Wish

"So, is that the deal? I stop dating from internet sites and you quit smoking?" She jokes back.

"Yeah, but I have cut back. Have you?" I am thankful my mother and I have the same sense of humor.

"Actually I have, Steve, that's his name by the way, the guy I am with, have dated for three weeks now. How many cigarettes are you down to?" She can banter with the best of them.

"Two to three a day." I say as Jane joins me on the porch sees me on the phone and gestures for a smoke.

"That's good, Al, so I guess we are both making progress." My mom is great. I throw Jane the pack.

"So, mom, I am glad to hear you are having a great time in Miami." I smile. Jane takes one out and lights it.

"Yes, I am thank you for asking. The reason I was calling is that your sister called me and asked me if you have a modesty problem. What is that about?" She knows what it's about.

"Well, mom I forgot that Doris told everyone if that got too drunk, that they could stay the night. I thought I would sneak to the shower, while she was cooking. I open the door and there standing is Lucy and Jane." I explain as I take another hit of my smoke.

"Did Jane enjoy the show?" She laughs.

"Not sure, I didn't think to ask." I say as I exhale.

"Anyway, I thought I would take a quick minute and call you, since I am not there to see you on your visit." She tells me.

"Thanks mom and sorry you aren't here to see a cool train lantern that I got for free. Oh yeah, for free." I try to be smug.

"Cool. Well, I gotta go. I love you and I hope I can come out to New York to see you soon, take care, Alan." She seems sad.

"Bye, take care, and I hope you can. Love you." I'm sorry I can't give her a hug.

"Love you, too." She says as she hangs up.

I turn towards Jane hoping to start a conversation, but she is on the phone with someone. I ignore her conversation and return inside after getting rid of my cigarette butt. I find my sister and remind her that I need to be at the airport at 3 to catch my flight at 4. I like to be early. So, I ride with my sister to her house. When I get there I take a shower, change my clothes, and call to check my flight to see if its under any delays. Nope. I ask about any bad weather from the east. There has been none for the past three days. Doris told us a fib. I proceed to tell Lucy. She just laughs and tells me that it was a total setup, cause Doris thought I would have said no. I laugh, I tell her I forgot my lantern at Doris's, and I have to say goodbye to her anyway. We leave and stop by on the way, before dropping me off at the airport. I say my goodbyes to Doris and what's left of any family and friends still over there. I grab my lantern, and I stop as I think I hear that whisper again.

"Thank you for not forgetting me."

I must be losing my mind. That what it is. I get to the airport on time and I make my flight. I won't bore you with the details, but there was small problem getting on the plane with my lantern. I claimed it as carry-on and they wanted to put it in with the rest of the luggage. After some debate, I bought another backpack from a store in the terminal, and put the lantern in it. I went back through customs and they said I was good to go. So, after a five hour flight and a two hour car drive I make it home. Just before one thirty. Awesome. I wake up to my alarm at eight am. I get up change into my shorts, a Superman t-shirt, a pair of socks, and my running shoes. I run down the stairs to the first floor of my building. I jog my six miles. Talk to a couple of my friends about my weekend. My quickly thoughts turn to my newly acquired lantern. I get back to my building. Another secret I have, I own the building I live in. Sure it took all the money my second book made to buy it, but it's slowly paying for it's self. I let the original landlord, Kyle Knox handle all the book keeping and tenants. I have known Mr. Knox since I moved to New York, he was a honest man who gave me a break when I needed it. To pay him back I bought the building and kept him in charge. No one else in the building knows this and that's the way I want to keep it. I stop by Mr. Knox's apartment on the way to mine, it's near the stairs and I take the stairs before and after my jog. I knock lightly. I hear steps up to the door. Small feet and a little bit of a shuffle to them.

"Oh Alan, how are you, please come in. You just get done with your run?" Alice Knox asks after she opens the door and sees it's me.

"Mrs. Knox I just wanted to check in with your husband and ask him a question or three." I say with a smile. Alice reminds me of my grandmother and Kyle my grandfather. They have a nice set of grandchildren and all their children are all married. Three daughters and they all visit once a week, each. Kyle comes from the bathroom as I am walking into the apartment.

