“Why are you so dumb?”

Lance rolled his eyes. He entered as so many times his secret room and closed the door quickly. Not fast enough, because Michael still had the time to enter it, too.

“Seriously Lance, you had the lamp. You had it in your hands. You had anything and this rough diamond, this Justin,  was about to fall and you have nothing better to do than making sure he falls and lose the lamp why you do so!”

“I know Michael. I’m not proud of it…”

“Proud? You should be ashamed! If I would’ve done it, then…”

Lance grabbed Michael and squeezed him in his hands, looking madly at him. “What would you have done then?”

“Nothing” Michael said coughing, trying to breath.

***

Justin opened his eyes slowly. When he tried to stand up he felt a hard pain on his occiput. He touched the place at his head and tried to realize what happened. He looked around and saw big walls of stone all around him. There was no daylight, he could’ve seen nothing, if there wouldn’t burn a little oil lamp in the middle of the cave.

Justin was still confused. He ran through everything what happened in his mind, until he realized he was trapped in this cave.

Trace was standing next to him, touching him carefully.

Justin smiled sadly at him and stroke Trace’s head. “I’m sorry Trace. This is my entire fault…”

Trace rubbed his head against Justin’s leg, telling him this way he was sorry either.

Justin sighed. “And this idiot screwed us!” He stood up and wanted to kick a little stone right in front of him, but he couldn’t balance and felt down on his butt again. “And now this idiot is gone with the lamp and we are going to starve…”

Suddenly Trace got very excited and jumped around. Justin looked confused at him, until he saw, what Trace wanted to show him. In the corner of the cave laid the lamp.

“What… Why is this…? I thought this old man had the lamp…”

Trace grinned at Justin and patted himself complimentary. Justin laughed and grabbed the lamp. “You are a genius Trace!” Justin held the lamp in his hands, turning it around.

“Actually I have no idea, why this man wanted this lamp so badly… it doesn’t look like it was valuable… and it’s so dirty… I can’t read what is standing there…”

Justin started to rub the lamp to read what was engraved in there. Immediately the lamp started shaking and jumping. Startled Justin let the lamp fall on the ground and went a few steps away. Trace started screaming and hid behind Justin. The carpet, which was lying in the corner too, flew excited around the jumping lamp. A white smoke came out of the lamp and filled the cave slowly. Through the smoke was pretty thick and just slowly Justin could see the shadow of a person, going through the smoke.

The outlines got sharper and finally a tall (his head was just a centimeter under the roof), cozy (it seemed like he loved food, but he wasn’t thick) man came out of the smoke. He had brown, short hair, brown eyes, a beard, which edged his face and small lips.

He didn’t wear a shirt, but two golden bangles at each side. His pants were blue and he had golden shoes on.

The giant rubbed his eyes and tried to stretch himself. He sighed loudly that the whole cave began to quake and looked around. When he saw the carpet he smiled brightly and bended down to it.

“Hey Persian, how are you doing? We didn’t see each other since my last master wished to be the first pharaoh of Egypt. How long was that?”

The carpet shrugged with his edges like a human would do with his shoulders. The giant looked around and saw Justin. Again smoke filled the room and a short version of the giant came to Justin. He was still taller, but now Justin could see him in the eyes, without feeling like a dwarf.

“So you rubbed the lamp?”

Justin nodded slowly. This was still too confusing for him.

“Wow, my last master was more communicative, and taller, and his clothes were nicer…”

“Wait… how did you call me?”

“Oh my God, it can speak! I called you less communicative, small and poor.”

Justin looked confused at him, before he understood the sarcasm in that answer. “No, I meant before… you said your last master…”

“Bingo! You got 100 points for repeating my words.”

“No wait… that means… I am your master?”

The man looked back to the carpet and whispered: “This one isn’t as smart as the ones before, huh?”

“I don’t understand anything! Could you please explain, what is going on here?”

“Wait… you rubbed my lamp and you don’t know who I am… did I understand this correctly?”

Justin thought about a better explanation, why he rubbed it, but all in all the man was right.

The man laughed loudly. “It is more than 10.000 years ago that someone rubbed my lamp and didn’t know who I am. That’s so cool!”

“10.000 years?! Are you kidding me???”

The man still giggled. “Ok, I guess I really have to explain everything… My name is Joey, and I am a Genie!”

Justin looked amused at Joey. “A Genie? Sure, and my mom is ruling the world…”

“Really? Did so much time passed that… Oh, you are making fun of me…”

Justin tried to deny himself laughing. “Sorry, but the Genie story is a little bit unbelievable…”

“Then tell me how I came out of the lamp without magic…”

“Ehmm…”

“Ok, I give you another proof!” Joey rubbed his hands and started to spread his fingers. Out of them came little, purple lightnings. Joey fired them directly on Justin. Justin closed his eyes, being afraid of getting roasted. When nothing happened, he looked up and couldn’t believe his eyes, when a table stood in front of him with tons of food on it.

