The sand felt good between Harvey’s toes. It was soothing, walking along a beach, following a nice luncheon. The waves of the Balearic Sea were gently lapping the Spanish shore belying the strong squall that had hit the coast last night.

He breathed the negative ions from the sea, clearing his head of a post lunch lethargy, invigorating him. Christ, he thought, I could really use some vigor now, fifty-one, over-weight, hypertension, work stressed, and fucked over by his ex-wife, Cecelia. Too busy working to pay much attention to her but she didn’t have to be so brutal about it.

Consumed by his own thoughts, the depression that led him to Spain again swept over him. Without looking, he stepped forward, sinking further into his own malaise, knowing it wasn’t healthy. The Black Dog got him, again. Stepping forward, his foot caught something, he stumbled and fell on the sand.

What the fuck did I trip over? he thought. Looking back, he saw a thin protrusion, mostly blue, a bottle?

He got to his feet and was tempted to move on, but he didn’t. He looked at the protrusion and yes, it was a narrow bottle neck. How long had it been here? Had it been brought in by the storm? That’s pottery, not glass, not plastic. Curiosity got the better of him, he looked at it, knelt and started digging.

He cleared a thin layer of sand away from the bottle, it was spreading out to a thick waist, likely tapering down to a narrower base. Digging sand away, he pulled the bottle out and his first thought was

“I hope I get my message in a bottle,” hearing Sting. He looked at it closely, saw the rich blue color was lightly abraded in areas so it couldn’t be that old, but there was something contradictory in the feel of it. He wondered how long it had been on this beach or was it washed up last night? Childhood fantasies crept into his head as he pulled at the stopper. Kidnapped Princesses, pirate maps-

POP! he heard as the stopper came free. The bottle shook. It shook! What the-! A small dark cloud of gas appeared and it grew, larger and larger. Terrified, Harvey dropped the bottle and backed away, quickly. A form appeared in the cloud, becoming more solid every moment. A dark form, brown garment covered dark form, A brown garment covered, dark human form!

A sepulchre like voice called out, “Master!” Harvey’s mind spun, “Master!” he heard, the form grew, became more defined. Eyes appeared and clamped on Harvey. “Master”. Harvey began to turn, felt a hand grab his shoulder, holding him in place with a strength he could not match. “Master! Do not turn from me!” Harvey couldn’t if he tried. “I am the jinn from the bottle!”

“WHAT?” Harvey cried.

“I am the jinn from the bottle!”

“Bullshit! No such thi-” Harvey started, but the evidence was right in front of him. This has to be a stroke! “Oh fuck! Am I dying? Hallucinating?”

“What? What are you talking about Master?”

“I’m having a stroke and hallucinating while dying. That’s it, for sure!”

“What?” the form said, “No! Not at all! You freed me from the bottle so, you are my master and I can grant you three wishes!”

Harvey looked around but couldn’t see anyone else around him. “A genie!” Harvey called, “In a bottle? For fuck’s sake, this isn’t the Arabian Nights!”

“Arabs do not have knights Master; only Christian kings have knights!” The being puzzled.

“And if you were a genie from fantasy land, then how are you speaking English?”

“No, I am speaking Aramaic, my language, the spell of the bottle talks to you in language you understand, and to me in my language. How else could jinn speak to their master?”

“Lunch. LSD, magic mushrooms, I’m hallucinating, for sure.”

“This is not a smoking dream, Master.”

“I get three wishes?” Harvey asked, not accepting the vision, laughing at the absurdity of it. “You do, but I cannot-“

“I know, you can’t raise the dead, turn back time and something else- yeah, yeah. Make women fall in love with me, I seen the movies too.”

“I do not know that word, the bottle has no translation for it.”
Harvey guessed which word immediately, “Recent invention moving images, with sound.”

“Images that move?” Jinn was genuinely surprised Harvey saw, “Moving images of what?”

“People, cart- drawings, carvings, we can do lots of moving images. It’s a different world now. How long has it been since you were last in the world?” Play along with the dream.

“The Great Shah Khosnau Parviz was in the tenth year of his reign when last I walked among men.”

“I have no idea how long ago that was, but if you are speaking Aramaic, then be 1,500 years ago, easy. That’s a long time to be cooped up in a bottle like that.”

“It is a magic bottle, bigger on the inside.”

“A Tardis then, okay. Let’s buy this story, okay. For my first-“

“Wait, Master please,” the jinn pleaded, “You don’t believe me, your predecessor was the same, but I beg you, do not waste your wishes on trivial matters.”

“Why? Why does what I wish for concern you?”

