It had been a long day at school. Essie was tired- and angry. Lexi and her crowd had been teasing Essie again. Essie was one of those not-so-noticeable people you can find almost everywhere. She was slightly dumpy, had little money, and her father was a robber serving his third three-year sentence. Her mother owned a daycare and was often away from home, earning money to keep herself and her daughter off welfare. Essie was often teased for her looks, as well as her clothes.
Essie had long, mousy hair and big, grey eyes. To add to this disconcerting effect, her eyes were hidden under a thick uni-brow. Clunky glasses added to the effect. Her figure was slightly dumpy, with a few too many curves. Lexi, Anna, and Sophie were always mean and cruel, saying mean things to Essie behind the teachers' backs. Today had been no exception, and, as she walked home behind Lexi and her group, a churning anger boiled inside Essie. She spotted a can lying on the ground. In her fury, she kicked it hard. it bounced and clattered away issuing a thin stream of dark purple smoke.
Smoke?
Essie fell back, startled at the appearance of a wraith from the can. It was dark purple, and wore robes and what she guessed was a turban. Its face was in shadow, and the features were blurred, so that Essie couldn't tell whether it was smirking or smiling.
~How do you do?~
The sudden intrusion of this thought into Essie's mind startled her even more. The thing hadn't spoken- just projected a thought into her mind.
"Wha-what are you?" she asked shakily.
~I am the genie whom you have summoned,~ the voice in her mind purred. ~I live in that can.~ The apparition nodded towards the can Essie had kicked. ~I apologize for this intrusion into your mind. It is the way I communicate with you. No one else can see or hear me, so long as I do not speak. I can only project into the minds of my masters.~
"You mean.." Essie breathed.
~Yes. You are now my mistress. As long you wish me to remain in your service, I will grant any wish you like.~
" Really?!" Essie asked. "Do you mean I can have anything I want?"
\~Anything you like.~\
"Then, in that case," Essie said angrily, "I wish Lexi Hamilton would drop dead!"
A cry issued from further down the alley. Essie looked up to see Lexi crumple and fall, while Anna and Sophie screamed. As Essie emerged from the alley, a group of bystanders gathered around the prone girl. Some had their phones out. Anna and Sophie were in tears, trying to explain to everyone that they hadn't done anything. As a police patrol car pulled up to the scene, lights flashing, Essie quietly slipped away, holding the can in one hand.
On the way home, Essie passed two ambulances, three police cruisers, and a fire truck all headed the way she had come from. Finally, she could stand it no longer. She pulled out the can and drop-kicked it. Instantly, the genie appeared.
"Well?" Essie demanded.
~You gave me a command and I obeyed it. T'was none of my doing.~
"Aren't there any limitations to your magic, like in Aladdin?" Essie asked.
~Look at the can~ , the genie commanded.
Essie picked up the can, and there, where the ingredients to any normal soda can would be, were the rules: in English, but written in such gibberish that she could not understand them.
"Genie, what do these mean?" she demanded.
~I cannot tell you. You must discharge me from your service before you may read them.~
"Well, I'm not gonna get rid of you just yet," Essie decalred. "Starting now, you're going to help me!"
Over the next few months, the genie made any change Essie requested. The first thing she set about fixing was her appearance. The genie gave her strawberry blond hair, an attractive face with light blue eyes peeping out, and a figure only a movie star could have. Essie experimented with several forms before she settled on that one. The genie also did her chores about the house. The neighbors were extremely puzzled when Thelma and Essie Gordon announced they had received a freak inheritance and moved to the upper district of town. Essie now had a mansion, good looks, and a bottomless supply of money at her disposal. But that wasn't enough. Essie had the genie turn her into the HGOC. Every guy, including the QB of the football team, was at her feet begging for a date. Essie grandly refused them all. She was too obsessed with her new-found powers. She had money, prestige, popularity- all at her fingertips.
But Essie wanted something more. One morning, as her make-up lifted itself and applied itself to her face (make-up can apply make-up best of all), she askedd the genie who had slaved in her service for several years,
"Genie? Why?"
~Why what?~ the genie replied. ~I've given you all you wish.~
"No- there's something else I want- something I can't get no matter how much I try," Essie replied.
\~What could that be? ~\
"I don't know." And with those three words, Essie realized the full extent of her misery, ever since the day she had wished Lexi dead and taken her place.
"I don't know! I don't know! I don't know!" Essie shrieked, dashing the make-up from her face and smearing lipstick like war-paint over her cheek in the process. The genie cowered as she hurled herself screeching at it, fingers clawing the smoky filaments to rags.
"Why did you give me everything I wanted? Why didn't you refuse me! You didn't, wouldn't, couldn't give me the thing I want the most!!! You can project your thoughts into my mind, why can't you read it?!?! Can't you tell what I really want?"
~You want the only thing I cannot give you,~ the genie replied sadly.
"Why, why, why!!!" Essie demanded, tears running down her face.
~ Because you want what I want, and I cannot give what I do not have. You and I both have complete misery in our hearts. As long as it resides there, neither of us can truly be happy.~
"Then I'll set you free!" Essie declared tearily.
~That will not help. You cannot set me free. I am bound forever to a master, and right now you are my current master.~
Never, never, never!" Essie shrieked.
~Then release me from your service.~
The words cut Essie open with their blank truth. She had become drugged and dependant on the genie, turned herself soft with no work. Now, she could not bear the thought of letting him go. But she could not stand the misery any longer.
"How can I release you?" she asked.
~Do your own work. Lose your reliance on me, and I will leave you when there is nothing else I can do for you. When I am unneeded, I am discharged.~
So Essie began to struggle to work on her own. She stopped asking for an endless supply of money and went back to school, which she had avoided for a while. She took up a job to support her mother when their money dried up, and sold the great mansion, which she admitted was extravagant. And slowly, slowly, she began to change. Her hair lost its highlighted gold and began turning brown again. Her shape lost its perfect form, and her eyes became a beautiful, rich gray. She lost her reputation as a popular girl, but earned a new one as a hard worker. And slowly, slowly Essie began to realize how happy her life was, without the softness magic induced. She had earned the rewards, meager though they may seem. And her father, no longer a thief, was returned to her at last. As their family celebrated that night, Essie quietly slipped the can out from under her jacket coat. As she looked it over for the last time, she suddenly realized she could read the printing on the can. The instructions that had been so mysterious before were now legible.
To those who would be rich, beware,
Or those who wish for might
Your world shall be, with misery,
the day, turned into night.
Your heart's desires we will grant
though be it small or great,
you will not see your foolishness
until it is too late-
unless you have the single thing
we cannot e'er bestow
happiness and true, lasting love
we cannot forge below.
Beware, if by greed you are ailed,
we were the ones who tried and failed.
So mark ye, master, and take heed
ask only what you truly need.
She smiled- the passage described her exactly. And- it held a deeper warning. Essie had narrowly escaped the genie's fate herself- by never truly finding happiness in material things.
Essie and her family were dining at a riverside restaurant. Essie walked to the balcony, and, in the dim glow of the candles and lights strewn across both banks, threw the can into the glittering river.
"May the next person who needs to learn your lesson find you," she whispered.
And as the can drifted away, she thought she heard a dim voice in her mind, murmuring: ~My misery has washed away...I have saved another soul.~This is a fictional story. ANY RESEMBLANCE TO REAL-LIFE PLACES OR EVENTS IS COINCIDENTAL. Published by Swords-4-Sale Publishing
lol AG!!!
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