Mister Chaudbury

Chapter Fifteen - Melody Aladdin

    In celebration and absolute happiness of Melody's new-found freedom, she wore an old maiden dress, a memoir of her faint past and family. She had never worn it for she felt it was useless trying to hold on to memories that meant nothing. But now that emotion was restored to her soul, she decided to wear. The fabric was of beautiful color and design, with several flowers and vines which swirled amongst the folds of the dress. Beautiful combinations of blue and purple and scarlet and lavender and green and teal. She tucked it in beneath her clothes, where she wore her normal yet cleaner attire and the dress from her waist down. She spun around and danced in the halls of the palace, something she had longed to do but failed to drum up the chance until that day. She revisited old rooms and storage from when she was young. She found a leaf tucked into the shelf of the window. She placed into the pockets of her dress. When Virgil had come up through the halls and had seen Melody, he couldn't face her again. The shame of taking advantage of her as a slave was fully realized to him when she gained freedom as it was proclaimed throughout Galacia. Melody felt confident.

    After a while in his office, Chaudbury called Melody into his office for a discussion. She entered and sat down.

     Chaudbury was shuffing through some papers and then looked at Melody through his glasses.

     "Hello. Sorry to call you up like this," Chaudbury said to her. Melody was awfully surprised at his former attitude toward her. Melody knew she wasn't a slave anymore, but the feeling still stuck with her. No one she knew had ever truly been polite to her. Only Virgil pretended to be polite.

    "You don't need to be sorry at all," Melody said to him. Chaudbury nodded.

    "I was reading some papers. Your name is Melody Aladdin, correct?" he asked. The second time in two days Melody had heard that name.

    "Yes it is," she answered.

     "I was looking at some old records and found out about your family history. But first, what do you remember about your family?" he asked.

    Melody surfed through the back of her mind. She recalled only her parents briefly, but nothing else. From an early age she was taken into slavery and beaten harshly, nearly to death, but her fervent and emotionless will to serve the king brought her into the king's court where she served Tashil directly all her life. She had no family.

    "It seems to me," Chaudbury started reading one the papers, "That the Aladdins were a foreign family, yet they were rich. Extremely rich. Wealthier than even my family," he told Melody. Her eyes widened.

    "When Timothy Oligarde's empire broke up, they traveled across to Galacia to escape the mess. In the travel, much of their wealth and belongings were stolen or lost. Some still attained wealth and are still one of Galacia's wealthy classes. The rest could barely afford themselves by the time Tashil came to power. But inherently, Tashil or even his father who was king before him should have given money back to them and returned them to their stature as a wealthy family."

    "So are you saying that I could have been born into a rich family, but wasn't because of Tashil?"

    "It appears that way. It almost seems as if Tashil had tried to erase your family name altogether, or someone else might have tried to. There's all these smudges wherever I see the name Aladdin," Chaudbury remarked.

    "Well what does this mean?" Melody asked.

    "You should not have been a slave, yet you were anyway. But you are free now. And with freedom you may choose whichever you like, you can choose to just make your name for yourself and go out living as if we never had this conversation today, or you can retake the name Aladdin and have back all the riches your family lost and we among the wealthy of Galacia," Chaudbury placed his hands outward as he made the offer to Melody. Melody envisioned Chaudbury's hands as the scales of justice that weighed upon one another as they rocked up and down. She closed her eyes and considered the human desire of fortune and wealth. To have power and dominion in a kingdom. To have once been someone that had nothing, to now have possession of a name, of a title, of so much that once seemed inconceivable, was now possible at the simple utterance of a yes.

     Having giving it all consideration and full knowledge, absent of ignorance, she wholeheartedly declined Chaudbury's invitation to the Aladdin aristocracy.

     Chaudbury sat there, understanding her answer. Normally, it would have shocked him, but he figured as much and smirked at Melody. He just needed to confirm it for himself.

     "Wise choice, beloved," Chaudbury smiled.

     "I just figured.." Melody's soft voice whispered, "I would lose myself if I became too wrapped up in power...I know what happened to Tashil and Timothy and I just..wanted to avoid that by whatever means...It just doesn't suit who I am."

     "That's beautiful," Chaudbury clapped. "That's the clarity I love to see in people. People who could've chosen power but didn't because they would lose themselves. It's the reason I became leader here while the republic would be established. It was to build that clarity into the hearts of others. To etch out the beauty of true freedom into the eyes of the oppressed."

      Melody only nodded with him without a lot of words to say. But she was delighted. Overjoyed by the turn of events within her home, that all could be at the peace it should have been at the beginning. She thought of Vashti and the choice he gave to her in that underground bunker, and how it would change her life and the fate of a nation forever.

     At that time, Prophet Vashti was tying up supplies: bottles, sacks, rope, knives, books, and others which he strapped onto his horses. He was preparing for a new journey. Word had broken out that Philosopher Mason had returned from the deserts and had found the legend of Syracuse, and invited Prophet Vashti and his company with him, with their hearts in ever increased faith to reach the city of dreams. The City of Faith. The four of them readied their steeds and rode off into the desert at dusk.

    Chaudbury had but one more question for Melody before he set her off. He folded his arms and clasped his hands together. 

    "Why is your name Melody?" he asked.

     Melody thought it a simple question with a simple answer. She pulled out the leaf from the pockets of her dress. She held it softly to her lips and began to whistle the most beautiful melody through the covering of the palisade leaf. Chaudbury listened. The song was enchanting. It was the most incredible music he had heard in all his life. The talent of her whistle blew him away.

    "That was an amazing song, Melody....Now I understand where 'Melody' comes from. But surely you didn't develop this talent until later, so how could your parents have known?" Chaudbury asked.

     "They didn't, and never will. But I was told my mother could do the exact same with her whistle, and they had hopes it would carry out in me. So I was called Melody," she told him. Chaudbury understood, and was amazed at the incredible background of a slave who had seemed so insignificant to others just a day ago, has now inspired thousands - along with the leaders of nations. For truly nothing is as it seems, and no one is insignificant. And Chaudbury believed this. Melody confirmed this. And the Prophet Vashti acted through it.

     Melody put the leaf back into her pocket and was ready to leave out and start a new life as Melody Aladdin of Galacia. Yet again, she was delighted. She stood up and headed for the door, but ever so gently turned around, her dress circling around her.

    "Thank you, Master Chaudbury," she said, pleased. Chaudbury's smile met his eyes. He replied.

    "You are welcome. But from now on, you may call me Mister Chaudbury, to put an end to the awful system of masters which Tashil put in place. I change my title, for I am equal among you as well, Melody. So, I thank you."