Chapter 11: Chapter 5

Grandma was kind to have taken me shopping for essentials: snacks, meals to warm up or make, drinks, toiletries, and more. My parents left me to figure things out on my own. They gave me maybe enough money to last me a month, let me use their old beater car to get around town, and that’s about it. Dad said I should be grateful I have those things as others don’t have what I was given. Grandma though, she makes me feel different… Part of me felt so guilty after bringing back five bags worth of stuff for my dorm room, but she insisted it was nothing. 

I decided to stay the night in my old room I used to share with my brother whenever we would visit grandma’s. The bunk bed was replaced with a full sized bed. I set all my things by the door and sit down on the bed. It’s firmer than my college dorm mattress, and that thing has been slept on by so many people over who knows how many years. I lay back and stare at the old ceiling lamp. I remember back when my brother and I would stay up past bedtime talking to each other. We whispered so grandma wouldn’t come in and force us to sleep. We’d find things in the ceiling pattern, making the shapes we saw into stories until we both fell asleep. I couldn’t help but smile. To think there were good times back then…

I sit up and grab my duffle bag, changing into my sleep pants and taking my shirt off. As I crawl into bed, I notice there’s an old TV sitting on the bedside table. It had a built-in VCR to it, and underneath the vintage window was a bookcase full of VHS’. I smiled as I rummaged through them. My finger landed on Aladdin, my exact copy I picked up from the thrift store with mom way back in the day. I turned on the TV and popped the bad boy in. I adjust the volume so it doesn’t wake my grandma in the adjacent room. I then crawl into bed and watch the movie.

Beside my bed was the oil lamp my grandma had gifted me. While I watch the movie, I hold the cold metal in my hands. I feel my heat transfer to the metal and I begin to rub it mindlessly as the movie progresses. Suddenly the lamp became too warm. I looked down and noticed its bronze color turned light, so light it was illuminating. I tossed the lamp onto the floor and back away from it and suddenly the room began to feel warm.

What the hell? I thought as I began to panic. The lamp began glowing bright like a light bulb. I didn’t know what to do at the moment. I cautiously crawl off my bed and lower down to the lamp.

The windows blew open as if a hurricane hit the home out of nowhere. The air became tight, like a vacuum was being formed inside my bedroom. My breath was sucked out of my lungs and I heaved forward with a cough. Purple dust with twinkles escaped the glowing lamp, and from what it looked like fireflies danced in the purple like sand around the antique lamp. It grew until it began condensing into the form of a person. I fell back onto my bed as the wind calmed and I could finally breathe again; but standing before me is a woman I have never seen before. She stood still for a moment as I coughed more.

The woman before me had smooth brown skin and dark brown hair that was braided up in a bun. She had a scarf draped over her head and neck. Golden earrings and eyeshadow decorated her, along with a matching necklace and rings. Her clothing was unique, a long sleeved gown that was a light teal and embroidered with golden colored threads making a beautiful pattern. The gown turned into long pants and she had simplistic shoes wrapped around her feet. I locked eyes with her brown eyes and still couldn’t muster a noise out of my chest.

“Hello,” her soft voice spoke when I calmed down. It was soothing, yet I was still afraid. “My name is Jinn, and I will grant you three wishes.”

“What?” I suddenly whispered.

As she took a breath, she suddenly appeared confused. She glanced around at her surroundings, noticing that the room was as empty as it could be. The movie still played as there was no way to pause it, not that I could have found it. The woman then looked back at me with even more confusion, like she wasn’t expecting to see me. 

“Who are you?” She asked me as firmly as she could and crossed her arms over one another. Her body became stiff. 

“Cameron,” I said and shook my head. “What is happening, did I fall asleep?” I looked down at my hands and began pinching my wrists and fingers. I could see my hands in full detail and feel every little bit of pain I inflicted on myself.

“No, you’re not asleep,” the woman spoke. I noticed she had a very strong accent sounding very familiar to India or something. “You are very much awake.”

“Then what is this? Some kind of a prank being pulled on me?”

“I would ask the same question…” She tried to sympathize but sounded cold with her tone. “Where am I, to be exact?”

“Where are you? You’re in my bedroom.”

“What part of Arabia am I in?”

“Arabia? You’re in America…”

“What?” She widened her eyes and moved backwards. She bumped into the book shelf of VHS tapes and became startled. “Not possible…”

“It is…” I said and adjusted my weight on the bed. I crossed my legs. “What is going on here?”
“I’m a Djinn.”

“The heck is a Djinn?” I blurted out. 

The woman turned and eyed the movie for a moment, seeing the blue genie singing to Aladdan. She took a long moment as if she was gathering her thoughts. I sighed and grabbed my phone and googled whatever she said she was. I read over wikipedia and realized that Djin was another word for a Jinn, or what us Americans liked to call a Genie. My eyebrows lifted as I shut off my phone.

