STUDY: The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate

ACT ONE (INCITE/STAKES) 35%

SCENE ONE (1896)

Fuwaad ibn Abbas is in front of a caliph and commander and telling him a story (frame). Fuwaad was shopping for a silver tray when he came upon a new merchant’s store. It is Bashaarat’s store. It’s filled with wondrous items. Fuwaad is amazed, and Bashaarat tells him about his expertise. He’s a genius on all accounts, but then he brings up alchemy. Fuwaad is surprised by an intelligent man like Bashaarat dabbling in alchemy. Bashaarat offers to show him something amazing. He takes him to a back room to look at a metal hoop. The metal hoop is something that can transport you to twenty years in the future. Bashaarat does two tricks to prove to him it’s not an illusion. Bashaarat assures him that it’s not magic. But this is just a prelude to what he wants to show Fuwaad. He takes him to another room and shows him an entire human sized gate. He tells him that he could step through to the future. And many customers have done it. But Fuwaad says, didn’t you just say that you haven’t showed anyone this magical thing yet? And Bashaarat says, well. This one. The other one I have in Cairo has been used by many. Each person learns something. Then Bashaarat tells stories.

SCENE TWO (1475)

The tale of Hassan the rope-maker. He steps through and finds out that he’s apparently really rich and renowned in the future. He can’t believe it. So he goes and visits his older self. Elder Hassan is awaiting him. They have dinner. He gives him weird instructions, like walk on the other side of the road, Or buy up tons of hemp when prices are cheap. Not to eat eggs from someone. And then one day after selling tons of rope, and with a full purse, he gets it stolen by a boy, and he chases him and catches him but lets him go after getting his purse back. He goes back to older Hassan and asked him why he didn’t let him know about it? Older Hassan is like, wasn’t that a good experience you enjoyed? Then older Hassan gives him the instructions to find something under a rock in a forest. He finds treasure. Then older Hassan tells him that they will no longer talk and he must make it on his own.

SCENE THREE (386)

Fuwaad and Bashaarat talk about this story. Basharaarat makes sure Fuwaad understands that you can’t change the future. The future fixed and is unchangeable as the past. But if the future is fixed and you find out you’re not dead in 20 years… wouldn’t you go all Groundhog Day and try crazy stuff because you know you can’t die?

ACT TWO (BELLY/STRATEGIES) 38%

SCENE FOUR (1509)

The Tale of the Weaver Who Stole From Himself. Ajib was someone who heard about Hassan’s story and he decided to look into it himself. So he goes to the gate and goes to the future of Cairo and asked around in the rich district if they knew about Ajib the great merchant. But nobody knew who he was. So he goes to his old house and asks a boy if he knew. The boy points at his old house. He can’t believe he’s still living in his old house! He spies on his old house and sees an older version of himself and a wife and can’t believe it. So he goes into his own house and unlocks the door and finds a treasure chest. It’s filled with gold! So he reasons, I’m not stealing if I take my own money. My older self is miserly and doesn’t deserve it!. So he takes it. He lives it up. Deposits some money, buys nice clothes, rents out a house in a wealthy quarter, furnish it with rugs and couches, hired a cook. Then he goes after the woman of his dreams. Taahira’s brother approves and they get married. It’s a crazy ass wedding. One day he comes home and it’s broken into and his wife is kidnapped. The next day, the thieves demands ransom. 10,000 dinars! He can’t afford it. The thief then goes, get me all the money you can and don’t fuck me over, otherwise I’ll kill your wife! So he scrabbles and gets all the money he can to pay the ransom for Taahira. She’s surprised by the money he could get for her. And then she’s like… wait a minute. How the fuck? They talk and Ajib is avoiding the answer, but he promises to repay this guy. So they move back to the old house and save every penny. And over time thrift became miserliness and they became miserable.

SCENE FIVE (220)

What a strange sad story, Fuwaad says. Bashaarat asks, so do you think he acted prudently? Fuwaad admires Ajib’s candor for telling Bashaarat everything he did. But Bashaarat tells him that it wasn’t the young one that did. So Ajib who has regrets sees him as an older self. But Hassan who lived it wonderfully only saw him as his younger self and never saw him again in his older self.

