Kyle stared in confusion at the beautiful half naked girl floating in front of him. This was insane. Impossible. Crazy. Maybe I should touch her to make sure she's real, an evil voice in his mind suggested, but he fought it down. But now that the image was in his head he couldn't get rid of it. A part of him wanted to reach out to that dangling chest, grab it, pull her close, then start sliding those harem pants down...

“Your wishes will be granted Master!” the genie said cheerfully.

“Wait what!?” Kyle said, starting to panic. “I didn't do anything! I...hold on. Just...just hold on.”

He grabbed a chair, pulled it up, and sat down. He was having trouble getting blood to his brain but he forced himself to focus. He would forgive himself for the urge to grab her chest, that was shock and hormones. He needed to think it through logically.

I was going over the day. I'd just come home to work. How did that go again? Take it step by step...

Kyle walked up to the front desk, a disturbing glint in his grandfather's eyes. He loved the old man, he really did, but sometimes his grandfather could be...a dirty old man. There was really no other way to look at it.

“Who was that?” the old man asked, waggling his eyebrows. “Is that a girlfriend? Do I get details?”

“That's Betty grandpa,” Kyle sighed. “You've met her before.”

“That's Betty?” His grandfather shook his head. “The little mousy thing you and Evan used to play with in the neighborhood? Damn, she grew into one hell of a body huh?”

“Grandpa,” Kyle glared at the dirty old man, exactly as if he hadn't had the same thought a few minutes ago.

“Just stating a fact,” his grandpa said, raising his hands. “I'm a dirty old man, not a cradle robber. She's way too young for me. So did you get your hands on--”

“Grandpa!” Kyle snapped.

“Gotta work fast boy!” The old man cackled. “Before she realizes what a hottie she's turned into and goes around school breaking hearts. You're all eighteen now.”

“She's...like a sister to me!” Kyle said, only half lying. “Besides she's already interested in Evan.”

“That so?” the old man shrugged. “Well not much you can do about that. Go sort out the stuff in back. We just got a new delivery, and they sent a bunch of junk along with the main attraction.”

“What main attraction?” Kyle asked.

“Well it could have been these,” his grandfather said, reaching down below the counter and pulling out a silk-lined case with a pair of old revolvers in it. The barrels were bent and cracked. “These, my boy, are the very guns wielded by Scottish Bart in his legendary gunfights in the old west!”

Kyle gave his grandfather a blank stare.

“Well?” his grandfather pressed.

“You're seriously going with Scottish Bart?” Was all Kyle could say.

“Worth a shot,” the old man sighed. “Don't know who they really belonged to, of course. They ARE that old though. Busted up like this they're mostly just junk, unless they get restored. Not sure if it's worth the money to do it just yet. Well they were just a bonus anyway. No no no the real main attraction is this! Our shop's new treasure! Our pride and joy!”

He pulled a bronze statue out from under the counter. Kyle had to admit, even working in the antique shop for so long it was the most detailed sculpture he had ever seen. It looked absolutely perfect. In fact, it was a little...too detailed.

“Grandad how much money exactly did you spend on....well I can't call it anything else can I? Grandpa how much money did you spend on this ancient porn?” Kyle groaned.

The statue was of a completely naked woman leaning backward, her breasts jutting high in the air, her legs just slightly spread so you could see...well, everything. An extremely detailed everything.

“Don't be an asshole!” His grandfather snapped. “This is a work of art! A depiction of the female nude!”

“Yes there's a lot of depictions of the female nude all over the internet,” Kevin said. “They're called porn.”

“Can't you see the artistry?” The old man insisted. “The attention to detail? The craftsmanship?”

“Yes I completely agree that whoever made that was incredibly talented,” Kyle said. “He was just incredibly talented at making porn.”

“When it's this old it's culture!” his grandfather said. “Haven't you heard of “Il Venus de Urbino?” The Duke of Urbino wanted a painting of a naked woman to hang on his wall, and Titian gave him a classic work we still revere to this very day!”

