Arin the Genie Part 3, With Friends Like These...

Arin the Genie in: With Friends Like These…

Arin set up a calming environment on her island by moving the sun to a perfect sunset. She snapped a bunch of floating lamps in existence. She snapped again to change her harem clothes into familiar pajamas. She laid down on her plush bed and poofed the textbook of Genie rules so that she could skim through it.

Arin did not know how long she had been in her lamp, and Sasi was about as helpful as a broken lighthouse in that regard. Thankfully, there was not a sign of that blue pointy eared… Arin took in a deep breath to clear her thoughts. Things sure have been crappy lately. She’s turned into a genie against her will (though that did lead to some nice payback) and humiliated by another genie who claimed that Arin’s fate was in her administrative hands.

Well, if Sasi’s judgment was based on Arin’s performance then the new genie resolved to kill some time by practicing her magic. She sat up then snapped herself a floating tea cup and saucer. The cup was full of hot chamomile. She poofed a sugar cube into it and summoned a spoon to stir it on its own.

That was all pretty easy, time for something a bit more challenging. She made a nightstand for her tea; then closed her eyes and searched with her magic for… department store… electronic section…. A flatscreen-TV appeared in front of her with a DVD player alongside it. She also poofed pile of DVDs. Namely, every episode of I Dream of Jeanie and Disney’s Aladdin. The genie justified it to herself that they won’t be missed from the dust filled store shelves. (Arin was no pirate!)

This experiment did teach her a few things. First, she could teleport about anything into her bottle (although she hadn’t tried to teleport a person into there yet). Second, she did have a great range with her genie power. She just needed to focus, be smart, and explore possibilities since she had a good degree of control over what she could do.

The genie got the electronics working by focusing her power on them. With a bit of trial and error, she found the sweet spot of how to not tax her power while keeping the power on. With that out of the way, Arin poofed a bowl of popcorn and watched Aladdin paying careful attention to Robin William’s performance. Maybe she could learn something from his showmanship. She did enjoy rewatching the movie overall. It has been years since she’d seen it. She chuckled at the funny parts, and her fingers gripped her knees tight during the finale.

She then watched a few episodes of I Dream of Jeanie and the college student in her cringed at the 1950’s marital stereotypes with Barbara Eden’s submissiveness. However, a discerning eye did see other aspects of the show. A genie’s respect and faithfulness to their master was important. Roger did return the favor though. Jeanie did have freedom to asset herself in subtle ways which she did more often than at first glance. Arin tried to pay careful attention to that amongst her giggling at the humor that held up.

Arin satisfied herself with pop culture’s take on genies; maybe she could get a different interpretation somewhere else. How about she peek at the original source- 1001 Nights? The lamp did have a copy which she turned from a scroll into a paperback book. As Arin levitated the book to her, she thought of further ways to push her limits.

Arin sat the book across from her on the bed as she thought of a challenging but fun way to learn the contents of the book. She snapped smiling as she got an idea. She shot a blast of magic at the book. The magic turned her thoughts into reality as the book opened revealing the words coming to life as little projections acting out the story. Arin’s own voice, a different one for each character, read the words. She enjoyed listening to the stories for some time.

However, her fun was cut short when her form sublimated into red vapors as she was summoned from her bottle. When Arin reformed her head still spinning from being sucked out of her lamp, she saw her friend Denise with a look of utter shock upon her face. Arin saw that she was in Denise’s dorm lobby. She saw that her lava lamp was on a little table nearby. Maybe Arin’s luck was finally turning around now that she had a friend as a master.

Hopelessly nerdy and proud of it, Denise stared at the pajama clad genie. “… Arin? Is that you?”

Arin nodded blushing as she poofed on a blouse, jeans, and sandals. She sat down and Denise joined her. “You should see Ben he had the more extreme makeover.”

Denise was in awe over Arin, “What happened to him? He’s been missing for a week. Now I know what happened to you. Here, let me call the police so that they know-”

Arin shook her head. “Nah, no need for that. If you help me out then I can just present myself with a good enough excuse.”

The genie inwardly beamed! She now knew that she has been gone a whole week, and that she can delight in telling everyone what she did to Ben. “As for Ben, he is in a bit of a hairy situation. You can find him if you look for the latest monkey in the local Zoo.”

Denise gasped, “That is horrible! How could you do that?”

Arin felt a pinch of guilt for her traitorous ex-boyfriend but quickly squashed it when she reminded herself just what he did to her. “Well, he didn’t tell me that that lava lamp would make me a Genie! He made me this way so I could grant whatever wishes he had and I don’t even know if he would of freed me. I think that is much worse than what I did Denise.”

“Well, that sucks. He is a jerk for that but you didn’t have to make him a monkey for the rest of his life!” Denise argued like this was a debate over which Doctor was the best.
Arin groaned, “Look Denise, you could wish him back to normal if you want to instead of annoying me about it. You cannot reverse a wish but you can modify them.”

“Fine I will.” Denise shot back sticking out her tongue. “I wish that Ben was no longer a monkey, that he was back the way he was before you turned him into a monkey.”

Arin was irate but obeyed. Her magic pinpointed Ben the monkey so that she could see her work in her mind’s eye. She snapped teleporting him into his dorm room and making him as he was before her magic morphed him into a chimp. She slyly added the additions that he forgot all about her being his girlfriend, the lamp, and him being a monkey. While her revenge was undone, she could at least enjoy the fact that anything Ben missed will hit him like a baseball bat.

