hugged the carpet, and though it couldn’t make facial expressions, Jasmine could have sworn the rug looked happy.
The magic carpet rolled flat and hovered just above the ground now, ready to take Jasmine and Ali away. They were about to sit down when they heard someone shout.
“Wait!”
It was a little voice. Jamaal. He hurried toward them with a big smile.
“That was amazing!” the boy exclaimed. “I saw the whole thing. I couldn’t believe it!”
“You were following us?” Ali asked in dismay.
“Sorry.” The boy blushed. “But I had to see if you both were okay. It took me a while to find you, but when I finally caught up, I saw him coming at you with the knife! I got so scared I couldn’t move.”
