Short Stories of the Weird, Wicked and Warped

Careful What You Wish For

It's funny how everyone says that they know what they would wish for if they ever had the chance to come across a genie. Yeah, yeah I know, who wouldn't jump at the chance right. I practiced for years on how to word my wish so that I would be able to get as much as I could with just one wish.

The wish wasn't something that I thought about every minute of every day but it was something I did think about. The first time I thought about genies was from a kid's movie I saw when I was four years old. I absolutely loved the movie and would watch everyday after school. My parents hated the movie eventually that they put a t.v. in my bedroom with a dvd player. 

When I was six, we got two dogs and I named them Aladdin and Genie. They were girls. My friends would always joke about my infatuation with anything genie related. As I got older, I would watch movies about genies, some good and some bad, of every genre. My parents stopped trying to stop me from watching anything about genies.

Once when I was sixteen, my parents ransacked my room looking for spicy grass and found my journal with my wishes in it. I still have that journal. I'm edging up on forty. Both of my parents have passed on from a pandemic that hits a few years ago. I miss them terribly and had changed my wish after their passing. 

About twenty years ago, I went to college to study mythology, ideology, and ancient religious beliefs. For my doctoral dissertation, I went to the middle east and visited every country that allowed female Americans. I spent a year travelling around the middle east. Some of my friends were worried about a young woman travelling my themselves.

For the last fifteen years, I have worked at the University of Oregon as a teacher of the mythology department. My students know of my obsession in creating the perfect wish. At one point I had them create their own perfect wish so I could get ideas. I wasn't surprised too much when I saw that most of them wanted money, rich spouse, kids and fame. There were a couple that did surprise me though in how articulate and precise they were with their wish.

I knew something was going to happen when I woke up one morning, there was an energy in the air, an expectation of something happening. Good or bad. I had that day off, so I did what I did every time I was off. I worked on my wish. By that point it was a single sentence that was a page long. It was a couple of hours into the day when I finally sat it down on my desk.

Getting dressed, I left my apartment to go to this little bistro down the road from my place. I hadn't eaten yet and my stomach was letting me know it wasn't happy for the lack of substances. Once there, I take a seat at one of the tables outside with a couple of them already occupied. At one table are two of my students, the ones with a more defined wish. It looks like it is getting heated due to their faces are quite red and they are talking in whispers.

As one they both turn to look at me and I put up my wand in greeting. They return the gesture, then go right back to hushed arguing. I look to the menu so that I can order right away when the waitress/waiter comes out. Soon enough a very young man comes out in an apron with the name of the bistro on it and a black uniform. Without looking up from his pad "Good morning ma'am and or sir. My name is Kyle and I will be your server this morning. What can I start you off with toady?"

Never looking up, not once. "Thank you sir and/or ma'am. I would like to get your three meat combo panini sandwich, american cheese, toasted, with sweet potato fries, and a large caramel macchiato hot coffee with a glass of ice water please."

Blushing, he takes my order and then runs off. Quickly comes back with my coffee and water. Sets it down, apologizes for his rudeness and then runs off again. I would laugh at the situation but I feel it would embarrass him even more. I hear my name being called gently from my right. It's my students.