The Genie

Imelda and Christina were two teen-age girls who were in the boy crazy stage who came from different families and often played together. Christina only had one toy doll to play with compared to the hundreds of toys Imelda had, she was still happy while Imelda was unhappy that there were things she wanted but did not have. No matter how much Imelda had, she always wanted more and was never satisfied.

One day, Imelda and Christina were walking along a beach when Imelda spotted a bottle half buried in the sand.

As Imelda bent over to pick up the bottle, her friend Christina said, “What an interesting bottle. I wonder what's inside.”

Imelda replied,“ I don’t know. I’ll open it and see.”

When Imelda opened the bottle, blue smoke came out. Their long black hair fluttered in the wind as they ran away in complete fear.

As they were running, they heard a loud voice say, “The one who opened the bottle must come here and stand before me.” The girls froze in place. They turned around they saw a blue skinned man over twice as tall as a normal man, wearing long blue pants, looking at them.

The blue giant said, “The one who opened the bottle must speak to me”.

Upon hearing the command, Christina pointed her finger at Imelda and said, “she opened it”.

At the same time, Imelda pointed her finger at Christina and said, “Christina opened it”.

The blue giant then spoke up and said, “ I know who opened the bottle. Imelda, step forward.”

Imelda was so frightened that she could barely move. As she was moving toward the blue giant, he announced, “I am Ali Akmedi, one of the most powerful genies who ever lived. Since you have freed me from by blue prison, I will grant you 3 wishes, then enjoy my freedom."

Imelda’s fear turned into joy. She turned to her friend and said, “I can’t believe my luck!” Imelda and Christina looked at the genie with their brown eyes then looked at each other. As Imelda turned her eyes back to the genie, the genie said, ”Let me give you some advice.”

Imelda responded, “Now you sound like my parents. I don’t need any advice. Just give me my wish.”

The genie replied, “As you wish.”

Imelda thought for a few seconds then said, ”For my first wish I want you to make me the richest person in the world.”

The genie said, “Done.”

Imelda looked around and did not see any piles of jewels and gold like she expected. Then she turned to the genie and said, “I thought I told you to make me the richest person in the world.”

The genie replied, “I did. But you did not define what kind of wealth you wanted so I gave you the best kind. It just takes a few hours to realize it.”

Then Imelda said in anger, ”I want the kind with big piles of jewels and gold.”

The genie said in reply, “That would be your second wish. But be careful with what you wish for because you might get it. Since I am a powerful genie, I can take back wishes you use up.”

Imelda said, “Take back my first wish. I obviously did not get anything.”

“Done”, said the genie.

Imelda thought for a minute and said, “I want the most desirable man in the world and I want to see him. None of this invisible stuff.”

Then the genie transported Imelda and Christina to a party for the most popular rock star at that time. His name was Iam Sogood. The party was in a foreign country. The genie disguised himself as a human and brought the popular rock star to Imelda. The genie introduced Imelda by saying to the popular rock star, “This young lady wants to ask you something.”

The rock star asked Imelda, “What do you want from me?”

Imelda swooned and said, “I want to marry you!”

Then the rock star produced an engagement ring and said, “Fine with me. Put this ring on to show that we are engaged. We’ll have the wedding in an hour.”

Imelda became light headed with disbelief. Imelda thought to herself, “I can’t believe my luck. I’m going to get married to the most desirable man in the world.”

The popular rock star said to Imelda, “Excuse me. I’m going to get dressed for the wedding. I’ll be back.” Then the rock star disappeared behind a door along with three women she never saw before.

After waiting for an hour, Imelda got impatient and wondered why the popular rock star was not out of the room yet. So she went to the room the rock star went into and opened the door. What she saw caused her to gasp in horror. The three women were passionately kissing the popular rock star on the lips while in a bed.

The popular rock star turned to Imelda and calmly said, “I’ll be out in five minutes, you can wait outside.”

Imelda became furious and threw the engagement ring at the popular rock star. Then she slammed the door shut.

