Antonio walked along the beach, scouring the sands and the pebbles for shells, washed up by the sea’s relentless, evermoving water.  He spotted one, half buried, and bent to pick it up, but it had been broken, shattered by some sea creature or smashed against a rock.  Looking up the dull sun’s glare glinted off something dull and metallic a few yards down the beach.  He glanced back and forth.  Searchers with metal detectors had combed this area not long ago but they hadn’t found it.  Odd. He rose to his feet to investigate.

As he bent down he noticed that, whatever it was, was dull, like unpolished bronze.  He dove his fingertips into the wet sand scratching against the surface of the rounded object, until he found a handle. He tugged.  Not quite enough.  He dug some more until at last the shape was revealed.  It was a lamp.  An old lamp, of the style a genie came out of in all the stories.  Antonio laughed.  It was almost too bizarre to be real.  He opened the lid of the lamp.  Full of sand.  He carefully poured the sand onto the beach and stared at the thing. What did all the movies say?  Try to clean it?  He rubbed the lamp against the bottom of his t-shirt, only a tiny part of his mind daring to hope a genie would pop out. Nothing happened, of course.

“A thousand pardons young sir, but I believe that is mine.” Antonio turned to see a tall, dark haired man.  Dressed all in white, with sandals and a perfectly trimmed black beard, he looked like many of the rich tourists the boy had seen that day. The boy laughed.

“So, you’re a genie?” He joked.  “And you grant three wishes?”  The man eyed him gravely, his lips pursed in a frown, his eyes hidden behind expensive black sunglasses.   Before Antonio could move the man made a subtle motion with his fingers. A whirlwind, appearing out of thin air whipped across the beach it picked up sand and shells and threw them about, scattering beach goers before it dipped out to sea and disappeared.

“No, and no.” The tall man responded shortly. “Do not mock the Jinn boy.”  Antonio clutched the lamp, suddenly afraid.  The man’s lips softened a little. “I do not grant wishes,” he smiled. “But I can make you a bargain.”  He pointed to the lamp in the boy’s hands. “I will grant you three requests, for the lamp.”

Antonio nodded. This was more like what he had expected. He tried to think of all the things he could wish for.  The most logical thing seemed to be money. But then he thought of the house his family lived in.  His parents were always complaining about how run down it was, and how it could use repairs.  He could get a new mansion for them to live in!

“I request a mansion, a beautiful mansion for my family to live in.  With a hundred rooms.”  He thought frantically. “And a pool.”  The man nodded with a small smile on his face.

“Done.”

When Antionio got back home he found it surrounded with police cars, their sirens had been turned off but their lights were flashing.  His mother and father were safe, it seemed but the neighbors were in the front yard, screaming at them. His father was trying to placate the woman, trying to explain that he didn’t know how a pool had appeared in her living room, but that he was certain it was all a mistake. Antonio stared at the mansion.

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It was bigger than he had expected, filling not only the space where his home had once stood, but also the entire yard, the neighbors yards on all sides. One by one they had come home, seen what had happened and called the police, or started to fight.  Antonio’s heart sank. To live in a mansion, with a pool, would that have been too much to ask for?

“This appears less than ideal.” The Jinn’s voice came from behind Antonio.  He whirled to see the white clothed man was standing there. A small smile was toying about the edges of his dark beard.

“You did that on purpose!” The boy pointed a finger at the man and shouted. The Jinn shrugged.

“I merely granted your request.” He spoke innocently. “The consequences are your own.” Antonio had a thought come to him. 

“I wish…” The Jinn frowned and the boy changed his phrasing. “I request that the mansion be tall instead of wide.” The Jinn pointed a long dark finger and Antionio quickly added “And all the neighbor’s houses be fixed.”

Before his very eyes, like Legos reassembling, pieces of the mansion moved and changed and set one on top of the other until it became a large building ten stories high. The neighbors, who were still shouting at his parents, watched in awe as their own houses were restored to their previous shapes and sizes. They stopped shouting and meekly returned to their homes.  The police officers, shook their heads, and walked back to their cars, relieved that the shouting was over.

Antonio smiled at the Jinn, who merely nodded in response. The boy started towards his parents, ready to explain to them what had happened, when a long-sleek black car pulled up next to the driveway. A blonde woman with short tightly wound hair stepped out, dressed in a crisp suit, and dark sun glasses. She called out to Antonio’s parents.

“It has come to the attention of the Internal Revenue Service that you have come into the possession of a mansion worth 2.4 million dollars, and yet you have no record of earning any such money.”  The boy’s parents stammered and tried to explain that they had no idea where the mansion came from but the woman merely held up her hand. “You realize that attempting to defraud the government is a felony, punishable by up to twenty years in prison correct?”

His parents tried to explain that they didn’t know where the mansion had come from, and they hadn’t defrauded anyone but the woman only nodded and demanded to be shown their receipts.  Antonio’s father led the way into the mansion.  The boy turned to the Jinn, sadly. He knew what he had to do.

“You can put everything back the way it was right?” The dark man merely looked at him behind his sunglasses.  His face expressionless. The boy nodded.

“Okay, I request you put everything back the way it was.” The dark bearded man smiled and nodded once. By the time Antonio turned around his old home was back and the woman from the IRS had disappeared. The lamp had disappeared from the boy’s clutched finger tips and the Jinn now held it in his hands, but Antonio didn’t care about that. He ran into the house, happy to be home. As he reached the doorway he looked back, and thought he caught a glimpse of fire in the eyes of the Jinn who had been his companion, and then in a blink, the mysterious stranger disappeared.

The next morning Antonio was still in bed, when the morning mail came. He heard his mother gasp and his father shout.  Blurry eyed he ran down the hall and into the dining room where they clutched a letter that had arrived.

“We won a mansion!” His father was leaping up and down for joy “And it is right on the ocean!” His mother was crying, as she hugged the boy.  Antonio reached for the letter, reading it carefully. It read:

Congratulations!

 You are the Grand Prize Winner! You have won an exclusive ocean side mansion worth $2.5 million! All expenses paid! You and your family will be moved free of charge to your new home.  Your new address will be 1142 Genie Way.

Sincerely,

The Jinn Corporation, LLC