"Good to see you Alan, what brings you by? If you came for your cut of the money, you came too early this month." He laughs and shakes my hand as he gives me a half hug and a strong pat on the back.

"I wanted to ask you about train lanterns." I say quickly after returning his hand shake, hug, and pat.

"Really? What kind?" He asks, adjusting his glasses.

"You want some water Alan?" Alice asks.

"Sure, and no I don't know what kind, do you have a book or something maybe I can show you." I say.

"Well, I have the internet, will that work?" He says as I am handed a bottle of water. I am starting to think they keep bottled water here just for me.

"Thanks, Mrs. Knox." I say as I open it.

"Your welcome, Alan. Now I will leave you boys to whatever it is you boys are doing." She says as Mr. Knox and I travel to his computer room.

He types in train lanterns in Yahoo search. After about a half an hour of searching we find it. On Ebay we find this: Antique English Railroad Lantern Lamp in the heading and a picture.

"That's it, sort of." I exclaim.

"Yeah, that's an old one, and you say you have one like this?" Kyle asks.

"I got it a garage sale, for helping out a friend of our family." I say staring at the picture.

"You got lucky son, that one's over five hundred dollars." He tells me smiling.

"I want to repair it. Not working condition, but make it look like new." I cut to the chase.

"That would lower the price considerably, but if that's what you want to do, I say do it." Kyle tells me with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"So can you do me a favor and search for sites that show how to repair those yourself. Then email me those sites, if you could, please." I ask. I know I can do it myself, but I want him to feel like he's helping me, which he has.

"Sure, Alan, I can do that. Just show me the finished product when your done." He smiles.

"Oh I will. I promise. I better go get changed, I'll check my email later." I say as I get up and make my way for the door out.

Kyle shakes my hand and does the hug thing again and Alice gives me a hug. I regret I didn't take a shower before now. Once I leave, I go up the four flights of stairs to my apartment. Yeah I could have taken one on the ground floor, but this one is twice the size. For some reason every four floors has a large apartment like Kyle's on the first floor. The building is only twelve stories tall.

I get in to my apartment and go right for the shower. I start it and get in, I don't stay long. I hear that voice again, that mysterious heavenly voice, singing. God, I must be losing it. Really just out of my mind. I am thinking it's time to call a shrink. I get out and grab a towel and proceed my room to dress. I check my email and there are a list of sites from Kyle. I see a list of parts and supplies and where to get them. Wow, he really went through all the trouble, in such a short time. I'm lucky all the original metal just needs a gentle bending and pounding, just from looking at it. It takes me a few days to do and I show Kyle my progress. He offers to help, but I tell him thank you and he's already helped me enough. A few days later I strip the paint off it and find some words etched into the metal. I can't read the language. So, I look it up online and find it's Chinese. It's seems to be the name of the man who built the lantern. I look him up on the internet too, and find that he was part of the work force that helped build the railroads during the late eighteen hundreds. I tell Kyle, he takes a look at it, and tells me that it's not uncommon for people to label their stuff. I do a little more work on it, before I paint the lantern. I am happy I am able to find a paint that matches the original color at a little mom and pop hobby store, in the middle of Hoboken. I paint it the original green color, that I assume it had on it. While it dries, I turn in my rough draft for my forth book before my publisher asks, that same day. He is ecstatic. He tells me he can't wait for his secretary to read it to tell him if it's any good. She tells me she can't wait to read it. I also tell him I will start work on a fifth book in case my lucky streak lasts. All the work on the lantern takes less than a few weeks to complete. So, the next morning after painting the lantern the night before I wake up and do a final polish. It looks as good as new and I place it on my desk next to my computer for display. I go for my run and quickly return to my apartment.