“My last master was frivolous and wasted his wishes. I would not want that for my master.”

“That’s very kind of you, but you don’t know me, who I am, what I like, dislike.”

“You are a man.” Jinn said, quietly, “I have had time to ponder the likes of men, master. If I may help. I can bring you great wealth and fame, but it has perils of which you may be unaware. I cannot slay your enemies but I can make you a great warrior who could slay his own enemies and that also brings peril.”

“As does any great change, and the dreams of childhood do not apply as an adult,” Harvey said, convinced he was talking to a figment of his imagination. “Now I am this age, I want to be the person I was when I was but 20 years old.”

“I cannot turn back time, master.”

“I know, but you can give me the body I had at that age? An eternal youth?” This was a fun game now.

“It is not within my power to give you eternal youth, but I can help you achieve a similar goal, though you will live only the years that the Light has bestowed on you.”

“Then that’ll do for starters. That’s my first wish, to return my body to having all the strengths and passions I had at age 20 years, for the rest of my life.”

“So be it, master!” Jinn moved, waved his arms, creating a light show, complete with an enveloping smoke. Harvey couldn’t see much through the smoke, but the jinn, A light pieced the darkness and bathed him in gold for a few seconds. Great effect he thought, maybe I should go into movies. The smoke dissipated; the world returned to normal.

Harvey looked down at his expansive stomach. “Well, nothing’s changed, so I guess you are a figment of my imagination.”

“It won’t happen overnight master, but it will happen.”

Harvey laughed, yep, hallucinating, a line right off the television.

“You must protect the bottle, master. Do not allow anyone else to take it from you and open it. If you do, you will lose any wishes you may have remaining and you cannot ever hold the bottle again.”

“What else happens if I do?”

“Nothing, master, but you cannot call me. You must not allow the bottle to break. If you do, you will release me to my doom, but you may be trapped by the spell of the bottle in my place.”

“What? Sorry, that’s a new one.”

“It has always been thus, master. I am not the first inhabitant of this bottle, only the most recent. For I allowed the bottle to break without opening it first. The jinn that was in here passed into the Light and I was trapped by the spell of the bottle.”

The jinn stood there becoming insubstantial, then a dark smoke that was being sucked into the bottle. Wow! Just like Aladdin, he thought. A Will Smith sfx on a beach in Spain. Damn!

Harvey put the stopper back in, it actually slid in easily and held tight. He laughed, shrugged his shoulders and drew his arm back. He intended to throw it back into the sea, let it float away. He stopped, ‘Humph-mmm. No, it’s old, might have some value.’ he told himself and walked back the way he came.

During the rest of his trip, Harvey enjoyed himself, feeling better than he had done for years. He felt the weight of his bitter divorce lifting, but more importantly, he was buying clothes, smaller than he was wearing. Oh well, he was travelling, walking more, sightseeing; if he kept this up, maybe he would be able to review his blood pressure medication.

Something else was happening too. Not only was he looking at women, they were looking back. That was definitely weird he thought to himself. Returning to Madrid, he caught a plane to Heathrow, connecting to a flight home to Australia. He had wrapped the bottle in bubble wrap, placed it inside a cardboard box, taping the stopper so it wouldn’t vibrate out in his travels. He had laughed at his foolishness, but did it anyway.

It was different, returning to work. After a few weeks, it was like it was when he first started, years ago, before marriage. The divorce wasn’t getting him down, he continued losing weight, joined a gym, felt better about himself than he had for years. He shook his head, thinking that the trip was all he really needed. Then he found the box, buried, underneath papers, unopened.

Lifting the box, the bottle seemed lighter than it was when he first picked it up. Opening the package, he unwrapped the bottle, laughing at his foolishness when he saw the tape around the stopper. He removed the tape and pulled the stopper.

Nothing. Ha! Silly bug-, the thought hadn’t completed when a shadow appeared from the mouth of the bottle! A small cloud of gas appeared and it grew, larger and larger. A form appeared in the cloud, becoming more solid every moment. It was the same form that had appeared in his vision in Spain.

“Master!” the form cried as it took a human form.

No, Harvey thought. I’m a rational person, I’m not insane this can’t be happening, again! No, he had to be halluci-. No, he denied he was living in a fairy tale. Not possible! Was it?

“Master!”

“Jinn,” Harvey barely whispered, “You- you- you’re real?”

“Yes, Master.” Jinn was obviously amused. “You are well?”

“Y-y-y-yes.”

“You first wish is serving you well then, Master.”

“First wish?”

