At that point, I needed to sit down. I cautiously walked to the opposite corner of the bed and sat. The words 'genie' and 'lamp' and 'magic' were spinning around my mind. Of course, I knew that when you rub a lamp, a genie could come out, but that didn't make sense in this case. I hadn't rubbed a lamp, just an old pocket watch, and there were two girls, not one.

  "I don't mean this to sound offensive, but why are there two of you?" They seemed pretty helpful, so I figured if I wanted my questions answered, I would just outright ask them.

  "That is a longer story then you need to worry about at this moment," Andolyn responded gently. "Now, let's have a look at you, being that you are finally awake." She and Servilia scooted off and walked over to me. Servilia picked up one of my hands and started examining it while Andolyn ran her hands through my hair and looked up and down my back. Servilia looked up at her and giggled happily.

  "He is strong!" she told Andolyn.

  "But yet, nobody would know it with the way he is dressing," she answered Servilia. The two of them hovered even more, checking out every inch of me as I sat there.

  "I can tell that he is smart," Andolyn observed. "We finally aren't saddled with a dumb, sloppy ol' coot!" Both girls broke out in laughter. I wriggled free of the two of them and stood up.

  "Okay, okay!" I stopped them. "I am trying to convince myself that I haven't completely lost my mind. I would appreciate it if you didn't look me over like a side of beef for at least a few minutes!" The two of them looked at each other and shrugged.

  "Whatever you would like, master!" they said in unison as they both moved in closer to me. I caught the faint scent of orchids and lilacs mixed with something I couldn't identify. It was almost intoxicating.

  "Master?" I managed to utter. I realized that genies had masters, of course, but to hear myself called one felt extremely strange.

  "Well, of course! You are our Master!" Servilia chimed excitedly.

  "What does that mean, exactly?" I backed away from them just a little. They smelled fantastic, and it was very distracting. They both stepped forward on either side of me and took an arm. They gently led me back over to the bed and sat me down. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, savoring the scent of them once again. I opened my eyes when Andolyn started to speak.

  "We are a lot like your typical genies in that we grant wishes," she started. "You are allowed three wishes. Also, we are your humble servants until either your third wish has been granted, and you wish to be rid of us, or you lose the watch."

  "But we are slightly different from your typical genie as well," Servilia said. "Andolyn and I have talked it over, and to be perfectly honest, we’re sick of watching people waste their wishes, so we have decided to do something a little different for you."

  "Oh?" was all I could get out. Wishes, genies, lamps, watches, magic, master... It was all still spinning around in my head.

  "Yes," Andolyn continued for Servilia. "So many of our masters wish for money, or love, or to be better looking, or more successful, or even just for things like houses and cars. Believe us when we tell you those things very rarely work out well."

  "Seriously, if you doubt us, read any book about genies!" Servilia said. I was about to mention movies I had seen when it occurred to me that there was most likely no way either one of them had seen a movie.

  "So," Andolyn started. "Like I was saying, we have decided to do things a little differently for you. We are going to allow you to test your wishes before committing to them." Both girls were standing in front of me, smiling like they had just won the lottery.

  "How does one test a wish, exactly?" Genies were notorious for being tricksters and making wishes turn into things the Masters never intended. I could not figure out why these two would go so far in the opposite direction.

  Servilia sat on the bed beside me, and Andolyn sat on the other side of me. Both girls put a hand on my legs. "You just tell us what you are thinking about wishing for, and we will give you a vision so that you can see how your wish would play out," Andolyn explained.

  My panic had faded, replaced by a serious questioning of my sanity. After all, I had hit my head twice today. Right then, the alarm on my phone started dinging. I snapped back to the reality that I needed to leave for work. I jumped up off the bed and turned to look at the girls.

  "I'm not sure I completely understand all of this. Regardless, I have to leave for work, so do you, like, get back in the watch while I am gone?" I looked from one to the other and saw their faces drop as they looked at each other. Then, as though enough weirdness hadn't gone on already, both of their legs slowly dissolved into colored mist, and they floated up off the bed. They slowly started to circle me, rubbing their hands across my back and down my arms as they did.

