Chapter 14: Ch.14: Improved Living Conditions

When Dante got home from work, she expected Tatiana to be there. And she was. What she wasn't expecting was for the living room to be turned into a movie theater. 

“Hey, babe.” Tatiana called from her recliner seat, “Had to get G caught up on nerd culture.”

On the screen, which used to be the wall, were two men fighting with brightly colored swords next to lava as an epic orchestra played. Jiji, on the couch next to Tea, was on the edge of her seat. Dante, being passed by another Jiji entering the house, was baffled. 

The only difference was the one on the couch had a fluffy ponytail. The clone had her hair down in a half-up half-down style. Also, a slightly larger bust.

She couldn’t decide which one to focus on as she exclaimed, “What? How? Who? When?”

Jiji, both of them, answered with a quick, “Cloned myself so I could do two things at once. I’ll have the clone’s memory once we join up.”

Tatiana’s long “Ahhhh~,” of approval gave Dante some ease. It was harder to see what expression her wife had in the dark. The following question was loud and clear. 

“Is this the first time you’ve done this?” Dante asked. 

“Yep,” the original said. 

The clone walked toward her sitting original, “It takes more magic to do this than anything. So once I regroup, I’m pretty much,”

What the clone wanted to do was place her hand on the headrest. Too bad for her, the original’s hair and her pinkie touched by a single strand. The light show that followed wasn’t on par with other things the Barretts had seen lately. But it did return everything in the house to normal.

“Ah damn it!” Tea cursed now on the couch, ”We didn’t get to the ‘high ground’ part!” 

On the low ground was a genie. Completely knocked out with a loud snore. She resembled a toddler after a sugar crash with her limbs sprawled out. In Tatiana’s mind anyway. 

“Aw! Your assistant’s all tuckered out,” Tea cooed as she set Jiji on the couch. “So honey, how was your day?”

“It was,” she observed the sleeping girl, “Fine.” 

Jiji seemed comfortable on the cushions. She was curled in a ball. Chin tucked in and hands under a pillow. All she was missing was a blanket and a stuffed bear.

Dante looked toward the stairs. She knew of her and Tatiana’s master bedroom. The second bedroom that Tatiana turned into her game studio. The ‘guest room’ was Dante’s home office. 

It dawned on her. 

“She’s been on the couch this entire time?”

Tatiana scrunched her brow at the last syllable, “What? No! She’s been sleeping in her lamp. Why would she sleep on this stiff thing?”

Dante’s voice was faint. What she said wasn’t audible. Tatiana didn’t like that one bit. 

Tatiana turned to face her wife, “What’s going on?”

Dante used her new sunglasses to cover up the fact she wasn’t looking at Tatiana. Her other hand rubbed the back of her neck. And not a single word was said with a fraction of confidence. 

“What? Nothing’s going on. Why would you say that? Everything is fine. I was just curious.”

“You are the worst liar in the history of liars.” Tatiana crossed her arms and demanded, “What happened?”

Dante exhaled. She folded her glasses away in the blazer’s inner pocket. Then, she took her wife upstairs. 

The master bedroom door closed, and Dante explained, “I don’t think Jiji’s ready for college.”

“I coulda told ya that,” Tatiana snickered. “She’s got the attention span of a bagel.”

“You mean ‘beagle’.”

“I said what I said.”

Dante’s hands found their way to her own hips. She started to gingerly pace around the room. Words flew out like a waterfall. 

“I didn’t realize she was in that lamp by herself! Like, I don’t know what I thought! But she’s been in that lamp most of her life! Alone!”

Tatiana asked, “Wait, she didn’t have some magic A.I. to talk to? She wasn’t in hypersleep? She was awake the entire time?”

“Yes!” Dante confirmed. She was almost shouting now, “Now I feel bad for getting mad at her lack of social skills!”

“Babe, calm down.” Tatiana led her to the bed. They sat beside one another. Hand in hand, eye to eye. “Just, take it easy. You didn’t know. I didn’t know. But now we do.”

Dante’s head rested on Tatiana’s shoulder. 

“But what now?” Dante asked. “I can’t let her go back in that lamp. I can’t let her be by herself at school. And we don’t have any other rooms.”

Tatiana didn’t want to be blunt. She didn’t want to sound rude. But when your wife misses the forest for the trees, there was only so much you could say. 

