Chapter Eleven

A Night to Remember

It all started about seven minutes till midnight, right before Jasmine had that magic carpet ride. I was walking around the palace, trying to figure what I should do, when I saw Jasmine head towards the garden. Half curiosity and half desire guiding me, I followed her.

Ever since I stopped tutoring Jasmine, I haven't entered the garden. I guess I didn't want to be reminded of what I almost had, but couldn't quite grasp. The expenses to fix it by the way cost the Sultan a million dollars, half of what he originally paid for it, but walking the garden now, I realized that it was worth every penny. Flowers of all different types surrounded the large expensive fountain, trees that were as high as the balconies scattered the landscape. The fountain in the center though, was the masterpiece of the whole design.

Jasmine sat on the fountain looking out towards the moon. I silently came over and bowed my head, "Princess" I said, making sure to use an accent that matched my appearance, it was easy for me considering that I am- was, a parrot. Jasmine turned around and met my gaze, "Who are you?" she asked curiously, as I took a seat next to her, "I've never seen you before"

The trick with impersonations is to never, ever lose the voice. If you lose the voice, the whole thing is busted. I had to answer in the next three seconds or face alienating myself, which would've been the better option, but I wasn't thinking long term here. "My name is Samuel" Samuel? I was supposed to be an Indian diplomat, mistake number one. Jasmine laughed anyway, "What kind of name is that? That's can't be right" "It's not" I quickly replied, "It's just a tactic Indians use for the rest of the world. You'd be surprised how many people can't pronounce our names"

Well that was easy. Maybe a little too easy, I thought. I would have to make it harder next time around. As much as I wanted to, I had so far prevented myself from breaking the lie, I was in too deep and I already ran out of ideas. I was stuck as Samuel, the Indian diplomat. It was terrible.

"You're funny" she said after several moments of silence, "Thank you" I answered as I stood up, "It's been a pleasure talking with you" I bowed as gentlemanly as I could and before I could even blink Jasmine kissed me. It was surprising and sudden, confusing and right, in a word-magical.

When she broke it, I was standing there like a complete idiot. "Thanks for that" she exclaimed, "I've been needing someone to understand" Again, what did I do? I didn't do anything. All I did was give her my name. We barely even talked. It was then I remembered, she was talking to me the entire time after I introduced myself, she told me about her dreams, her wants and desires. I knew what I had done, I had listened. From what I could tell, she had been saving that for the right person to come along, she would never kiss like that again.

There was nothing I really do, I could barely stand, I was afraid of going into shock. Then a wave of sudden happiness washed over me, it felt like dying and being reborn into the thing you were meant to be to the world. I walked over grabbed Jasmine's hand and knelt down, I was completely out of myself, my heart and my head were conflicting over what I was doing. My tongue was speaking words I didn't understand and my left hand was looking for something I didn't have. But in a way, I knew exactly what I doing, not only did I look like a complete idiot, but I was trying to propose. My head was so far lost in this cloud of euphoria that I actually said, "Will you marry me?" What the hell was I thinking? I couldn't marry Jasmine. I didn't expect myself to be human forever, which would most likely be the case but I was secretly hoping otherwise, so marriage was completely out of the question.

This is why when people say that love is drug, believe them. Because it most certainly is. Fortunately, Jasmine was smart enough to know that "Samuel" was completely insane and though slapped me right in the face and pushed me in the fountain.

Thanks a lot princess. That's what I get for trying to show my affections, a big face palm of doom and epic failure. Then Jasmine walked away, or rather ran away. To her, I had become the creeper rapist.

Taking a new route to my room, I sat on the bed and thought about what I am done. I just did the bravest thing that I have ever done in that point in my life. The least I could've gotten was a response. It didn't matter if she would've yes or no, my heart would've gone down into my stomach and explode on impact. But that was an impossible feeling now, for it was broken, shattered into a million tiny pieces beyond repair.

Looking back on it, I realize that what I did was extremely stupid. But love can make people do really stupid things, stupider things that even I would be willing to do.

I turned towards her balcony; I could see her now looking once again at the moon. The moon represents so much to me, but the most important thing, hope. Hope that one day I can be Aladdin, that I could have the one thing that my heart desired most.

Aladdin came up to her on Carpet; I could already tell what they were going to do. He would take her for a ride and I could already tell what was going to happen on that ride, just by the way they looked at each other. They would fall in love, I remembering both my promise to the father and my own personal obligation, I had to make sure that it happened.

