The Girl and the Genie (30 page)

After the news broke about Cole, Emily also talked to Sally. Since her friend didn’t know that Emily had flown to Vegas with Derek, the two of them simply talked about how shocking it all was. Emily didn’t mention anything to her about Mitch.

Emily showed up the next Monday at work, and by this time Derek Cole’s murder was big news. There were a lot of hushed whispers in the office, and when Emily met with Mr. Pish she gave him the same story she gave her mother. Mr. Pish stared at her bug-eyed throughout, his fingers interlaced and resting on his belly as he leaned back in his chair. Possibly he believed her, but Emily couldn’t tell. When she was through telling him the story, he simply told her that he was glad she didn’t get mixed up in any of Cole’s dirty business. She continued working as an assistant editor for four more weeks and then gave her two weeks’ notice. She found a job as a waitress which paid more money than what she was making, and more importantly, gave her the time to write. Now that she had a story worth telling, she felt a burning desire to get it on paper.

For two months after Jack had disappeared, Emily was sure he’d be returning back to her, but after that she started to have her doubts. After four months had passed she’d find herself at times haunted by those words that were engraved on the genie’s lamp.
Do Not Trust Him
. She’d sometimes drift into these thoughts wondering whether Jack manipulated everything that happened so that she’d wish him to be human. When she’d catch herself thinking along those lines, she’d chastise herself.

When Professor Anderson returned from Italy, Emily moved to Brooklyn and found a waitress job close to her new apartment. She was halfway done with her book by then, and was both excited about what she was writing and also saddened by it. It just seemed to her that the book was going to end up with a heartbreaking ending, and she so much wanted it to have a happy one.

After six months had gone by without Jack returning, Emily agreed to a blind date that Sally wanted to set up. This was with the same friend of Sally’s boyfriend whom she had wanted to fix Emily up with earlier. He turned out to be a wonderful person—very sweet, as well as good-looking and charming, but after three dates he told Emily that she was still hooked on someone else.

“It’s that obvious?”

“I’m afraid so. I look at you and I know your heart’s somewhere else.” He gave Emily a kiss on the cheek. “I like you a lot, Emily, and if you ever get over this guy, I’d like to see you again.”

Emily nodded glumly, knowing that wasn’t going to happen.

After seven months of Jack disappearing, Emily mostly finished her novel. The ending bothered her. It was just so sad with her heroine destined to suffer a broken heart for the rest of her life, but she just didn’t know how else to change it.

One Saturday on an exceptionally hot July evening when Emily was struggling to come up with a different ending for her novel she heard someone knocking on her door. For months after Jack had left, her heart would leap every time her phone would ring or she’d hear footsteps approaching her door, but not anymore. Her heart had hardened to the fact that Jack wasn’t returning. So when she opened her door and saw Jack smiling brightly at her, she blinked several times not quite believing what she was seeing. Jack was more gaunt than she remembered him, and he had several days of stubble on his cheeks. He wasn’t wearing a suit like he always used to wear, but instead was dressed in a button down shirt, jeans and tennis sneakers, and his shirt and jeans looked loose on him.

“Emily,” he said. And then he picked her up and spun her around as Emily burst into tears. “I hope those are tears of joy and not sorrow,” he said. Emily nodded, unable to talk right then. Jack gently touched her cheek with his finger and wiped one of the tears away.

“I didn’t think you were coming back,” Emily said through her crying.

“I promised you that there was nothing in heaven or hell that could keep me from you. But I did have a long journey to get back to you.”

Jack laughed as he noticed Winston staring at him with his head cocked to one side while wagging his tail cautiously. “The little guy isn’t sure who I am,” Jack said. “He recognizes me by sight and I’m sure by my voice, but my smell is all different now that I’m a man and not a genie, so he’s confused. Let me end his confusion.”

Jack scooped the fifty-five pound Bulldog up with one hand and held him under his arm while scratching Winston under his ear with his other hand. Soon the dog was squirming, desperately trying to lick Jack’s face, all the while his tail wagging excitedly.

“He knows me now!” Jack announced. He put Winston back on the floor, and the dog raced around the apartment in his excitement and happiness over Jack’s return. Jack watched for a moment, then smiled at Emily and took her hand. “Let’s sit so I can tell you about my journey,” he said.

Emily’s apartment was small, consisting of one bedroom, a near closet-sized bathroom, a galley kitchen, and a room that served as a dining room, living room, writing room and TV room. The two of them took a seat together on a beat-up sofa that Emily had bought secondhand. Winston jumped up on the sofa and forced his way onto Jack’s lap, all the while panting heavily.

“He’s missed you,” Emily said. “I’ve missed you.”

“I know, as I have missed the two of you.” A hint of Jack’s guilt showed in Jack’s smile. “I have a confession to make,” he said. “What I told you about wishing me to be human was technically accurate, but I didn’t tell you the true purpose for that wish. It isn’t really for genies to become men again, but to allow masters who are displeased enough with us to wish for us to perish. Genies can’t die or be harmed, but men can, so in order for us to perish in the Valley of Dust, we must first be turned back into men. And while I should’ve died also in that valley, I didn’t.” Jack’s color paled. “It really is a horrid place, all surrounded by eight thousand foot walls of sheer rock.”

Emily gasped at that. “Why did you have me make that wish?”

Jack brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. “Because I knew if you were waiting for me, I’d survive anything. Even that valley.” A bitter laugh escaped from him as thoughts of that valley reflected in his eyes. “After the rituals I was a man again, and somehow retained bits of my magic. Not a lot of it, but enough to help me. But it was thinking of you that allowed me to escape that place of death. Otherwise I would’ve perished like all the other genies before me who were sent there.”

