The son grew up in the jungle, knowing that he was a prince, although he had never seen his father. The wife and the son continued to love the king, as they always do in such stories. They never felt bad for being kicked out of the kingdom on an astrologer’s prediction.
The queen named her son Taj ul-Mulk, the crown of the state, although he had no state. Since he lived in a forest, Taj was a great hunter-gatherer and always brought home plenty of food.
Once, while chasing a deer, he met an old and over-dressed man who was wearing a strange headgear. He did not yet know that this was called a crown, which gave his father the power to banish him and his mother.
The old man too was surprised to see a half-naked young man in the jungle as Taj had only covered his waist with the skin of a deer he had hunted last spring.
The king wanted to know who this young man was but he was too thirsty to ask for anything but water. And while he was drinking the water Taj gave, he looked closely at the young man’s face and something very strange began to happen.
Taj’s face blurred. The eyes were first to disappear, then the nose, the ears, the forehead, hair and then the whole face was gone. Alarmed, the king looked for the young man’s torso, hands, legs and feet but saw nothing.
The king panicked. “Hey, where are you?” he shouted.
“Right here, in front of you,” said the young man.
“Then, why can’t I see you?” the king asked.
And before the young man could answer, he heard someone else approaching. The king took a deep breath and could tell that it was a woman. Kings can always smell a woman, even from a safe distance.
“Who are you?” he asked the woman.
“Take another deep breath, your majesty, and you may recognise me,” the woman said.
The king did as told but did not recognise the woman as kings quickly forget the women they abandon.
But when the woman spoke again, the king said: “Oh, that’s you! Then, this must be your son.”
“And your son too,” said the queen.
“Yes, my son too and now I know what’s happening. I am losing my sight,” the king said.
“Yes, nobody can escape his kismet, not even the king,” said the queen. “Now you are totally blind.”
“Yes, now that I am totally blind, I recognise this young man as my son, the first born,” said the king and asked the young man to rise and take his rightful place.
“Your majesty, you need a staff more than an heir to your throne,” said the young man and rushed to fetch him a stick. But his mother, who still missed the pomp and show of the royal life, stopped him and pushed him towards the blind king. “This is your staff, your majesty.
Take him wherever you go,” she said.
“Go? Where can a blind man go but to his cottage,” said the king.
“Take me to where you live and I will live with you for as long as it takes me to regain my sight.”
“Can it be regained?” asked the queen.
“Yes, of course. That’s why I agreed to abandon my youngest wife, who is just 16, and live with you here in the jungle,” the king replied.
The astrologer who predicted that the king will lose his sight the moment he saw his first born also said that his first born can restore it too, provided he is recognised as the rightful heir to the throne.
“The astrologer also said that no matter what precautions I take, I will lose my sight one day. So I was ready for it,” the king said.
Then he explained that when he learned the full prediction, he decided to banish his first wife while she was still pregnant. The move created two possibilities: either the king will never see his first son or he will see him when he is old enough to restore his sight.
“Today, the prediction came true. I met my first born and lost my sight. But I met him when he is 20, not two. Now he can bring the Flower of Sight for me,” the king said.
“The Flower of Sight, never heard of it,” said the queen.
“Where does it grow?” asked Prince Taj.
“It grows in the garden of Princess Bikawali. She is the daughter of the King of jinn,” the king said. “Let’s go back to your cottage. I will tell you how to get there and get the flower.”
Taj was not very keen to go to the land of the jinn but his mother forced him to.
The king was old fashioned, so he suggested the prince buy some ships, recruit soldiers and cross the seven seas with his own armada.
But when Taj went to the nearest city to build an armada, he was told that those days are long gone. Instead, he was sent to a travel agent who told him that he will first need a visa and for which he needs dollars.
He went back to the king who said if he had dollars he would have bought the flower instead of sending his first born on a perilous journey. He also explained that while he arrives in the city of jinn, he will first have to earn some dollars to visit the garden and plan how to bring the flower home.
Prince Taj borrowed some gold from his father and bought dollars from the black market. But those dollars only bought him a visa. So he borrowed more gold to buy dollars to buy an air ticket.
Then, he needed more gold to buy dollars to rent a room, some more for grocery, for emergency medical care, for transport and more and more … By the time Taj boarded his plane, the king had run out of his gold.
To cut a long story short, Prince Taj is now in the city of jinn. He spent all his dollars in less than a month. Now he works at a gas station during the week days and at a bar during the weekend.
About two months after he arrived in the city, he felt confident enough to ask people about Princess Bikawali, her garden and the Flower of Sight. And he was surprised to learn that almost everybody he met had come here for the princess and the flower.
Meeting the princess was not difficult. If you had enough dollars to buy her a dinner, she would oblige you. But the garden and the flower were a different story. Some of them had been here for years and they were still as far away from the garden as they were on their first day.
Now Taj was also in his second year and back home, his father, the king was getting used to his blindness.
[To be continued...]