Right before Justin could grab a piece of bread the whole thing disappeared again.

“Do you believe me now?”

Justin nodded. “And when you say I’m your master this means…”

“Yes, I can fulfill you any wishes you want. And you got three of them!”

“Three wishes? That’s amazing isn’t it Trace?”

Trace still hid behind Justin, watching Joey warily.

“I can wish anything I want?” Justin was thinking of his first wish, when Joey interrupted his thoughts.

“No, there are three rules, you have to think of!”

“Wait… which rules?”

“There are three rules, you have to observe. Three boundaries I can’t exceed. Rule number 1, you can’t wish more wishes! You have three. Just three. Not two, not four, exactly three. And until you didn’t express three wishes, you are my master.”

“Just a question… why can’t I wish more wishes?”

“You aren’t a friend of rules, are you?”

Justin grinned, while Joey sighed. “Ok, I explain it to you… See, one of my masters had the brilliant idea to wish himself a million wishes and I had to stay with him his whole life… I was just happy that he didn’t wish his family could use the wishes too. I don’t have the nerves and I don’t want to stay with you the rest of your life. I am not your slave… Do you know what stupid wishes he had at the end of his life? I should bring out the trash! I’m no housekeeper!”

Justin laughed. “Ok, ok… I understood. Rule number 1: I have exactly three wishes.”

Joey nodded. “Rule number two, I can’t make someone fall in love.”

Justin raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah ok, I tell you why. I can make you feel happy.” Joey flicked his fingers and Justin started to smile brightly. “I can make you feel sad.” Immediately Justin started to cry. “I can make you feel scared” Suddenly Justin jumped on Joey’s arms, searching for the reason, why he was scared. Joey flicked his fingers again and Justin was normal again.

He jumped from Joey’s arms and acted like this scene never happened.

“These are all forced feelings. But to force someone to love you is something really complicated. I just cannot force you to feel the same love, when you do naturally. The love is just to strong… I just can make you be something like a love-zombie.”

Joey flicked his fingers again and Trace went to Justin, smiling at him and started to kiss Justin’s leg.

“As you can see, your little friend loves you now, but he doesn’t have the personality he had before. Like I said the love is too complicated, to force someone feeling it.” Joey flicked his fingers and Trace stopped kissing Justin’s leg.

Justin nodded. “And rule number three?”

“I can’t bring people back from the afterlife. It’s a real disgusting view. You don’t want to see a partially decomposed body walking towards you and speaks about old times, while the maggots still climb around him. Seriously, I did it one time and then never again!”

Justin swallowed. “Ok, I understand that.”

“But next to these three rules, you can wish anything you want…”

Justin was thinking. He surely wanted to come out of this cave, but he also didn’t want to waste one of his wishes for it. Then he got an idea, how he could try to trick Joey.

“Three rules… boundaries… I thought a Genie would be powerful, but someone, who can’t even bring back people from their afterlife? I guess I don’t need you. Come on Trace, we search for an exit out of this cave on our own.”

Suddenly Joey came angrily to Justin and grabbed his shoulder and twirled him around. “Who do you think you are? You came into my cave, you rubbed my lamp, you wake me up and now you want to tell me you don’t need my help?”

Joey nudged Justin on the carpet, who flew behind him a while ago and grabbed Trace too. Together with both of them, he sat down on the carpet too, his lamp in his hand.

“You are going to be a good boy now and shut up the whole flight. We are going to escape in three, two, one…”

Suddenly the carpet flew up to the roof and Joey opened the cave with one of his lightnings. Together they flew out of it and enjoyed the fresh, cool air, while they were looking at the dark sky.

***

Lance came out of his secret room, when Joshua came.

“Lance, I have to talk to you!”

Startled Lance turned around and closed the door immediately. “Oh Prince Joshua, nice to see you…”

“I know you ordered the soldiers to search for me. Now where is the young boy, who was with me?”

“This street rat?”

“Stop talking about him like this Lance! Just answer the question!”

“I am really sorry Prince Joshua, but there aren’t many opportunities, when someone kidnaps the Prince…”

“What? Kidnapping? He didn’t kidnap me, I ran away!”

“Oh no, if I would’ve known before… I am so sorry, but the sentence was already accomplished…”

“Which sentence?” Joshua looked startled at Lance, afraid of what he would say.

“Death.”

“No…” Tears build up in Joshua’s eyes.

“I am really sorry…”

“You are a monster!” He ran crying away. Lance stayed and had an evil grin on his face. At least this Justin couldn’t even annoy him anymore.

Joshua ran into his room and cried in his pillows. Autumn came to him, licking his hands. “It’s so sad… and I didn’t even know his name!”

Joshua cried the whole night, until he fell exhausted asleep.