“It took me four months to escape that damnable place,” Jack continued. “And when I did emerge from there, I was naked and without a single possession, and had to trek over desolate terrain for hundreds of miles until I reached a remote village where I stole clothing. From there I continued on, eventually stealing my way into the city of Shanghai, where I performed as a street magician, eventually having enough coins tossed my way, to where I was then able to use my magic more efficiently by finding a poker game. That allowed me to buy better clothing, a high quality fake US passport and other necessary documentation, and passage to London, where I arrived only four days ago. I then spent three more days playing poker so I could make enough for passage to New York and to buy this.”

Jack slipped out from under Winston, and got down on one knee in front of Emily. He took a small, but elegant diamond ring from his pocket and slipped it on her ring finger.

“Emily, I’ve waited over three thousand years to find a woman like you. To say that I love you does not do the word justice. There is no word to describe how deeply in love and passionately I feel towards you. If you will marry me, I promise you I will do everything in my power to bring as much joy to your life as your simple smile brings to me.”

Tears welled up in Emily’s eyes as she nodded. Jack, grinning widely, kissed her passionately on the mouth, and Emily just melted, and held Jack to her. It was a long time before they separated.

“I want to marry you tonight,” Emily said in a breathless whisper. “There must be a way.”

“I want the same,” Jack said. “But let’s do this properly. Your mother has been waiting years to have a wedding for you. Let’s not deprive her of this.”

Emily wanted to argue with him, but she knew he was right. “Let me call her,” she said.

Emily dialed her mother’s number, and when Alice Mignon answered, Emily told her she was getting married, and as she did so, her face lit up brighter than any Christmas tree.

“I love him, mom,” Emily said, her smile ecstatic. “And he loves me, too. So you get to finally throw me a wedding. But it has to be soon. Within a month. It can be a small affair held at the house. Okay. I love you, too.”

When Emily got off the phone, she told Jack that they were going to be married in one month in Des Moines, that her mom promised to get everything ready in time. Jack kissed her again, and Emily felt once more like she was melting in his arms.

“I know the perfect place for us to honeymoon,” Jack said with a wide grin. “A certain remote area of Alaska that no man has seen in hundreds of years. What better way to spend a honeymoon than to lay claim to a gold find worth billions of dollars?”

Emily laughed at that. “And what about the grizzly bears?”

“He’ll protect us,” Jack said, his eyes twinkling with amusement as he referred to Winston. The Bulldog at this point was lying on the sofa, panting from all the excitement.

“Ah, but such a ferocious beast,” Emily said with a laugh

“But in all seriousness, I have just enough magic to protect us from grizzlies or any other dangers we might encounter.”

“Deal, then,” Emily said. “I always wanted to see Alaska.”

Jack glanced hesitantly at the front door. “It’s late and I should be going,” he said.

“I don’t want you to go.”

“Emily, you’ve waited this long, what’s another month?”

“We’re going to be married, right? Then why should we wait?”

“Please, don’t tempt me like this.”

“The last man who claimed he wanted to protect my virtue only wanted to kill me for insurance money.”

“But that’s not the case here. You know it isn’t.”

A wicked grin twisted Emily’s lips. “I want one more wish,” she said. “A tenth wish.”

Jack smiled wistfully at that. “But I’m no longer a genie.”

“You can still grant me another wish. Don’t you think I deserve it?”

“Of course.”

Emily took Jack’s hand and led him to the bedroom.

Over the next month they made love countless times. With Emily, there was an intensity burning within her as she had waited twenty-five years for Jack. In Jack’s case, he had waited over three thousand years for her, and while he was tender and loving, he was also insatiable, and many times each day would bring her to orgasms that were so intense that she was sure she would pass out. Outside of their getting together with Sally and her boyfriend five times over that month, they only left their apartment to take Winston for walks or to buy food, and once they returned they’d strip off their clothes and race each other to the bedroom. When they’d fall asleep, they were so irresistibly drawn to each other, they’d often wake up finding themselves making love with no idea how it started.

The morning that they were scheduled to fly to Des Moines, Emily told Jack that she was pregnant. At first Jack stood speechless. Finally he sputtered that he had no idea whether he would be capable of a fathering a child after his transformation. “Are you sure?” he asked.

Emily nodded. “It’s something I know. But with the way we’ve been humping night and day like bunnies it was bound to happen.”

Jack drew Emily close to her and held her tight. “You’ve made me so happy,” he said.

After they separated, Emily smiled slyly and asked what they’d do if the baby turned out to be a genie.

Jack didn’t realize Emily was joking and gave the matter serious thought. “That’s not possible,” he said. “Not after my transformation. But perhaps our child will retain some of my magic. Maybe more than even I have kept.”

Jack picked up Emily’s suitcase to bring it to the cab waiting outside. He waited at the door so that Emily and Winston could catch up to him, and as they walked out of the apartment building, Emily realized that not only did she now have the perfect ending for her novel, but if her child retained any of Jack’s magic she could very well end up with enough material for a second book.

During the cab ride to the airport, Emily sat with her head resting on Jack’s shoulder while he held her tight. She couldn’t keep from smiling thinking of how extremely satisfied her tenth wish had left her. But it was her ninth wish—the one to transform Jack back to a man—that had worked out so wonderfully, probably more so than any wish anyone had ever made of a genie.

###

About the Author

E. M. Lilly is the nom de plume of an award-winning mystery author. E. M. can be contacted at
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Copyright Information

The Girl and the Genie

Copyright, 2012 by E. M. Lilly

Genie
Books

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This book is a work of fiction. Characters, incidents, places and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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