Bottle

I found it floating in a tide pool while walking along the beach. I scooped it up but, before I could drop it in with the other trash, I paused. Something had caught my eye and now I noticed: It wasn’t a liquor bottle. There was no sign of product label. The glass was thick and uneven. It was so heavily scratched it was no longer transparent; but, no, the outside was smooth and polished – the inside was worn. An antique, perhaps?

Again I went to put the bottle away (into my pocket rather than the trash bag), but again I paused because I saw it. I peered closer: there was something inside the bottle, behind the scratches – a swirl of color. Did it move? I shook the bottle. Yes, the something was fluid. Seawater? I rubbed it on my shirt, shook again, and looked again. The inner swirl wasn’t quite right – it took too long to slow down. Maybe it’s sand in there? Or maybe there's an animal: a shrimp, or sand fleas, or something. Certainly not anything I wanted at home.

I examined the neck. It was not corked but sealed. The seal was grayish, stubby, and drab – undecorated and unfinished – surely not essential to the bottle’s value. I would only need to crack it enough to drain the water. I took out my penknife and began to work on the edge.

And then she was there. Without puff or flash: a small wisp hovering before me. The bottle dropped from my hand. She dipped slightly but stayed close to my face. I gaped.

I call her ‘she,’ but I’m not sure why. The form was human(ish) but without telltale lumps or protrusions. Of course she was too fluid to be sure. Her details moved – fast like flame, fluid like vapor. The color said she, maybe? She was a coral peach-pink.

Then she spoke. Not aloud – without words – a toneless intonation. And her speech wasn’t language, but ideas. I knew them as you know in a dream: sudden knowing without the labor of reasoning. Yet the knowledge was still foreign, like an accent in need of subtitles, or a translation of a translation.

[[[Outness – opening. Freely? Servicing? A price? Tell you.]]]

The last thought smarted - clearly a command. Missing words caught in my throat. “Who – what – are you?” I managed to cough out. I spoke aloud – I couldn’t do otherwise.

She regarded me, eyelessly.

[[[I here you? Became this how?]]]

“The bottle,” I tried explaining. “It’s here,” though she already knew that. I picked it up from the sand. “It floated in and I found it.”

She hovered a moment. Then her armish appendage stretched and warmed a place between my eyes.

My mind was a storm of color, shape, and feeling – like a rush of sleep-thoughts too fast to stitch into dream. Bits of childhood, touches of friends, wafts of plans, and occasional footnotes of language and words. Then the beach returned. She still hovered before me but… something had changed. She was happy? Or assured?

[I know you now.] The words still came as ideas, but clearer. [You are an accident – quite unaware.]

It was an odd statement: a poor translation or a slight? “What are you?” I asked what stood in the way of all else.

[A djinn.]

“Like a genie?” I thought a moment of Barbara Eden – but then my forehead suddenly ached. Her coral had darkened to mauve. She expanded left and right, filling more of my vision

[Like nothing. A spirit, ancient and strong.] The color lightened again. [You have unprisoned me, deserving a gift.]

“Like wishes?”

[You may request what I give.]

“Three wishes?”

Her color was pleased again. [So you may choose.]

“Does that mean… I can have more?”

[Three you have chosen – I have agreed.]

I had lost a negotiation? “But wait – could I have had more?”

[Three you have chosen – I have agreed.]

I swore. “I wish I had known what I was saying…”

She expanded like the dawn – she encompassed my vision – then spun like a tempest. And then: I understood. No, even more: I had understood. When I had asked for three wishes, I had only wanted three wishes. I had chosen them aware they were a limitation. She melted back to her original fluid flame form.

“Oh. Huh. I guess that’s fair.”

[Two wishes – and I wait.]

“Wait, what?” I understood. “No-no-no, when I said that I wasn’t really making a wish!” This must count as cheating!

[Two – I wait.] There was a finality to her statement.

I swore again. “Don’t do that again! Next time confirm what I mean!!”

[You want me to ask before granting?]

“Yes!!” I exclaimed. “I don’t want any more surprises.”

[This is what you wish?]

“Yes, yes!”

[Agreed. I await your final request.]

I stared dumbly, then swore up a new storm. “How can that – “

[You confirmed, did you not?]

