. . .
Chapter Four
Jeannie understood the nature of magic, such that it allowed her own energies to zero in on the source of the blinked-up palace. Only one moment later, she and Major Healey appeared in the main hall, and discovered her Anthony taking great pleasure in the affections of the other djinni. Jeannie could not hold herself back at all and instantly vanished from Roger's side to appear at the djinni's head, a handful of hair clutched in each hand and pulled back as magically hard as she knew how.
Jeannie got nowhere fast. Genie's eyes flashed blue and Jeannie transformed into her normal pink smoke. Genie waved a hand at Jeannie's column and directed her into Genie's lamp. Jeannie's smoke vanished from sight in seconds. Roger just gazed on, agape not just at this djinni's beauty but at what she was doing to his friends.
"Well, now, I see your djinni-friend released you from the salt. No matter. You can have her as your djinni now. This one," she motioned her head at Tony, "no longer belongs to her. I am his djinni, and no one can change that." Under her influence, Tony nuzzled his head into her bosom, his face showing the pure bliss she had let him magically experience. Roger could see that Tony's mind was no longer his own. She was not a djinni: she was a devil!
"Now, begone, human! And take that lesser djinni with you!" Genie's eyes flashed blue once more as Roger watched mesmerized. He soon found himself outside the palace yet again, back where he started. The lamp she put Jeannie into was also in his hands. He did not get to act on his intentions to release Jeannie from it as he found several guns pointed in his general direction. Roger jumped so much at realizing the danger Genie had blinked him into the midst of, that his hands rubbed the sides of the lamp with his nervous response. That was all he needed to release Jeannie.
As her pink smoke spewed forth from the neck of the lamp, all but Roger reacted in a normal human fashion. The soldiers, who had thought a handsome reward was theirs for bringing in the invader, dropped their guns in fright and shock and ran. Only one of the five remained to witness as Jeannie reformed her body from the waist up, the rest a puff of pink smoke trailing back into the lamp. She had her arms folded before her in her standard ready-to-blink stance.
"What is your wish, my Master?" Jeannie intoned in a monotone manner.
Roger discovered he was not shocked with Jeannie coming out of the lamp that way, having seen that other djinni come out of it the very same way. Instead, he was more concerned with the lack of free will behind those normally lovely green eyes of hers. Something terrible had happened, and Jeannie was powerless to change it. For once, Roger had no thoughts of greed upon becoming the Master of a djinni. Rather, he had to find some way of getting his two best friends back together, and taking the other djinni off the face of the planet for good.
However, it would likely be best if he and Jeannie were back at the hotel room for some privacy so they could discuss what to do. A wish should do the trick, he thought.
"Uh, Jeannie? I wish you would take us back to the hotel! Then we can figure out what to do about you and Tony."
"Yes, Master!" Jeannie nodded and blinked as normal, instantly transporting them and her lamp to the hotel, leaving a single soldier to faint dead away on the sand.
. . .
"Jeannie! We have to do something to get that djinni away from Tony. Do you have any ideas?" Roger asked and put the lamp down on the bed. Jeannie remained in the same spot before him as her smoke simply stretched the distance back to her lamp. Roger finally noticed that Jeannie's harem clothes and hair had changed in style to match those of Genie's. Her normal red and pink harem colors had not changed.
"Who, Master?" Jeannie looked at her new Master, puzzled at the mention of some other person she felt she had never heard of before. She just kept her arms crossed in case he made a wish of her.
"Tony, your husband! Jeannie, don't you remember him?"
"I am not married, Master. And, I have never known anyone named 'Tony'. Are you sure you are not confusing me with some other djinni?" Jeannie was getting concerned with her Master's mental health. She would have to keep her eye on him for a while. If he kept acting this way, she would have to advise him how to make a wish to be right in the head.
"Oh, man, it's worse than I thought," Roger mumbled under his breath. He placed a hand on his face, slowly pulling it down. The stress of the situation was killing him. He hardly thought about what he was thinking, much less saying aloud, with Jeannie floating nearby. "Man! I wish I had some more of those harem girls to help calm me down."
Jeannie's face lit up with happiness. Now that was a wish befitting a true Master, she thought. "Right away, Master!"
Jeannie nodded and blinked, transforming the hotel room into a modest-size harem apartment, complete with more than a dozen harem girls, and half a dozen slavegirls with fans for the whole bunch. Jeannie rested her arms against her stomach once more, content to have granted this more appropriate wish.
Roger just sighed, allowing himself to be towed by a bevy of scantily clad girls to a nearby pile of pillows. He would relax with them, and hope nothing else happened to his best friends. At least he knew Jeannie was still there. He would take care of the problem of having a harem… later.