“At least in that painting she's got a hand over her crotch,” Kyle said. He'd taken an art history course at his grandfather's urging and found himself surprisingly interested, so a lot of it had stuck. “Whoever made that had a filthy mind.”

“Or was working with an accommodating model,” the old man's eyebrows waggled again. “But fine, if you're not going appreciate fine art go sort the new boxes while I polish this.”

That got him a flat eyed stare.

“And don't look at me like I'm a disappointment!”

Kyle walked into the back room and saw three open crates on the desk. It really was a lot of junk, but they had a better chance of selling most of it than they did the statue. Cheap little things people could brag about sold for a lot more in a place like this than some old statue. Well maybe an extremely rich pervert would come in, they could hope.

Kevin put his bag on the table. Then he pulled out his laptop, plugged it in, and opened up AniBlast. There they were, the new seasons Evan had been talking about...and not seeing any reason to deny the obvious, he clicked on the new season of Forgotten Garden. It started with a new opening, which he half-watched while pulling up the crates of junk his grandfather had bought. On his computer screen there was first the familiar face of the various characters. Kai, reincarnated office worker, then of course his two main girls, the ditzy blonde and the no nonsense brunette, and a few new faces—all, of course with a great deal of attention paid to animating their breasts as they hopped and danced and cast spells through the opening scene, because that's how anime be sometimes.

Having long ago mastered the art of reading the subtitles out of the corner of his eye while he worked on other things, he let the anime play and turned half his attention to the boxed of junk his grandfather had bought. Old lanterns, old statues, most of it not really ancient but some of it was. Ancient or relatively new most of it would, ultimately, get sold. To people looking for something interesting to put on their coffee tables, or sometimes people from prop departments came in looking for scene filler. All Kyle had to do was write it all down to be priced later, which unfortunately didn't require a full half of his brain.

Here, alone, he could admit he was jealous of Evan.

There were other things too. If Evan and Betty got together—and he hoped they did get together, he really did! He was sure—how would that change things between the three of them?

But more than that, when it came to girls...well, when it came to girls Kyle had no experience. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Nada. None. Except of course for Betty, but she didn't count. Not like that. He just wasn't someone who got noticed, that was the trouble. And he was no good at making himself get noticed by anybody either. Can't get a date if hardly anyone knows you exist.

With a sigh, he turned his attention back to the anime while he reached into the crate for the next item to catalog. Kai's party was theoretically gearing up to fight the big demon lord they'd set up at the end of last season, which had involved buying everyone new armor, and now there was a lot of yelling because the girls had fallen into his dressing room and everbodies straps were tangled. An awful lot of body gyrations, suggestive moaning, and double entendre.

Demons and casual horniness. Problems, Kyle thought, for a simpler world.

He turned away from the screen and shook his head. He was getting maudlin and grumpy, which wouldn't do anyone any good. Resolving not to let his mind wander because it obviously didn't know how to behave itself, he finally actually pulled the item he'd grabbed out of the box.

It was an old oil lamp.

The lamp like something out of the Arabian Nights. A lot of people thought the long spouted teapot looking thing really was a teapot or something and the “lamp” name was because of weird translation or old uses of the word or something, but his grandfather showed him how it worked once. You poured oil inside it. The fumes from the oil floated up the spout, and then you lit them when they came through the hole at the top. But it was so easy to imagine a genie pouring out of it...

He rubbed the side of it. Who wouldn't? And for just a second his chest tightened in anticipation. But there was no puff of smoke, no magical being there to change his life. He laughed at himself and looked inside. Empty. What had he expected to see, a little house? He started checking the lamp for leaks. None that he could see. Still better to be sure...

Actually didn't they have some oil that would work? It came in big plastic jugs these days but there were a lot of old lamps and things that used the same kind of oil so they had some around for demonstrations. He found the jug under the office table and poured a little in the lamp, then he put the cover back on. He waited a minute for the fumes to go—he had to find a lighter anyway—finally digging one out of the bottom of a drawer—and lit the end of the lamp. The flame caught easily, a playfully flickering orange dot.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Hey it still works!” he said. “I'll show gramps. Maybe we can use it for a display...”

