Chapter 13: Ch.13: What are you doing?

Some professors had whiteboards to draw things out. Others used a chalkboard which could be used to annoy students who weren’t paying attention. Dante had a projector. A constantly breaking and malfunctioning projector. 

With class not in session, she did her best to make the ‘error’ go away. Sitting atop a ladder and tapping the buttons she hoped would do the trick, Dante let out a grunt every time nothing happened. Eventually, she had to use the ‘ol reliable for electronics. Turn it off and back on. 

The logo flashed when back on. She hesitantly waited for her laptop screen to appear on the white sheet. As she hoped, it did! A landscape shot where a desert met the ocean. An endless beach connected them. The Arab woman sunbathing in a lawn chair was a new addition.

“Jiji, how’d your coffee date go?” 

“Nice but the guy couldn’t hold a conversation to save his life. Anyway, I have a question,” Jiji sat upright, crossing her legs and facing Dante. “How do you get a girl to like you?”

“Is that what you’ve been up to?” was the professor’s response. She stayed seated on the ladder during the conversation. “You don’t plan on cutting classes when we get you set?”

“No~! I would never skip a class!” She looked at a paper with writing on it, “Although trigonometry seems like it’s gonna be boring.   

“That doesn’t really help your case.” 

“Would it help if I said theatre or literature are my picks for a major?”

Dante shrugged, “Uh…almost. Are you doing the art course?”

“I dunno.”

“Then no,” Dante answered. 

“Damn.”

As Jiji walked off-screen, and into the ocean, she emerged from behind the sheet. Bumping against the edge and tracking wet sand along the carpet. She dug her pinkie in her ear to drill the remaining sand out. 

She would’ve heard Dante scream over the loss of her spotless floor if the footprints and trail didn’t disappear within seconds. Jiji was also back in her regular clothes. 

Dante began stepping down, “I do enough lecturing for a living. But I’m not okay with you just teleporting in and out of places.” She passed by the girl heading toward her desk. “You’re gonna get caught if you’re not careful.” 

“Don’t worry Professor Dante. Nobody will know about my powers. You want a mature genie? You’ll get a mature genie.” She then bounced on her toes like a child, “Now, can you help me get this girl to go on a date with me?! She’s really pretty and-”

Dante sat on her desk, “She has big boobs?” 

“Nope. She’s about as small as you. But her eyes are just…” Jiji’s hands opened with a pop. Tiny fireworks circled around her extended fingers. The word she had to describe Alice appeared above her head as Jiji boasted, “Wow!”

Dante begrudgingly looked down at her figure for a second. Her eyes shot back up when the ‘wow’ came. Barrett then tried to shield her eyes from the painfully bright floating text. 

“So, how do you know that she isn’t like Jazz?” 

“Well, she’s Asain. Specifically Japanese since her last name is ‘Higurashi’. So I-” 

“No!” Dante needed to keep from laughing as she asked, “I mean, why do you want to ask her out? Did you notice any red flags during your talk?”

Jiji stopped rocking on her feet. The glow around her set. The bright ‘wow’ crumbled into a gray ‘well’.

“Well, she likes to read. She’s blunt. She had the cutest pair of shorts. Her hair looked soft. She was pretty quick-witted.” 

“Ok, and her negatives?” Dante investigated.

“She told me to get a hoodie with sleeves before winter came. But she was wearing shorts. Cute shorts, but I could see her legs the same way she could see my arms. They looked really smooth and-” 

“Rambling,” Dante was a little vexed at this point. 

“Oh right! We didn’t talk long enough for any ‘red flags’ to show.” Jiji rocked from her toes to her heels. “But she made a joke and after that, I just kinda froze. I didn’t know what to say so I just went for it. And then she said she ‘didn’t like my approach’ and walked away.” 

Dante let out a, “Hmm.” And then checked her watch, “Yeah, and what about your classes?”

“What classes?” Jiji asked.

“The ones I told you to look into for a schedule yesterday.” Dante crossed her legs and arms. “Jiji, do you want to be a student or not?”

