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RiaSkies t1_j69ofnd wrote

Elaine spent several minutes in thought before she finally exclaimed, "I wish that you would please provide me your sagest, most honest, and frank guidance and wisdom on how to use my remaining two wishes!"

"It shall be... wait, what? Run that by me one more time." The crimson spirit rubbed what passed for its chin in utter disbelief.

"I said as I wished, Genie! Grant me your sage counsel on how I can best utilize the two remaining wishes at my disposal. You were issuing me a challenge, right? You said that any wish I could make, you'd twist and warp until not a scrap of the spirit of the original wish's intent remained. But that's the secret, isn't it. It's like that one movie I saw a few years back - 'The only winning move is not to play.' I know I can't outsmart you. I'm 28 and you're what... fifteen thousand?"

"12,351, thank you. Geez, you're trying to put me one foot in the grave! Well, if I had feet, in any case. Whatever, it's a metaphor. But anyway, I've had hundreds of people come by over the millennia. The first few dozen were so easy to trick. They come in wishing for gold, and poof, they get a bunch of coins out of the king's vault, then the inquisitors come by and well, you can probably guess how it goes from there. And then there's those that rub my lamp thinking they could beat me in a test of wit and words. But here's the rub, pun intended. You are the very first person not to even try!" The genie started laughing. "Look, Miss, it's actually funny because you're the first one to have these magical, reality-warping, wish-granting powers at your disposal, and you're just going to up and not use them! Even hearing it with my own ears, I don't believe it myself!"

Elaine took an assertive posture, hands on her hips. "So, is that it then? That's your advice - just don't use my remaining wishes? Alright, fine, you win, bye, I don't have time to deal with you; I gotta go pick up my kid from daycare and my wife is gonna grill me so hard if I don't stop by and pick up some eggs for dinner on the way home. So yeah, have a nice rest of eternity."

"Seriously, you're just going to leave these wishes on the table? I could wish you all the eggs you'd ever need, I could wish you the power to, you know, just teleport or fly or even conjure up dinner with a simple wave of your hand."

"You said it yourself, Genie. Your advice was not to use your powers, and I'm not enough of an idiot to believe I could prove you wrong. Take care and see you never."

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MechisX t1_j6bpf09 wrote

Someone took advice?!

I know this is a story now. ;)

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