Three Wishes

It was late evening. The sun was setting and a full moon was just beginning to rise. I was walking on the beach, but not to enjoy the breeze or the view. I was debating with myself whether on not to swim out into the ocean until I was too tired to swim anymore and thus end it all. I'm told that if you aren't struggling against it, drowning is a rather quiet and peaceful death, but was death what I was seeking?

"To be or not to be?" That was my question, but I didn't yet have an answer. I knew I was miserable in my life, but should I just end my miserable life or "take up arms against it."

I had thought about ending it all before, but tonight was my final decision point. Either I ended it all tonight or I did something to turn my life around. Those were the only two options available to me. I had left everything but the swimsuit and T-shirt I was wearing at the apartment. I walked the two miles to the beach and as I walked out onto the sand, threw my sandals into the trash container next to the boardwalk. There was no way I could leave the beach.

When my roommates come home early tomorrow morning after a night out with their current girlfriends, they will find my wallet, my watch, my car keys, and my suicide note on the coffee table in front of the couch. I know how they will react. They will call the police or someone and come looking for me. If I am still walking on the beach, I will be forced to deal with my life. If I'm no longer on the beach, then my decision had been "not to be."

Tonight was decision night, but my decision was not yet made, so I kept walking... and walking... and walking. Then I saw something glowing dimly in the sand. It looked brassy or golden and was either reflecting the last light of the sun or the first light of the moon. Maybe it was actually glowing. In any case, it caught my eye and I was almost irresistibly drawn to it.

The mind does strange things when you are debating whether or not to kill yourself. Somehow I thought that if I could just uncover this glowing whatever, my choice would become clear. I started scooping sand away from the object.

As I knelt in the sand and dug with my hands, I slowly uncovered what appeared to be a giant golden lamp. I tugged on the handle and it loosened slightly, but the narrow handle almost cut into my hand and I was unable to pull strongly enough to free it from the sand.

I looked up and down the beach for something to wrap around the handle to cushion my grip. Except for starfish and plastic bottles, the beach was clear. I tried using a plastic bottle, but that didn't help. Finally I decided that since it was dark and I was wearing a long T-shirt no one would notice if I didn't have on any trunks. So I slipped off my swimsuit and wrapped it around the handle.

With the additional padding, I was able to pull with all my might, and as I did the lamp popped free of the sand. It didn't look exactly like what I envisioned Alladin's lamp to be. It was much larger, and more pot shaped, but it had a long neck and a handle like the drawings in the books. And it was definitely golden in color beneath a rather thick layer of dirt and soot.

I thought to myself, "It's probably some cheap tin sign that got washed away in a storm." But considering why I was on the beach, I figured I had nothing to loose and, after looking up and down the beach to make sure that no one would see me doing something really stupid, I rubbed it three times with my right hand.

As I was rubbing, I reached up to the cap with my left hand to steady myself. Suddenly it was as if a large amount of electricity stormed through me. I was thrown back onto the sand and a huge cloud of smoke and steam erupted into the air. I was surrounded by a blue-gray mist and in the center of that mist a dark form stood before me. He didn't have a solid body, but the mist and smoke were darker in his shape. The smokey figure said, "I am the genie of the lamp. You have rescued me. So, as a reward I grant you three wishes."

I wanted to say something really cool and sophisticated, but all I managed to say was "Holy Shit!"

To which the Genie responded, "Your three choices have been recorded and your life has been changed accordingly."

"Wait a minute," I sputtered. "I didn't choose anything. Don't I get to choose?"

"We used to do it that way," he responded with a grin, "but people always ended up unhappy with what they got. Either they didn't know what would make them happy, or they didn't have the guts to ask for what they really wanted. So now, we just read the depths of your heart and mind and soul and give you the top three things that will make you happy. The first is already in place. The others will soon fall into place."

"So what did I wish for?"

"Your first wish is that you would be a beautiful young woman, and so you are."

"Wait a minute, smoke man." I replied. "Shouldn't that be handsome man?' I am a guy, after all."

He laughed - a deep, baritone laugh. "You WERE a male, but you were a very unhappy male. You were so unhappy that you wanted to end your life. Am I not right?"

I looked out at the now dark ocean and then down at the sand. He continued. "You no longer have to decide. I have ended that life for you. Look at yourself."

I looked down at myself and I was gorgeous. I was also naked, but somehow that felt alright. I ran my hand across my now perfectly formed breasts and tweaked the nipples. A rush of pleasure ran through me. I reached down to where my prick should have been, but instead my hand slid unimpeded between my legs. Again there was a rush of pleasure and I felt moisture forming on my smooth slit.

"Hairless, just as you desired," the smoky form intoned. "Your body is now incapable of growing hair except for your scalp and eyebrows."

"But I don't know how to live as a woman," I said, now surprised at how high my voice had become.