“Yes, Master. On the beach you asked to feel like you did when you were but twenty years old. I am happy to say, that is done, but please, you must realize that will only last until your natural span of years is spent. Everyone will see you as spritely for your age, even though you will still be a graybeard and wrinkled with wisdom. You will always feel a younger man.”

“I’ve been working out like I could have twenty years ago. I feel great. Thank you, jinn.”

“No need to thank me, Master. But I do not understand what is this ‘working out’?”

“Ahh,” Harvey realized modern gyms wouldn’t have existed two thousand years ago. “In a gymnasium, helps us to stay in good physical shape.” The look on the jinn’s face was one of sheer bafflement. Harvey forestalled further conversation on this topic and said, “Believe me, it helps. Well, I think I’m going to need some money then.”

“As you will Master, make your wish and it will be done, all the gold you desire.”

“Oh no! No! Stop! That’s not a wish! That’s an observation.” Harvey though he had blown it. Jinn stopped and his eyes widened in surprise. “No, jinn, in this modern age, you just can’t wish wealth, it has to be recorded. Governments, banks and a lot of other people keep track of money and they don’t like when a guy like me seems to pull solid gold out of thin air. Money has to have a clear and obvious source.” Harvey thought for a moment, “Can you travel far from the bottle?”

“Oh yes, some distance in fact. Eventually the bottle pulls me back in.”

“Can you like, stay out for days at a time?”

“No master, at best, only a few hours on your orders, but then the bottle must be open and remain open. It will close once I return.”

“I can then order you to look around this modern world and learn as much as you can but it’s not a wish?” Jinn nodded, “Good, you have two millennia of history, science and technology to catch up on, get to it.”

“Yes master, but how would I do that?”

Harvey thought for a moment and asked if jinn could read. “Of course, the power of the bottle translates,” jinn replied. Harvey remembered an old history of the world book he had around somewhere. Searching for it for two days, finally giving it to jinn to read.

Harvey was surprised that there seemed to be some leeway in the rules around genies he hadn’t heard of before. He searched on the Internet for information about genies, but it only reflected Muslim belief structures. Genies it seemed, were all bad, from real evildoers to pranksters, but they would all find ways to betray their masters.

Weeks went by as jinn learned about the modern world, consuming the information given him. Harvey asked jinn if he could shrink a computer to use in in the bottle. No, only natural objects can be charmed by the power of the bottle and be carried inside. Harvey asked about food, how does jinn eat. Jinn replied he doesn’t, no food, no drink, his body is maintained by the ‘power of the bottle’.

Harvey suggested the stock market. Jinn did his research but later described it as more of a charnel house operating at the whims of those who would destroy fortunes as easily as build them. Master had a better chance of success by stealing from thieves. A plan developed, small wins at a casino, on the lotto, a run of luck that allows Harvey to accumulate wealth by stealing from thieves. Harvey’s second wish was an unending lucky streak. Jinn warned Harvey to be careful, thieves do not like to be stolen from.

For over a year, Harvey spent his time in the casinos of Australia and Asia, winning thousands one night, losing a thousand the next. Always winning more than he was losing. He kept an eye on the lotto at home and a one hundred-million-dollar prize pool rose. This was it, Harvey thought. He purchased a ticket and won even though he shared the prize with another person. Harvey wasn’t overly greedy, fifty million was enough, but he still went to casinos.

One day, Harvey asked the jinn, “Can I make a wish to free you?”

“No, master,” came the reply, “You cannot order the bottle to destroy itself.”

“The only way you can be free is if the bottle is destroyed and you are not in it?”

“Yes, Master, the only way.”

“So how did you get in the bottle?”

The jinn grinned, a wry smile, “I was a thief, a cameleer, lots of things. I stole it, for its pretty colors and the drink it might have contained. I was surprised when the jinn came out. I too wished for wealth and women, mine to take and use as I pleased.”

Harvey took that last comment in. “And what happened?” “My jinn told me if I opened the bottle and then broke it, he would be free. I was careless and broke the bottle before releasing the jinn. I assume he passed into the Light, and the bottle took me in his place. He was gone, but I was not.” There was regret in jinn’s voice, Harvey could hear. “If you break the bottle and are too close, you will likely be taken.”

“If I do manage to free you, what would you do? Where would you go?”

“My world has passed, so I would join this new world and try not to be conspicuous.” Again, Harvey heard a genuine feeling of remorse. “I have lost my past, but my future would be uncertain, as it should always be.”

Harvey left jinn alone while he went to have some fun at the local casino. He knew they cringed when he appeared. The winning feeling had palled a little, yet he still went to test his luck. ‘Stealing from thieves’, a good phrase he thought.

