Bradbury Collection

Glory Daze (Bradbury week 8)

481 words

Terry Jennings was in a bind. He sat in his office wondering how he should handle this situation. He was a middle aged white man who was slightly out of shape, but he had been athletic when he was younger. As he pondered his fate, a man he knew brought in a cardboard box, and set it on Terry’s desk. Terry opened the box and pulled out a brass lamp, the kind that were featured in films about Aladdin.

“What’s this?” Terry asked.

“It’s the solution to your dilemma,” the man replied.

“I’m indicted on embezzlement charges and looking at five years in prison, and you brought me a lamp?”

“It really works,” the man replied. “Rub the lamp, and a genie will come out.”

Terry threw the lamp back into the box and sat back in his desk. “This is not the time for practical jokes, Roger!”

“Suit yourself, but I just won the lottery thanks to this thing, so I’m tendering my resignation as of right now. If you don’t believe me, that’s not my problem!”

Terry’s friend exited the office and closed the door behind him, leaving Terry with the box and the mysterious brass lamp.

Terry stood up, grabbed the lamp, and sat back in his office chair with it in his hands. He figured that it couldn’t hurt to give it a shot, so he started rubbing the lamp vigorously. An apparition emerged and solidified. It was a middle-aged man dressed in clothing appropriate for a rehearsal of the Arabian Knights.

“You’re a genie?” Terry asked.

“Yes, I was a convict about five thousand years from now and I’m participating in a social experiment. Scientists in my era will document how people in the past utilized this lamp.”

“I get three wishes?” Terry asked.

“Everyone gets one wish from me, and the wish is non-reversible. So choose wisely!”

“When I was in college I was pretty good at baseball,” said Terry. “I would like to exchange my life for a different one, where I’m the most talented baseball player in history!”

The genie granted the wish. Terry was now sitting in a dugout at a college baseball field, during practice. The vehicles lining the curb were American cars from the 1950s. He excused himself to go to the restroom, and when he looked in the mirror, he saw that he was African-American.

He ran back to talk to the coach.

“Coach, what’s today’s date?” Terry asked.

“April 25th,” the coach replied.

“And the year?” Terry asked.

The coach looked around for a moment, surprised that one of his players was that out of it.

“1956!” the coach replied.

Terry knew he was stuck with his new life, the genie had warned him that the wish couldn’t be reversed. He found a metal trash can and vomited into it, realizing he had to accept his new fate.

The End