I had to move fast. I ran down to the stables to find Lafayette, the Sultan's camel and my best friend. "Lafayette" I whispered, "Lafayette!" He looked up at me as if I were a normal human, "It's me...Iago" His expression turned from a blank, mile long stare into one of bewilderment and confusion. "Jafar turned me human" Lafayette rolled his eyes, "Yes I know it's a big surprise. The guy's a psychopathic lunatic" Lafayette smiled at my joke, "Come on" I pressured, pulling him out of the stables, "I need your help" Lafayette complied and grabbed his own saddle which he put on with a flick of his tail. It amazed me how he could do that.

Saddling up on Lafayette, I headed for the palace gates and waited for Aladdin to pass by. It was then that ominous music began to play in the background, which meant that things were about to get serious. As soon as I saw Carpet fly over the gate, I spurred Lafayette and we ran after them.

I could hear Aladdin's singing, he was doing the whole scene wrong by the way. He was supposed to stay inside Agrabah, but then the song wouldn't make much sense considering that it's called, "A Whole New World" for a reason.

Luckily for me, Lafayette has a bit of magic of his own. It didn't matter where we would run, Aladdin and Jasmine would always be overhead, and somehow we were crossing the world. When we came upon the Sphinx, we had to avoid getting crushed by the giant nose piece that fell as the clumsy builder broke on the most well known artifacts of the ancient world.

How we did the whole song, which is close to about two minutes and still manage to circumnavigate the globe and be back at the palace by the song's end is a mystery to me. That's Disney magic for you, it makes anything possible, have nothing make sense and not leave you with a headache afterwards.

It was then that I saw Aladdin get the real kiss. The kiss that I wanted, the thing that I had longed for, had become his. I saw him swoon over it and I knew immediately that he was love, which meant that my job for looking out for him had become that much harder.

I needed to get a face to face; it technically wouldn't be breaking any rules if I were discovered now, since I was a human. After putting Lafayette back in the stables, I walked into the garden.

By the time I got there, Aladdin was ranting to Abu, who was now an elephant, about his situation, "What am I going to do?" he said hysterically, "Jasmine thinks I'm a prince!" I couldn't help but think to myself how overdramatic he was being, I mean if anything I should be the one freaking out, but honestly I was perfectly calm-sort of.

"I think it's time for bed Al" Genie said as he appeared sitting on the fountain, Abu nodded his head, but Aladdin kept talking, "I don't think I can do it" Genie looked concerned, "What are talking about?" Aladdin then looked sorrowfully at him, "I can't wish you free" What did he say? Freedom, is that even possible? Genie slumped his shoulders, obviously depressed and hurt, "Oh, I see" he whispered softly, "I'll just...um...be here, if you need me Master"

With that Genie disappeared into his lamp, leaving Aladdin and Abu alone. But Abu really was tired and soon drifted off the sleep. I took this opportunity to approach Aladdin, who was now staring blankly at the moon.

"How's it going?" I started, trying to break the ice. Aladdin turned to me suddenly, "Who are you?" he asked, "I'm Samuel. Foreign diplomat here on humanitarian business requiring the Sultan's aid." Aladdin stared at me with curiosity, "Your name is Samuel?" I nodded, I had to keep up with lie if I was going to succeed, "Pleasure" he said extending his hand in greeting which I took, "My name is Aladdin" Taking a seat on the fountain we were silent for several minutes, both of us unsure on how to continue the conversation.

"I couldn't help but overhear your predicament" I spoke trying to get to the root of the situation, "Really" Aladdin replied as he looked up, "So I guess you know I'm a fake huh?" I nodded in agreement, "You could've convinced otherwise though" Aladdin rubbed the back of his head and took of his hat, "Any advice?" I sighed, I couldn't believe that I was doing, "Don't rush anything. Especially with her" I pointed up to Jasmine's balcony, "Her shields may be up, but all it takes is a little bit of trust for her to lower them" Aladdin laughed at my analogy, "What do you I should do?" "Be yourself." I answered, "Listen more than you speak and everything that you do, know that she will find out, so act as if you were singing a song; a song that you put every ounce of yourself into." The inner teacher had emerged in me once again, I began comparing everything to music, songs and random life lessons-I guess that part will never change.