Chapter Seven

"I've won a contest, a free trip for one, to Europe," said Roger Jr.

"When was this?" asked Mrs. Healey.

"Yesterday, at the drug store," Roger Jr. lied.

"My son won a free trip to Europe?" jumped in Colonel Healey. "How long does it last?"

"Two months."

"When does it start?" asked Mrs. Healey.

"Tonight. I, uh, entered the contest just before the draw."

"What about school?" she asked.

"Have it all taken care of," said Roger Jr. "Just call them up at lunch, and you'll see."

"Sounds sort of fishy to me," said Mrs. Healey. She thought "I better call up the credit card companies to make sure he didn't charge it to us."

"Fishy, come on. This is the chance of a lifetime. He'll have a great time. My son winning a free trip to Europe. Sure, it isn't your own gen . . ., uh, getting on the moon shot, but it's a lucky break."

"Yeah, well, uh, I got to pack," said Roger. He went to his room, and pulled the bottle out of his desk drawer, where he had it stashed away.

"I decided to go to Europe," he told Tony Jr.

"Whatever."

"Yeah, a continent away I'll really be able to swing, just like James Bond. Except I won't have any spies or villains to fight."

"Roger, you're an idiot. Just be a real friend, let me go, and forget all this bottle and genie stuff." Tony Jr said this in a sort of a tired voice.

"You're the one who's stupid if you think I'd do that," he said, taking the stopper out of the bottle.

"I can't climb out," Tony Jr. said.

"Smoke out," said Roger, "Like your aunt said."

He reluctantly blinked, and then smoked out of the bottle. Once out, he didn't look much like a genie. He looked like an ordinary American teenager.

"I'm back to normal," he said woozily, looking around. "Thanks for letting me out. I knew you'd come to. You wouldn't keep your best friend in a bottle." Tony Jr. thought that Roger Healey had let him out to let him go. "I better get home. My folks are probably panicking by now."

"Your not going anywhere, you have a lot work to do, getting money, tickets, rigging the roulette wheels at Monte Carlo. You're a genie, your bottle's your home now." Roger Jr. said indignantly.

"I have a life."

"Genie's don't have lives. They exist to grant wishes."

"Look, nothing's worth having unless you work for it. The idea of anybody blinking up stuff, and people, for themselves out of thin air doesn't wash with me."

"What about all this," said Roger, pointing at the car, the motorcycle, the rabbits, and Linda.

"I didn't know what I was doing." To prove his point, Tony Jr., with a sigh, blinked, and all the things he had blinked in before, vanished. Including Linda.

"Why did you do that for?" asked Roger Jr.

"Because I'm out of the genie business. I don't have time for this magic stuff. Rules or no rules, I'm leaving." Tony started to walk out of the room, but he was suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"You can't leave. Your aunt did something to you so you wouldn't be able to run away."

"Then I'll phone home." He went to the phone and started dialing the number.

"I wish you couldn't phone home," said Roger quickly. The horn hung up by itself. "Your trapped, Tony."

"I just won't grant any wishes."

"I wish for an apple."

Unwillingly, he blinked in an apple.

"Okay, I give up. What do you want, jerk?" He glared at Roger.

"I made out a list of things for you to blink in," he told Tony. He gave Tony Jr. a long list of things to blink in. "It'll be great serving me, your old friend."

"Couldn't be any worse," snapped the genie.

"If you do your job well, even though your only a genie, eventually I'll let you blink in girls, cars, and rig casino games for yourself."

"Great," said Tony Jr. through gritted teeth. "Look, just let me go now. I'll, uh . . ." he blinked, and a pot of gold appeared. "I'll give you this gold."

"Are you kidding? Do your think you're a leprechaun? There's no way I'm going to give up all the gold and all the girls for one measly little pot of gold."

"Some friend you turned out to be."

"Some genie you are, trying to get out of granting wishes. I don't trust you. You better go back into your bottle until I come back. I wish you would go back into your bottle."

With a grimace, Tony Jr. blinked and smoked back into the bottle. Roger Jr. then placed the stopper in it.