“I do!” Jiji answered. “I’ve done nothing but read books for the past 1000 years! I want to put some of that knowledge to use! I want to see the things that textbooks told me about! If love at first sight is real! What martial art tournaments are actually like! If-” 

Dante stopped her cold, “Woah, woah, woah! Back up a second.”

Jiji took two steps back.

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“That’s not…anyway, what do you mean by ‘1000 years of reading’? I thought you were trapped in a lamp?”

“Oh, I didn’t tell you? The lamp is a library. Not like the puny ones you humans have.”

She revealed the lamp and opened the lid. A great pink beam of light shot toward the projector. The image on the screen changed. 

In place of the desktop wallpaper: books. Nothing but shelves of books as far as Dante could see. An endless hallway of knowledge and entertainment. It led to an unknown abyss. 

Jiji & Dante stood in the seating area observing it. A single closed book on a podium sat between the walls of literature. Larger than any novel or textbook Dante had ever seen. Easily the size of a rolling suitcase. It illuminated a blush pink as if it were a gif image. 

Jiji, now in a blue suit and high heels, spoke into a microphone. Her name badge had ‘Lamp Tours’ under her name. 

“Every Genie Lamp has a magic library home to every book ever published and this,” 

She tapped the button at the bottom of the microphone. The rose gold pages of the book flipped open. The pages left little particles in the air as they turned. Pink specs fell like snowflakes to the floor. Something Jiji paid no mind to. But blew Dante’s.

She continued, “is how we find what we’re looking for.” Jiji asked, “What’s your favorite genre?” Her finger hovered under the button. 

Dante had now started to squint at the screen. The ceiling of the ‘Lamp Library’ seemed to be a live feed of what was outside. What she thought was a ceiling anyway. 

The moving clouds. The position of sunlight. They mirrored what she saw out the window. The birds flying proved it was in real-time.

“How is there a glass ceiling inside of a,”

Jiji stopped her, “Professor, do I need to get ‘I’m magic’ tattooed on my body?”

To say Dante wasn’t impressed by the comment was an understatement. 

Dante’s arm rested on a seat. From the looks of it, if she were inside the lamp, she could spread both arms and touch either side of the hall. A fact that sped her heart up. 

Even though the hall was a void, it could only fit one person. If that. The podium took up so much space that it’d be impossible to move over or around it. 

A claustrophobic’s worst nightmare. No room. No exit. No one else. The books weren’t even on Dante’s mind anymore. 

What was? A simple question that stood above anything else. 

“D-did you really spend 1000 years in there?”

Jiji casually nodded. 

“By yourself?”

Jiji nodded again, a little faster this time.

“I mean, the ‘Magic Core’ would show a visual if I didn’t know what something was. Or tell me how something’s pronounced. So like, I know what a car is but don’t know how to drive. There were driving books in there though, so,” Jiji caught herself before rambling. “Sorry. Uhm. If you mean, ‘were there other sentient creatures’: Nope. Just me.”

Dante couldn’t run up to hug Jiji quick enough. She couldn’t hug her any tighter. So tight that the girl’s suit attire faded back to her hoodie & zip-off pants. 

Jiji let out a stunned, “Oh.”

Mishearing that as ‘ow’, “Sorry.” Barrett stayed in place, “Jiji, I’m so sorry.”

Jiji hugged her back, unsure what else to do. Or what else to say. 

“Uh, Professor,” Jinn focused away from her, “you didn’t do anything.”

Dante let her go. Both had relatively weak smiles. Both wondered how to fill the sudden silence. Pondering what to say next. 

Dante was first, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Jiji immediately closed the lamp, “Oh no. I’m fiiiine! Ok, so, I’m gonna go back and find some of those art classes you told me to find. I’ll see you at home! Ok? Ok, bye-bye, Professor!”

Jiji’s speedy exit left a trail of dust behind her. Dante thought it was odd since she knew the custodians vacuumed. But, she was more concerned with a certain student. 

When the thick clouds subsided, Dante was back to being all alone. Nothing but the sound of the projector’s cleaned fan humming above her. The sight of a little yellow bird, hanging out by the window. And an overwhelming apprehension stuck in her chest. 

End

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