Rabia and The Red Jellybean

For those wondering about this story here is a little back story. For my cousin Rabia’s birthday her sister and friends decided to compile a book filled with pages about our moments with her, funny things about her, and other things. So being me instead of doing the normal thing and following suit, I decided to write a story about her cousins and her. My goal was capture the character and interactions of each cousin. I hope I fulfilled that goal with this story and after the gift was given to her I was happy to hear that I indeed captured the characters perfectly. So for those that never got a chance to read it her is the story. Now without further delay I give you, “Rabia and the Red Jellybean: Director’s Cut”

Chapter 1

The Red Jellybean

It all seemed normal to Rabia Ahmed as she continued to work the same repetitive schedule every day of the year.  What she did not know was that this was not a normal day, but a day that she would remember forever.

As Rabia sat there listening to another interviewee rambling on about how they were the ideal candidate for the university, she couldn’t help but reach for the jar of jellybeans sitting on top of her desk. She managed to grab two jellybeans before the phone started to ring.

“Hello Rabia speaking.”

“Eat the blue jellybean if you want to continue listening to the person in front of you. Eat the red jellybean if you want to see how far the rabbit hole goes,” responded the mysterious voice.

“What is this, The Matrix? Let me guess you must be Morpheus or Neo or some crack addict moving around in slow-mo,” Rabia replied with a laugh as she hung up the phone.

Looking down into her hand Rabia found a red and blue jellybean and started wondering about the conversation that just took place on the phone. She then looked at the interviewee who was still rambling on and on about their life. Quickly Rabia popped the red jellybean into her mouth.

“Great that did noth….” Rabia said as fell from her chair unconscious.

Chapter 2

Rabia in Wonderland

Rabia slowly got up and looked around to find herself in a gloomy looking forest. “Where the hell am I and why the hell am I wearing a blue dress with a white apron?” Rabia slowly started to make her way down the beaten path when she started hearing voices coming from amongst the trees. “What on earth was in that jellybean?”

After some time walking down the path a small boy in a rabbit suit crawled on passed her as if he were in a hurry. Rabia pondered for a second as if she had known the little boy. “YUSUF!” Rabia quickly tried to run after her young nephew, who happened to be dressed as a white rabbit. However, no matter how fast Rabia ran, Yusuf just seemed to crawl away faster and faster eventually causing Rabia to lose her nephew. Rabia let out a sigh, “this is just like real life.”

“Lost your nephew I see,” a voice responded from somewhere within the forest.

Rabia looked around for the source of the voice eventually finding her cousin Bilal sitting in a tree.

“Bilal, what are you doing up in a tree? Help me find Yusuf, before he gets lost in this forest. He is your nephew too you know.”

“I am not Bilal, I am a Cheshire Cat.”

Rabia looked at Bilal dumbfounded, like she usually seemed to do for he never made any sense. “Bilal, where on earth did Yusuf go?”

“Meow”

Rabia started to get aggravated. “How do I get out of here?”

“Where are you trying to go?”

“Anywhere, but here.”

“Then it really doesn’t matter which way you go! Oh, by the way, if you’d really like to know, he went that way.”

“Who did,” Rabia asked.

“The white rabbit.”

“Yusuf did?”

“He did what?”

“Went that way?”

“Who did?”

“Yusuf”

“Yusuf?”

“But didn’t you just say… I mean… BILAL!”

“Can you stand on your head?”

Rabia looks over at Bilal who is literally standing on top of his head.

“However, if I were looking for a white rabbit, I’d ask Cinderella,” Bilal responds.

“Cinderella? Who the hell is she?”

“Oh, there’s the white rabbit. In that direction.”

“Finally some help around here.” Rabia makes her way towards Yusuf.

“Of course, Cinderella’s mad too.”

“But I don’t want to go amongst mad people!”

“Oh, you can’t help that. Almost everyone is mad here. Ha… ha ha ha ha ha! You may have noticed that I’m not all there myself….”

Rabia looked at where Bilal was sitting in the tree only to find that he had disappeared. After contemplating on what to do next, Rabia decided to follow the last directions given to her by her odd cousin, since it was the only option she seemed to have.

Chapter 3

Snow White and the Evil Stepsister

Rabia soon emerged from the forest where she came across a cozy looking house. She approached the door and knocked. Screaming came from the inside. Rabia heard the voice and her mood dropped. For the voice belonged to no one other then her cousin Aisha.

“AZAM GET THE DOOR NOW,” Aisha screamed from the inside.

Azam quickly scrambled to open the door.

Rabia looked at a dirty Azam and asked, “Cinderella?”

“Yes, and who might you be?”

“I’m your cousin Rabia you fool.”

Azam looked at her confused with tears in his eyes. “Why        must you bother me? I need to clean the house before nightfall so I can go to the ball tonight,” he cried.

As Rabia pondered for a second why Azam was Cinderella, Aisha came bumbling down the stairs.

“AZAM WHO WAS AT THE DOOR? WHO IS THIS SKANK YOU BE TALKING TO? HUH HUH?” Aisha smacked Azam on top of his head.

“You must be the Evil Stepsister right,” Rabia asked.

“YES, YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT.”

Azam quietly responded, “Don’t make her angry.”

Aisha smacked him. “SPEAK ONLY WHEN SPOKEN TOO.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Azam whimpered as he quickly left to clean the house.

“NOW WHAT DO YOU WANT,” the Evil Stepsister asked.

Rabia’s ears started to hurt a bit. “I’m looking for the white rabbit. You know, your nephew Yusuf.”