“You’re a Genie.”

“Djinn,” she corrected me instantly. She appeared insulted by google’s term. “And ironically named Jinn of all things I could have been named…”

“Okay, Jinn,” I spoke cautiously, “what are you doing here?”

“I am to be of service to…” she trailed off as she looked down at the oil lamp she had been in, and then back to me. “Well, I guess to you now.” She lifted her right hand up and grasped her necklace. “I am at your service, Cameron. I will grant you three wishes of your own choice and then return to this lamp when you are finished with me.” She knelt down and gently picked up the bronze lamp. She spoke so distant towards me. The expression on her face was full of confusion and disappointment, maybe even a slight hint of fear. Jinn stood back up straight with the lamp cradled in her arms.

“Okay?” I said and paused for a long moment. This can’t be actually happening, can it?

“There’s no time limit on your wish making… Wish whenever you please,” she explained and held out the lamp to me. “You have to have this in your possession, though, in order to make a wish.”

I take the lamp from her and stare blankly at her.

“Okay,” I whispered and set the lamp back down on the side table with the TV. “So, you’re just going to stand there until I wish something from you?”

“Well…” She choked on her own words for a moment. “I am tied to this lamp and now to you. I do what you want, I go where you go, and I do as you please.”

“People are going to suspect you…”

“As a Djinn, I can appear to you and only you. Others will not see my appearance unless you command me to appear to them.”

“You’re a spirit then?”

“No, I am human as much as you are, but with magical abilities and the power to vanish from the human’s eye.”

“So, you’re some kind of a witch?”

“Witch is a term I do not associate with, please do not call me that. I am not a witch.” I could feel the bitterness in her mouth.

“Okay, but you don’t want me to call you a genie either.”

“Correct, either you call me by my name or what I am: Jinn or Djinn.”

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“But a Djinn is a human with magical powers?”

“Correct. Nothing more and nothing less.”

“Can you turn invisible from me if I asked you to?” 

“Yes,” she answered instantaneously.

“Turn invisible,” I commanded.

Jinn slowly disappeared, blending in with the surroundings. I then lean over to the bedside table and grab the box for the Aladdan movie. I held it out to where Jinn was standing. 

“Hold this,” I say. The box was pulled out of my grasp and floated in mid air. I was intrigued. “Okay, you can appear again.” 

Jinn did so, and she was once standing before me in the flesh. She smiled lightly as she handed back the Aladdin box to me. 

“I just wanted to see…”

“I understand,” she said with slight amusement. 

There was a long moment of silence, but with the movie still playing as background noise of course. I didn’t know what I wanted to do or what I could believe. What I did know was that my eyes were beginning to burn and I couldn’t keep them open much longer. 

“I’m tired…” I said and yawned. “I need rest, I don’t think I can wrap my mind around this right now…” 

“Rest then,” Jinn said plainly and stiffened up.

“Are you tired?”

“Y-yes?” She hesitated to answer me.

“Rest then?” I suggested and then suddenly felt awkward as I didn’t know where she would rest. “Umm, give me a second.” I said and jumped out of bed. 

I opened the door and went down the hall. I opened up a closet at the end of the corridor and found a linen closet full of blankets, pillows, towels, and medicine. I grabbed an old pillow and cotton based blanket. They smelled like must. I gently closed the door and headed back to the room. Jinn was still in the same spot and position I had left her in. She was very obedient…

“Here, do you mind sleeping on the floor?”

“No, the floor is fine,” Jinn said as she gently took the pillow and blanket from me.

“You rest, right?”

“Again, I am as much of a human as you are.”

“So you eat too?”

“Yes.”

“Use the bathroom?”

“Yes, I do everything you do.”

“Fuck…” I muttered as I realized that it would be weird for my grandma to hear the toilet flush with me being right next to her. “Ummm…”

“What is it?”

“Nothing…” I said and looked by the bookshelf. “Sleep on the floor there, you won’t be seen if my grandma opens the door.”

“She won’t see me unless you wish me to be seen by her.”

“Yeah, but she’ll be confused if she walks into a girl sleeping on the floor in her house or an invisible hump under the blanket…” I was surprised I was able to think any of it through with how tired I was. 

“Okay,” she said and knelt down. She gently placed the pillow on the ground and draped the blanket on the ground. She promptly laid her head on the pillow and body over the blanket. 

“Do you need another blanket to cover you?”
“This was not a mat to lay upon?” She asked me.

“No, it was your blanket. I can get you another one.”

“I’m fine,” she barked.

“Okay?” I said and raised my hands. “Okay, no need to snap at me.”

“I’m sorry…” She said softly and curled up.

I climbed into the bed and crawled under the covers. My eyes locked on the screen as the movie was almost over. I didn’t even notice I had fallen asleep so fast after closing my eyelids. But the next day came within what felt like seconds.

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