CHAPTER 7 – CALLING ALL NORTH AMERICAN DJINN

Jeannie set up a party in Houston, on New Years Eve. Rather than entertaining Tony's astronaut colleagues, as she had so many times in the past, she decided to invite all the djinn families in North America. Children were invited to THIS party, not left out as they often were for New Years Eve. They had lost track of Tim and Tiffany (Tarania, as her djinni name was), and Tim's colleague Ray. Jeannie put out feelers in the djinn world for their whereabouts, finally locating them all in Vancouver, British Columbia.

It was a lovely group that evening. Jeannie and Tony had invited Roger and Tracy, and their daughter Skylar, since all were used to djinn. Kashi and Mark (a human) brought their 9 year old human son Robert. Tim (another human) and Tiffany brought their 6 year old human son Thomas, as well as Ray and his wife Georgia (both humans), since they were also used to the djinn world. Jeannie had to send Janae up to Chicago to blink Howard and Patty down, because Patty had lost her powers completely when she was 5 months along.

All the women, including Tracy and Georgia, made over Patty's pregnancy. Roger watched Tracy carefully, as she had a tendency to be a little unbalanced when around pregnant females, since she had 4 miscarriages over the years. But she seemed all right. He also watched Howard, knowing that at one time, Howard had a big crush on Tracy, but that was for naught – Howard doted on Patty, staying by her side the entire time. It was obvious to everyone that he adored her. Patty was due in 10 weeks and was quite large.

"I do not understand that," Patty said of her size. "I am so small, and my mother was small."

"Yes, but look at Howard, and look at your father's weight," Tony told her. "Your husband is tall, and your father…."

In another part of the room, Roger shook his head at Tim. "You've been in Vancouver for TEN YEARS!"

"Yup," Tim smiled. "I just got out of the Air Force three years ago. I work with Boeing down in Everett sometimes."

"I did too, but that was from 83 to 86, before I went back to NASA."

Tim shook his head in disbelief. "I was at Boeing off and on during those years, too, for the Air Force. You'd think we would have run into each other!" They had met years before, on a survival run in the Yukon Territory, and when it was discovered months later that they had djinn in common, it cemented a friendship. Unfortunately, though, they had lost track of each other for more than 12 years.

Everyone left with phone numbers, vowing to keep Patty and Howard in the loop. Jeannie felt that Haji would appreciate that. It wouldn't be long, she also thought, before Janae and T.J. would add families to the group. Neither of the children expressed any desire to live in old Baghdad when they grew up. Janae wanted to go to college in the United States, and T.J. to the Air Force Military Academy so he could fly (though that changed occasionally to Navy Military Academy so he could fly the Marines' Harriers).