Week 5 Story: Jumanji: A Story within a Story

The narrative by Andrew Gilbert, a 59-year-old accountant living in Pennsylvania.

Three months after my son and daughter vanished; I decided to do a father intervention to find out what happened to them. Here is my adventurous story in Jumanji. The day they went missing, I remember my children running in the house really excited about something. David and Gabby usually get home from school around 4pm. They like to hangout with friends after school before driving home.  That day, though, they came home at 5pm. I asked them where had they been. They said that their friends heard a pounding drum during cross country practice. So, David and his friends, Trace and Matt, and Gabby and her friend Jen, went to explore after school. Together, they found a board game called Jumanji. They asked me if they could go to Matt’s house later to play the game. I didn’t care so they left our house at 6pm. I know they got to Matt’s because Gabby texted me at 6:10pm to tell me that they had arrived safely—she was always a daddy’s girl. I called Gabby around 11pm to see how everything was going and she did not answer. David didn’t answer my call either. I called Matt’s parents and they didn’t answer either. When I drove over just to make sure everything was okay—I was introduced to a parent’s worst nightmare. I had to knock for about 5 minutes before Matt’s dad answered the door. After he invited me in, he apologized and said that he and his wife fell asleep around 9:30pm. I told him that I was concerned about my kids’ whereabouts because it was weird for neither of them to answer my calls. He said that they were in the basement. We went downstairs and all we saw were a few sodas, a bowl of popcorn that had been spilled and the board game Jumanji. When I tried calling Gabby again, I heard her phone ring in the corner. All of their phones were in the basement. Fast forward a day, the whole city was on a manhunt for the lost children. My wife couldn’t stop crying and I just had one goal—to find my kids. After three months, I knew it was time to do something. I remember the board game, so I asked Matt’s parents to look for it. I heard the drums when I opened it and all I remember after reading the instructions was a flash of green. I woke up in a forest. I thought it was a dream. I noticed a huge hippo in the river and when I stepped on a stick, the hippo charged at me. I was so confused so I just began running. When I reached the edge of the forest, I jumped off the edge of a cliff into a river. On the riverbank, I noticed Gabby’s watch that she always wears. I tried calling out for Gabby and kept walking until I reached a market full of people. I reached the bazaar where a man that looked and dressed like Jafar (the bad guy in Aladdin) awaited my presence. He said that he knew what I was looking for and in order for my children not to die, I would have to give him the Gold Gem. When he said that, the ground began to tremble and I fell through the earth to a dark pit. I followed the path lit with torches. (He never told me his name so I refer to him as Jafar) Jafar appeared behind me and began telling me the story of the Gold Gem. It’s almost like I was in the story, but the people around me did not notice my presence. He led me to camp where men were huddled around a fire and an older woman told a story. She began telling the ancient story of the Gold Gem. She said that a long time ago, there were three brothers that fought to rule Jumanji as king. All of the brother’s soldiers died in what she called the Gold War. The spirits of the soldiers were angry at the brothers so they all formed together to create the Gold Gem, which had enormous powers. It was the reason that Jumanji still exists today, but it was hidden, and whoever found it would possess all the power in the world. Then, I felt Jafar touch my soldier and I felt a cold wind and the setting changed to a cold room where I saw David, Jen, and Matt. They were trying to look at a map. I asked Jafar to show me my daughter. When I looked behind Jafar, I saw Gabby and Trace running from men that were shooting at them. I yelled and began running towards them, but I fell through a hole and found myself at the bazaar, where I began. Jafar looked at me and said that I had 3 days. So, I started my journey. I befriended some English-speaking animals that helped me find the kids. It turns out that Gabby and Trace had stolen some food from the market and were fleeing, but Jafar’s soldiers saw them. They told me that in order for all of us to leave the game, we had to save Jumanji by returning the Gold Gem back to the Soldiers’ Souls—which turned out to be a large mountain. The kids had found the Gold Gem and were looking at the map to see where to put it so that it would be safe from Jafar. After three days, we managed to save Jumnaji from the threat of Jafar, and when we finished the game, we all woke up in Matt’s basement. That’s the story of my adventure in Jumanji. I don’t go into detail about my adventures within Jumanji or the aftermath of us returning, but don’t worry—that’s in the sequel. 

(990 Words)

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Author’s Note

The big theme from the readings this week was the twist that each story had another story being told inside of the original story—so, a story within a story. The setting of the readings led me to my idea of Jumanji; it’s also one of my favorite movies (both the one with Robin Williams and the new one with The Rock, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black). This is the father’s version of the story in a narrative form. I hope you enjoyed it!

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. Web Source

 

Unit: Persian Tales Story: The City of Nothing-in-the-World

Unit: Arabian Nights by Andrew Lang (used the whole reading as a reference)