I am awoken from my deep slumber. The walls around me are rumbling. I quickly realize what is happening. I spring out of my bed and wait by the door. As soon as it opens, out I come. Through my dramatic transformation, I can see that I’m in a room. It is very dark, lit up only by the golden glow coming from below me. Once I am solid again, the whole room is lit up by my golden glow. Now I can see I’m in a closet. A small closet. I look down at the cowering boy in front of me. He;s looking up at me with fear, wonder and excitement. I clear my throat. “Greetings, mortal. I am Jisaz the Ancient. How do you do?” He keeps eye contact, but says nothing. I continue. “Now you know who I am, and I assume you already know what I am.” I pause for his response.
“A genie?” he says in a small voice.
I laugh. “Of course! What else would I be?” He smiles a weak smile. I smile a big one back. “Anyway, please state your name and how you ended up with the lamp in your possession.”
“My dad gave it to me. He left a couple weeks ago and I found this in his room with my name on it. It had to be him.” he looks up at me, wide eyes. “Am I in trouble?”
“No, no, you’re not in trouble. It doesn’t actually matter how you got the lamp. I just like to ask. Last time someone rubbed it was 42 years ago. But that doesn’t matter, because you have it now, and you now get three wishes.” I pause, wait for a reaction. Nothing. “You can wish for anything, except more wishes.” I wink. He smiles.
“Okay. Then I wish for . . . a puppy!”
“As you wish,”
A light show of swirls and sparkles erupt from the lamp, circling me. I reach into the void of everything and pull out the cutest puppy I can find. The sparkles disappear, the lights are gone, and a puppy is sitting in front of the boy, staring up at him with big brown eyes.
“A puppy! It actually works! Okay, I wish for twenty dollars!”
As I go through the light show again, I think ‘Why only twenty? Kids are weird.’ Out of the void I pull a nice, crisp twenty dollar bill and hand it to him. He almost bursts with joy.
“Okay, you have one more wish, so use it wisely.” he looks like he’s thinking for a minute.
“In that case, I don’t want to use it now. I want to save it for some other time when there’s something I really want.”
“Okay. I’ll see you soon.” and I never saw him again.