The flame twitched and jumped. Then it turned purple.

Then it exploded.

A huge whoosh of purple fire and pinkish smoke erupted from the spout of the lamp and something shot out like a rocket, leaving a trail of smoke behind as it spun around the room. Finally it—SHE—landed right in front of him.

The girl had pinkish purple skin and sparkling amber eyes. Her ears were pointed, with huge dangling earrings, and her dark purple hair was held in a ponytail by a golden cylinder covered in odd designs. She had three gold bracelets on one arm, and she wore harem pants with pointed cloth shoes.

And that was all she wore. Her large, soft-looking breasts floated free, bouncing in front of her fit, curvaceous body as she floated in the air. It was not, normally, the kind of thing a conscientious narrator should fixate on, but the narrative is following Kyle. And Kyle's eyes weren't going anywhere else in a hurry.

“Hello master!” The impossible floating topless girl said, making things significantly harder. He forced himself to look away from her, diverting his eyes to the ancient oil lamp that still floated in place on the counter. The one she appeared to have sprung from a moment ago. “Thank you so much for summoning me!”

And with that, Kevin was all caught up.

“I...” he stammered intelligently, his mind coming back to the present. “I....uh...huh....huwh!?”

“Hey!” the purple girl said, floating across to his laptop. “What's this thing? It looks fun! Ooh, I wanna try her outfit on.”

Kyle looked over at the laptop to see the screen dominated by Mona, a recurring villain on Forgotten Garden. What she wore basically boiled down to two strips of cloth that always clung to her ass like they were wet and two more that only technically covered her nipples. Like most of the characters on the show she was some artist's wild erotic fantasy, which suddenly made a lot more sense than anything else in his world.

“Oh I get it!” Kyle said, clapping his hands together. “You're not real.”

“What? Of course I'm real!” the genie girl pouted.

“No,” Kyle said. “You're just a mix of me thinking about being lonely and about genies when I was checking out the lamp, so I hallucinated a sexy genie. Probably from the lamp oil fumes. That makes sense.”

“No I'm really reaaaaal!” the genie whined. “Come touch me and see!”

“Exactly what a frustrated sexual fantasy would say,” Kyle nodded.

“Oooooo!” the genie groaned. Then she shot through the air like a rocket and crashed into him. The impact was jarring, as were her arms wrapping around his neck, but his focus was taken up almost entirely by the warm softness that entirely engulfed his face The genie's flying tackle knocked him backwards off the chair and he slammed into the ground, but all he could think about was how she smelled of spiced cherries and how warm and soft her skin felt against his.

It was too much to handle. He'd never even touched a girl before and now he was face down in the most amazing pair of breasts—well let's face it, the ONLY real pair of breasts—he'd ever seen in person. She was real, she really was real, he'd found a real genie, and how he had his face buried in her breasts and...

Oh yeah, breathing! He ought to be breathing! But that would mean taking his face out from between....

She did it for him, pulling away to look him in the eyes, her face all hurt innocence and pleading.

“Now do you believe I'm real?” she said, once his face was out from between her breasts.

“Y-yeah,” he said. “Yeah sure, I guess I...what's wrong?”

She had a distracted look on her face, and she was blushing. He looked down at his hands. His right hand had cupped one of her breasts and did not seem interested in moving, except to kneed his fingers softly.

“Gah!” Kyle said, pulling his hand away. “I'm sorry!”

“It's okay!” the genie said. “A lot of my masters try stuff like that. You're actually really nice, for one of my Masters, so I won't curse you for it or anything.”

“O-okay,” Kyle said, getting up. “I'm actually kind of glad you said that, maybe the threat of curses will help me restraing myself. I don't know how it was last time you were out of the lamp, but now...doing stuff like that. It's not right.”

He picked up the chair and sat down.

“You okay in there boy?” his grandfather called from the front room. “I heard a noise.”

