"Henry, why don't you go ahead and pick out a souvenir?" I heard a mom say to her son while I lackadaisically listened from inside my bottle.
As a captured djinn, I had nothing else to do but watch humans from my safe and cozy, but horribly boring and prison of a bottle. My only hope of ever escaping such a cramped lifestyle was for a human to pick me up, rub the dust off, and remove the magical cork that sealed me inside. Alas, the odds of that happening to a bored girl like me were next to nothing. Yet, I watched this curious boy, who was probably around 20 years old or so, browse the wares of the store and nurtured a fool's hope that he would choose me.
"C'mon Mom, do I have to? I don't really like anything here," I heard him say quietly.
"What? You have to get something! How else would you remember our trip?" his mom replied.
"Do I have to remember it?" he said sarcastically.
His mom lightly smacked his arm with a scoff and I couldn't help but giggle in my glass dungeon. I always appreciated a guy who had a sense of humor. He quickly resigned to the fact that he had to choose something and scanned the various items around the store. Every time his eyes glanced past the shelf I was sitting on, I felt a tinge of excitement and hope. Even after countless decades, I still dared to dream of my freedom.
"Alright, whatever, I guess I'll take this antique bottle then. It has to be the cheapest thing here anyway," I heard him say with a sigh.
Of course. Ignored like always. They always go for the shiny, pretty thing. Oh well, I guess there was tomorrow to look forward to and--wait. Wait wait wait. Was he reaching for me? Whoa, hold on, was this really happening? His hands wrapped around my bottle and I was pulled down from the shelf. I was utterly dumbfounded. This wasn't a dream, right? I didn't finally go crazy? After a quick exchange with the shop owner who pulled me out of the sand decades ago, I was placed into some type of paper bag and carried out.
I was still in a complete state of shock. I hadn't moved from that spot in literally years. I felt elated but also terrified at the same time. I was stationary for so long that I forgot how it felt to move around so much. I didn't realize just how comfortable I became with my surroundings in that damn shop.
Not able to see where I was going, I had to rely on my other senses. It felt like I was moving slowly, then very quickly, and then I was stationary for a while. Not long after, I was quickly on the move again and then I had the very curious sensation of flying through the air. I had heard that humans figured out how to fly, but I never experienced it before. It was strange and even though I couldn't see, it was still exhilarating.
After what felt like several days of traveling, my bottle was finally pulled out of the paper bag and I was set on top of a desk in what appeared to be a small room. While I couldn't see anything during my travels, I was able to keenly listen in on what everyone around me was saying. It appeared that my new owner, Henry, was a university student who was on something called 'spring break' with his family. It seemed like the parents were some sort of wealthy merchants given how much they discussed the father's business. Supposedly, they were able to afford to send him to school with private lodgings.
Now that I sat on his desk in what appeared to be a bedroom, I finally got a chance to visually study my potential new master. He was tall, but thin and lean. I had the impression that he might be really cute, but he didn't know how to present himself. If he got a different hairstyle, wore nicer clothes, and carried himself better, I thought he could be very handsome. Appearance aside, he did seem very nice, kind, and apparently, very smart if he went to a university!
As happy as I was to be in new surroundings, I knew it was very unlikely that I would be released from my confines. In the centuries since I had been imprisoned, it appeared that humans had forgotten all about djinn and rarely checked bottles to see if there was one captured inside. He would not only need to rub the bottle but remove the cork as well, which was something I was sure he had no intention of doing. I sighed heavily to myself but tried to focus on the silver lining that at least I would get a change of scenery for a while.
While I leisurely lounged inside my bottle, I lazily watched Henry as he frantically picked up different books and placed them into a bag. I wondered if he was running late to a lecture and I started to secretly judge him for having such poor time management skills. However, when he flung his bag around his body, it grazed my bottle, and I slipped off the edge of his desk. With a shriek that no one could hear, I tumbled down and landed on the floor. After I collected myself, I noticed that the cork popped out from the impact and a jolt of excitement spread through my body. One step down!
