Page 22 of Genie's Boy
I had just set out Raj’s breakfast when he stirred. “Good morning, my love.”
“Morning, Daddy.” A half-asleep Raj tumbled toward me. His feet were stuck in the sheets, and I caught him mid-fall.
Red-faced and now wide awake, he peeked up at me. “Sorry.”
“No need to apologize, just be more careful. Daddy doesn’t want his boy to get hurt.” Now that the word was out in the open, I couldn’t be happier and used it every chance I got. “Raj, is there anything of value to you here that, let’s say, if we were to leave rather abruptly, you’d miss?”
Raj glanced around the ten-foot by ten-foot space and shook his head. “No. Nothing here of value to anyone, including me. Is there something you’re trying to tell me?”
My question did exactly what I didn’t want it to—invoke fear. “No, my love. Merely thinking aloud.” I shouldn’t have blurted that out as it entered my mind. “Come, finish eating.”
It was only a matter of time before I’d have to hide Raj somewhere new, and non-magical. Fear of what the Maharajah would do to him if he called me forth and Raj appeared at the same time terrified me to no end.
“Genie, something’s going on. You’re so lost in thought, I said your name four times before you heard me. You’re scaring me. Please, tell me what’s wrong.”
The walls were too thin to speak here, and I owed Raj an explanation. The villagers were cunning and ruthless, thanks to our leader, and they’d waste no time turning Raj and myself in if they overheard me speak ill of him. Me, I’d survive, but what they’d do to Raj was more than I could bear. As soon as we cleaned up, I whisked him off to the lamp. No sooner had we gotten there than I was again summoned by the Maharajah. I panicked and tried my best to transport Raj home first, but the magic fought against it and forced him to appear alongside me in the Maharajah’s office.
“Genie.” Maharajah addressed me while facing the window. When he turned, I couldn’t believe I peered into the eyes of the same man I’d served for years. “Who is—? Where did he—? Is that the son of the thieves we beheaded? I should’ve done away with him then. Guards!”
Footsteps bounded down the hall. I only had moments to rectify this. “Leave him out of it. Why did you summon me?”
“No!” The Maharaja slapped me. His eyes were wild with anger and a hint of fear.
My hatred for the man reached astronomical levels. I knew better than to react even though my fists were clenched, ready to strike. A voice in my mind echoed and reminded he wasn’t of sound mind. Not that he ever had been, but now his instability boiled over, and those two issues were a deadly combination.
“You’ll answer me immediately or I’ll have him beheaded and you’ll have a front row seat to the execution!” He reached for the lamp as it sat on the pedestal right as the guards entered. With him distracted, ready to bark out orders, Raj chose that moment to make his move and dove for the lamp.
Raj tripped and fell, slamming into the pedestal and knocking it loose. A scuffle ensued and the lamp slipped from their shared grasp and flew through the air towardthe open window. Neither had control and I stood there dumbstruck, unable to help. The lamp wasn’t mine to possess, therefore I couldn’t touch it from the outside. My heart stopped as Raj neared the open window, darting after the lamp, but the Maharajah was a step ahead of him. While Raj stopped just shy of jumping, the Maharajah did not.
The Maharajah screamed as he fell to the ground. “Arrest them!” The guards rushed to the window, though neither made another move.
I gathered Raj in my arms and peered out the window at the Maharajah’s lifeless body as it lay in a pool of blood on the ground below. As soon as the Maharajah drew his last breath, the lamp appeared in my hands. Just as the head of security reached for Raj, we disappeared from the palace and reappeared on our island sanctuary.
Chapter Nine
Raj
“Genie!” I screamed as I caught my breath. “Where-where?” As I asked, our surroundings came into view, and I breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank the gods, we’re home.”
“Yes, my love, home. You gave me quite a fright and my hands were tied. The thought of watching you perish in front of me…” Genie’s words broke off as he burst into tears. “I can’t. I just… can’t.”
Genie fell to his knees and I wrapped my arms around him and held him as he’d done for me manytimes before. Shuttering and shaking, broken words tumbled from him between sobs. “Too much. That was too much. Never again. My boy. My love. Never again.”
Tears fell as the adrenaline wore off and it hit me just how close to death I’d come. Would I do it again to save Genie, to save us? In a heartbeat. Genie was my world and the love of my life, and I’d do anything for him. “It’s over and you have the lamp back. We are home, Daddy. We’re safe.”
“Yes, but for how long? I’m not allowed to possess it forever and it only stays hidden for brief periods.”
I’d forgotten that part. With every gift came a curse, and Genie’s was the lamp and its possessors.
“Let’s just stop and catch our breath. We’re home, so let’s get settled in and enjoy the time we have. However short that might be.” My daddy in panic mode wasn’t a good thing. “Besides, I’m hungry.” Though I wasn’t, I knew that would do the trick.
“Oh, yes. So sorry, my love.” Daddy scrambled to his feet and lunch appeared on the dining table seconds later. As I took a seat, he paced the kitchen, muttering to himself, the lamp firmly gripped in his hand.
“Daddy, please come and eat, or at the very least, sit with me while I do.” Charged like a bomb on the verge of explosion was the best way to describe the uncomfortablesilence. “Daddy, do you have a way of contacting the fates you’ve mentioned?”
“No, in fact, I’ve only ever spoken with them once in the beginning. A brief CliffsNotes version into my existence was all they provided me with.”
“How did they expect you to do the job they assigned you? I mean, you weren’t meant to be here and yet they treat you like you created yourself. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t imagine my life without you, but none of this is your fault.” That’s like a parent blaming the child for being brought into this world.
