Three Wishes

Smoke seeped out of the top of the bottle like feathers floating in the wind; seemingly random and ever so soft. Before my eyes it took shape, forming into the creature that I hadn?t really expected to see. Tangible it seemed, and yet I could see through the smoky flesh ever so slightly to the other side of the room. Its eyes opened and it looked at me, boring into my very soul.

'You have summoned me, Master?' it asked, its voice soft as bells and yet loud as thunder. The lips hadn?t moved on the perfect face, and I wondered if the voice was for me alone.

In my hand, the bottle that had summoned the creature burned hot. I struggled to ignore the heat, remembering what the old man had told me so adamantly. Only the holder of the bottle would have control over the creature. If I let it go, then its release was on my hands.

'Yes,' I stammered, still disbelieving the sight before my eyes. A genie. I wouldn?t have believed it if I hadn?t been there myself, and yet still had a hard time grasping the fact.

'How may I serve You?' it asked again, and this time I was sure that the perfectly sculpted lips hadn?t moved a muscle, and that the pale face that resembled cool marble hadn?t even trembled.

Clearing my throat, I thought hard on how to answer the question. This could be an important step in my relationship with this magical creature, and I didn?t want to start off the wrong way.

'How can you serve me?' I asked, my mortal lips moving with each word I spoke, my weakness as a living creature obvious to the being before me.

'I am a tool,' the genie said. 'Speak to me what You desire, Your wish, Your will. Through me the magic forces work mysteriously, finding a way to deliver You what You ask. Tell me Your dreams, and they will be reality. But I warn You, Master, that the forces of magic work in wicked ways. I am rarely used for good, most often evil. More likely despair will fall upon You and Your house from what you ask than any good.'

'Then I must think on this,' I said, my grip on the genie?s bottle relaxing for a moment. The vaporous spirit before me seemed to become less steady, and the smoke that it had come from billowed around it once again.

'When You are ready, Master,' it said as its body disappeared from sight. 'You need only ask.'

The torso vanished, then the neck, and then the face, eyes last of all. The room was totally empty again, and the bottle in my hand cold as glass once again.