The Third Wish

by Simon Archer

  “Why am I so tired all of a sudden?” I asked, not caring who replied.

  “Your molecules were just magically rearranged,” Vila muttered in her best ‘duh’ voice.

  “Ahh,” I replied as I closed my eyes. “Maybe a tiny nap won’t hurt.” I had the sensation of hovering above my lounger as soon as the last word exited my lips. The feeling only lasted a moment before I fell into a deep, restful sleep.

  26

  When I blinked my eyes open, I was lying in my bed. I sat up like a bee had stung me and threw the covers back. As with every other day in my life, I saw my legs under the sheet. I frantically looked around the room. Lottie was sleeping beside me, and everything else looked to be in order.

  I rubbed my eyes and looked around again. I threw my legs off the side of the bed and stood up. I put my hands out for balance in case my legs disappeared, but they remained beneath me again, as they had done every other day of my life. I walked around my bedroom, then jogged around it. I went into the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror.

  Everything was normal. I thought about the trail of mist I’d been adorning the day before, but nothing happened. I put my hand out and thought of my razor in my palm, but it did not move. I clapped my hands and thought about the shower turning on, but it remained off. Finally, I walked back to the bed and sat down. Lottie’s hand ran up my back and over my shoulder.

  “What ya doing?” she asked sleepily.

  “Dreaming, apparently,” I answered. I hadn’t really stopped to consider whether I wanted to be a genie when I’d made the wish. Or, at least when I thought I’d made the wish. Now, I realized I had been ecstatic to be one.

  “What are you dreaming about?” Lottie asked, pulling me backward. I scooted myself back up onto the bed and propped myself up against the headboard, and she laid her head on my chest.

  “I dreamed that Tobin tried to take over the lightning stones, and I had used my third wish to become a genie,” I recalled. “I could fly around and everything. I even poured coffee on my head accidentally, trying to get you a cup.”

  “Coffee on your head?” Lottie asked. Her lack of interest in my dream surprised me.

  “Did you hear me?” I asked. “I used my third wish to be a genie. I never would’ve guessed that is what I would’ve considered wishing for.”

  “Well, babe, all your wishes have been a little unusual, you have to admit,” she replied. She sounded like she was almost asleep again. I thought about how real it felt when I wanted to get her a cup of coffee. I took a deep breath and let it out, disappointment coursing through me. Maybe the whole thing was a wish preview that I wasn’t aware I’d wanted.

  I started to wrap my arm around Lottie, who was fast asleep again, and jumped. There was a cup of coffee in my hand.

  “What the fuck!” I threw the cup without thinking. Lottie shot up and looked around.

  “What’s wrong?” she yelled.

  “I just had a cup of coffee appear in my hand!” I told her.

  “That one?” she asked, pointing at my hand. Again, I was holding a cup of coffee. I threw that one as well and pushed away from his with my feet so hard that I hit my head on my headboard.

  “Ouch!” I called out. “Why can’t our headboard be made of something a little less hard than wood?”

  “Babe,” Lottie said slowly. She pointed behind me, and I turned to look. The headboard was now made of rubber.

  “Get the hell out of here! What is going on?” I yelled. I spun around and scooted towards the end of the bed, Lottie watching me like I’d gone crazy. Suddenly, the door to the bedroom burst open. It startled me, and I jumped once again. This time, however, I found myself squished against the ceiling, right next to the skylight. The mist I’d been looking for earlier was all around me then.

  “Is everything alright in here?” Andi hollered as she ran into the room. “It sounds like World War Three!”

  “Everything is just as you said it might be,” Lottie answered nonchalantly.

  “Where’s Bennett?” Andi asked. Lottie yawned and pointed up at me.

  “Hi,” I said, sounding lame to my own ears.

  “Rough start to the morning?” Andi chuckled.

  “I thought I’d dreamed the whole thing! Nothing was working, and then everything was working too much!” I called down to her.

  “Not unusual at first,” she replied. “Why don’t you come down from there?”