  "If you let us stay out of the watch while you are gone, we could do plenty of things for you around here!" Servilia suggested. Her voice almost sounded pleading.

  Andolyn swirled in front of me and paused. "Yes, we can clean, cook, wash, or fix anything you would like," she spoke softly.

  "I'm totally better at cleaning than she is, though," Servilia interjected.

  "You wish!” Andolyn shot her an irritated glance. “The last time you cleaned anything, nobody could tell that you had cleaned anything! I am a much better housekeeper than you! And I cook better, too!"

  "Oh!" Servilia huffed indignantly. "If you call poisoned entrees a success, then sure, you're a better cook!"

  "I never poisoned anybody!" Andolyn cried out. "That Duke was allergic to milk, and nobody told me! At least I didn't ‘fix’ the chair he was sitting in. You know, the one that broke and landed him on his keister in the middle of a royal feast?"

  "I fixed the part they told me was broken! It's not my fault that he weighed so much!" Servilia protested.

  "Well, if my cooking was so horrible, then how did he get so fat? Hmm?" Andolyn sniped back. While I was amused watching them bicker with each other, my mind was starting to spin again.

  "Ladies! Ladies!" I called out. "Enough already!" They continued swirling and looking at me with eyes that showed just how much they did not want to go back into the watch. "You can stay out as long as you promise not to leave this apartment! You are likely to scare the Dickens out of people, especially if you were to go out without legs!"

  They both instantly started clapping for joy. "Thank you, thank you!" they responded at the same time.

  "Don't mention it. Now, can you please stop swirling around me so that I can leave for work?" I was starting to feel anxious that I would be late.

  "Yes, of course, Master!" Andolyn replied, switching over to the bed. The trail of mist that followed her gracefully turned back into legs. Servilia followed suit.

  "Okay, I can't deal with the 'Master' part of things. Just call me Bennett," I instructed them. They glanced at each other and back at me.

  "Whatever you say, Mas... Er, I mean Bennett," Servilia agreed.

  "I will be back by five o'clock," I told them as I walked out of the bedroom and started gathering my things for work. "Do not answer the door for anyone." I suddenly felt like I was a parent instructing his children before they were left at home alone for the first time.

  "We won't!" they both said.

  I wondered to myself just how often they spoke in unison. I looked at the two of them standing in front of me as I opened the front door. I shook my head quickly just to make sure, one last time, that I wasn't imagining them. They were still there when I stopped, however, so I decided to accept that I was not insane. I steered my bike out the door and slowly closed it behind me, all the while watching them look after me. Just before the door latch clicked, they both called out.

  "We will miss you, Master!"

  I rolled my eyes to myself and picked up my bike to carry it down the stairs. Of all the craziness that had happened in the last several hours, I was satisfied with myself about one thing.

  I was right about not wanting to open the box while I had still been in the alley!

  3

  Determined to get back home as quickly as I could, I flew through my deliveries even faster than I had the day before and finished a full hour early. Truthfully, it had been difficult to get through the day while remaining focused. It seemed the only things I could think about were Servilia and Andolyn.

  At first, I was simply trying to process the fact that I had two genies waiting for me in my apartment. Later in the day, my thoughts switched to, once again, wondering if perhaps I had made them up. Maybe I hit my head somehow last night in a way that was completely unrelated and then fabricated two gorgeous women. That stage didn't last too long, however. I knew that I was smarter than most individuals and was therefore confident in my ability to tell reality from fantasy. By the time I finished grabbing groceries after work and back on my bike to head home, my mind had calmed, and question after question started to form.

  I biked all the way to the stairs leading up to my apartment and then got off. Carrying groceries up the stairs made it so that I had to leave my bike unattended for a few moments as I could not carry both. I grabbed the groceries out of the crate on the back of my bike and hurried up the stairs. After living there for several years, I had become a master at getting my four locks unlocked and getting the door open with only the use of one hand. After kicking the door, it swung open, and I rushed in and deposited my grocery bags on my kitchen counter. I turned to the door so I could get my bike when Andolyn and Servilia floated out of my bedroom, once again opting for trails of mist instead of legs.

