Rick was your average mid-twenty college guy. He was not particularly smart or handsome, but he wasn’t total lackluster either. He was rather athletic though, playing on the university water polo team. You could say he was a normal everyday guy with an everyday girlfriend and an everyday life up until that one faithful day in March.
As he was heading home to the flat where he lived with his girlfriend, he passed a heap of old furniture, seemingly placed for collection there. In between old rugs and dusty armchairs, he spied an antique brass oil lamp.
“Cool! Just like the one from Aladdin!” he thought. His girlfriend loved that movie. With that thought he quickly pocketed the lamp – surely nobody would mind, since it was junk after all.
As he arrived home, he called out excitedly:
“Hey babe! Look what I found!”
Only the silence that answered him reminded him of her temporary absence: “Oh right. Girls night.”
He shrugged. He’d give it to her tomorrow then. More time for pizza, beer and the game on TV for the evening.
Time flew and it was around midnight, when he finally got up to go to bed, passing the lamp on the way to the bedroom. If he was to gift it to his girl tomorrow, perhaps he should shine it a bit – the street dust was still clinging to the metal.
“This is how a bad movie starts”, he mused, as he wiped the lamp with this sleeve, “probably a genie will pop out now and … WOAH”.
Just as he was thinking, exactly that happened. Midnight blue smoke came from the wonder lamp, manifesting the torso of a muscular guy wearing a fez on his bald head and smiling before booming loudly:
“You have freed me from my eternal slumber, mortal! For that boon, I shall grant you one wish…”
“Wait a minute!” Rick interrupted, “One wish? Aren’t you supposed to grant, like, 3 wishes?”
The genie sighted. One of those again. Well, he’d see. “I would humbly suggest letting me finish the sentence, oh wise mortal. I was going to say: One wish, every day! Just after three days, this will even be better than what you have in mind!”
Rick was stunned. The realization came slowly to him, that this, really, was a real life genie, granting him unlimited wishes! This was great!
“Now, oh wise mortal, after careful consideration, please voice your first wish.”
Rick didn’t have to think long and he didn’t notice the sly grin creeping over the genies face. He had unlimited wishes, right? So he didn’t hesitate long before saying: