The Old Lamp

By: Klayton Killough

While digging through the dirt in my backyard, that soggy grass and rocks from the rain the day before. I started to wipe the dirt off of this wet lamp which seemed to have no purpose whatsoever and of course, to something which I should have expected from an old lamp just sitting in the dirt waiting to be wiped off, a genie appeared.

Now this genie isn’t what I expected it to look like, not saying that I have seen a genie before… it was a odd light blue, with two earrings, two golden arm bracelets, and what I think it is, a towel over its mid-thigh. I couldn’t tell if it was suppose to be a girl or a boy, until a low toned sound came out which only can be produced by a boy.

He asked me the question, which I expect everyone wants to hear in their life. “Since you found my lamp, small human, I will grant you three wishes. Any three wishes!” the genie said. At this point I was almost surprised! Any three wishes? Not some genie-trick-me kind of thing? Alright, before stating my first wish I asked him one question. “Any Wish?” I said. He looked at me now, starting to get annoyed with repeating the question when anyone a mile away could have heard that clearly. “Are you deaf my boy? Yes, any three wishes. Go on! Say anything I shall grant you your wishes.” He said back to me. This genie couldn’t be that stupid, if he really means any wish, he will get himself into a paradox of one question. So instead of waiting for my last wish to say it, I said it first: “I wish to have four more wishes!” holding up four fingers.

This could have been expected, what happens next. He nodded and with a snap of his fingers came something that I really wished didn’t happen. First, a penny came down from the sky and landed right in front of me. I picked it up, and it had my birth year on it, 1997. Supposedly if you find a penny with your birth year, you get to make a wish. Good trick Mr. Genie. The next thing that happened was even though it was bright outside in the morning sun, a shooting star came literally, out of nowhere over my head. Now I’m not talking about like in the sky over my head, I mean close enough that it was right over me and it caught my hair on fire. The meteor came down with a loud tremor as it hit of the ground. And then bounced over the dog, (Lucky dog huh?) Landing in our next door neighbor’s backyard.