I come in to my apartment and I smell fresh coffee and see someone has dusted. I hear someone, possibly female, singing a tune I am not familiar with. I walk towards my bedroom hallway where the singing is coming from and find a woman. She is about five foot something, dark red hair, almost mistake her for a brunette. Her skin pale as new white bed sheets. Her bright, big, green eyes remind me of the green traffic signal lights. She is dusting the pictures I have on the walls of my hallway, with a feather duster, I don't think I own a feather duster. I see those eyes of hers, big and green, as she turns towards me realizing I am here. She is dressed in some sort of costume, like the kind I have seen being worn by people playing genies on television. She's got on almost see through dark green pantaloons, and a light green loose tunic, a green veil over her face, a greenish funny little hat thing, and she is barefoot. I stand stunned as she has made eye contact with me. There is a silence between us. I want so badly to question her about what she is doing, how she got in, well just her very existence in my place, but if I do I am afraid she will go away. My curiosity eventually gets the better of me.

"Excuse me? Hi? Who are you and what are you doing here?" I ask tentatively. She looks at me an smiles a smile that just lights up the room like the sun itself was built into her teeth. She opens her mouth and words seem to come out as lyrics to a that song she was singing.

"My name is Leaira and I am here to serve you." She says still smiling.

"That's a really beautiful name." I think out loud instead of in my head and I return to my state of confusion.

"Thank you, very much." She whispers, voice so small, so pretty, so magical.

"Wait, is this some kind of joke? Did Bill or Dave put you up to this? I know my birthday is coming up soon, but this is a little much, the whole 'genie' motif is just over the top." I don't believe this.

"No, I don't know Bill or Dave, but I am your genie." She states. I really don't believe this.

"I am going to get my phone, I'll be right back. You just do whatever "genies" do." I say, making the quotation in the air with my fingers.

"Yes, master." She turns back to dusting and I turn to walk back toward my living room, I go in to my kitchen, where I left my phone on the counter. I see her before it registers in my mind that's she's there and it scares the shit out of me. I almost walk into her. I am, however able to stop myself from running into her, but begin to fall backwards. I see her wave her hand in a gesture that made me think she is writing in the air and with her face full of worry, that I can see the lines forming in her flawless complexion. I start to feel myself floating in air, and I continue to float till I am upright. As I am hovering an inch off the ground, she looks at me with smile.

"I guess you believe me now, master?" She says with some smugness.

"Ok, ok, I believe you, can you let me down, please?" I say as I look down.

She waves her hand again and I am touching the ground.

"Where did you come from?" I ask exasperated. This isn't the first time I fear the answer from a question I have asked before.

"The lantern." She says plainly.

"I thought genies lived in those old oil lamps, not train lanterns." I question.

"It used to be a lamp such as that, but my master at that time rebuilt the lamp into a lantern, so I could continue to serve him after he had all his wishes granted." Again answering plainly, but her voice isn't plain at all, it's like I heard this voice before. Now I know I have gone off the deep end.

"So, how did I summon you? Was it when I was restoring the lantern?" I ask wondering.

"No, the simple act of polishing the lantern. You could have summoned me at any time." She tells me.

"Why did I see you appear when I was done polishing the lantern?" I say as I go for a cup of coffee. I take a step towards the coffee pot, she appears there, and gets me a cup.

"The first time always takes a few minutes for me to appear, but my masters usually know to stay till I do." She says taking a jab at my inexperience with genies, as she pours the coffee in to the cup. Which she is right, I have no experience with genies.

"Sorry about that. I guess I should ask how many wishes do I get? Is there a standard limit?" I have questions and I really like the sound of her voice. After she fills the cup with coffee, she hands it to me.

"Most people automatically assume it's just three wishes. Actually that's our minimum, the genie gets to decide if a master is worthy of more than just three wishes." She states as props her self up on my counter and sits.

"How does a genie determine if someone is worthy of more than three wishes?" I didn't know this, in fact I don't know a lot genies, as I have said before.

"It depends on how our masters treat us, what they use their wishes for, or if they say please and thank you. I have only given more than three wishes only a few times in my life so far." She states as she watches me drink the coffee she made.

"So, what do most people wish for? I really don't want anything I can't get myself." I say really not knowing how to use what I have been given. Stupid, stupid man.

"Most men who have summoned me in the past, have wished to be physically intimate with me as their first wish. You see, as a genie I'm bound to granting the wish. Even when I don't want to." She seems ashamed by her answer and give me a pleading look.

