Jeff finished in the bathroom. Despite wanting to go to the kitchen to finish his morning routine of topping up on stimulants, he found himself drawn back to the guest room, thinking himself ridiculous every step of the way. Entering the room, he saw his luggage, the unmade guest bed, an old pc, and the junk one accumulates over time, discarded into boxes, stored out of the way, and forgotten about.
The only thing remotely out of place was an old brass oil lamp, surely part of some old Halloween costume, decoration, or memento from a play his niece was in... Jeff idly picked it up continuing to internally chastise himself for thinking something here would make sense of the insane thoughts he was having... "You're an idiot Jeff, go get some coffee and forget about these crazy thoughts, you just slept bad because you're away from home and got drunk last night." Jeff set down the lamp carefully. Replacing it in the box of clutter he found it, ensuring it didn't fall or displace things to make noise and disturb his brother. His fingers gently glided over the polished finish and Jeff turned to leave.
"Oh is that so?" a voice asked with a mirthful cadence. "It seems you've gotten yourself between quite the rock and hard place."
Jeff whirled around to find a man sitting on the guest bed and the shock made his shout come out as a stifled gurgle.
"Tut tut... you don't want to wake... is it your brother now or your best friend? Either way, he's not your father, so you're quite a bit less useful to him now. Wouldn't you say?" a light chortle erupted from him and a gleeful grin was smeared across his face.
Jeff didn't detect any aggression from him but didn't recognize him from last night's party; Jeff's guard remained heightened, "Who are you? Where were you hiding a moment ago? What are you spouting on about my father?"
The mans smile grew impossibly wide and his eyes twinkled. "How delicious." He paused to compose himself, "I am the genie of the lamp you just brushed. I was in the lamp but you summoned me, and finally you have 5 remaining wishes. Your first wish was to be useful to your father. This wish was granted by allowing you to be able to meet his needs whatever they are and somehow you turned into this. Please, do fill me in on the juicy bits. It does get boring living in a lamp, just waiting for excitement to find me."
Jeff's confusion and disbelief were palpable, with his defenses up, he wasn't trying to understand where his sense of things being off was coming from and was more concerned with protecting his brother's house. "Alright genie, my father was a flagrant asshole to both my brother and I, not to mention our mother and everyone else he knew. So the last thing I'd wish for would to be helpful to him in any way. You need to leave. Up you go, come with me." Jeff tried to grab the genie by the arm and usher him out of the house but the genie became incorporeal with each swipe.
The genie pondered for a moment. "Hmm, you must have gone through countless subsequent reality realignments. By not giving you enough time for your original history to resurface you have lost yourself to this new reality completely!" The genie collapsed backward on the bed as Jeff continued to try to touch him, his concept of reality breaking more with each attempt. "I expected you to play your part and after an hour or so you'd realize you've changed again, eventually running back to me to fix it, but if I let you run off and live this life I'll be waiting for a new master and miss out on the juicy details about how your wish went wrong. Do you see my problem Master?"
Jeff saw the depression in the sheets where the genie was laying but his hand fell straight through with no resistance. "Are you some type of hologram?"
The genie gently brushed Jeff's hand aside, "No no master, its impolite to touch without permission."
"But I can't..." Jeff realized his hand had been pushed away and was instantly in a panic at realizing ghost rules were in play.
"Not to fear Master, I mean you no harm. Whimsy, minor frustration, or confusion perhaps, but not harm." The genie paused to let the words sink in. "As it stands it looks like I need to help 'unpack' your mind, then we can talk more. Don't worry, this shouldn't hurt a bit."
Jeff watched in terror as the genie moved his hands in a flourish. A few seconds later, he remembered a completely different life, then two more, then another 5, and by the end Jeff looked up at the genie and said, "I am Jeff but, who is Jeff?"
"Getting philosophical on me, what happened to cause you to become so many different people?" the genie grinned.
Of all the lives, only one included having a genie and Jeff realized that must be real. "My dad said he wanted me to fit in, but I was the only teenager at the party."
"Ah, that makes sense. every shift of the group dynamic would result in a new life to prioritize your immediate surroundings, Got it. Well, now you know where to find me, and if you think Mike can find you useful as his son and fix everything, he can't. Reality has changed and he is not your father, he no longer holds power over you, so congratulations, you found a loophole out of your first wish. You know where to find me for your remaining 5 wishes." The genie laughed with glee as he vaporized into his lamp.
Jeff was left as a 35 year old, with his brother in his next room, but now knew his life was a lie. He knew the joys of being a newlywed, a father, a homeowner; the pain of being divorced, childless, and unable to find anyone who values his love and presence. On top of all this, he knew he shouldn't know this. He should be going to high school tomorrow, but as it stands, he will be several states over in a crumby apartment, working his job, trying to save for retirement and a house.
Jeff knew he should wish to go back to being a kid, he loved his parents, and maybe even his little sister. But rather than giving up his independence and right to drive he could instead make his adult life better. Guarantee himself a family, a better job, a lasting physique that won't balloon out at 45... Unsure what he wanted to do about his future, he went downstairs, made the coffee he'd been craving, and went back to the balcony to smoke and contemplate his options.