. . .
The afternoon became evening, even late evening, and the solitude of the palace was broken.
Genie continued to float little bits of delicacies to her new 'Master' although to her, he was really more of a pet or a slave who could make wishes. That is, when she allowed him to. She was having those thoughts as she gazed upon his very handsome face when some commotion nearby caused her to look over her shoulder towards the main entrance. She spied about half a dozen soldiers barging their way in, and pointing their guns at everyone. Genie welled her magic up from within, her eyes flashed and half a dozen more harem girls were gathered where the soldiers once stood. She was happy to have more lovely girls for her Master to enjoy, she thought as her eyes flashed blue and the girls vanished. She sent them to the main harem room, to be properly prepared by the rest of the harem.
Genie knew that those few intruders were not the only ones. She brought up more of her magic power, directing it through her mind's eye. That allowed her to expand her mind as she took in all rooms of the palace as well as the surrounding grounds. When she found the huge number of military forces all about, her anger boiled dangerously over. At least, it would be dangerous for all that came within her sight and power.
"That is enough!" she bellowed, Tony hardly noticing, other than that the food supply had stopped. Genie ignored him for the moment as her eyes flashed blue, then glowed pink as she nodded a hard blink. Nothing seemed to take place other than the fact that Genie grinned broadly. At the same moment, however, Genie appeared in the courtyard, a djinni-double of herself. She was just a little different though. Especially since her present height was right at 1000 cubits tall!
She bent over to get a better look at their scurrying forms, but she did not let them continue in that fashion. Her eyes flashed blue once more, and all but one turned into camels. All of the military and news equipment vanished into nothing. One human was spared when she had expanded her mind just moments before. Genie had used her magic to understand the technology he wielded as that of a film-camera. She knew that all Djinn did not show up on the 'film' but the humans changing into camels would, like the sight of their equipment vanishing. She smiled a look of pure evil directly at the cameraman before simply disappearing with her normal slight puff of pink smoke.
. . .
Roger had no clue that any of that was taking place. He was still trying to come up with a plan to take care of that other djinni, and rescue his friends at the same time. However, the 'distractions' of the harem girls were enough to keep him from doing any constructive thinking.
At the same time, the city was starting to panic. The cameraman had made it back to the state media station, but he had to ride one of former humans, that is, a camel. No one believed him about that camel being a human at one time, until he showed the raw and unedited developed film to them all. As soon as everyone had viewed it, the state TV station aired the film, again in its uncut format. People quickly became busy packing up what they could, and muffled cries to Allah were to be heard through the louvered windows of the harem room Roger relaxed in. He did not understand the language, so he shrugged it off. Or he would have had the hotel manager not barged through the door, yelling something about leaving the city before they all turned into camels.
"What was that?" Roger asked, getting up. The girls tried to pull him back down, but he needed to see what that guy had to say, if he could say anything. He stood frozen in his tracks, probably due to the sight the room made. Roger was sure it had to do with the fact that Jeannie was floating in smoke. That and how the room they were in a room should not exist much less be the huge size it was. Roger recognized the look, and turned to Jeannie.
"Uh, Jeannie, could you snap him out of it? I need to know what he was yelling about."
"As you wish, Master," Jeannie replied. She faced the stunned man, turning her body in her smoke as if she had spun on a heel. She blinked lightly at him, and he came to immediately. However, it was short-lived.
"What? But...how?" he managed to get out before fainting. Roger had a twinge of sympathy as he remembered his own similar first reaction to Jeannie's magic and smoking out of her bottle so many years ago. Roger had to wipe his hand over his face in frustration.
"Okay, Jeannie, let's try this: I wish...umm, I wish that he was awake and would tell us what he came rushing in here about," Roger said, hoping Jeannie did not take all of his wishes literally and could figure out what he needed to know.
"Yes, Master," she replied, and blinked. The man was standing before them once more, wide awake, and seeming to ignore the fact that Jeannie was only half-there. He started talking to Jeannie immediately, but not in English.
"Wait a minute! What are you talking about! Jeannie's what's he saying?" Roger asked.
"He says that there was news on the TV that a palace appeared out of nowhere, then all the military people that went to investigate were changed into camels by a giant djinni, but the cameraman's film did not show her. He escaped, and now everyone in the city is in a panic to leave. What is a TV, Master?" Jeannie asked, cocking her head to the left, as if she had no memory of living in the modern world for the last five years.
"You'll see soon enough. I think we need one so we can see what's going on," he replied, then waited. Jeannie did nothing and he slapped his forehead. "Oh, right! Jeannie, I wish we had a big TV set in here."
