Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 23

The Kader Brothers
Carmel School Association Elsa High School, Wigisser, Alex - 11
There are many famous stories of the Ming voyages. On these massive ships, there was gold, jewellery, and
spices. A lot of people attempted to steal from the ships, some were successful and some weren’t. This is the
story of one of the greatest heists in the world. It all started with these brothers, the Kader brothers.
Axmed and Mahad Kader were regular brothers; they fought and laughed. Mahad was the older brother and
he was taller, faster, louder and stronger. Axmed was the younger brother and was quite; he didn’t really
socialize very well, but he was very smart. Axmed and Mahad liked being with each other very much and
most of the time they were inseparable. Their parents cared greatly for the boys; they cooked for them and
made clothes for them. Axmed and Mahad's parents didn’t have a lot of money; they had a farm. On the
farm, they grew vegetables and had chickens, sheep, and cows. Life was good and peaceful on the farm.
One day, Mahad went out to run some errands which his mother sent him to do when suddenly he saw a
big crowd gathered around the dock where there were huge ships. He immediately saw why there was all
this commotion. The ship was so big that even from afar he could see it as if it were only a few meters away.
Mahad couldn’t believe his eyes. He ran towards the crowd. He thought, “If the ship is as big from this
distance, I need to see it up close”. When he finally got next to the boat, just a few meters away, he felt so
small. He was, in fact, super tall at 1.90 meters but for the first time in his life, he felt like an ant. He then
asked a fellow farmer, “Why is everyone staring at the floor and not at the huge ship?”
The fellow farmer replied, “I am old and short and my eyes aren’t the best so why don’t you look
yourself? You’re extremely tall!” Mahad then went on his tippy toes and saw A LOT of gold, spices from
China and jewellery.
Mahad ran to tell his family about this massive commotion and his mother asked “Do any of the
farmers get this gold?”
Mahad didn’t know so he just said, “Yes.”
“Then let's go collect some gold and spices.” Replied his mother.
Mahad answered in a wobbly voice, “They have put it back in the ship.”
“You two boys have 2 days to collect the gold and spices.” Said his mother with clear
authority. The two boys agreed to do this task.
Mahad grabbed Axmed and ran outside to talk to him. At first, Axmed was confused and asked
“What’s wrong?”
Mahad answered in a very worried voice, “I don’t know if you can get the gold.” Axmed told
Mahad to go down the hill and ask the sailors on the ship. Mahad picked Axmed up and dashed to the ship.
When they got to the ship Mahad asked the sailor if the gold and spices would be given to the farmers. The
sailors didn’t understand anything so he asked a farmer if you can take the loot.
The farmer said, “DO NOT touch that loot! Earlier today a farmer was brutally beaten up by the
sailors.” Axmed asked how did she know, to which she answered, “Because I saw it!”
Mahad and Axmed had a private talk and agreed to not tell their mother about it as they didn’t
want to see her upset. After talking for a while they agreed on another thing; they agreed to steal from the
ship. Axmed suggested that they can use the little shed behind the house to plan the heist but first they
needed to know where they stored all the gold and spices. Their plan was to stay up late until they stored
the gold and spices back in the ship. Axmed had a notebook that he would write down everything he was
thinking about and how to plan the heist. Once Mahad came back from seeing where they store the loot it
was time to come up with the plan.
First, they needed a distraction so Mahad thought they can take their noisiest chicken and let it
scream so it could distract the two guards at the front gate protecting the entrance to the ship. Meanwhile,
Mahad would sneak in through the gate. Inside the ship, there would many sailors. Axmed thought this
could be a big problem but Mahad can knock out a sailor and pretend to be the sailor. Mahad then asked,
“Where am I going to put the body!?”
Axmed answered in a soothing voice, “Relax, I saw they needed to use barrels to take the loot
back into the ship so just put him into a barrel.”
He then had to get to the basement and get some gold and spices to bring it back to Axmed.
Mahad and Axmed thought they would do it the last day they were going to be here which was tomorrow.
The next morning they were observing the whole day until it was really late the heist had to begin now.