William the Conquerer and the Sands of Persia: Chapter 1 - A Flight to the Sands

One day, William was playing his Xbox in the living room and experiencing utter delight as his faithful dog Frodo sat next to him, barking in celebration of William ridding the galaxy of evil aliens. Was there a better way to wile away a Saturday afternoon than by planting oneself on a couch and playing video games? Of course not! 

Because of this, it was deeply disappointing to William when his father walked in the front door and told him to go outside and rake the leaves. 

“But if I abandon Earth, the aliens will take over and eat everyone’s brains!” William protested.

“Hmmm,” considered his dad, “I wouldn’t want everyone’s brains to get eaten. Oh wait, that’s only a video game! It’s not real life. Real life is me being outside for the past two hours raking most of the leaves on the front lawn.”

“But why rake the leaves?” asked William.

“I don’t know. It's just something people do. If I didn’t rake them, some of the neighbors would talk. And as someone with life experience, I would advise you to avoid having your neighbors talk about you.”

William had never given much thought to neighbors, and he had to think this over for a moment. 

“Tell you what,” continued his father, “I’ve been out there raking leaves, while you’ve been in here playing video games. How about we switch things up? You go outside for half an hour and rake that one part of the yard I didn’t get to, and I’ll protect the galaxy.”

“Do I have to?”moaned William piteously.

“Well, your contributions to this family really help, so I’d appreciate it if you did.”

“Well, okay,” said William, getting up off the couch. 

“Thank you,” said his father, “So, show me how to work this thing,” he added, pointing to William’s game console.

“No, you’d just mess it up.” William paused his game and headed to the door.

“You’re probably right,” agreed his dad, who went into the kitchen to get a cool drink. It was late September, and even though the leaves had been falling for a couple of weeks now, a heat wave had hit and it was in the upper 80s outside. 

William went out the front door, letting the screen door slam – because he could never remember not to let it slam – and found the rake that his dad had left propped up against the house. Frodo had come out with him and had run over to sniff the plastic bags full of leaves that William’s father had dragged down to the curb. 

William started raking leaves into a pile. William realized that raking was actually an interesting activity. When he had been thinking about it while he was inside on the couch, it hadn’t seemed fun at all, but now that he was up and doing it, it wasn’t so bad. It gave him time to think, and he felt like he was accomplishing something, and he felt a little proud that he was helping his family. His dad, after all, had worked most of the morning.

As William raked, Frodo ran around smelling the leaves and nearby trees. When William had built up a pile of leaves about three feet high, Frodo hunkered down with his rear end in the air and gave it a little excited wiggle. Then he jumped up and ran straight for the leaf pile, leaping right into the middle, disappearing for a moment under the red and gold leaves. When Frodo re-emerged, his tail was wagging vigorously, showing he was really happy. Frodo’s antics did mean that William had to rake some of the leaves back into the pile, but Frodo’s leap had made him so happy that it was worth this extra work. 

As Frodo took a second leap into the leaf pile, and William was preparing to rake those leaves up again, he suddenly thought, “Why do only dogs get to  jump into leaf piles?” But then he thought, “Well, there probably isn’t any law against a boy jumping in a leaf pile.” On the other hand, he considered, “If I do jump in, it will just create more work for me to do.” But then, on the other, other hand he thought, “But I don’t really mind the work, so why not?”

While William hesitated, he thought he heard a faint voice saying, “Jump, William. Take the leap. It’s fun.” William didn’t have much experience with hearing voices, so he tried to ignore it, but then the voice came again, more clearly, “You owe it to yourself, William, take the leap!”

William put down the rake. He took ten big steps back from the pile, flexed his legs to get ready to run, and then took off toward the pile at full speed!

He was about six feet away from the pile when he jumped into the air, laughing as he did. He landed in the pile and was submerged in red, orange, and yellow leaves. Frodo had been barking happily the whole time, but strangely, Frodo’s barking now sounded more distant. 

It also was strange that the leaves, which had originally felt moist and clammy, now felt very dry and hot. The air was dry, too. 

Down at the bottom of the leaf pile, William pushed away the leaves and began to climb out, intending to finish the raking job.

So he was very surprised to find that when he got out of the leaf pile, he was no longer in his front yard. 

He was standing on a vast expanse of sandy desert, with tall dunes in the distance, a dry wind cutting across his cheek. 

What had happened? Where was he? He looked around for a clue. Looking down by his foot he saw something shiny.glinting in the sunlight. William bent over and brushed the sand away, then he picked it up and examined it closely.

It was a brass oil lamp with pearl inlay. He had read stories about people finding lamps like this, so he did what they always did – he rubbed the side of it like he was polishing it.

And guess what happened….?