“Done,” The red head genie sighed from the work, “You have two more wishes. I do hope one frees me.”

Denise nodded, “Of course I will Arin. That leaves one good wish for myself. And can you just do stuff for me like Genie from Aladdin?”

Arin was unsure, “Wait, in the movie he said no freebies.”

Denise laughed, “You didn’t watch the Aladdin animated series? The girl genie Eden did it all the time. Genie was free so he could do whatever but Eden wasn’t and did whatever she wanted too.”

Arin noted that on her mental list, but then again she wouldn’t be a genie soon so what did it matter. Really, she has had enough of genies, djinn, and all of that to last a lifetime.

“Denise, can you think of nothing that you want?” Arin asked as her aggravation grew.

“Oh, there is so much that I want. The Doctor to be real, to be a Jedi, oh so many things. But I’m also did terrible on my math test. I wish I could have done better.”

Denise gasped wanting to take the wish back, but Arin was still a bit steamed over Denise wishing that Ben was no longer a monkey. So, she pinpointed the tests in the teacher’s file cabinet since she knew Denise’s math Professor Dr. McCreedy since she complained all of the time about his unfairness. She changed the questions on the test both on paper and in the computer so that Denise’s answers were the correct ones. The genie noticed that Dr. McCreedy happened to be in the room. Arin next altered the Doctor’s memory so the alterations were his idea.

Her work done, the red headed genie waved her hand arrogantly and smirked. She was hoping for a more dramatic challenge that let her really cut loose while she was still a genie. It was all good though in her book. “Done. So, ready to free me?”

Denise was suspicious of the confident Arin, “What did you do?”

Arin examined her nails, “I changed the questions to the test so your answers were right, and Dr. McCreedy is okay with it like it was his idea.”

Denise was horrified, “But… that means… the people who did well on the test will fail!”

“And?” Arin replied confused, “You’ll do well. Now, for your last wish…”

Denise frowned at Arin as the genie tried to motion her along. “I wish that you would fix the tests back to the way they were before my last wish and that Dr. McCreedy remembers the original questions so he knows that my test failed.”

“What?!” Arin cried out in shock. However, she could not disobey. She fulfilled the command and fought every step of the way. She watched her form turn to red smoke, and looked to Denise betrayed.

Denise was not pleased by what happened either. “You shouldn’t do such… irresponsible things Arin with your power. I hope someone else frees you when you earn it.”

"What! I thought we were frien..." Arin said, but her reply was cut off when she was sucked inside her lamp. She smacked her knees in frustration. Just when things were looking up, Denise ruined her chance for freedom! Arin was so mad that she could…

“Is there a problem, child?” Arin heard Sasi’s cool tone from behind her. She turned around trying her best to contain her fury. Sasi could not hide her amusement, but she just stayed seated with her legs crossed on a blue cushion. Arin groaned then summoned her own cushion to sit on. At least the interior of her lamp was as she left it beach, bed, and all.

“Now that you are comfortable young one let’s see how you did.” Sasi summoned her clipboard, “Hm… your last master was a friend of yours was she?”

Arin crossed her arms and looked away, “Ex-friend.”

“And you granted three wishes. Good for you! I cannot accuse you of abusing your master as she is still around, you are here, and you granted three wishes. Not a single one denied to your master. If I had one complaint, it’s that you insisted on your freedom. Hardly a serious offense. But a word from the wise: don’t.”

“Why not?” Arin asked.

Sasi poofed away her clipboard, “If you were a master, would you want a genie that complained all the time about wanting to be free?”

“I get it.” Arin replied dryly, “So do I have to worry about being in my lamp until they remake the Twilight movies or what?”

Sasi rested her head on her palm, “I think that you have some potential young one. I’ll allow you to have another master when the next opens your lamp. Considered yourself warned about pestering your masters like a hungry rabbit.”

The blue genie stood up. “Well, have a good break. I might have a treat for you next time I visit.”

Arin raised her hand, “Wait I have a question. How come sometimes we zap stuff with our fingers, other times we poof it with smoke, and then other times we can just do stuff by thinking about it?

Sasi levitated her cushion to her arms shrinking it into a portable pillow. “What if I told you that we both have only spoke Arabic since you’ve returned to your lamp?”

Sasi left Arin to think on that revelation. The blue djinn zapped the ground and in a blue smoke puff a door appeared to let her out of the lamp-space. Arin shot up taking out her anger on the sand. She kicked it around until she grew tired of it, and then she threw up her arms moaning in frustration. Not only was she condemned to be a genie for longer than she wanted, but Sasi promises that she will return. Joy of joys, it was like Christmas wrapped up like a chocolate Easter Bunny.

Still feeling sore over Denise’s betrayal, the genie spread out her arms widening her beach, then she zapped the sand raising two palm trees with a hammock between them. Arin threw herself onto the hammock snapping up a gramophone with a vinyl record of relaxing orchestral music. Finally, a carton of ice cream in her hands cooled the rising fury in her soul: Neapolitan- the perfect ice cream for the indecisive as well as those that just love each flavor. Often it was the simple pleasures in life that kept one's head above the rising tides.