  I looked around me and took a deep breath. I pictured myself slowly floating to the floor and immediately started to do so. When I reached Andi’s level, I let the air out of my lungs and relaxed my shoulders.

  “What’s got you so tense?” Andi asked.

  “I thought I’d dreamed it, I told you,” I replied, irritated that she apparently wasn’t listening.

  “I heard you say that, but why are you so upset about it?” she repeated her question.

  “Because I thought I wasn’t a genie anymore. I thought the whole thing wasn’t real,” I tried to explain to her.

  “Ah, I see,” she replied to my surprise. “That’s a good sign.” She smiled and winked at me.

  “How is that a good sign?” Lottie asked from across the room.

  “That means he isn’t regretting his wish and that he is happy with it. That is always a good sign, regardless of the wish,” Andi explained.

  I relaxed a little more. I had been greatly disappointed when I thought the whole adventure had been a figment of my imagination, and the relief I felt that it was indeed real was overwhelming.

  “Hell yeah, I’m happy with it!” I called out. I started spinning around, and although I wasn’t sure why, I didn’t try to stop myself. The faster I spun, the happier I got. I thought I heard Vila’s voice below me, but I was going too fast to see if she’d come in the room or not. I decided I wanted to stop spinning, so I did it instantly. Then, I was so elated with my success at giving myself a command and following it, that I decided to do it again. I pictured myself zipping around the room and immediately started doing so. Faster and faster, I whirred around the room.

  “You might want to slow down a little,” Vila’s voice floated up to me.

  I tipped my head to look down and ran straight into a wall. I fell to the floor, stunned, and wondering what happened. Andi, Vila, and Lottie stood over me, giggling.

  “Best to take it a bit slower at first,” Andi laughed. I sat up and shook my head to clear it. I was dizzy, and my shoulder hurt. Andi put her hand on my shoulder, and it immediately felt better. I was standing before I’d even noticed that I had legs again.

  “Does your existence always feel like you are moving at a thousand miles per hour?” I asked the girls.

  “Until we got the hang of slowing ourselves down when needed,” Andi replied. “We really only use our natural speed when we are in our own worlds.”

  My heart jumped with excitement.

  “When do I get to see mine?” I asked, hoping I wouldn’t have to wait too long.

  “Now is as good a time as any,” Vila answered casually. She glanced at Lottie. “Do you need him for anything first?”

  “Nah, I need to be getting into the office for a while. I have some things to wrap up before I take a little time off to marry a magical being,” she responded, winking in my direction. “Oh, we are getting married in four days, in case you needed to know.”

  A small bit of panic shot through me. “What if I can’t get all this under control by then?” I blurted out.

  “Oh, you will,” Vila chuckled. “And if you don’t, Andi and I will be around to play damage-control.”

  “Okay,” I replied, instantly feeling calmer. “In that case, let’s hope this next four days breezes by!” I walked to Lottie and wrapped my arms around her. She stretched up and kissed me.

  “Now, go see your private little lamp world, and be prepared to tell me all about it later,” she instructed me. She slapped me on the rear as she went off to take a shower and get ready for her day.
>
  “Okay, so how do we do this?” I asked the girls as I wanted to get to my world as fast as possible. My entire body was buzzing with excitement.

  “Lay down, and close your eyes,” Vila told me. I ran and jumped onto the bed, twisting myself in midair to land on my back. The girls rolled their eyes and laughed. I scooted to the top, just short of my now-rubber headboard, and closed my eyes. The girls’ hands slipped into mine, and they squeezed.

  I was standing on a bike trail, surrounded by trees, suddenly. I could see the path dip down in front of me and go out into a clearing. I was holding onto a bike that, upon closer inspection, was the same bike I’d been riding the day I’d wrecked in an alley and found a glowing wooden box. Andi and Vila were standing on the other side of the bike, watching me closely.

  “This old thing?” I asked, tipping my head toward the bike.

  “Seemed fitting to get you started. You can do whatever you’d like with it later,” Andi replied, shrugging.

