Storytelling Week 5: Fisherman's tale

Jay had been living in his shack on the beach for as long as anyone who lived in the area could remember. He never left his home unless it was to patrol the beaches and the nearby fishing dock. He's a rather cranky old fisherman of about 65 who is known for chasing people away from the ocean only to warn them of the danger that he says awaits in the water. People think he's gone mad, and that living alone in his make-shift home for so longer has made him go even crazier. The beach has become nearly deserted because people are scared of seeing him. But one day in May two young, unsuspecting boys were trudging through the sand and Jay spotted them.

As he peered through his window blinds, he almost didn't believe his eyes. Two young boys were about to become victims of the danger in the sea.... he must warn them he thought.

Jay flung open the driftwood cover his front entry and ran at the boys. They saw him coming and started running too. Jay was quick for an old man and tackled the two boys yelling things like "I'll save you!!"

The boys screamed as they hit the sand, and they did a bit of wrestling with the old man before they calmed down.

"Hey your that old geezer who thinks he owns this beach and scares everyone else off" said one of the boys.

"You betcha!" Jay said. "Oh wait no, I don't think I own the place, Im just trying to save you from the genie in the sea!"

"The what Mister??" said the two boys with a look of doubt on their face.

"Oh yes boys you heard me right, there is a genie in a box out in this part of the ocean... and hes a mean one... only wants ta kill ya' once ya let him out." said Jay.

"A genie? You've got to be kiddin' me" said one boy.

"No really, have a seat boys I'll tell ya' all about him" said Jay.

They boys sprawled out in the sand and Jay sat facing both of them with his legs crossed.

"Before all this I used to have a family, and I too would come down to the water to try to catch our meal for the day. I would throw out my net five times each day and would normally catch a few fish."

"But one day was different. I had thrown out my net three times already and didn't catch anything but garbage, and then on the fourth time I pulled out this large golden chest with a lock on it."

"It was a heavy box but when I shook it nothing rattled inside. I knew I had to open it up to see what treasure might lie inside. So I did. I pried the lock off and lifted up the lid to find..... nothing. Or so I thought"

"When I opened that box a cloud of smoke formed and as I peered into it I saw a shape of a person forming. It was a genie!"

Jay peering into the face of the genie when he first released him from the box

"And I thought genies were friendly and only granted wishes, but this genie wanted to kill me!"

"His first words were, I kid you not, "Thanks for rescuing me... now how do you want to die?"

The boys gasped.

"I know, I was shocked too. Then I said I don't want to die I want my wishes you owe me for freeing you from your box!"

"He laughed in my face and said "We are long past that... I've waited 400 years for someone to free me.""

"The genie then explained- "If someone had opened my box in the first hundred years I would have made them the happiest person on earth with unlimited wishes, if someone had freed me in the second hundred I swore I would be their servant and grant them three wishes a day, and in the third hundred I promised myself I would grant them but one wish and nothing more. But buddy you're a hundred years too late. Now for all that waiting I endured I swore the only favour I would give you would be to choose the manner of your death"" recalled Jay.

"I didn't wanna die, so I begged the genie, but nothing would work."

 "Just as I was about to lay down for my beheading I mentioned that I didn't believe the genie really came from that tiny box. The genie got defensive when I said that."

"So I told him I had to see it to believe it. And guess what that genie turned back to smoke and floated into the box to prove me wrong."

"Then what mister it couldn't have been that easy?" questioned one of the boys.

"Well then I sat on the box and put a new lock back on, and boy oh boy did that genie throw a fit. He was so angry at being duped and swore that the next person who opened the box he wouldn't even hesitate to give them a choice in the death"

"I couldn't listen to that genie yap anymore so I tossed the box back into the ocean and moved onto the beach to protect others from fishing out that box ever again."

"But it cost me a whole lot... ya see, my family didn't believe me, no one believed me, and they wouldn't move with me onto the beach.

"And, worst of all, people think I'm the monster in the area when really I just want to protect people from the real monster-that wicked genie!"

Author's Note: This story retelling comes from "The Story of the Fisherman," which is one of the many tales in the Arabian nights unit. In the original version this story is told by a queen to her husband, the king sultan to avoid being killed by him. The original version goes beyond the fisherman tricking the genie back into the box and instead the fisherman demands a story from the genie, which give a second layer of storytelling. I liked this original version but also thought ending it there and spinning off in a different way would be interesting as well. So I decided to make the fisherman an old man who guards the beach to protect others from opening that box and receiving the fate he should have received-death. I told the story from the point of view of an omniscient figure rather than a real person in the story because the scene needed to be set up by someone looking in on it. I chose the image for this story because it is a good depiction of the moment that Jay let the genie out of the bottle and he couldn't believe his eyes.

Bibliography: "The Story of the Fisherman" from The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).