MAX!

Chapter 2

My eyes shoot open as my vision clears. I’m in my room, on my bed, but, how? As I look around, I notice another figure in front of me. A man. He’s just as soaked as I am.

“AH!” I scream and throw a pillow at him.

“AH!” He screams as the pillow hits him.

“Wha…. Who…. Who are you?!” My panic grows as I crawl to the head of my bed.

“I should be asking you the same thing! You just tried to drown me!” He tugs on his wet shirt. "I mean, are you dumb or are you just dumb?! Who the hell throws themselves off a bridge without warning?! Were you trying to drown me too?!"

“What the actual hell?” I whisper to myself. “Tried to drown you?” I question him.

What in the world is going on? I dig my hands into my hair trying to grasp the situation but nothing about this makes sense. So many questions are running through my mind all together that I don’t even know which one to start with.

He lets out a sigh as he composes himself.

“Okay, this wasn’t how I was supposed to introduce myself. Why don’t we try this again?” He says.

With a snap of his finger, the water from both our bodies disappears into thin air. It’s like we weren’t soaked to begin with.

“What the hell?” I whisper to myself.

In one swift move, he closes the gap between us.

How did he do that? I didn’t even see him move from where he was.

I flinch, covering my face with my arms and squeezing my eyes shut. I don’t know what to expect or how to react. I’m still so confused.

“Uh, could you open your eyes? I’m not going to hurt you, you know?”

I slowly look up to face him. After taking a brief moment to give him a once over, only then do I notice that he doesn’t have any feet. Rather, where he’s supposed to have feet, there’s only a faint mist of green.

A sense of dread washes over me as I scream out, “G…. G…. Ghost!”

“Correction; genie, not a ghost.” He says matter-of-factly.

“What?”

“Did I stutter? I don’t think so.” It comes off more as a question directed towards himself than me.

Run. Every alarm in my head is going off right now and all I can think of is to run. Run, you i***t! I keep telling myself, but my legs won’t move.

“I hate to burst your bubble but, even if you run, you’d still take me everywhere you go. So, I don’t see how that’ll work out for you.” He says.

“H…. How did you know what I was just thinking?”

Did he just read my mind?

“Read your mind, hear your every thought, you say tomato, I say tomato, basically the same thing.” He says with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

How the hell is he doing that?

“How am I doing it? Well, to answer that question, you and I are linked to each other. The only catch is that I can hear your thoughts but you can’t hear mine. Also, if I want, I can speak to you without having to actually say anything.”

“Like this.”

He didn’t move his mouth and yet I could clearly hear him in my mind.

“I’ve gone insane.” I say to myself as I hug my knees to my chest.

Tears begin to stream down my face one after the other as I try to comprehend my situation. I don’t understand what’s going on. For a second I start to think that I’m hallucinating because I didn’t take my pills for the day. Then again, what if I’m dead and he’s my guardian angel or something? Though, we’re in my room. This doesn’t look like either heaven or hell. Maybe he’s a ghost that’s been living here and now that I’m dead too, I’m supposed to haunt this house with him.

“Hey, hey, hey. Slow down, slow down.” He addresses me, snapping me out of my whirlwind of thoughts. “Look, I’m not some guardian angel, I’m not a ghost either and you’re definitely not dead. Pinch yourself if you have to.”

I do just as he suggests and true to it, I feel a tinge of pain afterwards.

“Look, I’m sorry that I’m scaring you. I’m not so good at explaining things either, that’s why you’re still confused even now.” He sighs and I look up to face him. “Your mom had a similar reaction when she first saw me.” He laughs though I sense a hint of pain in his eyes as he mentions my mother.

“Mom? She’s seen you before?” I ask.

“Of course she has. She was my previous master after all.” He smiles. “How about we start over?” He raises a brow at me.

I don’t respond and he raises one finger at that.

“Hi, my name is Max, your personal genie.” He introduces himself and takes a bow. “You are my master and your name is Andrea Avaline Lawson.”

“You know my middle name.” I say.

“Of course I do. Your mom told me quite a lot about you.” He says and gazes at me with his emerald eyes.

He extends his hand for me to shake. I flinch and the second he notices, he withdraws.

“Maybe handshakes are a bit too forward.” He chuckles. “So, I’ve got some explaining to do. Well, a lot of explaining to do, but, how about I give you some time to gather yourself and ask me all the questions you want to ask?”

All I can show for an answer is a slight nod. He hovers away from me, backing himself into a corner of the room.

“I’ll just be here till you’re ready.” He says.

To this again, I nod.

Thereafter, we sit in silence for quite some time. I’ve calmed down a little but no matter how much time passes by; I still can’t think of one solid question to ask him. So, I opt for him to explain whatever he can.

