by Elise Faber
“You remind me of Thor,” she continued.
Raising my eyebrows, I made a face in amusement. Give me a break!
“You know? Chris Hemsworth? The guy who played Thor?” she told me like I should know.
Oh, great! Now I’m dealing with a star-struck anorexic teenager who had the worst obsession to cleanliness! Making a rude sound, I moved away from her and sat myself down on the edge of her bed. With a shriek, she jumped on the bed behind me homing in on her massive shoulder bag that looked like it weighed more than she did.
Where did the scaredy-cat girl from earlier go?
Smiling giddily to herself, she pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and made a mark on it. Curiosity got the better of me.
“What do you have there?” I asked.
Blushing prettily, she folded the paper and moved it away from my reach. “Nothing.”
Impatiently, I waved my hand her way, snatching the paper by making it disappear from her hands and reappear in mine. I stood up and unfolded the pink-colored paper, choosing to ignore her protest. With another wave of my hand, I kept her rooted in place when she tried to jump towards me.
“Not fair!” she yelled at me, straining against my invisible bonds.
“Shh,” was my only response as I read the contents of the paper. “It’s a list. You made a list.”
“That’s mine! Give it back!” she shouted in annoyance, still struggling.
“Things to do,” I read out loud. “1. Go to New York and visit the Statue of Liberty.” Arching an eyebrow at her, I asked, “Have you done that yet? You haven’t ticked it off. You do know that you are waaaaay off course because this is New Orleans, not New York.”
She gave a sigh of defeat and slumped on the bed. “This was closer to me.”
“2. Visit Niagara Falls.” I continued. “Again, off course. 3. Visit the Eiffel Tower, blah, blah, blah… These places are too far away, kid. There’s like twenty- one… twenty – twenty-seven places you’ve listed here! You’d be sixty by the time you finished visiting all these places!”
By this time, the girl was lying down on the bed making lazy scrawls on the sheets with her finger. “One can dream…”
“Yep, this list is made for dreams all right.” I agreed. “45. Touch a rainbow 46. Fly in the clouds 47. Fall in love. Oh come on, anything achievable in this list at all? Oh here, 49. Find magic. Yup, you found that one hence the check mark next to it.” That would explain why she accepted me so quickly. The last one on the list made me pause and meet her eyes.
“50. Live forever… Of all the wishes, that one is the worst. Don’t ever wish for that.” I advised her, quietly snapping the paper closed and removing the bonds off her. The list reappeared in one of her hands but was ignored when she remained where she was, looking thoughtful.
Something about her expression pulled at me but I chose to pay no mind to it and clapped my hands briskly. “Ok, let’s get to business. I’m a Jinn and you set me loose. In exchange for that, I’ll give you three wishes. Just three. No more, no less.”
That got her attention and made her slowly sit up.
“Now, rules. 1. You can’t wish for more wishes.” I pointed a finger at her for emphasis. “That’s been tried before and it doesn’t work, believe me.”
Cute little dimples appeared on both sides of her cheeks when she smiled, “Aw, that was gonna be my first wish!” she said jokingly, charming me despite of what I had to say next.
“2. You can’t ask me to kill someone or cause bodily harm to anybody. ANYBODY. Hear?” If she was suicidal, I couldn’t help her with that.
“I wouldn’t ask that from you or anyone… ever.” She said solemnly.
Good. “3. You can’t ask for world peace or things like that, if you’re that way inclined. I can only grant wishes that involve you or pertains to you.”
“4. You can’t ask me to make other people like you, blindly follow you or fall in love with you. Nor can I force them to do the opposite.”
That earned a giggle from her. “Aw, shucks, there goes number forty-seven on my to-do list!”
“And last but not the least, 5. You can’t ask me to break all these rules. Clear?” I nodded my head at her.
She gave me a cheeky salute in reply making me smile, “Yes, sir!”
“So, what is your first wish?” I uttered the question I have asked other visitors more than a thousand times over. What will it be? I wondered. The usual? Money, power, better life? Somehow I had a feeling it would be different with this one. I just hope it’s for something good.
God, I hope so for her sake.
Tilting her head to the side, she looked at the chandelier hanging from the ceiling, making me wonder what prompted her to shave her head in the first place. I tried to picture her with long hair and with more meat on her and decided she was going to grow into a beautiful woman.
Did she have parents like mine? Or the opposite? What made her rebel against them? Did she run away? Why were they not looking for her? Then a sudden thought crossed my mind… was she on drugs? Then I wondered at myself for being so concerned about her well-being.
Finally, she met my gaze. “I’ll have to think about it. I’m starving. I can’t think straight. I have to eat first.” she informed me, scooting on her bottom to get off the bed.
With a wave of my hand, a banquet of food appeared on the table next to the wall, making her laugh in surprise. “Oh my, so much food!” she exclaimed then followed it quickly with, “I did not use my wish for this.”
I inclined my head in agreement. “No, you didn’t. Think of it as a gift. Like the unicorn.”
A dimple flashed at me in that ridiculously charming way of hers before she started digging into the food. Surprised at the pleasant feeling that sight left me, I turned away to stand in front of the window and watched the city lights.
