Laura moved forward with the helmet and Tash lost the contest as she turned, crossed her arms on her chest and looked toward her parents.
“Can you let Tash read to you tonight? We might be awhile,” Nathaniel said to his mother.
“Of course,” Laura replied, clearly pleased with the offer to spend more time with her granddaughter.
Nathaniel turned to Natasha and he didn’t have to say a word. She ran forward and gave goodnight hugs and kisses. The one to Lily was a hug about the waist and a kiss from her mother who bent down to do it. Nathaniel lifted her up, Tash wrapped her arms and legs around him and kissed him soundly on the mouth before she pressed her cheek to his shoulder and, after a few moments locked together with Lily looking on, a smile on her face, Nathaniel set her down.
Then Tash stepped back to hold Laura’s hand. Nathaniel got on the bike, Lily got on behind him, wrapped her arms around him tightly, put her chin on his shoulder and they shot from the curb far faster and far, far more dangerously than he’d gone when Tash was on the bike with him.
“He’s the bomb,” Tash whispered, watching them go.
Fazire had had enough. He turned to Victor.
“We must speak,” he announced.
Then without waiting for Victor to reply, Fazire stomped into the house, down the stairs into their new family room.
It was just like the old family room except it had a bigger, fluffier, more attractive corner couch with a big ottoman in the front that could sleep three small, active children. Fazire liked this couch, the old one was comfortable but he could retire on this couch. This couch was more comfortable than the hundreds of cushions that made his bottle a home. There also was an enormous flat screen television set affixed to the wall. Fazire liked this television too. His Westerns came alive on that television. Clint Eastwood looked like he was actually in the room. There were also nicer, sturdier, more attractive bookshelves and more of them so he could have much more space to fill photo albums and put framed pictures.
In fact, Fazire liked the whole house. He liked the KitchenAid mixer and blender. He liked the new refrigerator which was like the ones in America that actually had room enough to fit food in it for more than a day. He liked Lily’s office and the fact she had time to write.
He liked a lot of facts about Lily. The fact that Lily was smiling again. The fact that Lily was laughing again. The fact that Lily’s face rarely looked pinched and worried about money or Tash or anything.
Anything, that was, except when she looked at Nathaniel.
Fazire had decided he’d done his job well; it just took a long time for it to realise. Like a gestation period for babies. Lily had asked, with her wish, that she and her lover go through trials and tribulations. Unfortunately, Fazire was a wee bit too good at granting his wishes (he always had been, he thought with little humility). When he tied Lily’s life to Nathaniel’s with her wish, he’d chosen the exact right man and she’d been given everything she wanted.
However, at fourteen years old, she didn’t understand that all those terrible troubles the heroines in her books went through in real life hurt. That the words were just words on a page, but in real life, the pain was immense. Trials and tribulations to prove your love were exactly that, trials and tribulations.
And Lily wasn’t through with hers. Neither was Nathaniel. Not just yet.
Victor followed Fazire into the room and closed the door behind him.
“What now?” Victor asked, wary eyes on Fazire.
Fazire wanted to float. He really, really wanted to float but he kept his feet on the ground for now.
“Tell me,” he commanded in his best genie-voice.
“Tell you what?” Victor asked, not, unfortunately to Fazire’s way of thinking, a human who liked to be commanded.
“Tell me about your boy.”
Victor’s body grew tense and he did not respond.
“I can fix him,” Fazire announced.
“What did you say?” Victor asked.
“I can fix him. You tell me about him, what’s stopping him from giving himself to Lily, I can tell Lily and she can wish for it and I can fix him,” Fazire explained.
Fazire didn’t want to do this, not in a million years. He didn’t want to go back into his bottle and be passed along to the next greedy, grasping, vengeful human. He wanted to watch Tash grow up. He wanted to watch Tash’s daughter grow up. And her daughter and –
“You’re mad,” Victor cut into Fazire’s dismal thoughts.
“I’m not mad. I’m here for a reason. I know you humans think I’m strange and I don’t care. I think you humans are strange because you humans are strange. However, I’ve got a purpose in Lily’s life and I’m quite prepared to –”
“We humans?” Victor asked, watching Fazire closely.
Fazire nodded, crossed his arms on his chest above his belly and tilted his head back to stare down, or more to the point, up his nose at Victor. “Yes, you humans.”
“And what are you?” Victor queried.
“I’m a genie,” Fazire announced.
Victor’s brows snapped together, he stared and then his face got a little scary even for Fazire who wasn’t scared of anything.
