Robert Wright

I allowed myself slumber. For what seemed like a multitude of endless nights without the luxury of sleep, I drifted. Somehow I could sense that this tiny act of human need was neglected and it was of sudden necessity in my life as a genie. It did not matter though, there was a voice, a tiny hint of calling from deep within my being. Robert! Robert fall away, fall away and join me.

I gazed about curious. I had reached the end of a long road and a blockade was stretched across the passage.. music. A serious song, a desperate tune began to play. It had a distinct composition as if chosen from the time from which my last assignment was progressing without me.

Turn around....

The music ceased as an overwrought Granny appeared through the dimension, her hand was outstretched, her expression tense. "Go back Robert!" She warned. The music was louder now, stronger.... "Turn around, every now and then I get a little bit lonely and your never coming around."

A tree appeared just past the forbidden path of road. It was a majestic oak, illuminated from below, the darkness engulfing the upper limbs. A dense fog blurred the bright spotlights projecting, adding a sense of mystery to the source. Without reason my feet became adhered and I could not slide forward.

"Turn around..."

I felt an overwhelming sense of desperation now. There was a secret... an epiphany hidden just a fraction in between something, but what? Was the knowledge behind me or just up ahead? I felt confused.

I concentrated, concentrated hard.

"Turn around...."

I was floating now, my shape reconfiguring, my feet rising up above me towards the blackened sky. My face was dangling just inches from the ground. The lyrics became one blur as a stretch of rope twisted and tied around my ankles. I wanted to scream out of fear, but as I opened my mouth, silence. Why was my voice placed into a sudden mute?

The rope was long and attached to the top of the oak. To my surprise the weave transformed and the material became some sort of elastic. I was hurling through the air pivoting in somewhat of a wild ride upside down.

My face began to skim the top layer of sand, grains falling into my eyes and up what used to be my human nostrils.

The music resounded shaking the dimension around me.

"Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and your never coming around, turn around."

"Turn around bright eyes..."

As if a sudden rebirth was possible, as if opening my eyes for the first time, I could see. It was Lizzy! She was standing along a massive lake. Sun was absent from where she was positioned, her back was to me, but there was no denying it was her. She was wearing her wedding gown, the lace dress that she never abandoned through the many opportunities of travel and granting wishes to the humans in need.

"Turn around, bright eyes..."

It was then obvious what had happened to Jeanne Wishgiven. She had switched teams after all. My heart suddenly sparked with such intense energy at this realization.

There was a young man with her, a good looking younger man.

The song chopped up and fragments passed through my surroundings. Everything was twisted and moving. I was still springing up and down, plunging into the soil. It was only on the descent that I could view the backside of Lizzy. The good looking young man was inching his way towards her and there was nothing I could do to prevent him from stealing her away from me. Somehow I sensed his attachment to her and I felt human jealousy.

"...and I need you now tonight, and I need you more than ever...if you only hold me tight, we'll be holding on forever..."

"LIZZY!" I was screaming now, screaming with everything I had in me, but the most frustrating part was how my voice projected in the softest of whispers.

"....a total eclipse of the heart."

"What does this mean?" I questioned falling up from the soil then down again. The clips of view clouded me with great anguish.

There was another voice suddenly apparent. It was Thelma Burnett and she needed me. I realized it was not time to return so I opted to ignore her.

Mesmerized by Elizabeth Fenmore and the knowledge that somehow she was still a spirit if even in the darkest of realms...

"Id give anything." I declared gazing about.

"Anything?" The shadowy figure asked as I stopped the relentless head-bob into the soil.

In a reverse sense of gravity I swung upwards to a twisting limb and grasped a branch, dangling. The figure approached gazing upwards. For a man he was handsome, his dark eyes scanned my desperate face and he grinned. I could sense a false aura about him, but everything about the view of Jeanne Wishgiven caused me to abandon the normal apprehension that I would typically hold.

"Who are you?" I demanded.

"A friend." He said grinning as white teeth became illuminated from below.

