A boat wrecked fisherman story writing
Answers
Answer:
Once upon a time there lived a poor fisherman. His house was but a mud hut, his fishing nets but rags and scraps knotted together and his fishing boat little more than a few planks of drift wood held together with fraying rope. He lived with his wife and his blind old mother but what grieved him most was not their poverty, but the fact that he and his wife could not have children. Quite apart from the joy he and his wife would have had from a child, and that his mother would have had from a grandchild, in those days, and in that part of the world a poor man would rely on having children to care for him and his wife in their old age, just as he looked after his blind old mother. Almost as bad was the fact that his wife and his blind old mother always argued. The fisherman's life was utterly, utterly wretched.
At the end of one particularly long, particularly grey day, the fisherman hauled in his nets to find that there was not a single fish caught in them. In truth, the nets were now so frayed, and the holes in them so large, that a whole shoal of fish could have swum through them. "We are quite ruined" cried the poor fisherman when he noticed that caught up in what was left of the net was a small bottle. It was old and shabby and shells and barnacles had stuck to the outside, but the fisherman though to himself that perhaps if he could clean it he would be able to sell it and keep starvation at bay for another day. He pulled out the stopper, meaning to rinse it, but as soon as the stopper was off there was a flash of light and then a pillar of smoke rose out of the bottle. As the fisherman cowered on the ground the pillar of smoke formed into the shape of a genie who cried "Free! I'm free at last". The genie explained that he had been imprisoned in the bottle by an evil magician and that had lain on the bottom of the sea bed for 10,000 years. He was so pleased to be free that he offered to grant the fisherman one wish, but one wish only. The fisherman thought for a moment and then asked if he could go home and ask his wife and his mother what the wish should be. The genie agreed and told the fisherman to come back to the same spot at the same time next week when the fisherman would be granted one, but only one, wish.
Excited the fisherman rushed home and told his mother who was at home what had happened. She said to him "My son, respect for your parents and elders is the duty of all children. I have been blind for decades. You must ask the genie to restore my sight".
Shortly after that the poor fisherman's wife returned. He told her what had happened and what his mother had said. "How typically selfish of your mother!" cried his wife. "Take no notice of her, my husband. She is old and will soon be dead. Ask the genie for a son, that we may have the joy of a child, and someone to care for us in our old age".
The fisherman was at a loss to know what to do. He could not think of a way to reconcile the wishes of his mother and his wife. As the week went on his wife and his mother both pestered him to agree to ask the genie for what they wanted and argued incessantly amongst themselves. On occasions they virtually came to blows. Things were so bad that the fisherman wished that he had never met the genie and that the genie had never offered to grant him one wish. He was utterly, utterly wretched.
Then, as the poor fisherman walked sadly through the streets of his village, he passed a house in which a mediator lived. The mediator was held to be wise in finding solutions to disputes. In desperation, for it was now the day before he had to return to the genie, the fisherman took his wife and mother to see the mediator. With his last fish he paid the mediator's fee and then told the mediator his story. No sooner had he finished than his wife and mother began to argue about whose wishes should be put to the genie. The mediator listened carefully and then replied:
"O fisherman. You must return to the genie, and you must honour the wishes of your wife and your mother".
"But how does this help?" cried the poor fisherman, his blind old mother and his wife together. "Did you not hear us? The genie will grant only one wish!"
"And only one request should you make of him" replied the mediator. And he lent forward and whispered in the poor fisherman's ear.
The next day the poor fisherman went to the spot where he had found the genie at the appointed time and sure enough, the genie appeared, and offered to grant him one wish.
"O genie," said the poor fisherman, " I ask nothing for myself, and my wife asks nothing for herself. But respect for our parents and elders is the duty of all children and so I ask on behalf of my aged mother that you grant her the one wish she has before she dies".
"Very noble," said the genie, "I will grant your aged mother's wish. What does she wish for?"
"My aged mother's one wish, O genie, is that before she dies she might see her grandson".