Genie

 

GENIE
Chapter 1

         “What is this?”  I heard a voice from outside my home ask.
         “Looks like a lamp.  Maybe we should rub it and see if that genie from Aladdin pops out!”  Another voice answered the first one.  I was actually kind of annoyed.  Genie, from Aladdin, is 100%  fictional.  I, on the other hand, am 100% real.  I prayed that these two fools wouldn’t rub my lamp and release me.
         “Well, are you going to rub it or not, Justin?”  Oh, dear!  They were going to set me free and I’d have to grant them three wishes!
         “Eh, what’s the point, Evan?  Nothing will happen when I do,”  Justin replied.  Good, they’re doubting my being in here!
         “You never know unless you try, man.  I’ll rub it if you want me to.”  Oh, no!  I hoped Evan wasn’t very persuasive.
         “What are you guys doing?” Not a third person!  At least this one was a girl.
         “Go away, Ashley.  This doesn’t concern you,” Justin answered her.
         “What is that?  A lamp?”  It sounded like Ashley wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.  “Is there a genie in there?”
         I paced to the other side of my lamp and flung myself into my overstuffed pink chair made especially for me.  Their voices continued to argue outside my home and I slowly drifted to sleep.  I was jolted awake when I heard yelling and felt my lamp being shaken. 
         “ASHLEY! Give me the lamp!”  I think that one was Justin.
         “Dude, your sister is crazy!”  Evan, that must have been.
         “Just let me rub it!  Justin, get your hands off the lamp!”  My lamp was jerked one way and then the other.  I saw my possessions move around my living space.  I hoped they would quit soon so that nothing was destroyed.
         “Ashley, I’m gonna go tell mom if you don’t give me this lamp right now.”
         “You’re not the boss of me!  You’re only 16!  And I’m already 14!  You can’t control me, Justin!”  The moving around was getting more violent.  My gold-framed mirror slid around on the nail it was hanging on and nearly fell!  This was getting ugly.  I’d either have to wait till they stopped moving my lamp, expose myself, or risk having all my stuff broken.
         “Justin, I’m going home.”  I heard footsteps fade into the distance and smiled to myself.
         “Fine, Ashley.  You can have this piece of junk.  It’s probably worthless anyway.”  I stomped my foot at this statement, huffed out a puff of breath, and sat down on my magic carpet.  I crossed my arms across my chest and folded my legs as I waited for Ashley’s next action to demolish the rest of my home.  Instead, I felt my lamp shift just a little.  Then I heard her voice:
         “Little lamp, I will not let Justin or Evan touch you ever again.  Just in case there’s someone in there, I want you to know I’m sorry if any of your things were shattered while we were fighting over this.  I’ll help replace it if you want.”  Aw, that was sweet.  Maybe I could learn to like this human.  “I hope you don’t mind escaping that prison for a little bit.”
         Uh oh!  I wasn’t ready for this just yet!  She was going to rub my lamp and set me free.  Maybe she wouldn’t ask for wishes when I emerged.  I felt the magic of her hands graze across the sides of my lamp.  I was swept up through the top of my dwelling into the outside world for the first time in my life.  The breeze swept across my cheeks and lifted my blond hair away from my neck.  I took one of the sashes from around my waist and tied up my hair.  I heard Ashley gasp as she looked at me.
         “Who are you?  Where’d you come from?  Are you from the lamp?  Are you a genie?  Is your hair naturally that color?  Where’d you get those clothes?  Do you grant wishes?”  Her questions continued till I held up one honey-colored finger.
         “One question at a time, please.  My name is Scarlett.  I live in this lamp you just released me from.  My job description says “Genie” at the top and I can grant you three wishes only but there are rules.  One, no wishing for more wishes.  Two, no life, no death, no love. Three, no immortality.  We clear?”
         “Yes, ma’am.”  Ashley nodded her head.
         “Good.  Where do you live?”  I looked at her with an eyebrow raised.
         “Um.  Maybe you should get back in the lamp till I get up to my room, would that be ok?”  She looked at me with wide, blue eyes.  I nodded my consent, clapped my hands three times, and disappeared back inside the lamp.
         
Chapter 2
         Ashley carried my lamp with gentleness and tried her best not to move it too much.  We were practically in the clear when someone stopped her.
         “Ashley?  It’s time for dinner.”  It sounded like an older version of Ashley.
         “OK, Mom,” Ashley replied.  I had been correct!
         “Wash up and put down that dirty lamp.”  My brow furrowed; my lamp was NOT dirty!  It was just old.  “We’re having grilled chicken, green beans, and maybe a little chocolate cake for dessert.”
         “OK, Mom.  Can I just take this upstairs first?  I don’t want it to get broken.”  Her mom must have nodded because I soon felt my lamp being jostled as Ashley ran up the staircase.
         “I’ll try to sneak up some food for you, ok, Scarlet?”  I was still in my lamp so I couldn’t answer her.  I sighed as I remembered she’s only human.  “I’ll take that as a yes!”
         Poor girl had no way of knowing that I didn’t need human food because I had everything I needed in my lamp.  I kept all my food stuffs in hidden compartments around the interior of my lamp; I had water, bread, honey, and a small amount of deer to keep me curvy.  Water was stored under the bed, bread was stored in a small curtainy pouch under the mirror, honey was kept in the bedside table with the sticky drawer, and the deer was kept in the shadiest part of my home: inside the spout of my lamp.  I was all set but Ashley insisted on bringing up disgusting chicken. 
         “Scarlet?  I’m back.”  She brushed against my lamp, releasing me.  She gasped as I reemerged in her presence.  “I brought up some chicken from dinner.  Would you like some?”
         “No thanks, Ashley.  I don’t eat chicken.”  Her face fell when I told her that.  I actually felt kind of bad but not a whole lot.  “What do you do around here that’s any fun besides argue with Justin and Evan?”
         “Go to the movies, head to the mall, drive around.  Normal stuff, I guess.  What do you do for fun?”  She looked at me with her face scrunched up.
         “For fun?  I think about how the world must be since my creation.  You know, I was born in that lamp.  My mother was almost 700 when she had me.  Unfortunately, genies aren’t meant to last forever so they have to have a descendant, only one, and they have to teach that one how to do magic, as in grant wishes, transport themselves from place to place, get back in the lamp, stuff like that.”
         “How old are you, Scarlet?”  Ashley ate a piece of chicken.
         “I am 316 years old.  I need to have a descendant soon so I can begin teaching them the ways of genies.  How old are Justin and Evan?”
         Ashley swallowed her chicken, then answered: “They’re both 16.  But they won’t bother you for long because school starts in a few days.  Have you ever been to school?”
         I stared at her as if she had grown a third eye.  “What?  Genies don’t go to school.  Why would we need to go to school?”
         “To learn about the world, to learn a little math, a little writing.  You know, to be educated in case you can’t have a descendant and need to turn to something else.”
         “There’s a reason genies are rare, some can’t have descendants and when they turn to other crafts, the magic is lost.  They go on to be successful but once they are past child-bearing age in genie years, which is about 600, or 50 in human years, they lose the magic, and perish.”
         Ashley stared at me with her wide, blue eyes and gulped.  “Lucky for you, you have almost 300 years to have a descendant.”
         “The sooner I have one, though, the longer I have to teach them the ways of genies before I am swept into the wind along with all the other passed genies.”
         “We’ll find you a partner to have a descendant with no problem!  But the best place to look is school, you know.”
         “What do I have to do?”  I shuddered to think that I would soon be attending high school.