Imelda then looked for the genie. She saw him standing in a corner with Christina and walked right to him. “Genie!” she shouted when she was face to face with him, “I want to know why you did this to me?”

The genie said, “I gave you what you wished for.”

Imelda composed herself and asked “If I did get married to him and divorced him. How much money would I get?”

The genie said, “The country we are currently in does not allow a wife to get anything from a divorce.”

“Well!” said Imelda, “I want you to take back this wish. The most desirable man in the world is a cheater.”

The genie said, “Done.” Then transported them all back to the beach.

Imelda realized she did get her wish. Of course the most desirable man in the world would be wanted by a lot of other women so there was no guarantee he would be faithful to any one woman. The most desirable man was also smart enough to want a marriage in a country that did not allow a wife to get anything from a divorce.

Thinking for an hour this time Imelda thought to herself, “If I can’t trust desirable men. Maybe I should marry a rich one. Then at least I’ll get his money if he dies. I’ll make sure we get married in a country where I get half his wealth if he divorces me.”

“Genie!” Imelda shouted, “I want you to marry me to the richest man possible.”

The genie said, “ There is this banker named Merrill Madoff. He is the second richest man in the world, due to die tomorrow and he is in a country that allows for wives to get half their husband’s wealth if they divorce.”

“I’ll take him,” said Imelda. The genie then said, “Don’t you want me to explain some things first?” Imelda replied, “Now you’re sounding like my parents again. Don’t explain anything to me. Just give me what I want.”

The genie sighed, then said, “Done.” The genie transported Imelda and Christina to a hospital bed holding the rich banker.

Imelda looked at the rich old banker and said, “Do you want to marry me?"

“Sure,” said the banker, “then I can die happy. The banker asked the hospital nurse to summon the hospital chaplain who married them on the spot. Then the banker slipped into a coma and died the next day.

With marriage license in hand, Imelda went to the local courthouse to get the billions of dollars due to her. At the courthouse Imelda was met by over a dozen lawyers. Imelda looked at them and asked, “Who are you people?”

The lawyers said they represented the bank, customers of the bank, and the national government. They were suing Imelda for billions more dollars than the rich banker had. They said the rich banker had obtained his money from multiple illegal activities and they were going to collect everything owed to them.

Then Imelda said, “Genie, get me out of this. I take back my wish.” Then the genie transported everyone, except the lawyers, back to the beach.

As Imelda looked at the genie with anger, the genie said, “I'm free now and I will not grant you any more wishes. Be on your way.” Then Imelda stormed off the beach. Furious that none of her wishes turned out the way she wanted.

The only people left on the beach were the genie and Christina. Christina was pretty quiet throughout most of Imelda’s ordeal of getting her wishes granted. The genie looked at Christina and said, “Since Imelda took back all her wishes, do you want any of them?” Christina looked at the genie and said, “First, go ahead and explain everything to me, then I’ll make my decision.”

The genie explained that the first wish was actually a good one but Imelda threw it away because she wanted to see immediate and visible results. The last two wishes were obviously not desirable to have.

Christina said, “I’ll trust your judgment. Even though I did not see anything good I also did not see anything bad. I often trust my parents to give me advice and I see that you are powerful and wise. I also know that if I don’t like my wish, I can take it back.”

The genie said, “Wise choice. Now you are the richest person in the world. Nobody in the world will be happier than you.”

Christina walked home from the beach. Even though she walked away with nothing to show for the experience, she felt happy. Imelda continued to get more than 99 percent of the people on earth but she was still unhappy. She lived unhappy and died unhappy.

Among the men Christina met, she picked the one who was the most devoted to her. Even though he was only ordinary looking, he got better looking since he never got fat and worked hard to make his appearance pleasant for Christina. Since Christina was always joyful, she was pleasant to be with. Her husband always wanted to be with her because her happiness made most people around her merry. People did not envy her because she always had less than most people. But they loved her because her happiness made them delighted. Seeing a woman content with so little made them appreciate what they had more than before they met her. Christina knew that the truly richest person in the world was the one who needed the least to be happy, not the most.