The previous night’s rain had washed away all signs of the city’s debauchery, making it look sparkly and fresh. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t take long before the streets were again lined with sin and filth.
After all, this was New Orleans.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Do you eat?”
Without looking away from the window, I answered, “No, I don’t. I am not organic. I don’t need to eat.”
Then to my surprise, I felt her touch my arm through the sleeves of my shirt. Highly amused, I looked down at her tiny finger poking at me then up to her face when she didn’t stop the movement. She looked lost in thought, nibbling around a sandwich that was bigger than her head.
There was no way she could finish that off. Maybe she’ll make herself sick afterwards? I made a note to be around to stop her. Against my better judgement, I could feel myself warming up to this slip of a girl, enough to want to help her.
“You look and feel organic to me.” She said then blushed when she met my gaze. Quickly, she moved away from me, careful not to meet my eyes again.
Ahh… she’s developing a crush on me, I thought in amusement. Cute. I wasn’t immune to the effect of my looks on women. After all, being attractive and dashingly handsome had been one of my wishes. Even with the curse the previous Jinn had passed on to me, I had kept all of my wishes. Over the years, a huge portion of my visitors from both sexes had lusted after me. Some days it annoyed me. Some scared me so much it gave me chills. Some days I couldn’t be bothered.
Today, I found it endearing.
Deciding not to further her embarrassment, I faced the window again and drank my fill of my city. No telling when I would be seeing it/her again. It would depend on this girl to determine how long I stayed out before I had to go back in the mirror once I completed my tasks. She might give me the wishes all at once or she might drag them out for several days, I thought hopefully. Several days of being in the real world. Not exactly freedom, but close enough.
It didn’t take the girl long to eat. Something I expected anyway.
When I turned around, I found her dressed in another sweatshirt and
jeans. A colorful beanie hat covered her head. But it wasn’t her appearance that caught my attention; it was what she was doing that made me curious.
She was sorting out the food.
“What are you doing?” I asked in spite of myself.
“There’s so much food. Shame to throw it away.” She told me by way of explanation while she separated the food in different groups, grouped different food together into piles. “I need food bags or containers. Do you think the woman downstairs would have them?”
“Why do you need containers or bags?” I tried again, struggling to make sense of what she was doing.
She stopped long enough to give me a look. “I want to give these away. There must be hundreds of people out there looking for food but unable to buy it.”
Speechless, I watched her work for a minute then silently copied what she was doing. A bit of bread, meat, fruits, and sweets went into a pile. And repeat. We worked side by side passing things occasionally to the other. Soon, we had several piles. Without being asked, I gave her the containers and bags she wanted and helped her pack everything in them.
Belatedly, I wondered why I didn’t use my powers to just do everything with a wave of my hand, but somehow this working together felt right.
I watched as she pulled on her trench coat, grabbed a few bags, and walked to the door then stopped to look at me expectantly. Puzzled, I raised an eyebrow at her, “What?”
“Come on, I can’t carry all of that.” She said.
Dumb-founded, I looked at her and the bags. “You want me to go outside with you?”
“Yes, silly!” She grinned up to me. “You’re way bigger than me and can carry more bags. Come on, it’s getting late!”
Trying not to tempt fate by thinking of the consequences, I picked up all the remaining bags and followed her. The powers that held me in the room shimmered to life around the edges of the doorway waiting to strike at me. Unaware of the dangers surrounding us, the girl casually walked out to the hallway.
Then she turned around and said to me, “Come on, Jinn. I need your help. I can’t do this without you.”
That sealed it for me. Throwing caution to the wind, I stepped across the threshold, uncaring for any punishment the curse would throw my way. I had walked half-way down the hallway before I realized I was completely unharmed. The shackles I used to feel around my legs every time I even thought about fleeing the room were nowhere to be felt.
I felt buoyed by this new revelation, and it wasn’t just due to the fact that I took my first ride down the elevator.
The lobby had changed from the memory I had of it. Back in the day it was a brothel, with dark wood and even darker guests over-crowding it. Silently, I followed the girl, knowing full well this miracle was happening because of her.
Floriza looked away from the people she was currently checking in. Her crimson eyes flashed at me for a millisecond before they dimmed down and settled to calm as they followed me out the front door.
The crisp air that greeted me was like ice to my system, making me cough. Concern marred her face when the girl looked up to me. “Are you all right?” she asked. “Will you be warm enough?”
Pausing to take a slow breath, I inhaled the nostalgic scent of New Orleans I had only dreamed about for the last hundred years. It smelled exactly the same as it did then.
It smelled as if it was brimming full of life.
Chuckling, I looked down at the girl, seeing her in a new light. “Perfect,” I replied.
She grinned back at me, “Of course you are! You’re my superhero!”
That made me laugh out loud… the first real laugh I’ve had in what seemed like forever. “What’s your name? I’m tired of calling you ‘girl’ in my head.”
”Michele with one L,” she replied. “What’s yours?”
Her question caught me off guard. Nobody had asked me my name before. In fact, it took me a few minutes to remember what it was.
“Ambroise… my name is Ambroise.”
