It was almost midnight when the helicopter landed. A golden light circled the pad, illuminating the two men inside.

The pilot turned to the one beside him. “Sir?”

Caleb hesitated. He was twenty-eight years old and he’d never stepped foot on his father’s mansion. It was unlike anything he’d seen before. Twenty years and he kept it all to himself.

“You okay?” the voice of the pilot entered his headset.

“What if I want to leave? I just call you to pick me up?”

The pilot looked at him as if he were the same kind of crazy as his father. “If the mansion isn’t to your liking sir, there are several others for you to explore. I’m at your service, but first I recommend you check the collection of cars in the underground level. You’re welcome to them, since they’re yours. If you have trouble, wake the butler.”

With a nod, Caleb stepped down and felt the cold air rush against his face. A minute later the chopper was gone and he felt the heavy silence of the night.

He found the elevator and followed it down the floors. He walked along marble hallways, imagining the excitement he might’ve felt as a child. As an adult, he felt nothing.

He explored the mansion solemnly, discovering more living-rooms, kitchens and bedrooms than he could count. At the lowest level he found an underground garage ten times bigger than the apartment studio he’d grown up in. Back then, his mom worked two jobs to pay rent.

“Your father moved on. Now we have each other.” He remembered her words as he distantly counted the cars. It was the last she’d spoken of his father. If she were still alive, he’d have taken her there and watched as she burned it all to the ground. If he’d had her spine, he’d do it himself.

The last car ended his count at twenty-three. As he was about to exit the garage, he noticed something he didn’t see before. Parked in the corner, beneath a dusty cover, was an old car. It wasn’t flashy or expensive like the others, but something about it caught his attention. As he pulled off the cover, he noticed a flickering light emanating from the dash. He opened it and discovered a dusty lamp. He reached for it gingerly. As if spitting, purple light emerged from its spout. There were markings on it, but they were hard to read. He brushed it off and —

BAM!

The garage was blinded with powerful violet light. A genie emerged from the lamp, the force of its awakening so great that several cars were thrown to the side, crumpled and alarms blaring. The genie stretched, turned to the cars and growled, “OFF," at which point the sounds ceased. “You’re right to be frightened,” said the genie in a rumbling tone. “You’ve woken me from a pleasant sleep.”

“Sorry…”

“Too late. Now that I’m stirred, I cannot return until we’re finished.”

“Finished?”

The genie fidgeted impatiently with the chains around his massive wrists. “With your wishes.”

Caleb thought about it. “I have more money than I could ever spend. But I wouldn’t’ve wished for it.”

“If you wish, I could take it away?”

Caleb dared himself to meet the genie’s gaze. “Did my dad wish this?”

“I can’t be commanded to answer questions, unless you wish it so. For six thousand years I’ve learned to enjoy the comfort of my lamp, where I’d like to return. But I’ll indulge you this: just as my lamp grew on me, a new family grew on your father.”

Caleb clenched his fists in frustration.

The genie’s sharp eyes noticed. “I’d let you hit me if you wished. But as you can see, I have no physical body.” He ran a hand through the wall. “I cannot touch you, you cannot touch me.”

“I wouldn’t hit you. I just… I despise this fortune. My father kept it from us and I wish it’d killed him.”

“And so it has,” the genie hummed.

“What do you mean?”

The genie raised his dark eyebrows in amusement, as if he’d set a trap, and Caleb was the mouse sniffing it. “Your wish has already taken place, though you weren’t there to see it.”

“I don’t understand. Aren’t there rules for wishes?”

“I create the rules.” Suddenly there was an edge in the genie’s voice. “Forget what you think you know. I have the power to control time in the obedience of a wish.”

Caleb didn’t know how to feel. A sudden weight of guilt fell over him, and his longing for vengeance remained unsatisfied. “I’m the reason he died?”

“Again, I’m not compelled to answer. Unless you wish it so.”

“You won’t even answer a question about a wish?”

“I’m not a prisoner to command, like your servants and butlers. I serve only the wishes. Two more, and I can return.”

Caleb thought about what the genie had done, how he’d been tricked. He looked around at the crumpled cars, deep in thought. Finally he said, as politely as he could, “I don’t want to end up like my father… Tell me, what would you wish for?”

The genie remained silent.

“Tell me,” Caleb insisted, “or I’ll never finish my wishes.”

“I have thousands of years of knowledge. I could trick you again. The first time wasn’t difficult.”

“Then I won’t speak until you answer.”

The massive purple form straightened until half its eyes disappeared into the ceiling, fifteen feet above him. “I’d wish to return to my lamp, and never answer another question.”

Caleb nodded thoughtfully. “Thank you. I know what to wish for.”

The genie looked more bored than amused. “Yes?”

“No more tricks, and I promise we’ll both get what we want.”

“Wish away.”

Despite the genie’s promise, Caleb knew he needed to be careful. “First, I wish you would answer all my questions, as best you can, for the next ten minutes.”

A low rumbling entered the room, so heavy that it rattled the walls. Through charcoal grey teeth, the genie said, “granted.”

​

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