“I'm fine just slammed a crate down too hard,” Kyle called back. The response was automatic, he had no interest in explaining all this to the old man. “There wasn't anything breakable in it!” Except me.

“Okay. As long as nothing's damaged.”

Again, me. I'm damaged.

With his grandfather dealt with, Kyle looked at the genie and started thinking seriously about what was going on. He'd found a genie. That could be either a very good or a very bad thing. He'd seen stories where genies were helpful spirits, and stories where they were evil tricksters. She didn't look evil, but he had to be intelligent about this. It could all be a trick. How did this work?

“Well let's take this one step at a time,” he said. “What's your name?”

The genie blinked.

“Why do you want to know my name?” she asked.

“Well I already...y'know...groped you a little,” Kevin blushed. “And again I'm sorry about that, I really shouldn't have done it. But the point is I should at least know your name. And if we're going to talk I need to know what to call you.”

“Most of my Masters just call me genie,” the genie said. “I had a name, a long time ago, buuut...I don't remember.”

“Uhm, okay,” Kevin said. “How about if I call you, uh...Jenny? Is that okay? No, it's not, it's just the first thing I thought of because it sounds like genie I can...”

“No it's wonderful!” she said, sparkles appearing in her eyes. “It's absolutely wonderful! Thank you Master!”

“And I'm not super comfortable with you calling me that,” Kyle said. “My name is Kyle, okay? Kyle Ardman. Just call me Kyle.”

“I can't do that!” the genie said. “You're my Master!”

If you had told Kyle he would one day be upset about a sexy topless woman calling him master, he would have slapped you in the face and called you a liar.

“Okay” he said. “Okay fine. For now. Uhm, how about putting a top on?”

She looked down at her chest.

“But I'll get itchy!” she complained. “And I don't have a top.”

“Can't you magic one up or something?” he said. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know I just...I'm just getting a little distracted. I know, that's really my problem, not yours, but I need to focus on all the weirdness going on so please?”

“Well alright,” she said. “But I can't get one with magic. That's not how it works.”

“Uh, okay,” Kyle said. He grabbed his own shirt and pulled it off, handing it to her. “That might be a little sweaty, I was running earlier...”

“No it's fine,” she said, sliding the shirt over her head. It had been designed for someone bigger than her but with a much flatter chest, so the fabric threatened to tear, but she was covered and he could take his eyes off her nipples now, a feat mere effort of will had been unable to achieve.

“Thank you,” Kyle said, sighing with relief. “Okay, so I guess my first question is...how does this work? Do I get three wishes? One wish? What?”

“You get three wishes,” Jenny said.

“Hmm,” Kyle said, his mind racing. If he wasn't hallucinating, this was a golden opportunity. He didn't dare waste it. “I need to think about this then. Depending on what I wish for, I could really screw myself up. And I don't want to accidentally cause side effects that could hurt people or blow up the world...”

“But you don't get to pick them,” Jenny cut in. “Or, you get to pick one, but you kinda already did. Lots of people make that mistake. Same thing with the other two, for other people.”

“Sorry,” Kyle said. “I got confused.”

“You already have a wish,” Jenny said. “One wish, deep in your heart. The one thing you truly desire above all others. When you ask me to grant your wish, that wish will come true. Two other people close to you, who's souls are connected to yours, will also get their deepest wish granted too. The thing they truly want more than anything else in the entire world.”

“But what if what they want changes?” Kyle asked. “I mean, when I was five I wanted to be a whale.”

“Not stuff like that,” Jenny giggled. “Basic stuff. Deep down in your soul.”

“Okay,” Kyle said. “But can it, like, hurt me? Can I make my wish and it rebounds in my face? Like I wish for world peace so everyone on earth dies?”

“No not like that,” Jenny said. “And a wish for world peace might not work, anyway. There are things wishes can't do. Besides that's almost never the kind of thing people really wish for deep in their hearts. They want a war to stop, or suffering they know about to stop, that kind of thing. But it might...look. Let's say you wished to be the richest person in the world, right? That was the deepest wish of your heart.”

“Okay,” Kyle said.

