One Wish

It occurs to Lilith as she sweats away another 3.5 miles on the treadmill at her local gym that if she were to find a genie bottle, let out said genie, and receive the elusive one wish people seem to crave, that her wish might be to remain forever 37 no matter how many years pass. No matter how long the sun has fuel left to burn or the earth has spins left in its axis. She thinks that definitely, 37, is a good age because she has already gathered much experience, having been married, divorced, raised a child on her own, had many boyfriends, (and girlfriends), two careers, traveled somewhat, remained close to her family, friends, and ex's all the while holding down a full time job, and running a household; all of which has entitled her to select the age she wants to be forever. She thinks back to her 20's and shudders at all the wasted time talking art, politics, poetry, film, religion, and other such tripe with all her ex-husband's friends (hers too at the time). Oh, how everyone had lofty ideas and dreams back then but no one ever got anything done what with all the parties going on; the booze, the drugs, the sex, and all other manner of illicit activities. Some people worked at bargain priced book stores, others at local health food stores, and still others as strippers. Only she and her ex-husband and a handful of others in their group actually managed to finish school and truly earn a college diploma.

Lilith looks at the time on the treadmill, reads 10:15, and pushes the level up to 3.0, breathing harder now and staring out of the front window at the strip mall across the street from the gym. She imagines what the scene will be like; she will be walking along that utterly disgusting strip of petroleum infused piece of what passes for the nearest beach to where she lives, she will be walking out into that brown water feeling the sand, icky and slick with oil squeezing between her toes, and suddenly trip over the genie bottle, right there in the least possible spot anywhere in the world. At first she will scream out, like the girly she is (anything out of the ordinary makes her scream although she quickly composes herself), but then her curiosity will get the better of her, and she will reach down to pull out whatever object impeded her progress towards the oil tankers anchored just off-shore. The shape of the bottle will be just an ordinary shape like any wine bottle but the cork will be what causes her to swim back to the shore with it instead of just tossing it back into the murky water.

She's not alone at the beach. Her son is off playing with the children of some of her other friends and her very best friends is busy chasing them down to put some more sun-block on them. She inspects the cork and sees it is neither a cork nor even an imititation cork like so many wine bottles are fond of using these days. It is more of a stiff, rather hard, and prickly, fibrous cotton material that could very easily be pulled out. She looks at the smoky, olive-green bottle, and turns it over. She thinks she hears a sweet, distant music, looks around, realizes that no music could possibly be heard on this deserted strip of beach unless it's the bone crunching music from the local alternative music station being played on those suspicious looking, dark-tinted windowed trucks that drive slowly along the beach at high noon during the middle of a work week. She looks towards her friend, sees she's rapidly closing the distance between her and the bottle in her hands and stuffs the bottle under her beach shirt. It's okay, her friend won't notice, Lilith's breasts are delightfully large, and her friend will just think they're protruding out from her shirt as usual.

20:00. Ugh. Forty more minutes and Lilith will be able to get off this infernal machine. She goes back into her head and thinks of the next scene; alone with the bottle in her bedroom after lights out and her son sleeping peacefully in his room. She would have known immediately what this bottle was and that it needed to be secreted away as soon as possible. True, she did have to keep that hot bottle next to her bare skin the whole trip back to her house but she didn't mind. She definitely heard that sweet music and she smiled, nodding the whole time as her best friend told her all about her latest boyfriend troubles. Once in the privacy of her own bedroom the music got louder. It sounded like dulcimers straight out of Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" singing of that mythical Mount Abora. She knew once she removed that cotton cork a maiden similar to the one in the poem would appear. Lilith was not disappointed. There she stood once the smoke cleared, resplendent in a blue halter top, a skin tight black mini-skirt, and black, leather, thigh-high boots. Even while trapped in bottles genies still seemed to be up with the times.

"Hey.", she said.
"Hi, there." Lilith responded.
"So, I imagine you know how this works?" the genie asked.
Lilith nodded her head.
"Okay, then, you get one wish." the genie told her.
"Just one? Not three?" Lilith asked.
"You've been watching too many Disney movies. It's always been just one. Too many wishes gives mortals severe headaches. We learned that millennia ago. Just one. So what's it going to be?" the genie asked as she plopped herself down on Lilith's bed. She yawned and stretched herself out on the goose-down comforter.
Lilith thought about it and knew what she wanted. She opened her mouth to tell the genie but saw the twinkle in her eye, the half-cocked smile, and the way she delicately ran her hand up and down her thigh. Lilith remembered her mythology classes and the tales of the genies. Tricky, mischievous, and never, absolutely never, to be trusted. She was about to say "I wish to be 37 forever." The genie would smile wider, nod her head, or blink her eyes, or twitch her nose, or whatever genies did these days and say, "Done." Then she would gone and Lilith would continue down her life path and never start to see the effects of her wish until a hundred years later.

Lilith would be exactly as she was when she was 37. A size 14, 195 pounds, shapely, but still slightly chunky, a little flabby, with no need to ever sweat for sixty minutes on a merciless treadmill staring out at the Chinese take-out place across the street, the strands of silver hair scattered throughout her head never to be covered up again by copper intense red
#345, able to eat whatever she wanted, never gaining a pound, but feeling so sick from all the over-indulgence, never able to shed another pound either no matter how many miles she pounded out on the treadmill, watching her family all grow old, die, all her friends, grow old, die, her son, growing so old, crying because he had to go into the Summerland where all souls end up and feeling sorry for her because she was going to end up all alone, walking the blasted earth, forever 37. Lilith looks at the clock on the treadmill, 50:00, the clouds in the distance getting dark, perhaps it will rain, ten more minutes to go, feeling good about the movements of her body, the sweat pouring down her face, and goes one last time into the genie's bottle.

Well? Come on I do have other people who are dying to get a wish, you know." the genie said rather huffily. Impatient imp, thought Lilith.
"All right. I have my one wish." Lilith said. She whispered it into the genie's ear. The genie looked at Lilith and smiled. "Done.", she said. And with same puff of green smoke she came into the room with the genie was gone.

60:00. Lilith got off the treadmill, sweat soaking every inch of her, her leg muscles trembling, her back stiff, and her heart beating hard. But Lilith was happy. Truly happy. Happy to be able to feel like she never had before. She grabbed her keys and id, walked out the door, and waved good-bye to Nancy, the gym receptionist.
"Bye, Lilith." Nancy said.
"Bye, Nancy. See you tomorrow." Lilith tells her.