Perfect Wishes
By Billy_Ray77
Chapter 2: The Wishing
I spent the next morning trying to figure out how to word my wishes. I knew what I wanted, but it was awfully complicated. I had always fantasized about being a super hero and that was what I wanted. But that one sentence rule had me worried. If I just wished for super powers who knew what I would end up with.
By lunch I had figured out how to get a complicated wish with only one sentence.
I sat down with a pad of paper and began outlining the powers I wanted. It took a while and I made several changes as I thought things through. My three wishes would be for physical super powers, mental super powers and immortality.
First, the physical powers: I would be strong enough to bench press 10 times my own body weight with all muscles throughout my body being proportionally strong and my bones, tendons and other related organs and parts being strong enough to take the stress. I would be as flexible and agile as any world-class gymnast. When someone was going to physically attack me, whether I was aware of it or not, (I have always liked Spiderman’s Spider-sense) my thoughts and reactions would speed up to double the normal speed. My body would maintain the appearance and form of a man 6′ 1″ and 225 Lbs but my body fat would never exceed 6—8%.
Additionally, I would be immune to all forms of virus, bacteria, disease and toxin. In other words I would never get sick again. I would also be able to heal any injury 10 times as fast as normal and even be able to regenerate.
Second, the mental powers: I would be receptive to strong emotions such as fear or anger so I could quickly identify and pinpoint crimes in progress. I would be able to telepathically scan large groups looking for information buried in their minds. This way I would be able to ID the bad guys. I would be able to read minds individually as well. I would also be able to affect the thoughts of a person and actually change, either permanently or temporarily, their basic beliefs and, just in case I needed to protect my identity, I could also cause them to forget certain things. Last, I would have total recall so that I would never forget anything once I knew it. I figured with that one I might make a go of it as a bounty hunter.
Third, the immortality: This one took a while to settle on. My previous fantasies were pretty well handled by my first two wishes, but I couldn’t see wasting the third. I finally decided that with all those things going for me why not ride it out as long as possible. The main problem with immortality as I saw it, was trying to hide the fact that I didn’t age.
Then I figured it out that my body didn’t have to actually be involved in my sticking around. Upon the death of my physical body, by whatever means, my essence, and/or my consciousness, and/or my spirit and/or my soul would be drawn to the nearest recently deceased adolescent body.
I would then be able to scan the body to see if the injuries could be handled by my healing abilities. If not, I could allow myself to be drawn to the next nearest, and so on, and so on until I found one I wanted to inhabit. I would then reanimate the body (since no one else was using it) enter it and begin the healing process. Once healthy it would be a simple matter to claim amnesia. I decided on an adolescent because I figured that living with parents and a family would make it easier to acclimate to the life I was stepping into. I thought that this would be a win—win situation, as I would continue my existence in this world and some family would not have to mourn the loss of a child.
I also included a Gone To Hell clause. A GTH plan is one war planners use as the final contingency—when all other plans are no longer feasible and everything has ‘Gone To Hell.’ Usually it was something drastic, risky, stupid and irreversible. It either worked or you were screwed. But then, if you weren’t screwed you wouldn’t be using it anyway.
In this case the clause allowed me to stop the immortality process in the event I ever grew tired of it. Upon the death of my physical body I could, by force of will just allow nature to take its course and whatever happened to everyone else at death would then happen to me. I initially did that in case the world ever ended. I didn’t want to be stuck with my consciousness floating around forever with no living body to enter. But it also occurred to me that I might eventually be ready to just let go.
After finishing the description of immortality I then returned to the other two descriptions and added that the power would transfer to my new body with me. I also added that the size of 6′ 1″, 225 lbs, and low body fat would be a gradual change finishing at about the age of 23.
By the time I had gotten all that down I was way over on my lunchtime, but one of the things I liked about this job was the independence. I had to really hump to finish at a decent time and on the way home I thought of how much help telekinesis and the ability to project a sort of mental eye would be in my job so I decide to add them to my list of mental powers.
I was late getting home but Maria was working an evening shift so there was no rush anyway. The boys were watching MTV, which I can’t handle so I went right down to the workshop. The Jinni wasn’t there so I sat to wait for him. While waiting I included the telekinesis, looked over my 3 sheets of paper and saw an important omission. I quickly added the fact that I would instinctively know how to work my new powers.
I had waited about an hour and was wondering when he would come back when I had a thought.
“Jinni,” I called.
Suddenly he was right in front of me. No “poof”, no smoke, nothing. He was just there.
“Interesting world these days,” he said, happily with no prompting from me, “the last time I was able to wander around was over 1500 years ago. I have been aware of the changes, as I am aware of all things, but that is different than participating.”
Then his demeanor changed.
“So, are you ready to make your wishes?” He asked almost wistfully.
“Yes, but I do have one other question.”
“What now?” he asked, seemingly irritated again.
“If I do not order you back into the lamp after my wishes what will happen?”
“As I said, I will still be bound to your non-magical commands.”
“What if I simply order you to go out into the world and have fun, you wouldn’t be dangerous or anything would you? And I order you to be truthful.”
“If you were to order me to not harm anyone, then I couldn’t cause harm.”
“And what would happen when the next person got the lamp?”
“I am forever linked to the lamp. As soon as you were no longer in possession of it, due either to your death, you discard it or someone else finds it, your command would terminate and I would be returned to the lamp to await the next legitimate possessor.”
“Then that is what I will do after we are through.” I assured him.
His mood noticeably elevated. I was counting on that and hoped that it would have him positively disposed towards me when he granted my wishes.
“For my first wish,” I took a deep breath and held out the paper describing immortality, “I wish... I had immortality as it is described on this sheet of paper.”
He looked at me for a long moment then reached out and took the paper. He read it and chuckled.
“Very good... very good...” he said grinning and nodding while he read it.
Then he looked at me and said, “As you wish—so shall it be.”
I waited but didn’t feel different; I guess I will have to wait until I die to see if it works.
I then held out the physical powers description.
“I wish... I had physical super powers as they are described on this sheet of paper.”
He took the paper and read it. He nodded once and looked at me.
“As you wish—so shall it be.”
Suddenly I felt better than I had ever felt. It was almost as if I were lighter. I was breathing easier and I no longer needed my glasses. I noticed my pants were quite a bit looser and realized I had carried more fat around my middle than I had thought. I tightened my belt and looked at the Jinni.
He was looking at me expectantly, and with a bemused twinkle in his eyes.
I then held out the mental powers description and said, “I wish... I had mental super powers as they are described on this sheet of paper.”
He took it and read it. He looked at me and said, “Will you truly allow me to roam free until you no longer possess the lamp?”
I nodded, suddenly nervous.
“Will you vow to maintain possession of the lamp as long as you can?”
“I do.” I replied.
“Then, as you wish—so shall it be.”
I looked at my workbench and could clearly remember building it. I remembered how every mark on it had been made. I remembered exactly what the back of it looked like even though it had been in place for almost 5 years. There was more but I found I could dismiss the thoughts easily and focus on the matter at hand.
He looked at me and said, “You left yourself open to trouble on that last one. I could have enacted your total recall in such a way that you would remember everything you have ever known, at all times. You would have had millions of facts and memories swarming your mind without relief. You would have quickly gone insane. I hope you will now keep your word.”
“You have it.” I quickly said, “I now command you to go out into the world to explore, experience and enjoy. I further command that you may not, by action or manipulation, cause harm to any living, cognizant thing.”
“Thank you, Master. Enjoy your new life.” And with that, he was gone. I never saw or heard from or about him again.
I then took the lamp and set up on a high shelf, behind a box that hadn’t moved since it was placed there over 4 years ago.