Altruistic Genie

“Do a kindness unto another person for a pain of equal and opposite proportion unto yourself.”

Read part 1 here and part two here!

Part 3

I spent the rest of that day trying to disprove Alejandro and get rid of the lamp. I dropped it in the creek behind my house and watched the current carry it away. When I got back to my room, the lamp was back in its spot on the bookcase. Alejandro was waiting for me on my bed, shaking his head and giving me a flamboyant stinkeye involving aggressive eyebrow movement. I drove over the lamp with my car, got out and inspected the damage, and continued driving over it until I was happy with the level of destruction. I walked into my room to find the lamp in pristine condition and Alejandro knitting his fingers together across his crossed legs. I gave the lamp to my next-door neighbor, old Mrs. Wilcox, but it still somehow boomeranged back to position. I never did find out if Mrs. Wilcox thought I stole the lamp back from her or what she believed happened to it. Or if, maybe, she still had it, or an inauthentic copy left by the genie while he returned the original to me. I must’ve tried to rid myself of that god-awful Spaniard thirty times. My mom asked me why I was so worn out at dinner that night.

“Just tired.” What, was I supposed to tell her I wore myself out trying to lose a magical genie and his lamp, who were both vehemently opposed to getting lost?

Convinced it was just as Alejandro said it would be, that the lamp and I were ‘bound together,’ I tried to focus instead on not thinking of the lamp and forgetting the whole thing altogether. Alejandro seemed to be fine staying in the lamp, which was a relief. I did not want to find out what it felt like to brush my teeth next to a very well-dressed tan man.

But the lamp itself seemed to glow. Like moths to a flame, my eyes always seemed to land on the silver-red artisan antique. Even more disturbing than the lamp, my ears now seemed to be finely-tuned to the suffering of others. I couldn’t go a class period without overhearing people’s problems. Jane got a toothache. Matt’s pet died. Betsy’s aunt got cancer. People’s problems invaded my space. The words “I wish” were never far out of reach.

It’s not that I didn’t want to help them. I’m not some heartless psychopath. Sure, I wanted to say, “I wish Jane’s pain was gone,” but I kept thinking of a pain in my tooth that wasn’t there.

I was jumpy at the Loner Bench because I knew in the space of one breath or two heartbeats I could make any one of my friends’ lives so much better. I smiled as Natalie approached the bench, but when she got closer into view, I skipped exactly one breath or two heartbeats: I saw a new deep purple bruise on her upper thigh. When she saw my eye’s concern and direction, she explained: “Oh, this bad boy? I hurt myself at softball practice yesterday.” Her words bounced around my brain. I could wish her pain gone. At that thought, a precursor shadow pain emerged on my thigh. I could wish her a perfect softball record or MVP. I saw myself getting kicked off the debate team in that thought’s reflection in the Great Pond or puddle of my mind. What did she want? What would she want me to do?
She must’ve seen my face turn white or red because she said in nearly perfect reply, with a smirk, “Don’t worry! It’s just a bruise. I’m a big girl.”

☼☼☼☼☼ ຂຖຜຟຜຖຂສຫຂ ☼☼☼☼☼ ຂຖຜຟຜຖຂສຫຂ ☼☼☼☼☼

Over the next days and weeks I grew increasingly stressed with the weight of an unused moral capability on my shoulders. I started to have difficulty sleeping, and when I could sleep, I had particularly troubling recurring dreams. This is how the dream always went:

I was falling, from a great height. It wasn’t like the normal falling dream where you wake up immediately. The ground approached with tremendous velocity until I could make out first a grassy plain and then people on the grassy plain. Not many people were looking up to notice me falling, and they didn’t hear me calling out for help. My Rabbi’s face was pointed downward and her ears were plugged. My parents were studying the grass, and if they could hear me, they didn’t act on it. A police officer and a firemen remained bent over.

Only Jason, Avery, Nat, and my debate partner David were looking up. They didn’t move to catch me. Suddenly, I was on the ground, too. I was running faster and faster trying to get under myself, and I made it and caught my breath, and I held my arms out. I tried to catch myself, but I was falling too fast; my momentum was too great for my arms. I crashed into the ground and knocked myself over, and then I was just on the ground, in one body. I was hurt.

I woke up with a start, and I knew that everyone else had been knocked over too, as if I had been a tremendously dense rock with much more power than I thought that I had. I sat up, my heart pounding and my neck sweaty. The lamp was looking down at me from its high ledge on the bookcase.

The Sadie Hawkin’s dance was that night, and Nat reminded me at lunch that we were meeting at 6:00 to take pictures. The theme of the dance was ‘Opposites Attract,’ and I was dressing up as a member of Gryffindor, and she a member of Slytherin. I told her I’d meet her there and that I was planning on taking a nap after school.

“Yeah, you alright? You look like shit.”

“Thanks. I’m not sleeping well, that’s all.” Was I supposed to tell her I was stressed out about a magical genie and his lamp? I actually considered telling her. The only reason I didn’t was because I thought it’d be too hard to explain the difference between my genie and a traditional genie. Karma what? Karma balance? I had trouble explaining it to myself.

I went home after fifth period and took a nap. The next thing I know, I wake up from a falling sensation, sit up to look first at the lamp and next at my clock, which read 6:33 p.m. in a tauntingly bright neon green.

I called Nat saying I was on my way. “No you’re not.” she said. “I’m at your house. You haven’t left yet. I figured you were asleep. I was just getting out to ring your doorbell. Come on!”

I ran outside and got in her car, to which she raised an eyebrow and said, “Costume?” I had forgotten my wizarding robes and Gryffindor scarf. I ran inside, changed in what felt like the blink of an eye, and ran back to her car.

“Better?” I asked, coyly.

“Much.” She kissed me.

“Hey, I’m sorry I missed my alarm.” I pulled out my phone. “And your calls. I just--”

“--I know, you haven’t been sleeping well lately.” I loved how she could anticipate me so well.

“Yeah.”
“I know. You’ve been coming to school in your pajamas without combing your hair for the past week.” My heart swelled. “I was starting to be embarrassed to be seen with you. I don’t want to be the ‘girlfriend of the guy who comes to school in a bathrobe or sweatpants.’” My heart, or something in my heart, burst. I could never tell if she was joking when she talked like that. “Anyways, whatsup? Really. I know something is.”

I was silent and she gave me a minute to gather my thoughts. She drove on, eyeing the road.

“If you could do something really…” I searched for the right word. “nice. for someone, but at great pain to yourself, would you do it?” I asked my next question in almost a whisper. “Should I do it?”

She was still looking at the road. “So that’s what’s been bothering you?” She sighed a breath of relief and shined the whites of her eyes and teeth at me. “There were some whispers at the school that you were gay. I don’t want to date a gay guy.”

“I’m not gay!”

“And… clearly some part of you thinks that you should do the nice thing or else you wouldn’t be so torn up about it. Listen to that part of yourself and drown the other part out.”

“Ok.” I breathed and took two heartbeats. “You’re right.”

“And for what it’s worth, I think so too. If you really love them, you should help them. No matter the cost to yourself.” She looked at me carefully as she said those last words, with an emphasis on cost.

We went to first pictures and then the dance. It was good. I was calm.

The entire next week Nat acted like she expected me to blow two month’s pay on earrings or something, with an emphasis on two month’s pay.