The School of the Jinni

 In the suburbs of Durbin, on a three-store wooden house lived a thirteen years old girl named Amelia. She was the only daughter of mister Richard Winehouse ,a blacksmith, and miss.Mary Winehouse,a tailoring.The Winehouses were not natives. They had migrated to Durbin before Amelia was born, and purchased half of an old wine factory who's owners were planning to demolish. Back then they had a different surname,  one lost in time as they liked to say, but when they entered their new house they so much liked that piece of ruin that smelled of wine, that they adopted the word ‘’Winehouse’’ as their new surname. Mister Winehouse was a tall man, with black hair, gray eyes, and dark skin. Miss Winehouse was a short woman, with yellow hair, green eyes, and white skin. Amelia was somewhere in the middle with brown skin, black curly hair, and green eyes. They repaired and furnished the first floor of the factory, transforming it into a real home, and left the rest of it untouched, to save some money for their future offspring. Miss Winehouse dreamed of five more children. Mister Winehouse thought three were affordable. Amelia, for as much as she could understand, had no problem with numbers, but she was very curious to see the upper floor of the house, and above all the attic. As her mom once told her, the attic was the kingdom of a bad witch who lived there with her big army of red cockroaches. She didn’t like visitors, had a bad temper and a taste for little kids whom she often visited. Every night, after her parents had fallen asleep, Amelia would take her sheets and hide under the bed, waiting for the bad witch to come downstairs. But the witch never showed. One day, after her parents had gone to work, Amelia, now six years old, curious to see the witch and tell all her friends about it,  climbed on the upper floors. Giant spider nets stretched all over the rooms of the second floor, and some tubes and pipes, leftovers of the old factory. At the attic, an old bed covered in dust, with no sheets, and a small wooden table, were the only furniture. A pair of shoes lied on the floor. Long and black, they looked just like the shoes that a witch would wear. Amelia sized them, went downstairs, and waited for the owner to come and search for them. Three days later, miss Winehouse disappeared. Amelia, who believed the bad witch had kidn*pped her mom, climbed again at the attic. It looked as if someone had been staying there lately because the old bed was cleaned from the dust and covered with sheets. On the table, she saw pieces of fresh bred scattered all over it, leftovers of somebodies meal. She left the shoes on the bed and waited for her mom in return. But three years passed, and she never showed, and Amelia slowly started to forget about her. Then, on the first morning of the fifth year since her mom's disappearance, and Amelia’s eleventh birthday, an uncle with the name Robert Robersclub came to visit them. He brought with him his wife Robin,  his daughter Roberta and his son Roben. They were pretty desperate and for a good reason. The bank had just sized their house, and they had no place where to go. Memories of a bitter past rounded up in mister Winehouses mind, upon seeing them, and above them stood the image of his brother Robert, who use to beat him so bad. He leased them a room on the first floor, but suddenly the  Robersclub sized all of the floor, and filled it with some huge size furniture. Amelia had never seen such furniture before. The closet alone was so big that surpassed two times the height of the front door.  How they had managed to slip them inside the house, remains a mystery to this day. The Robersclub themselves where giant people, tall and robust, but still Lilliput in front of their furniture, so they had invented ways to climb on them. The chairs, for example, had stairs attached to them. Since no space was left for them on the first floor, Amelia and her father moved their tiny furniture to the second floor and decided to make it their new home. The quick spread of the Robersclubs inside his house, had shocked mister Winehouse. Immediately after the resettlement, he suffered a brain lock and closed himself in the attic. The Robersclubs saw this as a good opportunity to clean the house from some precious items, like the antique vases, the crystal glasses, and the old china cups, some of them dating from the nineteenth century, part of miss Winehouses large collection. They even eyed the old books, witch Amelia managed to rescue at the last moment, carrying them at the attic. It was her third visit at the nest of the witch. In the old bed, she saw the long black shoes again. It looked as if someone had used them for a long walk because they were torn apart and covered in dirt. Was it the witch? Amelia couldn’t tell. The next year an aunt that Amelia had never seen before came for a visit. Everyone in the house was stunned by her appearance. She was a tall fat woman by the name Helga, with long grey hair and small yellow eyes, wearing a white mourning dress, like the traditions of her dead husband’s  