  "Are you leaving again?" Andolyn asked. She looked almost sad.

  "No, I am simply going to get my bike,” I assured her. “I had to leave it downstairs while I brought in the groceries."

  "Oh, let us help!" Andolyn piped up. She looked at Servilia, and the two of them grinned at each other. Each of them raised a hand in the air and snapped their fingers. They brought their arms back down, and both of them put a hand on their hip, smiling at me. Servilia flipped her hair back behind her shoulders, gazed behind me, then she looked at me and tipped her head, indicating that I should turn around. Had she waved her arm in front of her, she would have reminded me of Vanna White from that old game show, Wheel of Fortune. I felt a small shiver down my spine as I turned around to see my bike parked behind me in the entryway.

  "How did you do that?" I asked as I examined the bike to make sure it was indeed mine. The license plate confirmed it. I also noticed that all the scratches and dings that it had accumulated over the years were gone, and the paint was in perfect condition. The tires looked brand new, and all of the chrome shone like it had been freshly polished.

  "Magic, silly!" Servilia told me happily. Andolyn floated around me and closed the apartment door.

  "Come sit down and relax. Vila and I will take care of the groceries, and then we'll be right there to massage your feet," Andolyn instructed coaxingly.

  "Vila?" I asked, not sure that I had heard her correctly.

  Andolyn chuckled and shrugged her shoulders. "After hundreds of years, calling her Servilia got tedious, so I call her Vila."

  "And I called her Andi most of the time," Servilia added. "You may call us whatever you would prefer!"

  While I found their full names beautiful, I could see where they could be quite the mouthful for everyday use. I also found their nicknames for each other cute, so I decided to use them.

  "Okay, I'll go with Vila and Andi in that case," I informed them.

  "Great!" they both chimed together. Andi whisked off towards the kitchen, and Vila floated up next to me, changing her trail of blue mist into legs.

  "Come, let's get you relaxed," she instructed gently. She tugged lightly on my arm until I followed her into the living room. She directed me to the recliner and gestured for me to sit down.

  I looked at the chair in disbelief. The upholstery looked brand-new, and the cushions were fluffy and full. When I had left that morning, the recliner and matching sofa had both been tattered, squished, and worn down. I glanced over at the sofa and saw that it looked brand new as well. In fact, they both looked better than the day I had bought them. I looked over at Vila, who was smiling proudly.

  "This is amazing!" I told her. I turned around and slowly sat down, savoring the way the chair cushions formed to my body. The chair was a kind of comfortable that made you imagine a cloud was swallowing you. Vila reached down to the side of the recliner and pulled the lever that flipped out the footrest. Then she gently pushed on the back of the chair until it was almost fully reclined.

  "There you go, that is better," she said, sounding as if she was talking to herself. "I'm going to help in the kitchen, and we will be right back!" as she walked away, Andi floated over and placed an open bottle of beer in the cup holder on the arm of the recliner.

  "I found this in your refrigerator. Is it satisfactory? If you prefer something else, I can get that for you instead," she inquired. She looked very serious.

  "The beer is perfect, thank you," I responded.

  "Now, take a deep breath and let your worries fade away while we tend to your groceries," she replied. She leaned down, blew softly on the bottle, and then returned to the kitchen, purple mist trailing behind her.

  I did as she instructed and took a long, deep breath. As I let it out myself sink even further into my recliner, I reached for the beer. The bottle was colder than any that had ever come out of my refrigerator. I realized she must have chilled it further when she blew on the bottle. I took a long drink and felt the icy liquid flow over my tongue and down my throat. It was the most refreshing drink of beer I had ever had. I replaced the bottle into the cup holder, and I took one more deep breath. All the tension drained out of my body as I let the air out of my lungs. I could not remember the last time I felt that relaxed, especially after a workday. I closed my eyes, thinking I was so comfortable that there was no way I wouldn't fall asleep.

