I don't remember exactly how old I was when I read a story about a powerful king who ruled the land of abundance somewhere in the Middle East long, long time ago. Perhaps I was eight or nine years old. The book was written in Jawi (Jawi is a modified Arabic script written in Malay language). The book was a compilation of short stories about the grandeur kings in a distance land.
In this story, the king was portrayed as a wise, generous and loved by his people. One day the king told his queen that he was planning to take a second wife. The queen was upset. She stayed in her room and refused to leave the room for a few days. Knowing the news had upset the queen, the king decided to drop off the upsetting topic for a while. He ordered the palace chef to prepare the queen's favorite meal. Every day, while the chef brought in the queen's favorite meal. After the third day, the queen came out of the bedroom. She was still upset with her husband's intention to take a second wife, but she has a question that burning her mind.
The queen told the king she enjoyed her favorite meals, but the queen wondered why she was served the same meal for lunch and dinner for those days she stayed in her room (in this story, the meal was chicken). The king told the queen that he ordered the palace chef to prepare the same meal for the queen. The king asked the queen did the queen enjoy the meal. The queen said she did. She loved the chicken, but into the third day, the queen said confessed she couldn't eat the chicken anymore. The queen said she loved chicken but she couldn't eat chicken every day. The queen said to the king years of marriage the king must be aware of the queen liked to try different food. The king said he was absolutely aware which food favored by the queen.
The queen asked the king again the reason behind serving her the same food for lunch and dinner for three days in a row.
The king brought the topic of taking a second, younger wife to the queen. The king reminded the queen that she grew tired of eating the chicken for three days in a row...........
I honestly do not remember at all what happened in the next paragraph. I don't think I finished the story, but there was unsettling feeling somewhere in my young head. I did not know what it was. I did not understand why. But it was upsetting me. Only many years later when I was in my twenties it hit me that king compared his wife to a chicken to justify his intention to take a second wife.
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