family required. At childhood a car had struck her left leg, leaving her only the right one functioning. Her father bought her a walking stick, and some times she would use it to beat the other children who made fun of here, and later her own children who abandoned her because of that walking stick. Unlike the Robersclub family, she had brought no furniture, except ten vases with carnivorous plants, had no bed and slept standing on her walking stick by day, and came around her empty room all night. Her way of living made her hilarious, especially among the Robersclubs, who couldn’t stop whispering against her. Aunt Helga gathered all this whispering  through a magic device called ‘’Helga’s Ears’’, a kind of Viking helmet with the horns turned upside down and attached to the walls, and planed a revenge. She went to the kitchen, sized the cups, the crystal glasses, the antique vases, and the china plates, all belonging to the Winehouses, and hid them in her room. The next day, when uncle Robert tried to steal some of them, he found none. Aunt Helga so much liked the precious dishes, that she decided to keep them forever. Amelia on the other hand so much disliked these people who had invaded her house, that she nicknamed them  ‘’Infamily’’, short for ‘’Infamous Family’’.And they proved they deserved that name, when three years later they kicked Amelia out of the room and forced her to climb at the attic where her father lived. Mister Winehouse had got out of the brain lock lately and was now living in his world of dreams, where his wife was still alive and was playing hide and seek. All day he would search for her in the attic, not daring to go downstairs, where monsters like the ones that had visited him during childhood lived. So far so bad, but it didn’t end there because another danger lied at the school: The Smo  King’s, the triplets who lived in the orphanage nearby, the horror of every kid of the town. Once a week they would appear at the schoolyard with their bicycles, their smoking suits, and their smoking pipes, searching for a lonely student, a sheep separated from the heard like they used to call them. Upon finding one they would capture him and milk him of his money. Those who had no money, were kept as hostages and later sold to their friends or relatives and some times even to unknown people who wanted to taste the pleasure of buying a human being. Although Amelia, like all the other kids, tried to avoid the Smo King’s, that day she would come face to face with them. She had taken a nap on the last lesson hour, and upon waking up saw she was all alone in the classroom. She took her bag, and run out. Before reaching the front door, she heard laughing coming from the sportive arena and immediately recognized the voices. It was the Smo King’s, who apparently were playing with their new victim. She became curious and thought with herself ’’whom did they catch today?’’.She approached. The  Smo King’s had transformed the volleyball net into a trap, and they had pushed their victim inside it. Now he was going to remain hanged in there until he would pay them the sum they had in mind. Amelia heard his voice and immediately recognized it. It was her friend, Eugene, a boy as weird as her in many aspects, appearing some times like from nowhere. He was a few inches taller than her, had deep black eyes, and white  ‘’ponytail’’ style hair. He liked carpets and kept a miniaturized model of them attached to his keys. Eugene was Amelia’s only friend,and she had to do something to free him, so she started digging in her pockets in search of money. Meanwhile, the Smokings were pushing Eugene towards each other. They had counted the money he had given them, and not satisfied, where now squeezing him, hooping to milk some more. Amelia, nearby, had already found one pound. It was difficult to bribe the Smo King’s with so little, so she kept searching for more, but soon there were no more pockets left to search. She had drilled them all. The Smo King’s on the other hand, had no intention of getting stuck from Eugene before sucking the last penny out of him, and they stretched the trap, making it so small that Eugene was now barely breathing. ‘’Hey, what are you doing’’, said Amelia and approached,’’ you are suffocating him’’. The Smo King’s turned their heads back and released the ropes around Eugene. Amelia’s appearance had frightened them, since, like all criminals, they hated having witnesses around them, or even worse, behind them. Maybe someone else would have run, but not the Smo Kings. They kept their ground, and told Amelia to disappear, or join her friend inside the trap. ‘’Or, if you want, you can pay the ransom for him’’, said one of the Smo King’s. ‘’With pleasure, I will pay’’, said Amelia, and handed the pound towards them, but the Smo King’s were not seduced. They simply kept looking at it for a couple of seconds then took their pipes out of the mouths, and started making circles of smokes. Now they were thinking, and from the size of their circles, you could trace their thoughts. If the circles were big, they would accept the offer, if small they would refuse it. Unfortunately, this time they were small. ‘’One pound for a human being’’, said the first Smo King,’’ Not enough.’’ And he put his pipe on the mouth and turned his back on Amelia ‘’Not near enough,’’ said the second Smo  King and he also put the pipe on his mouth and turned his back on her. ‘’This is all I have’’, said Amelia,’’ all I found in my pockets. Take it or leave it’’. ‘’We leave it for now’’, said the third Smo King, who was a girl in short hair,’’ Search again, and when you find more, call us. We will be here until midnight, but we don’t know if your friend will still be alive by then’’, and she put her pipe on the mouth and turned her back on Amelia. ‘’Do what they say, Amelia’’, said Eugene from inside the net,’’ search again in your pockets’’. Amelia started digging again on her left pocket, and her hand went deeper and deeper as if the pocket was sucking it. Suddenly she touched something and pulled it out keeping it just with her nails. It was a shining, golden looking coin, with a city carved from the one side, and the letter ‘’J’’ carved from the other side ‘’Hey guys, take a look at this’’ she said. The Smo King’s turned their heads around, saw the shining coin, approached and put their pipes out of their mouths and started making circle after circle of smoke, a sign they were excited. ‘’Holy smoking spirit’’, said one of the Smo Kings’’, tell me I am not dreaming. I see a gold coin in front of me’’. ‘’You are not dreaming’’, said the second Smo King,’’ I see it too. Could it really be gold? ‘’Well, let’s taste and say’’ said the third one, and grabbed the coin  from Amelia ‘s hands and bite it.’’Glorious smoking spirit, this is real gold’’. ‘’So, it's enough for my friend's freedom than’’, said Amelia. ‘’Its enough for more than that’’, replied the Smo King who had bitten the coin, and started playing with it. Suddenly the coin fall to the ground. Two of the Smo King’s jumped on it, but the coin slipped,and they clinked their heads with each other. Once on their senses, they saw the coin running away. They jumped on their bicycles and started chasing it. Amelia turned to Eugene, and for a moment thought he looked good inside the net. ‘’Well’’, said Eugene? ‘’What’’? said Amelia ‘’What do you mean what? Get me out of here’’. ‘’First, tell me were that coin came from and what those symbols meant, then I release you’’, said Amelia''. ‘’I have no idea’’, said Eugene,’’ I didn’t even saw the coin. The Smo Kings were in front of me, remember?’’. ‘’The smart a*s among the fools is the one who rules’’, said Amelia repeating a phrase Eugene had once taught her,’’ today you are him and you fooled us all. You are free, but first, let me take a picture’’, she put out her phone and made a picture of Eugene inside the net.’’That’s nice’’, she said and released the rope. Eugene splashed on the ground. ‘’That hurt’’, he said, cuddling his butt. ‘’You deserved it for not telling me’’, said Amelia and they both laughed. They installed the net back on its place and walked to the outdoor, just to find it closed. The Smo King’s always liked to have the last word, even after they were paid. ‘’Those guys are evil dumb's’’, said Amelia ‘’Yeah’’, said Eugene, ‘’and I hope that one day they fall on someone like themselves’’. ‘’Come on’’, said Amelia, and started climbing the fence. Eugene followed. A police officer passing by saw them, stood for a minute to decide what to do, and then walk away, saying to himself ‘’just kids’’. At the bus station, an old lady with a black dress, a black headscarf and a black bag attracted their attention. She looked lost, and all the time would put out her foggy glasses and clean them. A minute of wearing them, and the glasses would become foggy again, and again she put them out and clean them. When Amelia and Eugene approached, she stared at them and smiled like she had found what she was searching for. A row of people who gathered in front of the bus engulfed the old woman and carried her inside. One of the passengers offered his seat to her, and the woman sat down, thanking him for his kindness. The tone of her voice made Eugene tremble. Amelia paid no attention. She knew Eugene was claustrophobic and found it a kind of funny. On the next station, Eugene rushed out without saying goodbye, and headed home, looking back all the time to see if the old woman was chasing him. Amelia felt a kind of offended by his attitude, and swore not to talk to Eugene for a month. When she arrived home, she knocked and knocked for fifteen minutes until someone finally opened up. Amelia saw first half of a man’s body, and then raised her head and saw the other half and his balded head that surpassed the lamp. It was her very tall and very talking uncle Robert, who started addressing her with a slow-motion voice.     ‘’Well, finally you found your way home, you little worthy niece. You know you are fifteen minutes late, don’t you’’? , and he put out a notebook and a pencil,’’ Now, pay attention. There are twelve items missing today, twelve. Five cups, three glasses, one spoon, and two knives. Do you have any idea where they ended up? ‘’No’’, said Amelia,’’ and I didn’t found any of them on my way home. Besides, five plus three, plus  one, plus two, make eleven and not twelve’’. ‘’Very funny’’, said the uncle,’’ but since they are lost, and they belong to the house, we all have to pay to buy them back. I made a calculation and I found that your contribution must be around….hmm, let me see,’’ he looked at the notebook where he had written the names of  Amelia , Amelia’s father and aunt Helga’s, together with the amount of money that each one of them had to deliver,’’ ah yes,15 pounds,.The others have already paid theirs, now it's your turn’’. Amelia had no intention of giving him 15 pounds for the lost items because she knew very well that Robert had stolen them, and probably sold them. Now he was trying to extract more money by forcing the others to pay for them. Everybody in the house knew this game, and of course, they had landed no money on him. She wanted to climb upstairs, but Robert insisted on the 15 pounds contribution, and he had blocked the entrance with his huge body. ‘’I don’t have 15 pounds’’, she said,’’ but I can tell you how to make them’’. Robert smiled, put his notebook and pencil on his pocket, opened his eyes wide, and enlarged his ears, to hear better. Now he looked like a mythological creature. Amelia had no idea how her uncle managed to move his ears and eyes like that. She was convinced that, if Robert would had used this talent to entertain the people in the circus, he would have made a fortune. ‘’There is an old vase hidden in aunt Helga’room, painted with dragons around, and a man dressed as an emperor in the middle. I saw her yesterday when she put it out, from the closet on the floor. It must cost a fortune, and a guy like you would not let this opportunity slip way, would he?’’ Describing an old ancient vase in details, and speaking with his own slow-motion voice, was everything you needed to convince uncle Robert. In his fantasy of thief, the vase was transformed into an old Chinese mourning vase that contained the ashes of some dead guy, probably those of aunt Helga’s husband, but who cares. An ancient vase always costs a fortune, and as for the ashes, they would be safer buried, rather than transported around, always with the risk of being lost. He retreated in his room to plan the theft in detail, and the way was open for Amelia, but the troubles were not over yet. In the stairs, her cousin Roberta quickly appeared in front of her and pushed her to the wall. Amelia was surprised to see her. She looked fatter than the last time they had meet. ’’You did it again, ha’’?  said Roberta. ’’ What did I do again?’’, said Amelia. ’’You took my shoes’’, she said, in a very fast motion voice. ‘’No ‘’, said Amelia, ’’ I haven’t taken your shoes’’. The cousin wasn’t convinced. ’’Give me  your shoes’’, she said,’’ I am gone a try them, and if they fit me that means they are mine.’’     It was a trap, but not a surprise for Amelia. She knew that Roberta was a devoted follower of her father, and had perfected the tricks of robbery inherited by him. One of them was the trick of shoes.She would find someone with the same foot number as hers, try his or her shoes, and immediately claim he or she had stolen them from Roberta's closet. To convince the victim, she would scratch her initials on the shoes, or hide small papers with her name inside them,and allow the owner to discover the proof. By doing so, she had managed to build a huge collection of shoes, without spending a penny. Among them was a pair that Amelia had received as a gift for her thirteen birthday. ’’I have taken nothing from  you people’’, said Amelia.’’It’s you who have taken everything from me’’, and stared at Roberta to message her that this time she was getting neither her shoes nor her socks. Roberta understood. The bluff wasn’t working. She released her, and retreated at her room slipping backward like a shrimp, closed the door, and decided to spy Amelia through the keyhole. After liberating herself from the uncosy cousin, Amelia had one last obstacle: the empty room where aunt Helga lived, but luckily she was sleeping, standing like always on her walking stick with her eyes closed, surrounded by her carnivorous plants, looking more like a statue in the park, rather than a human being. Her flowers were also sleeping, and Amelia slowly slipped through them, trying not to wake them, and found herself in the attic. Her father, as usual, was searching for his wife, and there was nothing she could do to help him. She entered her room, drop her bag on the floor, and splashed on the bed. Beside her was the ‘’Snow White and Seven Dwarfs’’ book. Amelia took the book and opened it up, read the first lines, and suddenly closed it and drop the book on the angle of the room. ’’So much for fairy tales’’, she said,’’ nothing comes out of them anyway’’.The wind that slipped in  through the open window, moved the pages of the book one by one, until it stopped at the picture of the old wich knocking on the door. By then, the little girl had fallen asleep.