The jewellery box

The jewellery box was my gateway. When I lifted its clasp, the music — Für Elise, but thinned and sharpened by the tiny pins and teeth of the mechanism — filled the air like the call of another land. It was not Beethoven’s world I heard but something older, more enchanted, full of deserts, gold, and peril. 

The box itself, with its Khatam inlay of black and ivory and its red velvet heart, was a treasure chest. Inside, a pearl necklace glowed like the sea’s own moon, and rings winked with secret powers: the Burmese rubies set in the rich, warm gold of a wedding ring, the blackberry-shaped dark metal one heavy with spells, the crushed-silver diamond hiding its magic in plain sight.

I lay on my grandmother’s Persian rug, dark as burgundy wine and patterned with scarlet and cream. The fibres itched my skin, but I barely noticed: it was a flying carpet, ready to whisk me to the horizons where Sinbad sailed. On the television, men with fine moustaches fought storms and sorcery, women moved like calligraphy, and the world seemed both dangerous and irresistibly refined.

Sometimes, when the carpet lifted, it bore me further than Sinbad’s ship. I would find myself racing through sunstruck alleys, past spice stalls and glinting brass lamps, chased by men in fezzes and curling slippers. My monkey darted ahead, cleverer than me, leading the way through shadowed arches as I clutched a stolen flask of rose perfume, a gift for my mother worth the risk of capture. In those moments, the jewellery box was not only a treasure chest but the very key to the city — its music the password that opened the gates.

My mother’s voice added another layer — her tales of the clever rabbit who could trick tigers and elephants alike, small and quick against the mighty. I carried that rabbit with me too, curled inside my mind as I loaded my satchel with pencils and books. A cap, heavy felt, too stiff for my head, as I prepared to enter primary school. 

The teachers might see only another boy in uniform. But I knew better. I had sailed perilous seas, parleyed with genies, and held in my hands the rings of a hidden kingdom.