“But I didn’t know that I was confirming a wish!!!”

[I asked.]

“But that… that wasn’t even… magical! You just agreed to do something.”

Again my forehead ached as again the djinn darkened. [A spirit, ancient and strong. Binding the word of the powerful is great.]

This was another a fight I couldn’t win. Still, one wish left – that was something. I knew now to be careful.

“Can I wish for anything?”

[Already have I changed some past and guaranteed some future. What more?]

Guaranteeing the future seemed a stretch to me, but changing the past had been impressive. This djinn must be powerful… “I need to think this over…”

[No. I wait long. Wish and I go.]

“Well, don’t rush me! This is important. I don’t want to mess it up…”

She lightened and flickered. There was tinkling – though it was soundless. [You understand nothing in ‘important.’] The tinkling continued. It was clearly a laugh.

My face flushed red: “Hey, cut it out!” The cascades of chiming silence continued. “You… I can’t…” It rankled me deeply – strangely deeply. I suppose air, ears, and words are buffers; but in thought-speech her dismissal was penetrating. “You’re lucky I’m even counting that last wish. I’m supposed to be your Master…”

It was a startling change to another fierce mauve headache.[Ancient,] she reminded. [Strong,] she pressed. [Unowned. Uncontrolled.]

I felt my mistake, but I attacked in defense. “Well, if I freed you, then I must be strong, too!”

[Strong – no. You are accident – ka-monkey – glimmer-grass.] More tinkling rumbled across the intimate void between us. [You are slavish – no master.] The light disregard had darkened with her color. New tones of disdain made me flush with fresh shame and anger – and fear.

“Whatever – you just need to wait a moment!”

[I waited many moments – 3000 years. Your accident comes late. Wish and I go.]

“And stop that ‘accident’ business!” I wanted her to go now, along with her menace. But my wish... “You need to –“

Although she said nothing, her presence blackened, intensified, and sharpened. I raised my hand against the dark as if for shade. “OK, I…” My heart raced; I perspired. A throb began building. “Just let me…” I feared she’d soon become pain. I stooped with a hand on my thigh. “Stop that and I’ll…”

[I am weary of you. Wish and I go.]

“IT HURTS!!!” I gasped. “YOU NEED TO STOP!!! CAN’T YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE DOING TO ME??”

The intensity remained, but paused.

[Understand? The weak? The passing? Absurdity.] She intensified again.

“NO!!” I dropped with one knee and one hand in the sand. “I want you to understand... this pain…”

Another pause. [Is this your wish?]

“Yes.” Probably a waste, but I thought of nothing else. And petty vengeance seemed to make up for three wasted wishes.

[It will be – then I go.]

She expanded and extended to encompass my head and chest. (Or did I stand up?) Suddenly there were many noiseless tones – many crowding many. (Or was it true sound now?) Not tinkling, but bursting and bellowing. (And did the sounds come now from me, too?)

[WAT?] She was orange. The world burned to join her. All quivered – the underlying beat.

[WAAAA?] I understood now. I saw: I was an accident. I saw – and I was less accidental. I saw as I became.

[WAT HVE YU DNE??] What a mistake we’d made! How carelessly she’d granted! How thoughtlessly I’d asked!

I puzzled it out later: She was too haughty. Rather than lower herself, she’d raised me. With me, my suffering flashed through her agelessness. And – it was as if I had bitten her tail. With her mouth. Or our tail? It was all mixed – a jumble: I grabbed; she clung; knowing; suffering; fusion.

*****

I woke. Or rather, began seeing again. Or rather, began seeing for the first time. Timeless forever stretched dizzyingly in both (both?) directions of memory. I rolled to my back – sand flaked off my face. I was still here: I felt the grit of the ground. My fingers clawed into it. My mind clawed, too – the sand rippling around me, as if faintly alive.

[…]

I froze.

She was still here. Silent, but here. She surrounded me, yet was contained. To my left the bottle was dull glass now. It was uninteresting trash accidentally washed ashore. I was her new container, but more. She was my new consciousness, but less. We were joined together – perhaps forever. And I saw now how long that might be.

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Header image based on "bote" by Len Urrutia, CC-BY-2.0.