With a sneer Alex looked down at his consolation prize, an old grimy oil lamp. What would he ever do with such a thing?
It had been in the garage and was disgusting, It looked as though something spilled on it and grime stuck to it. Not wanting to get yelled at on top of the injustices he had already suffered, he went to the sink began running the hot water. On a whim he rubbed the lamp expecting nothing and getting nothing.
As the mystery dirt was washed away, Alex noticed for the first time that there was writing at the base of the lamp. As he peered closely it looked like the foreign letters shifted into English lettering as he focused, re-ordering itself into words.
Alex squinted, certain his imagination was playing a trick on him.
"To get a wish as you intend, you must use rhyme at every end.
But wish without twisted verse, and you'll receive a nasty curse."
Alex held the lamp and thought hard, feeling stupid he said, "I want that sword to belong to me, I wish it was a gift for free?"
Alex heard his mom pull in the garage, he quickly finished washing and drying the lamp, as she entered she called, "Alex, honey come here."
"Yeah Mom."
"I want you to unload the groceries, I also stopped by the estate sale up the road, I felt so bad for the family I wanted to help out. The man was recounting a story and I felt so bad I grabbed the first thing I could find and realized only after buying it that I had no use for it. If you promise to not play with it and only use it for decoration, Ill let you keep it in your room... Agreed?" She was holding out the short sword.
"Of course Mom, what was the story?"
"Apparently, Mr. Morgan was in a panicked frantic state just before he passed. Claiming to be cursed that he could never rhyme again. He died of a stroke a few days later and his family has to clean up after him. He had so much junk, I just wanted to help a little."
Alex ran back to the kitchen grabbing the lamp and his new sword, getting them both to his room as quickly as possible, "Alex! The Groceries!"
"BE RIGHT THERE"
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Authors note: Unlike other stories where there is a sentient malevolent creature trying to hurt the user, there is no threat of not getting the intended wish unless the user fails to rhyme. My concept was that the lamp can read minds but only so well, It needs to distract your attention from the actual wish to pick up the intended out come. if someone fails to rhyme and instead states the wish plainly, the lamp can't read the mind where the user is directly focused, so everything gets messed up and it always ends up being negative to the user.