"As you wish, Master." Jeannie blinked her magic through her Master's mind, and produced a large box with glass on the front. It sat where the bureau used to be on the other side of the harem room. However, it was not on. Roger trotted across the thirty feet or so to turn it on, only to find out he couldn't. It had no power plug.
"Uh, Jeannie, this isn't right. I need it on so we can watch the news. Can't you just blink that?" he asked, a little pleading behind his words. The whole thing was just going from horrible to, well, he didn't have a word for what was worse than horrible.
"I will try, Master." Jeannie brought her folded arms up to concentrate and used her power of direct-telepathy to look into her Master's mind. She was able to find just the right memory about that box that he wanted 'on.' Although she zeroed in on the right memories and understandings of the device, she grinned inwardly at her Master's fascination with beautiful women 'cluttering' up the rest of his mind. She would have to reward him with a much larger harem later that night, she mused. Jeanie blinked lightly to send her magic through his definition of a TV set, and the glass glowed with life. She looked on, fascinated with the unusual device. She even smoked her form across the distance to float next to her Master as they both watched.
Roger watched and tried to learn, but it was all in Farsi. Still, he was able to piece together the gist of it just from the pictures. And, it was all a lot worse than just another djinni taking over Tony and wiping Jeannie's mind. They needed a solution now more than ever. And, relaxing with a bevy of beauties was not going to help any.
"Jeannie, as much as I really, really hate to do this, I have to. So, I wish you would change the room back to normal, and make the girls go away. No, wait! Make them appear in my apartment at home," he added, adjusting his wish to something a little more bearable.
"As you wish, Master." Jeannie understood her Master well, and blinked his small harem to his home on another continent. She could mentally see his tiny apartment briefly, to make sure the girls appeared there safely. She glimpsed many things within his tiny abode that puzzled her. Jeannie wondered if he would explain them all to her when they were both home. She understood one thing, though: that cramped apartment of his had to go! Once they were home again, one blink and he could live in luxury again. Although, she might just change his home to that of a proper Master when he was not looking, she thought with an inner giggle.
Roger sighed at seeing them all go. However, the current situation was more important. If he could find some way of getting Jeannie back to normal, maybe she wouldn't remember the girls right away. He wouldn't be able to keep them secret forever, but he would sure try.
"Okay, Jeannie, now him," said Roger, pointing to the manager. Jeannie blinked him out before Roger could say what he was thinking, and that was not it.
"Jeannie? Where did he go?"
"Back to your home, Master. Is that not where you wanted him?" she asked, puzzled.
"No! I mean, no, Jeannie. He has to stay here. I was just thinking aloud. We need to send him back to the front desk," he explained. "And, make him forget he ever saw you. Or the room the way it was before."
"Very well." Jeannie blinked, and returned the man to his place on their side of the world, none the wiser for what just happened there that evening. "Is there anything else you desire, Master?"
"Yes, peace and quiet," he answered with a hand to his forehead, not expecting to get it. He saw as Jeannie blinked, and – nothing. There was something really odd about all the sound up to that point. It was as if it had all just stopped. Rushing over to the louvered openings that served as windows in their hotel, Roger threw the shutters aside, and gazed out over a very quiet city. No sound whatsoever, anywhere.
"Jeannie? What did you do?" he asked, not really wanting to know the answer.
"I gave you your wish, Master, peace and quiet. Is that not what you wanted?" she replied, not really understanding then why her Master was not pleased with the way she was granting his wishes. She faced him in her smoke, wondering about him.
"Uh and just how did you give that to me, Jeannie?" Roger was getting worried by then. The Jeannie he knew would never have done what he thought she had just done, but he had to know.
"Oh, that. I made them all disappear." Jeannie smiled to him, knowing that all he wanted to know was how she accomplished his wish. She was sure he would be pleased with her explanation.
Roger's face grew pale as he pondered what she had truly done. He managed to croak out a reply of utter shock. "Disappear? All of them?! All of the people in the city?"
"Oh no, Master. Everyone. That is the only way to have peace and quiet. I left the Masters of all the other Djinn alone as I cannot make them vanish." She smiled to him with her hands clasped before her.
"What?! No, no, no, no! Jeannie, you can't do that!"
"But, I just did do that, Master. Are you not pleased?" She was getting worried again. This Master truly did not know how to make up his mind.
"Ohhh, Jeannie, Jeannie," he said, burying his face in his hands, trying not to think of all those beautiful women he had ever known, all just gone. "Jeannie, I didn't mean it that way. I just meant let's have some peace and quiet in our room! Not the whole world! I didn't know you could do stuff like that, anyway."
"Oh, yes, Master! I can do anything!" she beamed, smiling again. She folded her arms up before her. "Do you wish me to bring everyone back now?"
