Mr. A. Deether was walking down the street of the nice small town he was summering in. Andy was young, twenty, and he had a bright future ahead of him. He did not know that one day he would be selling antiques in this same town forty years later but right now that did not matter. Life was good and he was happy.
It was 1969 and had this been a movie made at the end of the century there would certainly have been some expensive-to-license period music playing. Instead, Andy was listening to the local radio station on his new transistor radio play the latest top twenty record chart. Across the street Andy could see a small group of counter-culture persons; better known as hippies. He turned his head to watch a lovely 'bird' walk by in knee-high, white boots and a bright orange and lime coloured mini-dress. Her hair-sprayed hair-do, brushed a low-hanging awning of the store they passed. It was the Sixties. Drugs. War. Protests. Sex. History. Andy was having none of it.
He was on the way to his new flat. His fiance, Martha was coming over soon and he had to warm the TV up. He thought about how it would be two more years in college then he would get a job at a large corporation. Him and Martha could get married next summer and they could buy a home in a few years. Then by 1980 he would have saved enough money to get a vacation on the Moon. Andy was sure the future was bright.
That was when a small portal in space-time opened up and spat out a small brass lamp. It narrowly missed Andy's head as it wizzed pass clattering to the walk. Its small lid bounced free and rolled away. Shocked, Andy took a full minute before he was ready to move. It was another minute before he was ready to inspect the object that almost clocked him. A third minute passed before he was willing to touch it.
It was a lamp. Brassy and shaped like an inexperienced, young, white, North-American male thought a magic lamp should be shaped. The lamp was warm in his hand. It was bright and shiny and he could see his own face reflected in a distorted way. The finely etched letters read 'Transformation Genie.' Andy could tell this was something special. He found the small lid and took both back to his place.
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Andy rubbed the lamp and nothing happened. Seated on his new bean-bag chair he wondered why nothing was happening. He had seen the lamp come out of a magic hole in reality. Something was going to happen. He dangled the little lid over its place and he could feel a tug like strong magnets pulling the lid down. It fell into place with a heavy and definite thud.
Quickly a mist formed and a figure stood before Andy. "Behold, I am the Transformation Genie."
Andy boggled.
The genie looked around the room. The Andy Warhol print on one wall. The star-burst shaped wall-clock and table lamp. The olive green refrigerator. The bean-bag chair. "Crap, am I in the Sixties again?" he boomed at Andy.
"Again?"
"Every third time I get called out of the lamp it's the damn Sixties." The genie slumped into a wooden chair. "So you are, what some tripper? Thinking to use my lamp as the 'ultimate bong'?"
Andy did not know that much about the drug habits about him. He was a square student. Certainly not the type to use drugs. He shook his head.
"I can spend a hundred years in the treasure vault of some despot before any finds me. I've been forward and back in time to visit all the people who are blessed to get a magic transformation. I must be following some pattern but it is beyond me why it keeps bringing me back to the Sixties." The genie pulled out a long list of paper and started studying it.
"Magical transformation?" Andy muttered trying to keep up.
The genie looked up. "Oh yes. I am the Transformation Genie. I grant you one wish to change you or someone you know either permanently or temporarily. But only into mythical creatures." He spoke fast and in a manner that was uninterested.
"Just mythical creatures?" Andy asked. His mind was spinning.
"Oh yes. But I can play a little if I want. The last guy I had wanted a mermaid girlfriend. I had a bit of fun with those two."
"When was this?"
"It was in the year 2009."
"The future," Andy said with awe. He loved the future. Andy owned all Amazing Sci-Fi magazines and had read them many times. "Can you take me to the future?"
"Not unless you can fit in the lamp," the genie said. "But don't worry you will live to see it. Hey, if I do you a favor will you let me crash with you for a while?"
Andy was lost on his visions of the future. Robots and Space travel. Aliens and food pills. He could not wait.
"You see, I just want a good long break. I move around so much in time I could really just go for a dusty mantle for a while." The genie almost sobbed. "I don't have to move around so much. I will grant you a wish, then you will keep me safe until I have to leave again. What do you say?"
Andy was dreaming. "Any mythical creature?"
"Let's make it a little broader. Just between you and me, 'mythical' will mean 'fictional'. And 'creature' can mean well almost anything. But you have to promise to keep me until the year 2009."
Andy promised. The deal was signed and the genie waited patiently for Andy to choose.
Myself or someone else? Anything fictional? So many choices.