Realizing that he knocked the bottle down, he turned around and picked me up. I eagerly stared at him from within the bottle, but I knew it was wholly improbable that he would rub it. Before placing me back on the desk, he looked at the bottle curiously and muttered something about it being dusty. When his hand moved closer to the bottle and began to polish it, I gasped in surprise. He was actually rubbing it!
If my jaw could hit the bottom of the bottle, it would've. Immediately, magical energies swirled around and imbued themselves within me. I was about to unleash myself from my confines and reveal myself when I saw him quickly turn around, and walk out of the room. A moment later, I heard a door farther away open and then close. Welp, that timing couldn't have been shittier.
Rather than making a grand reveal and entrance, I instead sat down in my bottle completely deflated. I was finally able to leave, but I decided not to vacate my cramped confines just yet. For a while, I did toy around the idea of releasing myself and simply waiting in his room. However, I didn't think a human like him would react well to a floating, ethereal blue djinn hovering inside his private residence. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense to simply delay my grand entrance, complete with magical extravagance, until he came back.
The flow of time never really bothered me too much before, but now it felt like it was grinding to a halt. I felt like I was going crazy while I waited for him to return. Just how long was this lecture of his? Just when I felt like my mind was about to snap, I heard a door open and close. I was beyond excited to leave, but I knew I needed to time everything perfectly so he wouldn't panic.
Once he walked inside the bedroom, I started to slowly release myself from my glass confines. To him, I knew it would look like a steady release of multicolored smoke coming out of the bottle. He looked incredibly confused and while I continued to rise out of the bottle, I knew I needed to start the theatrics. I swirled the multicolored smoke around the room and then made it start to glitter and dazzle. Small fireworks quietly exploded within the smoke and I had some trumpets play a triumphant melody. Raising the intensity of the lights within the smoke, I slowly coalesced the swirling sparkly smoke into my blue, ethereal, djinn form.
Giving a light-hearted laugh, I smiled at him and finally spoke with what I hoped was a welcoming voice, "Greetings master! You have my endless thanks for releasing me from my confines."
After finishing my introduction, I gave a sweeping bow and had additional small, quiet fireworks explode behind me, lighting up the room in a dazzling display of lights that spelled out the word 'congratulations'. I looked up to see if I could gauge his reaction and I noticed he wasn't running away screaming, so that was encouraging. Instead, he cooly stood still and stared at me with a kind of blank expression on his face. Becoming a bit nervous at his reaction, I decided to continue with my introduction.
"I am a djinn, or what your humans have more recently called a genie. As a reward for releasing me, I am prepared to offer you wishes and I would be happy to grant all of your heart's desires. I am here to serve!"
I held out my hands, filled with gems and other riches while I continued to smile charmingly. Naturally, this didn't show off the full extent of my potent powers, but I learned it was best to start modestly with humans.
With my introduction now complete, I expected him to go down to his knees and thank me for this opportunity. Instead, he continued to stare at me blankly. Was my entrance not impressive enough for him? Did modern humans expect me to say or do something else? The longer I smiled at him without any reaction from him, the more anxious I became. I felt like I was starting to sweat, but I didn't dare wipe my brow. Wait, can djinn even become sweaty?
After a long pause, he finally spoke up and said, "Oh...well, this is cool and all. But I'm late for another class and I really just came by to grab a book I forgot. So...."
He grabbed the book and started to slowly turn to leave when I said in a shocked tone, "Wait...what?"
He gave me a small smile and placed the book in his bag before saying, "Like I said, I gotta go since I'm already super late. But like, this is super neat. It's great to meet you. I...umm...yeah, I guess I'll talk to you in a little bit?"
"Now hold on just a minute," I said flustered.
He started to walk out of the room while saying, "Bye Miss Djinn, don't go anywhere until I get back, ok?"
