The lady then dematerialised before my eyes!

I wondered if I had hallucinated the whole thing. It had been a very long trip back from my conference in Australia; I’d only nipped into Lewey’s for a quick pint on my way home from the airport. I was looking forward to seeing my family after being away for nearly a whole week. Eventually, I arrived back home and rang the doorbell. The door was answered by my eighteen year old daughter Janice, who flung her arms around me sobbing, “Oh Dad! Dad!” Something felt horribly wrong!

“Jan? What’s the matter, love?”

“You’d better come in and sit down, Dad – there’s a man here to see you…oh, Dad! I’m so sorry…” she sniffled.

As I walked into the front room I realised with horror who the ‘man’ was. It was Mr Dibley from the Insurance Agents. He informed me that during my absence my beloved wife had fallen downstairs, banging her head severely. She was currently in a coma at the local hospital. I was dumb struck – yet strangely unsurprised – when he gave me the accidental insurance cheque for ten thousand pounds.

“Djinn!” I thought. For one horrible second in the dark recesses of my subconscious mind I heard the sly tinkle of feminine laughter…

As I lay in the darkness of my bedroom that night, I tried to come to terms with it all. It seemed so nightmarishly unreal. Mandy, my poor wife…if only I could do something? Not knowing what else to do, I whispered softly, “Djinn? Are you there?”

“I am” replied the figure materialising before me. “You want your second wish – yes?”

“I want my wife back – alive and out of her coma. Have you got that?”

“Granted!” sniggered the Djinn as she disappeared.

The wish had been granted, I wouldn’t deny that. Within the week my beloved Mandy had been returned to us, alive and out of her coma. She was however, wheelchair-bound with the mental capabilities of an eight-year-old. The doctors held no hope of her mentality progressing any further with the years to come…

…Damn that wretched Djinn!

For the next few days I wondered how I could remedy the situation. It was during the early hours of the morning as I was fitfully tossing and turning that the answer came to me. Well, it was worth a try…

“Djinn?” I called, “I want my third wish!”

The evilly grinning effigy materialised in a triumphant manner. “Do you now?” she smirked smugly, “Then be warned that I shall turn it against you as I did with your other two wishes before…”

“I don’t think so Djinn, you see – I wish I had never met you!”

The Djinn paled and screamed…

It was a dark Saturday night. I sat at the bar in Lewey’s and finished my pint as the thunderstorm raged outside with no sign of letting up. I decided to stand outside in the doorway for about ten or fifteen minutes, hoping that the rain would ease up. It didn’t. Den the manager came outside and looked up and down the street as if searching for someone. Seconds later, an ambulance pulled up. Two paramedics got out of the vehicle and approached the manager. Sadly, Den told them, “I’m sorry lads, you’re too late – the woman is dead!”

For reasons I’m not entirely sure why, I gave a wry grin…then I braved the storm and walked home.