“You think you’re a genie,” Victor said slowly and incredulously.
“I am a genie.”
“You think you’re a genie and you’re living with my granddaughter, Lily, my son –”
“I am a genie,” Fazire repeated.
Victor stared at him for long moments then he crossed his arms on his chest and said quietly, “Maybe we need to find you a home, someplace comfortable –”
“I have a home. This is my home and then there’s my bottle and –”
“Dear God,” Victor breathed, his brows coming unknitted and he looked no longer frightening but concerned.
Fazire sighed. There was nothing for it.
Therefore he floated. He crossed his legs under him and he snapped his fingers so his human clothes immediately changed to his genie clothes including the fez, gold armbands and earrings.
Victor’s concerned look was gone. His head was tilted back to stare at Fazire drifting five feet up in the air and Victor’s mouth was open.
“Sarah, Lily’s grandmother, was my first mistress. She gave her wishes to her daughter Becky, Lily’s mother,” Fazire explained, staring down at the stunned and speechless Victor. “Becky couldn’t have babies so she made a wish and I made Lily. I made her perfect and sweet, just what you see. But I wanted her to have humility –”
Fazire explained how Lily used to be, even magically floated a photo album out, an act which startled Victor and made him take two steps back, and flipped it to the right pages so Victor could see the chubby, plain, adolescent Lily, something else that made Victor look like he could not believe his eyes. Then Fazire told Victor about Lily’s wish and where Nathaniel came into this mess.
“It was the most complicated wish ever,” Fazire informed Victor. “Now that he’s back and it seems her wish came true. I was channelled last night and told I was nominated for Best Wish of the Century Award. So far this century, I’m the only one nominated. I figure I could win. No one has ever had a wish like that.”
Victor stayed mute, didn’t utter a sound throughout Fazire’s explanation.
Fazire floated closer to him and closer to the floor.
“Now,” he said softly instead of commanding it because it meant a great deal, a great deal to Lily. And even though it also could mean that Lily would use her last wish and he would go away, he wanted to give this to her, he wanted to fix Nathaniel, he wanted it for Lily and, these last few weeks, watching the tall, proud, intelligent man and how he looked at and treated Lily and his daughter, he wanted it for Nathaniel too. “Tell me about your boy so I can fix him.”
Victor closed his eyes slowly.
Then he opened them again, sat down on the couch and put his head in his hands.
Fazire snapped his fingers and he was in his human clothes. He floated low until his feet touched the floor. He walked over, sat on the opposite side of the couch to Victor and he waited.
Then Victor’s head came up and he looked at Fazire. He seemed startled for a second as he hadn’t realised Fazire had changed back but he recovered quickly.
“I can’t believe you’re a genie,” Victor whispered.
“If you tell anyone, I’ll have to kill you,” Fazire lied. This was entirely untrue but he’d always wanted to use that line.
Victor shook his head.
“Does Tash know you’re a genie?” Victor asked.
Fazire nodded.
“Does Nathaniel know you’re a genie?” Victor went on.
Fazire shook his head.
“Fucking hell,” Victor breathed.
“You really shouldn’t use that kind of language, especially with a youngster in the house,” Fazire admonished.
Victor just kept staring at him.
“Tell me about Nathaniel,” Fazire prompted.
Finally Victor relented. “I’ll tell you about Nathaniel but you have to give him time. And Lily time. If they don’t seem to be working it out on their own –”
“I’ll give them time,” Fazire interrupted.
“You can’t tell Lily right away,” Victor pressed.
“I won’t tell her right away.” Finally in exasperation Fazire snapped, “I’m a genie! I know what I’m doing.”
Really, what could be so bad about Nathaniel? It was obvious to anyone he was a good man. Fazire even wanted to dislike him and he couldn’t hold out for more than a few weeks and Fazire was really good at holding a grudge. He once went three hundred years holding a grudge against another genie. He was famous for it.
Victor interrupted his thoughts and started talking. While listening to the terrible tale, Fazire stopped thinking.
When Victor stopped talking, Fazire said immediately, “I must tell Lily.”
“You tell her, I’ll have to kill you,” Victor threatened and even though Fazire was immortal, he still felt a thrill of fear.
“Why would he…?” Fazire started.
“I’ve no idea,” Victor cut in.
“But it’s nothing to be ashamed –” Fazire continued.
“I know,” Victor interrupted again.
“I can’t fix that,” Fazire admitted and it was true. He couldn’t. No one could fix that.
Except but one person.
“Lily can,” both Fazire and Victor said in unison.