“LAST I HEARD HE WAS WITH SNOW WHITE AND THE TWO DWARVES.”

“Wait aren’t there supposed to be seven dwarves?”

“YO JUST BECAUSE WE ARE DESI DOESN’T MEAN ALL THE PARENTS BE POPPIN EM OUT. GOSH!”

Rabia shook her head. “So where can I find this Snow White and the Two Dwarves.”

“JUST FOLLOW THE ROAD. I MEAN REALLY, HOW HARD IS IT?”

Rabia briskly walked away from the house making her way down the road. Her head was slightly pounding from the encounter with the Evil Stepsister. After some time she found the cottage she was looking for. As she approached the cottage she found two familiar faces leaning against the outside of the house.

“ZAIM! RAIS! Finally normal cousins,” Rabia said to herself. “Hey guys what’s up?” Rabia asked.

“Woah woah woah! Hey Dopey did she just talk to us?” Zaim replied looking at Rais.

“I think she did Doc. This little lady might need to be fixed. You a doctor right Doc?”

“Well I’ve used an pick axe to find all this bling,” Zaim showed off the jewels he wore, which he had found mining. “A scalpel can’t be that much harder to use.”

“Woah woah woah. No one is cutting me open. I am perfectly fine.” Rabia said.

“Fine then. Doc, how about we make her an honorary dwarf,” said Rais.

“Dopey that’s a great idea. Hmm, from this moment forth you will be known as Sneezy,” Zaim replied.

“I don’t want to be Sneezy. GOD!”

“Too bad Sneezy. Names can’t change,” both of them chimed in together.

“Agh,” Rabia responded, aggravated yet again. “I need an Advil or something.”

“Snow White’s got some,” responded Rais.

“SNOW WHITE,” Zaim yelled.

Zanab emerged from within the cottage with a bottle of Advil.

“Zanab is Snow White? What is going on?” Rabia responded.

“You might be on drugs. You should share!” responded the dwarves.

Zanab started singing causing animals to appear everywhere. A bear grabbed Rabia as birds opened her mouth and dropped Advil in.

“ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME? I HATE ANIMALS. AHHHHHHH!” Scared for her life, Rabia ran off into the forest.

Chapter 4

The Way Home

Rabia sat crying in the forest confused and alone when the Cheshire Cat appeared again.

“What do you want? Didn’t you make me miserable enough,” Rabia sadly replied.

“You know you love me. Besides look at the tree over there,” Bilal responded.

Rabia followed the path of Bilal’s finger to find a sleeping white rabbit at the base of the tree. She quickly ran over to Yusuf and picked him up. “Finally, I got you. Now how do I get out of this dream?” Rabia looked back towards the Cheshire Cat.

“You’ve always had it in you to go back home. All you must do is click your ruby slippers three times and say there is no place like home with every click.”

“Talk about clichéd as hell,” Rabia responded. She looked back at Bilal only to see a white smile hanging in the air.

“And you didn’t even figure that out.” The smile vanished.

Rabia stood there contemplating all that just happened. She looked down at her feet and noticed how awesome the pair of ruby slippers she was wearing. “I wonder if I can find a pair at Steve Madden.” Yusuf quietly cooed in her arms reminding her that she needed to get home. Rabia started to click her heels,”there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.” Suddenly Rabia was covered in water and the world around her was spinning. She hit the ground and knew no more.

Chapter 5

Epilogue

Rabia’s eyes shot open. She saw Yusuf hovering above her. No, not again she thought to herself. Then she noticed the drool coming from Yusuf. It slowly hit her on the head. She moved to grab him, but the IV in her arm shot a jolt of pain through her body. Rabia realized she was lying on top of a hospital bed. “Where am I?”

“Oh good your finally awake. You bumped your head pretty bad at work. The interviewee called for an ambulance after you didn’t get up. You’ve been out for quiet a while,” responded Aamna, another one of her cousins. “I’ll bring everyone in to see you.” Aamna left the room to retrieve the rest of the family.

As everyone came into the room Rabia realized they were the cousins from her dream.

“Horray you are finally up,” Bilal said. “We figured you sneezed too hard and the whiplash caused you to fall over and knock your head against the desk.”

“Haha we should call her Sneezy,” Rais said.

Rabia sat there feeling as if this were all déjà vu. “I had the weirdest dream ever. You all were in it. Bilal was the Cheshire Cat, Yusuf was the white rabbit, Azam was Cinderalla.”

Everyone laughed. “Why am I Cinderalla,” Azam asked.

“Because you are such a girl,” Zaim replied. Laughter filled the room again.

“WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF US,” asked Aisha.

Rabia sighed knowing that volume of her voice was to be expected. “Aisha was the Evil Stepsister, Zaim and Rais were Doc and Dobey the dwarves, and Zanab was Snow White.”

Everyone talked and joked around for awhile about who they were and the possible drugs Rabia could be taking. As Rabia relaxed in the hospital bed she couldn’t help but wonder what the Cheshire Cat had said to her.

“Oh, you can’t help that. Almost everyone is mad here.”

Rabia realized as silly and crazy as her cousins were, no matter how much they annoyed her, or the fun times they had together, that they were all mad in their own ways and she loved them regardless for it.

Someone asked a question, but no one heard it. The room silenced.

“What about me,” asked Rameez.

“You weren’t in it,” Rabia responded.

Everyone laughed and laughed as Rameez went to a corner and ate a quesadilla.

THE END