SCENE SIX (1375)

The Tale of the Wife and her Lover. Raniya is married to Hassan and has been for many years. Raniya almost walks in on the two Hassans talking and older Hassan is like, don’t spoil the moment for him. But Raniya is looking at the younger Hassan and is getting horny and wants to sleep with the younger version of her husband. So when Hassan has to go on a business trip to Damascus, she goes finds the gate and goes back in time, rents a house and furnishes it. Then she stalks her future younger husband. She sees him trying to sell a necklace that she owns for a thousand dinars. Which confuses her because she has it. But then she also overhears two scary men talking. They’re the thieves that Hassan stole from since their treasure is buried. So Raniya comes up with a plan to save Hassan from getting killed by the thieves. She gets her necklace from her time, then goes to the future and gets older Raniya and gets her to get her necklace as well. So when Hassan tries to sell it, she intervenes and goes, are you sure this is one of a kind. Then the older Raniya comes and goes, hey look I also have a necklace just like it… and the thief captain is like, you fools! We almost killed someone over a common necklace! So the two Raniyas save Hassan from the thieves. Older Raniya goes home and then old Raniya seduces and has sex with Hassan. But he’s awkward and clumsy. WTF? Where was the Hassan from her wedding night where he was a player? Then she realizes… of course. I taught him how to fuck like a porn star. So she sleeps with him lots until he gets good then leaves him and goes back home because the young Hassan was about to meet the young Raniya.

SCENE SEVEN (904)

Even though the past is unchangeable, you may still encounter the unexpected when visiting it. So, we cannot change the past or future, but we can know them more fully. So now Fuwaad is like, I want to use the gate. How much does it cost? And he’s like I don’t charge money. BUT, there are some rules for visiting the future. And Fuwaad is like, but I don’t want to visit the future I want to visit the past. Oh, but this machine I built only a week ago, so it can only go back one week. So Fuwaad is like, but I can travel all the way to Cairo and go to the past and then travel back her to Baghdad right? So Bashaarat reiterates that what is made cannot be unmade and you cannot avoid the ordeals, you must accept what Allah gives you. So Bashaarat writes a letter for Fuwaad to give to his son in Cairo. Fuwaad is super thankful. He wants to ask if Bashaarat has met his older self. but chose not to.

ACT THREE (CLIMAX/SACRIFICE) 27%

SCENE EIGHT (751)

The caravan ride takes two months. BACKSTORY: Married twenty years ago. He had an opportunity to sell slaves for a profit, but wife, Najya didn’t approve. They argued. And when he left on the trip anyway, Najya dies due to a freak accident of a collapsed mosque. And when he came back a week later, he’s destroyed by the news. So he freed the slaves and became a fabric merchant instead and became rich, but was always hollow and sad despite friends trying to set him up. He speaks to a mullah and the mullah tells him to repent and atone, so he gives alms and fasted and prayed and pilgrimaged but he was still haunted by guilt.

So now Fuwaad wonders if — even though he can’t change the past — perhaps he could play some part in his younger self’s life anyway? He doesn’t know what he’ll find but he wants to find out anyway.

SCENE NINE (805)

Caravan journey is uneventful. He reaches Cairo. He finds the shopkeeper. Gives him the letter, then goes through the gate. He realizes that younger Bashaarat has no idea who he is. They talk. Now Fuwaad wonders if his appearance there was the reason that Basharaat moves to Baghdad to open his second shop there. Just as he leaves, he overhears Raniya coming in with the necklace. He almost interferes, but doesn’t. Then prepared a caravan to Baghdad.

SCENE TEN (949)

The caravan ride back to Baghdad is cursed. dry wells. soldiers dysentery. sandstorms. Then he tries to get his own damn camel. But because he’s alone, thieves get him. And he’s deserted in the desert until caravan catches up. When the get to Baghdad, he’s too late. He’s standing in front of his house and he’s sad when a nurse shows up and tells him Najya’s final words. And he’s sad and crying and walking around town until after curfew.

SCENE ELEVEN (313)

A guard catches him and asks him who he is. He says he is Fuwaad ibn Abbas. But when they take him home, none of the neighbors recognize him. So he’s stuck in jail where he tells his amazing story. And the guard captain found the story absurd, until Fuwaad tells him that the Majesty is about to give birth to a young albino. It happens. Governor, Lord Chamberlain, Majesty. Story.