“Hmmm… Ambroise,” she repeated as if rolling it in her mind. “It suits you. I like it!”
Grinning down at her, I felt exactly what she called me, a superhero. Maybe even that “Thor” I reminded her of. “Come on, Michele with one L. Lead the way.”
To say that I did not expect to go where Michele took me was saying the least.
Over the years, I managed to keep track of the changes in the real world through my visitors. The windows of the room weren’t enough to give me information so I learned to gather current events by rooting into my visitors belongings. It started with newspapers, then radios, someone asked me for a television because there wasn’t one in the room (boy was that an eye-opener!), then as technology took over I was even introduced to the invisible thing called the world-wide-web or the internet as my visitors called it.
Ten years ago, when another visitor released me, I accessed as much as I could. I’m really hoping Michele has a laptop I could borrow. If not… well, I’m sure she needs one.
I felt like a lightning bolt struck me just then. Michele needs… That was the key to the shackles. She told me she needed my help. Nobody has ever said they needed me before! All my visitors had said “I want” or “I wish”. Everything had been commands, not a request.
Amazed, I returned my gaze to Michele who was kneeling on the ground laughing at what a homeless woman said to her. The smile on the older woman’s face was indescribable as she accepted the food bag from Michele.
We’d only walked a couple of blocks away from the hotel and already we were down to the last bag. I thought we were going to a food shelter somewhere, something I had read about on the internet. I knew that was where homeless people went to get free food. I never thought the world had come to this, that there were people without their own houses sitting practically at your doorstep!
There had been beggars during my time, but they had mostly been castaways or slaves who had lost their masters. In this new world, I knew slavery had been abolished a long time ago. So, where did all these people come from? I wondered thoughtfully, surveying the length of Jackson Square and all the huddle of humans scattered here and there, hiding in plain sight among the hustle and bustle of tourists and night-goers walking around them.
I was still pondering this new world when Michele came back up to me. She was rubbing her hands briskly together and her cheeks were pink from the cold. I frowned at the trench coat she was wearing, thinking maybe it wasn’t warm enough for her during this time of the year.
Michele made me fashion a jacket for myself, even though I didn’t feel the cold, in order to blend in. I should have changed her coat as well. Making a mental note to read up on weather appropriate clothes, I returned the smile she gave me.
“So, now what?” I asked. “Ready to make your first wish?”
“Hmm…” she replied tilting her head to the side then she looped her arm through one of mine and urged me to move. “Let’s just walk for a while, ok?”
Confused by this slip of a girl, I let her pull me along. Most of my previous visitors had made their first wish almost as soon as I told them about the wishes. A few took time to think, but the delay had lasted in minutes, an hour at most. No one had made me wait as long as Michele was now doing. It’s not really an issue since the longer she postponed it; the longer I stayed in the real world. But since this was untested territory, I wasn’t sure if I had a curfew of sorts or whether the magic that held me would wrench me back in against my will if Michele took forever to decide.
For now, I allowed her to pull me down to sit on one of the benches scattered around the square. Thoughtfully, I watched a nearby vendor as he took down his wares to settle in for the night. Most of the people were heading back home or going indoors to get warm. Glancing down at Michele, I noticed she had slouched on the bench and was gazing up to the sky. Mimicking her position, I found myself looking up to the moon. Something I had liked to do when I was a little boy many, many years ago.
�
��When I was younger,” her voice floated quietly to me. “I used to dream about flying up and asking the man in the moon why he was so sad.”
Titling my head a little bit to the side, I saw the “face” she was referring to on the surface of the moon. I stayed silent sensing she had more to say. Soon enough, she spoke again.
“Then I read a children’s book saying, the man in the moon was sad because he was all alone in the sky.” She continued. “That confused me, since there were billions and billions of stars twinkling next to him. Surely he can’t be lonely.” I felt her shuffle beside me, trying to get more comfortable. “School taught me that those stars were ‘suns’ from different galaxies and that the reason why they were so small was because they were so far away, and we can only see them as dots on the night sky.”
A pause.
“It made the moon even lonelier up there. So small and so insignificant in comparison to all those big and sparkly stars that were so shiny we could still see them, despite being light years away.” She finished almost in a whisper.
Somehow, I wasn’t sure we were still talking about the moon. I didn’t know how to respond to that and felt bad when she gave an embarrassed laugh and said, “I don’t know why I told you that. It was a silly childhood fantasy I had. I just remember it every time I look up at the moon.” I let her laughter die between us, feeling like an ass.
After a few awkward minutes of silence, she started to stand up. “Come on; let’s go back to the hotel. I’m tired.”
The walk back to the hotel felt shorter than when we left it earlier. Still, I soaked up all the sights my eyes could reach, storing them permanently in my memories for days when I was feeling depressed in my prison.
The changes didn’t surprise me since I’ve tried to keep up with modern times as much as I could over the years. But actually seeing them with my own eyes was something to behold. The mingling odors coming off the people milling the streets, the various aroma of the products in stores we were passing by, the whiff of vehicle emission driving away from a distance, carried by the wind, and even the pungent smells coming from the ground were so varied and heady it was over-whelming me.