"I am so very sorry that's happened to you. I would never wish for that or anything that would force you to do something that you didn't want to do." I state as I take a sip of my coffee, and it's really good. Like, oh my god, did you actually go to Columbia and pick the beans yourself, kind of good.

"Really?" She asks like she can't believe me.

"Yes. Promise." I smile at her.

"So, what do you want to wish for then?" She asks perking up.

"Not sure, like I said before I really don't want for anything right now." I say, taking yet another sip of my coffee. Wow, this coffee is so good.

"Oh..." She sighs and slumps slightly. I better ask something else.

"How are you speaking to me? Is it through magic or telepathy? Or is you simply just know every language known to man?" I speak moving to a new subject quickly.

"You are clever, I have knowledge of every language, even those man has yet to speak." She perks up, eyes bright, and smiling.

"So, how do the wishes work? Are there rules or is entirely up to you?" I ask.

"You are brilliant. Once wish is made I am bound to granting it, I do however, get to take some liberties. Although, some wishes do need genie council approval." She states perking up more and smiling bigger than the last. She seems impressed with me.

"How many are you are left? You aren't the last one, are you?" I ask with a mint after taste of sadness.

"I am last one. You surprise me, master. Intelligent questions, and you seem to answer them yourself." She looks into my eyes, as if she is searching for something in me.

"How do you know you are the last one? Is it some sort of telepathy or something?" I thank my experience with comic books for my intelligent questions.

"It works like how you would describe telepathy, but it's more of a feeling, I just feel alone. No other minds of my people seem to be present. I used to have a million voices in my head, sometimes all at once, and all I had to do to talk to anyone one of them was to just think. Now the only voice in my head is my own." She seems humbled for a second.

"When you were able to talk to another genie did you have to be in or out of your lantern?" I ask.

"Only when out of my lantern I'm able to tell if there are other genies around. When I am in my lantern, or container, it's like I am in my own little world. I hear and see everything that goes on around the lantern, but it's like I'm in a dream. When I am released, it's like walking through a door." She tells me.

This is becoming interesting I could spend the whole day talking to her. Her small frame makes her look like a eighteen years old, but I know she's not. I feel sorry for her being the last one.

"So, how long have you been the last one? I mean couldn't I just wish for a mate for you? Then you wouldn't be the last one anymore, right?" I ask thinking outside the box. I really can't think of anything to wish for. Seriously, here I am with one of the most powerful creatures from myth and I can't come up with anything I want. Pretty sad, huh?

"Master, it's been at over one thousand years, since I heard another genie in my head. And no, I can't create life with a wish. It's one of those rules that truly limits my power." She's still sad.

"Sorry, Leaira. I just wanted to use my wishes to help you."I say as I remember her name, hard to forget really and take another sip of my coffee.

"It's fine and a wonderful gesture, master, but the wishes are for you." She smiles as she folds her arms.

"Do I have to use a wish or could I just ask you to stop calling me 'master'?" I don't want to sound annoyed, but I am going to be if I have to hear her call me master, like she is my slave.

"You can just ask me too, master." She smiles as she pushes back her hair behind her ear with hand.

"My name is Alan Scott, you can just call me Alan." I say as I extend my free hand to shake hers.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Alan." She hasn't stopped smiling and daintily takes my hand in hers. She starts to look into my eyes, as I do hers and I think I could get lost. That wouldn't be so bad? Right?

"So, *cough*." Clearing my throat and breaking our eye contact, as I continue.

"Who can see you? Or is it my choice to have you be invisible to everyone, but me?" I realize that I am still holding her hand.

"It's your choice, Alan." She says seeming not to want to let go.

"It won't use a wish?" I ask not wanting to let go of her warm soft hand.

"Not if I don't want it to." She winks and she takes back her hand, slowly.

"I just thought you can be visible to everyone at all times." I tell her as I start to feel really bad for how she might have been mistreated over the course of her life.

"Really? Not many masters let me be seen all the time. It's so strange." She tells me and begins to become quiet.

"What's strange?" I take yet another sip of my coffee.

"You that's what strange. You just seem so comfortable with the fact of my existence. No, ever seems comfortable with my existence. I just wonder how you can be?" She tells me and asks a question in the same sentence.