Magic Potion
There lived a man named Aayub in a village named Gul Daman. He was very hard working. He married a beautiful woman named Mariam and they were blessed with 3 boys and 2 girls. Out of the five children, he was very fond of the youngest one, Qais. Everything was fantastic, but as the day follows night, Aayub’s bad time was close.
There was a demon, A monstrous one, who used to visit villages and take away a child from each village. Sadly, he caught Aayub and Aayub had to decide whether he wanted to give one of his children or if he fights the demon he would lose all five. He has time till morning. Then after discussing this with his wife they agreed on drawing a chit. Unlucky for Aayub, Qais was the word on the drawn chit. With a heavy heart he called Qais. Qais had no idea what was going on. He jumped happily towards Aayub. He took Qais outside the home and left him there and closed the door. Qais banged the door with all the force he could gather. Aayub cried helplessly. The demon appeared and took Qais far away towards the mountains where nobody would dare visit.
Aayub, his wife and kids were in agony. Everyone back in the village named Aayub a coward. Even he thought the same, but his wife consoled him. Aayub, tired of hearing bad words from villagers, decided to fight the demon. He packed his dagger, food for his trip and started walking towards the mountains.
Aayub had decided to walk the tough journey, he did not even know where and how far the demon lived how many days WOULD his food last. But finally, he made it. He started throwing stones at the demon’s door. The demon asked him why was he there? He said that he came to take his son back home. The demon asked him to enter the room. With no choice left, he followed the demon.
The demon drew the curtain and on a glass wall, Aayub could see his son. Qais seemed happy, he was playing with a few other kids. Aayub shouted with his name but it was of no use, Qais was unaware of the things on the other side of the glass. The demon gave some time to Aayub and asked him to decide whether he wanted to see HIS son happy, get well educated or take him with back to the village. He was again at the hot seat. After thinking for a while and looking at his son for the last time, he started walking towards home. The demon said that he had made the right choice, but only a father would know a loss of the son.
The demon handed Aayub a magic potion and told to drink it on the route back home. When he returned he was questioned about Qais by everyone in his, but he did not seem to remember anything, about his meeting with demon or Qais.
There on he lived happily without even a thought of Qais, sighed happily, listened to the wind sweeping down from the mountains, to the chirping of the night birds. All thanks to the magic potion.
This is the summary of a bedtime story narrated by father to his son and daughter from a book ‘And the Mountains Echoed’ by Khaled Hosseini. Few of the names are not as same as they are in the book.