  However, instead of drifting off for a quick nap, behind my eyelids, I saw a peaceful meadow with a small bubbling river running through it. Trees rose all around me, and a tiny breeze flowing by that smelled of pine needles and lilacs. I recognized the meadow.

  My eyes flew open, and I quickly looked over to the kitchen. Andi caught my look and nodded at me knowingly. She waved her fingers at me, indicating that I should go back to what I was doing. I knew then that somehow she or Vila was giving me a vision of one of my favorite places on Earth. That meadow was where I used to play as a boy when I went to visit my grandmother's ranch. Anxious to get back, I closed my eyes again.

  I had no idea how much time had passed before I heard Vila softly whisper my name. I had run through the grass in my meadow, caught garter snakes, waded in the river, and laid out on the riverbank to soak up some sun. When I heard my name, I sat up on the riverbank slowly and closed my eyes. When I opened them again, I was back in my living room with Vila and Andi at my feet.

  "Did we get the meadow right?" Andi asked. At some point, she had switched to having legs, and they were both kneeling before me.

  "It was exactly the same as when I was a child," I replied, amazed at the experience I just had.

  "Perfect! I'm so glad!" Andi clapped with glee.

  A smug smile of satisfaction crawled across Vila's face as she looked over at Andi. "I told you the river needed to be wider! The one you were going to put in there was barely a creek!"

  "My river was just fine.” Andi’s brow creased as she sniped back. “It was your insanely long river bank that made the river look so small!"

  "That was a perfectly acceptable length for a riverbank!" Vila huffed in exasperation.

  "Apparently not because I changed it to avoid you being embarrassed, and he just said it was exactly the way he remembered!" Andi looked satisfied that she had won the argument.

  "Embarrassed? You have got to be kidding me! Embarrassing would have been the ridiculously hot weather you had planned," Vila shot back.

  "The weather was appropriate for--"

  "Ladies! Ladies!" I interjected, putting my hands up to stop their bickering. "It all turned out just perfect, and even if there had been some slight variations, that would have been fine too. It's nature. Not everything stays the same all the time!" Both girls crossed their arms, looked away from each other, and pouted. "Now there, no pouting! You both did a fantastic job!"

  The girls slowly turned their heads to look back at each other. Then they looked away again, and Andi whispered over her shoulder to Vila.

  "Did you hear that? He said it was perfect!" A slow smile crept across her face as Vila's head started to turn back around.

  "And he said that we did fantastic!" Vila whispered back excitedly.

  The two of them turned into each other and started clapping like they had just got the best news ever. Vila threw her arms around Andi's back, and the two of them hugged briefly.

  "Okay!" they said to each other simultaneously. Then the two genies turned to me.

  "How about a foot massage now?" Vila asked me. I don't know why she bothered with the question because she was already taking off my shoes and socks.

  "I'll go get the lotions!" Andi bounced up and headed towards the bathroom. She came back a moment later with a stern look on her face. "Do you own lotion? I couldn't find any in the bathroom."

  I searched my memory for the last time I had used lotion for anything.

  "There is a great chance that I do not," I answered her.

  She quickly shrugged her shoulders and held her hand, palm up, out in front of her. "Vila?" she said.

  “Oh!” Vila glanced up, a tiny bit surprised. “Of course! Sorry, I wasn't paying attention!" She stopped removing my sock long enough to hold her hand in the air and flick her fingers towards Andi's open palm. Three small bottles appeared in Andi's hand. She moved her head to the left and the right, examining the bottles. She shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

  "That will do!" she announced as she rounded the chair and kneeled in front of me alongside Vila.

  Moments later, each genie took one of my feet in her hands and started massaging it. Now, I wasn't the kind of man who regularly went to get massages or acupuncture or anything of that sort, but the relaxation and calm that spread over me while they were rubbing my feet made me question whether or not I should become that man.

 

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