“Then you would, I dunno, stumble across a gold mine or something,” Jenny said. “But then you would be the richest person in the world, so...”

“So you'd have all the problems that come along with that,” Kevin said. “You've got to live with the consequences of whatever you wished for. What about all the stories of people getting to make their own three wishes?”

“That's a thing wizards can do,” Jenny said. “A powerful wizard can force specific wishes out of a genie. But it takes a lot of magic, so even the strongest wizards can only do it two or three times, and the wishes are never as powerful, and the genie is usually super annoyed when they try to do it too, so they mess with the wish.”

“And that's where the stories about tricky wishes came from,” Kyle said. That kind of made sense. As for finding out there were wizards, well he just found out there were genies he wasn't about to start questioning that kind of thing now. The disbelief and panicked screaming at a world where all the rules had changed could come later. “The deepest wish of my heart...I can't think of one.”

“Most people can't,” the genie said. “It's so deep inside they don't even realize it.”

“Who else gets the wishes?”

“I don't know,” Jenny said. “Two people who's souls are close to yours. They don't even have to be people you know. They could be people you pass in the street every day, or people you will meet once your own wish is granted.”

“Huh,” Kevin said. “And you'll grant them when I ask?”

“I will!” Jenny said. “But be careful Master...even I don't know what your deepest wish is. I won't even know after I cast it, not right away. And you'll have to deal with it once it happens.”

“Yeah,” Kevin said. “When was the last time someone made a wish? That you know about?”

If it was around the same time as some kind of massive war or disaster, he was going to cut this off right now.

“It was a long time ago,” Jenny said. “I lose track of time inside the lamp. But they were wearing a lot more clothes. And they talked like this.”

She let out a few syllables. Kyle couldn't recognize the language at all.

“Sorry I don't know that place or time,” Kyle said. “Wait! How are you talking to me like a modern American?”

“Oh I copied the language off your mind when you summoned me!” Jenny said. “It's automatic. I can talk just like a modern person! America is the kingdom we're in?”

“Something like that,” Kyle said. “We don't really have a king, but I'll explain later...wait what about later? What happens to you when I make the wish?”

“Well I can't have another master until you die,” Jenny said. “The lamp is bonded to you, that's automatic too. Most people send me back to the lamp and hide it someplace.”

“They just lock you away!?” Kyle gasped.

“I'm bonded to my master until they die,” Jenny shrugged. “It makes sense. If everyone knew you had a genie they might try to kill you so they could use the lamp. And even when my masters were so powerful they didn't really have to worry about it they were usually ashamed they had to ask a genie for help.”

“But that's horrible!” Kevin gasped. “They just abandon you after you help them?”

“Well yeah,” she said. “It's not like I'm a human or anything...”

“But you're still a person!” he said. “I mean I've only known you for a couple of minutes but even I can tell you've got it all.”

“Awww thank you!” the genie smiled. “I can take off the shirt so you can see it all again if you want...”

“NOT what I meant!” Kyle said. “I meant a personality, and free will, and that kind of stuff! You should get to...I dunno. Live. Look, once you grant my wishes...why not hang around? In the world? I promise not to seal you up in the lamp or anything.”

“That would be so amazing!” Jenny said. “I never get to see what's going on in the world! Could I really do that?”

“Yeah uh,” Kevin scratched his head. “We might have to explain the pinky-purple skin and the pointy ears. There aren't a lot of genies around anymore.”

“Once you make a wish I'll be able to use minor magic,” Jenny said. “I can't magic up something solid for myself like clothes, but I could make it so I look human. I've done that once or twice. It was a long time ago though.”

“Great!” Kevin said. “So all I have to do is say grant my wishes...”

Kevin thought. It could all be a trick. She could still be dangerous and here to get him to wish for something bad, or to get him let her hurt him. But somehow he just couldn't picture Jenny being like that. And if her story was true he hadto help her. Besides, the deepest wish of his heart...he couldn't think of what it was, but something inside him was desperate to find out.

“Okay,” he said. “Grant my wishes.”