“Max?”

“Yes?” He fixes his attention on me.

“Please explain everything now. I’ll ask you questions afterwards.”

“Right.” He comes closer but still leaves enough of a distance for me to feel comfortable.

“Next, I’ll be explaining what’s happening.” He raises two fingers at me. “I suppose you’ve seen Aladdin, the cartoon?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, myths have it that genies are summoned through rubbing some magic lamp then whoever does so gets three wishes.”

“Yes.”

“Well, not in this case. That ring you have on is what you’ll be using to summon me and the only way for you to do that is to say the words ‘Max, come to me’.”

I look to the ring on my left hand. My mother gave me this ring a few days before she passed. What she handed me is a gold ring with a small, emerald gem on top. On the rim, it has some writing I've never seen before. I’d never seen anything as beautiful before.

“Furthermore, you can only talk to me when the ring is on. Take for example, when you take it off, I disappear. Go ahead, take it off right now.” He says and gestures towards the ring.

“Okay.”

I slip the ring off my finger and as soon as I do, Max disappears into thin air. It’s like he wasn’t here to begin with. Also, I now have a sudden urge to put the ring back on. I slip the ring on and the feeling goes away but max is nowhere in sight.

“You have to summon me if you want to see me, remember?”

I hear him say even though I can’t see him.

“Max, come to me.”

A puff of green smoke appears but in a split second it fades away and is replaced by Max’s figure.

“Well done.” He says once he’s in view. “Let’s move on to the second thing. How did you feel when you took the ring off?”

“Like I wanted to put it back on right after.”

“Good. Let me tell you why you felt that way. If you remember, earlier, I said I could hear your thoughts because you and I are linked to each other.”

“Yeah?”

“The relationship between you and I is of Genie and Master. You and I are linked to each other for as long as you still have wishes to make. In any other case, our bond can only be broken if either one of us dies and I still haven’t granted you your last wish. And if that’s the case, going by how our first encounter has gone, you’ll most likely be the first to die.” He smiles.

“Hey!” I exclaim as he stifles a laugh.

“Okay. The third thing you need to know is that as my master, there are seven rules you have to follow when making your wishes otherwise I won’t grant them.”

“That sounds like a lot.”

“I know but I promise they’re not.”

“Okay, go.” I say.

“Rule number one is the common rule. You have three wishes and you are not allowed to wish for more wishes. Two; you cannot wish for immortality. Three; you cannot wish for world peace. This is something that is beyond my control. Four; you cannot wish to go back or forth in time. However, you’re allowed to see what happened or happens in the past or the future respectively. This rule is mainly there to prevent any disruption in the space and time continuum.”

“That’s understandable.” I agree.

“Five; you cannot wish to have magic of your own. This one exists because humans are selfish and also to avoid world domination and things of that sort.” He says dramatically and flails his arms in the air.

“Six; there is to be no form of intimacy whatsoever between genie and master. Ever.” He emphasizes.

“Okay.” I nod.

“And finally, Seven.” He says and takes up a serious expression. “Master, number seven is the most important rule of them all. It’s the rule of life.”

“Okay.”

"The life rule states that you are not allowed to wish for anyone’s death or resurrection. You cannot extend anyone’s life or wish for something that could. That’s inclusive of yours too."

I get the feeling I know where he’s heading with this.

“That means….” He continues.

“I can’t wish for mom to come back, right?” I finish the sentence.

In response, he nods to show that I’m right.

“I’m sorry.” He says and lowers his head.

“It’s alright.” I say and bite down on my lip.

If he hadn’t mentioned that rule, then I definitely would have wished for mom to come back.

“Now that you know the rules, is there anything you would like to wish for?”

“Right now?” I ask.

“Yes.”

“I don’t think so. Everything is just so sudden. I feel like I’m in a dream or something.”

“I understand. I’ll be at your beg and call, so you can summon me whenever you please.” He says and bows. “I’ll give you some time to think.” Just like before, he disappears into thin air.

This is so absurd. How is this even real? A genie? It sounds preposterous. There’s just no way. Maybe I’m just seeing things. If that’s the case, I might as well go to sleep and when I wake up, I’ll be fine. Everything will be fine.

“Yeah, that’s it. Sleep. I just need sleep.” I take a quick moment to check if the house is properly locked. Once I’m done, I tuck myself into bed and shut my eyes.

A few minutes pass and just as I start to feel the sleep taking a hold of me, my eyes shoot open.

“The car.” I say to myself as I jump out of bed. “The car is still at the bridge.”

“Don’t worry, I took care of that too when I brought us back here.”

“Right, right, okay.” I breathe a sigh of relief when Max assures me of that.

Getting back into bed, I finally drift off to sleep.