Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge – The Ship of the Desert, Day One

Dear follower/visitor,

For the next five days I will be taking up fellow blogger Jane Dougherty’s challenge to write a post each day. I decided to come up with one story in five parts. It is an English translation of a Dutch story which was published earlier on this site.

I hope you will like what you find.

 

 

 

 

 

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Sultan Petr el Bouchi finally had had enough.

Having been in the oil business all his life, he had no reason to fear the economic crisis. Even as he spoke his fortune grew bigger by the day. A brand new bank had been formed because the huge amounts on his accounts couldn’t possibly be managed by the existing ones alone.
But the Somali pirates bothered him. They kept attacking his dhow fleet, which was another one of the country’s sources of income. The boats transported bulk loads of camel droppings to agricultural projects throughout the land. To please the tourists, an annual race was held to see which boat could deliver its cargo in record time. Paying passengers were invited on board on the way back, all proceeds being donated to the capital zoo which was patroned by the sultan himself.
The sultan finally made up his mind. “Allah is great,” he said, “but the time has come for action. Let my fastest camel be saddled at once, that I may hurry to the airport!”
“So it shall be, master,” his slave replied while waving a palm branch, “where in your endless wisdom will you be flying to?”
“Holland,” the king answered, “for it is known that great ships are built there. I will teach those Somalis a lesson, by Allah!”

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