“Babe, you’ve got 99 wishes.”

“98,” Dante corrected.

Baffled, “You spent a magic wish on sunglasses?”

-Monday Morning-

The Barretts’ plan was set in motion. Jiji woke up with a piece of paper on her face. Tatiana’s ufo drawing in the corner was the first thing she saw. The second was her writing. 

‘Meet us in the backyard’.

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Jiji got up and headed straight there. She spotted the two past the sliding glass door. She opened it the way you would a door with hinges. 

“Morning!” 

They both turned. Dante held a notebook. Tatiana stood with a tablet. 

“Morning,” Dante greeted.

“Hey,” Tea waved her over, “Check this out! We’re getting a backyard house.”

On-screen was a list of examples. All had large yards with plenty of space between the main house and the single-floor building. Some were the size of a shack. Only enough room for a single bed. Others were wide and open. A ceiling with three walls and a fireplace. Almost all were next to a pool. 

“You gonna wish for a pool first?” Jiji asked. 

“We’re less than an hour away from the beach and ten minutes away from a gym with a pool,” Dante informed. “It’d be kind of pointless.”

Tatiana offered, “You’d get to see me in a swimsuit more.”    

Dante reluctantly blushed, “Ok, so I’m wishing for a pool house then.” She twiddled with a strand of her hair, hearing Tea chuckle in victory. 

“We want you to pick the design,” Tatiana showed off some more to Jiji. 

She could see Jiji turning much redder than Dante. Both because of Dante’s darker complexion and Jiji being a walking cartoon. 

“Oh! Really?! My choice?” 

Dante nodded, “Your choice.” 

Tea added, “Give it a space theme though.”

Dante nudged her wife’s arm. Tatiana felt no shame.

The tablet got handed off. The ones that caught her eye the most had a fireplace of some kind. One dead in the center of the open building seemed great. Her favorite had a grill option.

The open air was also a bonus. A sliding wall panel when the rain came or for extra privacy. A pulldown bed was built into a wall. As well as a kitchen taking up one corner. The granite counter made Jiji’s eyes sparkle. 

Finally, there was the pool itself. Rectangular with a rainbow floor as it got deeper. It was like a bismuth crystal. 

Jiji didn’t need to look at any other pools. That was her favorite.

“Okay, I think I got a design in mind.” 

“I know,” Tea said, “We almost fell in it.” 

Jiji looked up, and there it all was. The open-air house with a black fireplace and grill. The kitchen in the corner. A large mounted Tv. A sofa facing the TV. A pulldown bed. And a reach-in closet next to the bed. All with a black galaxy granite design. 

Star-shaped pillows were on the bed. The sheets were black with white specs, resembling the night sky. A globe doubling as a lamp. A few paintings of galaxies on the wall. 

The space theme had Tatiana smiling from ear to ear.

Dante was dripping from her dip in the pool. 

“Oops!” 

Jiji huffed and puffed and blew as hard as she could. Dante had never been inside a hurricane. Living in California, she was more concerned about earthquakes. But she imagined this was what it was like. 

In a matter of seconds, she was dry. Hair poofed like an Afro and eyes wide open.

“Don’t make me waste a wish on my hair.” 

Jiji snapped her fingers and Dante’s pixie cut was back. 

“Good. Now, I wish for this pool house to be your house. No more living on the couch.” 

“Ok, one permanent pool house and pool coming right-”

Right as Jiji clapped her hands together, she processed the last bit. Everything had a misty wave fading over it. Every lawn chair by the pool. Every inch of the pool house. Every item inside of it. They were there to stay. They were Jiji’s. 

“Wait, what?” Jiji looked back to the Barretts. 

Dante said nothing. She only handed off Jiji’s lamp. Tea just watched as the girl took the magic item. Shortly after, it transformed into a golden key. 

In the pool house, a large pink book appeared along with a bookshelf. The collection of literature stood between the closet and the kitchen. Dead in the middle of the wall.  

“Winter classes start in 2 months. Until then, you’ll need a real place to sleep.”  

Jiji couldn’t stop the tears. She suddenly hugged Dante. So tightly that she lifted the woman off the ground. Tatiana joined in when she heard Jinn’s little whimpers. The three of them all wrapped their arms around one another. 

Two simple words let the couple know they made a good decision.

“Thank you.”

END

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