"Yes! Yes, I do, Jeannie… I just hope they don't know they've been blinked out. I don't think we could explain that to anyone," Roger answered, worrying about Dr. Bellows finding out.
"Oh, do not fret so, Master. No one will know," she said, and nodded hard with her blink, changing reality back to what it had been before. "It is done."
Roger could hear all the previous noises of a still-panicked city once more outside, and was relieved, or mostly so. It reminded him of what he had intended with his original wish.
"Can you just make it so that we can't hear from in here what's going on out there? And, don't make us deaf!" He was starting to get worried about the wording of his wishes.
"Oh, I would not do something like that, Master," she laughed, and blinked. All sound stopped once more. Roger was still not sure if she only stopped the sounds or not, so he stuck his head out the window. The continued cries of anguish hit his ears, and he was satisfied. Not relieved, but glad they were all still there.
"Much better, Jeannie. You did that perfectly," Roger said, stepping backwards and pulling the blinds closed.
"Thank you, Master. Is there anything else you desire?"
"Yeah, I could use a drink," he muttered, and a golden goblet of crystal clear water appeared in the air before him. Or, it looked like water. Grabbing it and taking a swig confirmed his first impression, but he would rather have had a martini, and said so. He had to shake away the suddenness of the goblet changing shape in his hand, but downing it helped float those anxieties away. He had a few more before he could really relax, and thought it all through. However, the alcohol was preventing him from thinking clearly.
"Man! I wish for once I could drink, relax and still have a perfectly clear head," he muttered, forgetting about all of his wishes being granted that way. As soon as Jeannie's blink restored the clarity of his thoughts, he realized the brilliance of that particular accidental wish. He would have to see if it was permanent or not. He could have a lot of fun with the girls in the future with that kind of ability.
"Wow! Thanks, Jeannie. Now, we need to figure out how to get you and Tony out of this mess. Yeah, yeah, I know, you don't know who Tony is, but he's my best friend, alright? And, I have to help him," Roger explained, cutting Jeannie off just in case she asked again who their Tony was. She remained quiet, awaiting her Master's wishes, and still floating away in her smoke.
"Uh, Jeannie? Can you come all the way out of your lamp? It's really unnerving seeing you like that."
"Certainly, Master!" Jeannie blinked, her smoke gathering itself under her hips to stretch out towards the floor. The moment it touched that solid surface, a whole and solid Jeannie coalesced to stand before him, her hands still clasped in front of her. She gave him a broad smile of perfect white teeth, happy to please her Master so.
"Okay, thanks. Maybe you ought to take a seat. This may take a while," he said, and started to ponder all that he had been through with Tony and Jeannie, anything related to her and her djinni heritage. He lay back on the bed, his legs dangling over, and closed his eyes. His mind was so clear; he did not worry about falling asleep, although his body was certainly tired enough.
Jeannie took her Master at his word, and pulled her legs up under her, to sit Indian-style in the air. She knew it to be far more comfortable than the furniture she could see in their tiny room. Her Master did not look very comfortable on such an inferior mattress either, so, she gave it a light blink. In a magical instant, it changed into a large canopied Arabian bed more appropriate for a handsome Master such as hers. She smiled to herself, relaxing and awaiting any more wishes he had of her.
. . .
"There we are, Master, all done. Why do we not go to bed for some more fun?" Genie suggested to Tony, smiling to him with the face of an angel. He did not know that she was far from being an angel, and could only agree, knowing that he was sure to have quite the fun time in bed with his angelic beauty of a djinni.
"Oh, Genie, I would love that! Show me the way to the bedroom and I will carry you over the threshold."
That reference puzzled Genie, until she glimpsed in his thoughts that it had to do with the marriage customs of his world. She loved the idea of that and agreed with a short flash of her eyes, making them disappear. They reappeared out of a diaphanous puff of her pink smoke directly outside of a pair of double doors that must have been over fifty feet wide each and ten times that in height. Tony tilted his head back in awe at their magnificence, and became very insecure about carrying her over that threshold. Genie sensed his feelings and blinked. The door on the right opened wide for them, revealing the cavernous bedroom beyond. Tony grinned at Genie, and swept her off her feet. He was happy that she was as lightweight as any woman he had ever carried. He stepped lightly with her, Genie's slender arms intertwined with his neck and shoulders.
Tony took his djinni into their love nest as Genie blinked the door instantly shut behind them. She blinked again, teleporting them both into the middle of their new bed, kneeling before one another. Had anyone been able to listen through those massive doors they would have heard much giggling and laughter over the next few hours as the djinni and her Master had fun like no other.
. . .