  I looked the bike over again. The rack on the back was where I’d strapped the box on to take it home. I had no idea that it held a watch with two magical genies inside. I’d no idea I was transporting their worlds along with me. A fondness for the bike washed over me, and I decided to keep it just the way it was.

  I got on and rode down the path, gaining speed as I went along. Soon, I was out of the trees and riding into an open field. There was something shiny off in the distance, in the middle of the field. I peddled faster, gaining speed quickly. Before long, I was going faster than I’d ever gone in a car but was still on my bike. The wind blowing back through my hair was exhilarating as it continually told me I was increasing speed.

  A rush of nostalgia rushed over me, and I remembered what I’d liked about being a bike messenger back in the day. While I’d never gone that fast, the freedom was the same. I could zip about, not held back by the restrictions normal vehicles had. In some ways, it seemed the perfect analogy for being a genie, a life with fewer restrictions and more fun.

  I sped along until the shining structure in the middle of the field became close enough to make out. It was a massive computer station. There were seven different big-screen monitors, three towers, a laptop, and speakers taller than I was. I came to a stop just short of the first table they were set up on, put down my kickstand, and got off my bike. The system was of the highest possible technology available on the market.

  “This is a tech dream come true!” I whispered to the girls, in awe of the state-of-the-art setup before my eyes. I ran my hand along the sleek edge of the gaming desk holding the monitors and pulled out the chair tucked under the middle of it.

  I sat slowly, savoring the way the individually stitched, ergonomic cushions cradled my body. When I leaned back, I marveled at how the chair was so comfortable that it felt like I was hovering. I leaned forward and hit the power buttons on each monitor, then repeated the process on the towers. Relaxing back into my chair, I waited for the system to fire up. However, nothing happened. I started looking around to see if perhaps I’d missed a power strip but couldn’t find one. I looked at the girls and raised a brow.

  “Do you know what’s wrong with it?” I asked, disappointment welling up in me at the possibility that the setup didn’t function.

  “We have no idea,” Andi replied, shrugging. “We just put the stuff here. We know it’s the best on the market, but we had no clue how to set it up.”

  “There are a bunch of wires and stuff in the desk drawer, though,” Vila added. “You won’t need a power outlet, we saw to that, but you will need to connect all this stuff.”

  I looked under the desk and shook my head. There wasn’t a single wire, and in my excitement, I hadn’t noticed. I opened the desk drawer and pulled out a handful of cords, laying them on the desk.

  “This may take a little while,” I told the girls.

  “Nah, just picture it done,” Andi quipped.

  I leaned back in my chair and brought a vision of the entire setup completely connected to mind. That time, instead of the equipment being instantly connected, the cords and wires started to move. I watched as they sorted themselves out and plugged themselves in according to the picture in my mind.

  “Why is this happening?” I asked in wonder.

  “You create in this place, not command like in the real world,” Vila explained.

  “It’s so crazy to see it happen,” I replied, nearly at a loss for words. The cords moved quickly, and within two minutes, the setup was connected. I pushed all the power buttons again, and images began to flash on the monitors.

  “It works!” I yelled out. The girls giggled.

  “Of course, it works!” they responded in unison.

  “Nice pick of equipment, ladies!” I complimented them.

  “Now, you should make someplace to put it all,” Andi suggested.

  I looked around, and for the first time, the idea of a setup that advanced sitting in the middle of a field struck me as odd.

  “How do I do that?” I asked. I was starting to feel like a little kid needing permission to do anything on his own.

  “The same way you set up the cords, silly,” Vila laughed. “Stop overthinking it!” I stood up and stared at her, irritation bubbling.

  “I have been at this for twenty seconds, and you expect me to know how to build an entire log cabin already?” I yelled, surprised at the amount of anger I was feeling.

  “You want a log cabin,” Andi asked quietly.