"Yes you do. You always have known how to live as a woman. What you didn't know was how to live as a man. That is no longer a problem. Soon you will have totally forgotten what it was to be man. You weren't all that much of a man anyway, were you?"

I cast my eyes downward at the sand and softly muttered, "No, I wasn't."

"Don't you feel better as a woman?"

I continued staring at the sand as I answered, "Yes." Then I looked up at the genie. His form was becoming much more solid. His hair was light brown. He eyes were green. He smiled at me with a set of perfect teeth set between perfect cupid-bow lips. I suddenly felt myself getting much wetter between my legs.

I stammered slightly as I asked, "What was my second wish... or whatever?"

"You wanted to be loved by a handsome, loving man. You will meet him shortly. You will know he is the one." The genie, now in a very solid human form once again laughed. That deep baritone laugh seemed to light a fire within me.

"And my third wish?" I asked.

Genie smiled broadly showing his bright, perfectly formed teeth. "That is the one that perhaps you would not have wished for because you would not have known that it would bring you such perfect contentment and happiness. Your third wish is that you love this man so much that you totally give yourself to him. You become his slave - in all ways, and he becomes your master."

I started to object to that and say that I would never be anyone's slave, but before I could speak I realized that a feeling of intense calm had come over me. It wasn't happiness as in jumping up and down happy. Instead it was a glowing fire of happiness deep within me. It was contentment. Yes, if I could have someone who totally loved me and took care of me, I would do whatever he wanted me to do. I would be his willing slave.

I felt warm and safe for the first time in my life. Things were beginning to get much lighter - literally. It was starting to get bright... very bright... very, very bright. A bright light shone into my eyes and I could hear a woman's voice, "She seems to be coming around, doctor."

Doctor? Where was I? I could feel the light pressure of a sheet against my body.

A different woman's voice said, "Miss... miss... can you open your eyes?"

I did and found myself looking up at two women dressed in hospital scrubs.

"Do you know what happened to you? Do you remember anything?"

I remembered a lot, but I wasn't about to tell them what I thought had happened, so I just slowly shook my head. I looked down at the hospital ID bracelet to see if it would give me a clue as to why I was here. It said simply "Jane Doe 734 - Electrically Induced Cardiac Arrest." That wasn't real helpful.

She continued, "It would appear that you found a piece of space debris while walking on the beach last night. Unfortunately for you it was an energy cell and was somehow still charged. You tried to pick it up and were electrocuted when you discharged the capacitor banks. If someone hadn't seen you fall, you wouldn't be here. He called 911 and immediately started CPR. There shouldn't be any permanent damage, but with such a heavy shock, your memories of last night - or even all of yesterday may be permanently scrambled."

One of the women, evidently the doctor, again shone a bright light into my eyes and asked, "What do you remember?"

"Nothing," I replied.

She paused, her eyes narrowing in thought. "Do you know your name?.. address?.. where you are from?.. There was no identification on you or near you and according to the EMTs, you were wearing only a long T-shirt."

"I don't know." I was telling the truth. I didn't know. There were vague memories, but I couldn't hold on to them long enough to make any sense of them. It was as if I didn't want to remember.

"There is no brain damage, but sometimes a traumatic incident can trigger episodic amnesia. You may or may not ever regain your previous memories. We will know in a few days how much you will recover. The police will check against missing persons reports and we will publish your picture and see if anyone recognizes you, but the possibility exists that you might have to prepare yourself to start a totally new life. Do you think you could handle that?"

The doctor looked somewhat startled as I smiled broadly and said, "Definitely!"

I tried to sort out what was happening to me. Were my foggy memories of living as a man just an electricity induced hallucination? Or, impossible as it sounds, did what happened actually happen? I knew that I was now a woman. That much I was sure of, but did I used to be a very unhappy man? Maybe my rescuer could help explain things. If he saw me fall, he might have seen what happened before I touched what I thought was a magic lamp.

"Is it possible to meet the man who rescued me?" I asked softly.

The nurse chuckled lightly and replied, "He's just outside. He says he doesn't know you, but hasn't left your side since they brought you in. You seem to have made quite an impression on him. Would you like him to come back in?"

I nodded my head, "Yes."

The nurse beckoned with her hand and a handsome young man stepped into view. He looked very familiar but I could not place him until he laughed slightly and said, "I thought we had lost you. It would have been very bad to lose the love of my life once I had found her." It was a deep, baritone laugh.

"What is your name," I asked weakly.

"My name is Gene," he replied with a smile.

"Should I call you Genie?"

He laughed again and said, "Don't you know that once the genie is out of the lamp and your wishes have been granted, HE is the real master?"

I smiled. The smile came from a deep, inner happiness that I thought that I could never have. I looked deeply into his green eyes and answered, "What is your first wish, Master?"

END OF STORY

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24.08.12