He limited himself to wins of a few thousand dollars, cashiers shaking their heads, not knowing how he could be such a consistent winner. Cameras tracked his every movement, so he made sure he spent plenty as well, buying drinks for people, ordering meals, paying for others meals. He thought about his last wish, then decided what he would do.

A few days later, Harvey pulled the stopper from the bottle and jinn appeared.

“Here’s what I want to do, genie,” Harvey stated.

“As my Master commands,” came the reply.

“I want to make my last wish, then I’m going to open the bottle every morning,” he started, “I know I will no longer see you, but I want to give you time to get used to this modern world. In about a year or so, I will leave the stopper in, take the bottle to a high place I know on the coast, unplug it and toss it onto the rocks below. I hope you will have time to escape the bottle.”

“You are saying true, Master?” Jinn asked, somewhat incredulous, excited at the same time.

“Yes. Freedom from the bottle. Once that is achieved, I want you to stay with me for a while, then when you are ready, I will give you more money than you will need and you can make your own way in the world.”

“You- you- would do this, Master?”

“Yes,” he let that sink in, “The idea of you being a slave to the bottle and to whomever would hold the bottle is offensive to me, now I know your true plight. I cannot say I regret using you like I have; you have given me such gifts. I would return them as best a mere mortal can.”

Jinn was stunned at such generosity, “I have never-.”

“Say nothing, be my friend. But one question,” Harvey said, “If the bottle is destroyed do those gifts remain?”

“I-I- I’m not sure, Master.”

“Thank you for your honesty. Then I better make sure we will have enough money to last us several lifetimes then.” Harvey thought for a moment, then “My third wish is to be able to take any woman I want with her full compliance.”

“So be it Master, but you know I cannot make them genuinely love you.”

“I know, perhaps I will find one I will stay with, one day, but for the moment, I am more interested in their lust than anything else,” Harvey laughed.

Jinn grew, his shadow encompassing Harvey. Harvey felt something in him change. There was no spell casting, no incantation, no sound. Harvey knew something inside him had changed. He heard a faint voice, “It is done!” The cloud cleared and the stopper returned to the mouth of the bottle.

For the next year and a half, Harvey toured the casinos of the world, leaving the bottle open but out of sight. In Las Vegas he joined the “whales”. He took over three million US dollars away from them. In Europe he took in another two million, Asia provided several million more, all from high rollers, all for jinn’s nest egg.

Women came and went, always compliant, thrilling him. He met, and bedded, waitresses, movie stars, royalty, beautiful women from Shanghai to London. He had no interest in their marital status, invoking the ire of more than one husband, even a prince. He decided never to return to England. As those adventures paled, he returned home.

Harvey stood at the cliff’s lookout, the bottle in a bag slung over his shoulder. A bracing breeze blew on his face as he looked over the rail of the safety fence, down to the rocks below. Waves were crashing on an incoming tide. He carefully looked around to make sure it was deserted. He pulled the bottle out, took one last lingering look, glad he could free someone he now thought of as a friend. He climbed over the rail to get as close as he could to the edge. There could be no mistake.

He pulled the stopper, flinging both bottle and stopper over the edge. Watching it fly out and down, falling on the sharp rocks below. It shattered into a thousand pieces without pyromantics accompanying its destruction. Harvey felt a movement behind him, knowing it could only be jinn.

He stood and turned slightly, he didn’t see jinn, it was a mirror. It was himself! “What the fuck?” Harvey said.

“I’m truly sorry Harvey!” followed by a push. Harvey tried steadying himself but his foot hit nothing. As he toppled, he heard, “I regret this Master, you don’t deserve it, but the bottle must have its jinn!”

Everything was in slow motion. A betrayal horrifying him more than his fall. His voice a scream he had never heard before. The rocks were getting closer and much bigger as something else caught his eye. The bottle drew itself together, as if time had reversed, only it looked huge as the mouth of the bottle pointed towards Harvey. He felt himself becoming more insubstantial, sliding into the neck of the bottle.

Harvey looked down at the spectacle below, shaking his head. “This is always the way of the bottle; it must have its jinn.” He watched the stopper fill the mouth of the bottle trapping the new jinn. It bounced on the rocks then fell into the water, bobbling to the surface. It would be taken out to sea, perhaps land on some island, or be trapped for an eternity on a reef. His previous life was finished centuries ago by the jinn who gave him health, wealth and women. Now he would live out this life as Harvey, with Harvey’s health, Harvey’s wealth and Harvey’s women.

It will be a pleasant experience, Harvey thought.