Pandora's Lunch Box: Don't Open!

Chapter 4

"Allow me to introduce ourselves," said the lady in an overly formal way. "I'm Mrs. Greeley, and this is Smugly..." She gestured to the one wearing the monocle.

"Charmed," said Smugly with a snobbish smile.

Mrs. Greeley motioned to the fat blob. "...Slobo..."

"Uh... hey there!" said Slobo with a goofy grin.

"...and Enzo and Furio," Mrs. Greeley nodded to the connected brothers.

"Piacere!" said Furio with a bow, showing off his Italian.

Enzo fumed, "Why do you always have to answer first?!"

"Enough!" Mrs. Greeley said, stopping the argument before it could get out of hand. She turned to Pandora. "And you are?"

"Me? I'm Pandora."

"A lovely name," said Smugly. "And what would be your first wish, Pandora?"

"First wish??" Pandora was confused. This was all happening so fast!

"Yes, certainly there must be something you want," said Mrs. Greeley as if stating the obvious.

Smugly whispered to Mrs. Greeley, "News flash - she doesn't know we're genies."

"You're genies?!" Pandora's eyes lit up. "But... you're in a lunch box."

Furio quietly fumed. "We used to be in a beautiful brass lamp," he said, turning to Enzo, "but he a-broke it!"

"I did not!" Furio retorted. "It was-a too small for all of us!"

Mrs. Greeley rolled her eyes. "Don't bore the girl with ancient history." She turned to Pandora. "Tell you what - I can give you a million lacmars."

"What's a lacmar?" Pandora asked.

Smugly spoke up. "I can fly you to a snowy mountaintop where you'll never have to talk to anybody tedious again!"

Pandora shivered. "Sounds cold."

"I can crush your enemies!" Furio chimed in.

"I can a-give you their stuff!" added Enzo.

A big snooore was all Slobo added to the conversation. He was fast asleep.

"Don't worry about him," Mrs. Greeley said. "Getting a wish out of Slobo isn't worth the effort."

Pandora started to wonder. "Actually, there is something I want right now. There's this girl Lexy, and she set me up. She thinks she's so big! If I could just get back at her somehow..."

Furio lit up. "Aha! Crushing your enemies, my speciality!" He closed his eyes, concentrated, nodded his head, then opened his eyes again. "Done and a-done!"

Confused, Pandora looked at Furio and the others. "You mean... that's it?"

Furio folded his arms with a satisfied smile. "Oh, she has felt-a your wrath, believe me."

"Uh... okay," Pandora said, disbelieving. But then she perked up and smiled again. "I have got to show you guys to Lyle!" Pandora grabbed the lunch box and started to close the lid.

The genies' bodies immediately began to get sucked back into the box. They fought amongst themselves. "Hey!" "Watch it!" "But we just got out!"

But Pandora managed to finally close the box, and she dashed off down the trail, lunch box in hand. This was something she simply could not keep to herself!