  “Yes! I want a log cabin with a wrap-around porch, dual lofts, and a huge fireplace. One of the lofts would be for this computer setup, and the other would be for my AI gaming station. There would even be a bridge connecting them that was over the main living space! However, I have never built a log cabin before, like I have a computer system, so how in the hell do you expect me to ‘stop overthinking’ and just build one?” I was yelling louder and louder with each word as the anger and frustration spilled from me.

  Andi and Vila looked at each other and back at me. They crossed their arms in front of themselves and slowly shook their heads.

  “How in the hell do we expect you to build a log cabin?” Vila retorted, sounding slightly amused.

  “Do you mean a log cabin like that?” Andi asked, lifting her arm and pointing behind me.

  I spun around, and my mouth hit the ground. Directly behind me was the exact log cabin I’d wanted to build, standing where the computer setup had been. The girls walked to me, and each put a hand on my shoulder.

  “You have got to relax already!” Vila joked. “Want to see the inside? I bet it has a dual loft and a bridge.”

  “Wow, I’m really sorry I yelled at you two,” I apologized. I felt awful for throwing such a tantrum.

  “Look, your emotions are on super-speed too, and like the rest of it, you’ll have to learn to control them,” Andi explained. “You’re fine, don’t worry. Luckily for you, we don’t get offended easily.”

  “That’s a bonus for the way I just acted,” I said. “And yes, I want to see inside!” The three of us turned and headed for the front door of the cabin. It felt more like a log mansion when I opened the door. The inside was a massive open space with a grand fireplace that took up most of the far wall. Leather and micro-suede furniture in different groupings were the only reason it looked like there were ‘rooms.’

  “You really decked this place out!” Vila said upon entering.

  “I didn’t even realize I had thought of all this!” I replied, astonished that every detail was perfect. I looked up, and sure enough, there was a bridge from one loft to another above us. I ran up the stairs on the right side and found myself standing in my artificial intelligence gaming room. The equipment was of the highest quality, just as the computers had been that the girls got me. Halfway into the room was a door that led to the bridge. I walked out and peered down to the girls, who were still in the main living area.

  “Does it have everything you wanted?” Andi asked, smiling up at me.
>
  “And then some!” I walked across the bridge to the other loft and found my computer setup arranged perfectly. I ran down the stairs from that side and back into the living room. When I got back to the girls, I was out of breath.

  “Take it easy, speedy,” Vila laughed.

  “This is amazing! I couldn’t ask for anything more!” I told her.

  “Oh, you could,” she replied humorously. “Whenever you want, in fact!” I plopped down on one of my leather couches and sank back into it. My face was getting tired from smiling so much, and I took a deep breath. Just as I let it out, there was a knock at the front door. I shot up out of my seat.

  “What?” I cried out, automatically looking around for somewhere to hide.

  “Relax, it’s okay,” Vila said calmly. “It’s just someone at the door.”

  “Yeah, someone at the door in a world that nobody should know about!” It flabbergasted me that she wasn’t more concerned. Instead, she sauntered over to the door and pulled it open. When she stepped aside, two women walked into the house. The first was very old, and the second was closer to middle-aged. I recognized them immediately from a dream I’d had.

  “Gisele? Moira?” I gasped as they entered the living room.

  “Hello, Bennett,” Gisele greeted me. She had the brightest blue eyes twinkling in her wrinkled face.

  “Bennett,” Moira said, tipping her head towards me. Andi immediately ran and threw her arms around the woman. Moira was her mother.

  “Well, hello, Andolyn,” Moira laughed as she hugged her daughter. Vila was already at Gisele’s side, arm looped with hers. I stared at the four of them, wondering if I was indeed dreaming and had decided to make my own rules of genie-hood.

  “We invited them,” Vila told me, reading the questions in my eyes.

  “But how?” They were the only words I could get out. Gisele waved her hand in the air like she was shooing a fly away.

  “Memory magic, of course,” she said. Her voice was more powerful than I would’ve expected from such a small, frail-looking woman. “You’ve seen enough of it. I would’ve thought you’d recognize it.”