Chapter Two
"What can you do for me?" Maurice asked.
"I can give you the one thing you want more than anything else in the world," said Jeannie II.
"And that is … ?"
"Revenge," Jeannie II replied. "That is why you are in Florida, is it not?"
"I am here on a business trip," Maurice shot back.
"Let us … 'cut to the chase', shall we say," Jeannie II retorted. "Your … business, such as it is … is the same as your brother's. Namely, drugs." She then added, "Specifically … ILLEGAL drugs."
Jeannie II went on. "Your name is Maurice St. Gregory. You and your brother, one Faisal St. Gregory, used to run drugs together between here, Jamaica, and a good portion of the Caribbean.
"Wealthy man, your brother was." Jeannie II paused for effect and then added, "Emphasis on the word WAS."
"You know what happened to him?" Maurice inquired.
"I do not REALLY have to tell you now, do I? Seems the poor guy got himself committed to the Florida State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. He kept mentioning something about 'genies' at the trial."
" 'Genies'," mused Maurice. "You mean Barbara Eden, Robin Williams, and all like that?"
Jeannie II sniffed. "Pale imitations," she said with a snort. "Rank amateurs, all."
"You seem to know a great deal about me," said Maurice. "How do I know you're not a cop?"
"Can a cop do THIS?" With that, Jeannie II folded her arms in front of her chest and blinked. The very next instant, she and Maurice were standing on top of a sand dune in the middle of the Sahara desert.
This is madness, Maurice thought, taking in the scene around him. He and Jeannie II were surrounded by miles and miles of nothing but sand dunes and endless desert.
Sand. So … Much … Sand.
"Who are you?" Maurice asked Jeannie II in thickly-accented English. "WHAT are you?"
"What I have been all along," Jeannie II replied. "A genie."