The clock started to bong right at that moment, signaling that we were out of time. But it was okay. I didn’t need any additional time. I told Cleo my wish and she granted it with a brilliant smile on her face and an, “It is done.”
And then I was back in the RV.
Epilogue
Strange how wishing the right wish could change absolutely everything for the better. I was transformed when Cleo granted my wish, and with it had come transcendence to an entirely new level of consciousness. The wish seemed so simple now that I wondered why no one had ever thought of it before.
I had wished to have complete mastery over all of my potential.
The closest I can come to describing what it felt like is to equate it with what happened in that movie where the guy takes a pill that enables him to have full use of his brain. My wish had been quite similar, in fact. But I hadn’t realized what exactly all of my potential would encompass, which had been a big and risky part of my plan. But in the end, I was glad that I’d worded it just the right way, or who knows what would have happened.
When I arrived back at in RV, I startled the three guys hanging out in there watching the TV. I assumed they’d been awaiting my return, just not very vigilantly. Still, I did admire how quickly they’d reacted to my appearance, but I’d been faster. My new mastery over my body, senses, and reflexes made me feel like a panther. And knocking the three guys out had been accomplished within a matter of seconds because I was now able to perfectly recall and apply fight sequences from TV shows I’d watched as a kid.
From there, I rigged the RV to blow as if it were something I did every day, using buried memories from high school chemistry class. Guess that hadn’t been a complete waste of time after all. And then I’d escaped through the side rear window as the men’s companions came rushing in the door.
As I made my escape, details about the intruders registered that I never would have noticed before in a million years, like their accents, the types of guns they carried, and which aftershave they wore. Every little detail carried with it a host of information that helped me piece together who the hell they were and what they were up to. This gang was clearly South African. With that realization, bits I’d gathered over the years from the news and the memory of Rupert’s accounts and assets stuck out in my mind now as if they’d been highlighted. Why hadn’t I seen it before? The dirty old dog had been involved in the illegal trafficking of several things, which included the trifecta: drugs, weapons, and humans.
I ran at a speed I’d never known I could attain, following the gang’s footprints toward their RV hidden on the other side of a nearby hill. Somehow my mind and body now communicated in an entirely new way that allowed my muscles to fire more quickly than they ever had before. But even with that, I was still knocked flat by the blast of the explosion before I crested the hill. Looking back at the remains of Rick’s RV, I knew none of them survived. And it was amazing to realize that I felt no remorse at their deaths. Each of them had chosen their path and it had led to a violent end. There was nothing I could do about that. Besides, they weren’t really dead. All I’d done was set them free from the earthly plane. But that truth didn’t strike me until later.
Their RV had held some very hi-tech equipment, which had never been my forte. But for once, I was able to figure it all out in a matter of minutes. All I had to do was zero in on what I wanted to know, and then it only took a few minutes to figure out the answer with some trial-and-error and searching for answers on the internet. Strange how it all was starting to make me feel like I’d never even really half-tried to do anything in my entire life. It was amazing what I was capable of. Why hadn’t I seen it before?
In the end, I was able to hack into everything I needed in order to make sense of the overlapping layers of crime, double-crossing, and money laundering. By the time I was done, I’d figured out how to hide most of Rupert’s fortune so I could walk away with it. The rest I would use to make a deal with the US government. By surrendering a big chunk of it along with the information they needed to make a bust, I would be free and clear. More importantly, I was able to set in motion a chain of events where all the illicit parties involved turned on each other and left me alone. And while they were distracted with that internal chaos, it would allow the authorities to swoop in and arrest them with information I’d fed them.
No one would know who gave who what, and I would stroll free out of the firestorm. There was no reason for any of them to suspect me anyway. I was just Rupert’s drifter heir. The sudden celebrity rock star. Some nobody they’d never met who’d gotten lucky, and who seemed to have neither the time nor the know-how to have untangled all their villainous plots to the level I had in such a short period of time.
Laying low for a while was the next step to ensuring that both sides forgot about me completely. And I had no problem with that at all, as I had a lot of other things that demanded my attention. It turned out that the threats and stalking on that front were being coordinated by the band’s lead guitarist, who was jealous of me. So after firing him from the band, we had to find a replacement. I finished up the tour, finding my voice much improved now that I could hear my own pitch and utilize the range my vocal cords were capable of. But even though my wish had brought me mastery over all of my potential, it still turned out that my talent for singing was average. But when it came to writing music and lyrics, I found that I was very talented. I even wrote and performed a few songs for Cleo on the new album we released that went platinum. But after that, we found a new lead singer and I left the stage behind to write more songs. But it wasn’t just that. I wanted to have the time to explore all the other surprising sides of my humanity that I’d merely guessed at when I’d made my third wish.