"And your name?" I managed.

"I'm Lucas, but there's no need to be frightened of me Mirror-man. I realize genies have cringed over the centuries from my reputation, but there is nothing to fear unless you're of weak spirit. Are you weak Mister Wright?"
I gazed at this demon, this confident spirit and I wondered why everyone was so fearful of him.

"Robert!" Granny screamed from the crossroads of dimension.

"Granny?" I questioned suddenly able to sense the concern in her voice.

"Let me tell you a little story Robert." Lucas said with a deep reverberating chuckle.

"There was a fine bunch of genies once....but two beings stood out above all others...cheating death and finding each other on the other side. There was an unstoppable bond between them, something that neither good nor evil has ever seen in the past."

"Robert Wright! You get back here immediately! Do you hear me? NOW!" Granny said in a panic.

Lucas gazed in the direction of the road, then shrugged his shoulders. "She's afraid." He announced beginning to laugh.

"Afraid of what?"

"You learning the truth, the truth behind how you were deceived."

"What?" I asked as an overpowering beam slowly approached from her direction.

"You heard me Robert. Do you know anything about erasure?" Lucas inquired with a broad grin.

"Erasure, what is that?"

"It's what the elders do to poor unsuspecting genies such as yourself. They trick you into gazing within the triangle of life and it wipes out your recollections... but it also robs you of what you hold precious."

"Jeanne Wishgiven?" I asked him as he cringed just from the simple mention of her name.

"That's right."

The light was now more visible, more pronounced as it neared.

"Is she with you now?"

Lucas grinned as he nodded his reply.

"A demon?"

"Why don't you come along with me and find out?" Lucas offered.

In a sudden gust, Granny stood as a barrier cemented between Lucas and myself. Her body reconfigured into a massive shield.

"Robert is not going anywhere! You know the rules Lucas. You can't snatch a genie when the assignment has not been completed. You can use trickery and set up demons to appear as humans in need, but that isn't the case this time!"

"Oh yeah?" Lucas said as his eyebrows creased.

"He has Elizabeth!" I said.

Granny appeared startled that I mentioned her name. "Who?" She asked in an obvious bluff.

"You see that Robert? She's pretending not to understand, but she does. You've experienced the deceit of erasure." Lucas spat.

"Is it true Granny? Did you steal away everything that I knew about Lizzy?"

I demanded.

"Robert, this is not the time nor the place. Your advisor notified me. She was frantic and could not leave the dimension to come after you. Now, let's get back to work and you can take this up with her at the next meeting."

"No." I said as Lucas began to clap his hands with excitement.

"Don't you see what he's doing?" Granny asked gazing at the dreaded demon.

"He's opening my eyes to what is really going on here."

"Okay." Granny snapped. "I followed instructions and erased Jeanne Wishgiven from your memory.... You've got to understand something though..."

"Erased the only woman that I've ever loved?" I asked stunned by her admission.

"You weren't of any use in the war we were fighting. There were humans in need and you were depressed, blind to everyone around you."
"You stole something I held precious."

"No. Lucas stole Elizabeth Fenmore and she's gone now Robert. No longer a presence in either world or dimension."

"How can you believe anything that old 'has been' is telling you?" Lucas spat.

I gazed between good and evil. Suddenly there was a blur between the teams and everything froze within my surroundings. A heavy frost became apparent and I found myself stranded within the confusion. Snow began to fall from above and a precise light projected from each flake.

Lucas and Granny stood as statues, their bodies paused in a warped type of freeze frame.

"Robert?" Thelma Burnett beckoned from the distance.

"I'm not liking this wish...please help me." Thelma begged.

I refused to listen to her, I opted to ignore the pain in her voice as she urged me to awaken back from the point of where I had started. Instead I held fixed in the frozen land of stand off, dangling from an ancient oak, holding my position between the forces of opposing teams, the most powerful forces in the universe.

I succumbed to that moment, surrendering to the numbness of emotional paralysis as Thelma Burnett faded away.