Your Heart's Desire
19 Jun 2019Today’s prompt: “What you were doing this time last year”
Exactly one year ago today, you found the lamp. It was bronze, ornate, and looked straight out of the set of Aladdin. You took it home, set it on the table, and held your phone out for a selfie while you rubbed it. And then a genie totally came out of it.
“Ooh, three wishes!” you said.
“No,” the genie said. “That’s not how this works. I’m offering you a trade. A blessing, and a curse. Every day for the next year, you can think of one thing, your heart’s desire. And you will have it. But a year from now, I will take your life.”
You paused. You thought. You could do a lot with an entire year’s worth of wishes. Just think – your heart’s desire, every day? With that, you could build more of a legacy for yourself than most people could build in a lifetime. You could have it all – love, wealth, respect, complete happiness.
“I accept,” you said.
“Very well,” the genie said. “Focus your mind, and envision your heart’s desire.”
You closed your eyes. Your mind fluttered from thought to thought, but then a vision emerged from the clutter – the one thing you knew right then you wanted more than anything else. You focused with all of your might, and you stretched out your hand.
You felt it nestled in your hand, and you knew your heart’s desire had materialized. You opened your eyes. There it is – one piece of Bazooka Joe bubble gum.
You eagerly unwrapped it, greedily popped the stale gum into your mouth, and guffawed over the cartoon on the wrapper (it involved Mort, Bazooka Joe’s friend with the giant turtleneck that comes up over his mouth). The genie coiled himself back into the lamp.
The next day, you rubbed the lamp again. The genie came out and once again directed you to focus on your heart’s desire. Once again, you closed your eyes and thought about what you wanted. And once again, you were delighted to open your eyes to see a piece of Bazooka Joe in your hand.
It has been a year, and the genie has poured out of his lamp for the last time. And suddenly a fog lifts from your mind. What on earth possessed you to waste your wishes this entire year?
“So, to be honest,” the genie says, “it was two curses.”