“Hey, do you want one of these hot dogs?” Cleo called from the grill.
“Of course,” I said from my poolside lounger, admiring her figure as she stood there cooking in a hot-pink bikini. It was her first time cooking human-style, and she’d been watching the grill vigilantly.
Suddenly being given mastery over all of my potential hadn’t been an easy transition. It hadn’t been sunshine and roses, but it had been worth it. I’d still had to learn all those college things I’d blown off so that I could harness Rupert’s wealth into a successful island resort for high-end clients. Once that had been set up, I’d had the space and privacy I wanted to explore all the deeper things about my humanity that had been calling to me. If only humans knew how much power we had to create the life we wanted. All it took was the harnessing of our energy by the complete focus of our mind to control and direct … well, everything. But who would ever believe me? The best I could do was have conferences and speakers here and on my island resort, to help spread the word to shed some light on how great our true humanity really was. Humans bore a lot of similarities to genies, and we had some parallel powers, most of which I still felt I’d barely scratched the surface.
Because of my diligent study of new capabilities, I was able to see Cleo again. And at the moment, we were enjoying some downtime in her dimension.
It had taken a little over a year, but I’d finally figured out how to visit her dimension. It took the ability to raise the level of energy in my body to a much higher frequency than humans typically held on earth. It was kind of like astral projection, which I’d mastered prior to seeing her, along with telekinesis and telepathy, but not exactly the same.
At first, I’d only been able to stay here for minutes at a time. But once I’d found Cleo, I became even more determined to make it last. That was the funny thing about my wish. I’d been given mastery over all my potential, yet it still took some experience to wear it like a second skin. It was kind of like someone who’d had an accident and needed to learn to walk again. It was all there in my head, but it took some practice.
Today, Cleo and I were hanging out at one of the many sky oases where genie couples often went to be alone. There was a whole section of them in her dimension, and they dotted th
e sky looking as though chunks of earth had flown out from a blast and then gotten stuck where they were. Some oases had waterfalls and others had hot springs, and they were all beautiful slices of paradise. The water apparently circulated from one oasis to another, but not in any visible way. It was weird to see a waterfall originate out of nowhere that splashed down into a pool that never overflowed. How it worked was just one of the many magical mysteries of Cleo’s home.
The oasis we were on today had a rectangular marble pool that looked like something from ancient Roman times. Who knew, maybe it was. The water circulated in from water spouts on the sides and the whole thing was surrounded by an expanse of well-groomed hedges and lawns.
Cleo turned from the grill and strolled toward me, looking like a goddess with her golden hair spilling over her shoulders, carrying a hot dog in a bun. Using my newfound psychokinetic powers, I snagged it from her and guided it toward my mouth while she followed and sat on the edge of my lounger. I wasn’t able to hold the hot dog as steady as I wanted, so it hit me in the cheek, smearing me with mustard. Instead of correcting its course, I turned my head and took a huge bite out of it. I couldn’t help smiling as I chewed, knowing I looked like an idiot. But I was a supremely happy idiot, so I didn’t care.
Cleo laughed, wiped the mustard away with a finger, and vanished it into thin air. Then she lifted my sunglasses up so she could look into my eyes. “Good?” she asked.
“Mm-hm,” I said.
I pulled her down on the lounger next to me to snuggle against my side, and she magically widened it so that it would comfortably accommodate both of us. I threaded the fingers of our hands together noticing that, today, the golden tattoo was making its way up the back of her wrist to her hand. She’d finally explained its significance to me. It was a sort of running reminder, kind of like a ticker tape, of all she’d experienced in her lifetime so that she would never forget either the successes or the lessons. If she wanted to remember any of it, all she had to do was press her finger to the tattoo, scroll to what she wanted, and it would put her inside the memory to relive it again.
I kind of wished I had one. Because my brain now functioned at a level that I secretly called “Ferrari-mode,” I found that who I’d been before was rapidly growing dimmer. Not because I couldn’t remember, but because I was finding it harder and harder to relate to it. Compared with who I was now, that guy had only been a faint and indistinct shadow.
It was funny how, by becoming fully and completely who I was born to be, everything I ever wanted came to me as if I were a giant magnet. I was happier than I’d been in my entire life and had everything I could wish for. But I’d gotten it all essentially by just wishing to be the best me I could possibly be.
And that was the best lesson of all.
The End
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The Third Wish Page 4