I searched inside drawers and closets of bedrooms full of heavy velvet curtains and bed covers thick with dust. I checked row after row of books in the library and looked and touched behind them in case I should find a secret door. In a dining rooom for twenty I found not a crumb, but in the kitchen I saw the remains of pancakes sitting in solidified maple syrup and next to them rock hard pieces of toast that had been part of Mr. Lonefellow’s last breakfast were still present.
Nothing in the attic and nothing in the cellar. The only thing I had accomplished was to worsen my allergy thanks to all the dust.
But then, while I was searching the old stable
turned garage and crowded storeroom and after one of my loudest sneezes, a mellifluous male voice spoke out with a
strong foreign accent.
“Afiat
bashe. Purity be bestowed upon you. May it be for your health.”
“Thanks,” I said out loud, “but who has wished
me good health?”
“One whom you should now wish good health to in
return. You must say salaamat bashi.
It means good health to you too.”
“Well, salaamat
bashi. Good health to you too. But who are you? I can’t see you.”
“I am the genie of the lamp you are leaning
on,” said the voice. “If you rub it a little more strongly you will see me.”
“That’s as good as done,” I said.
I rubbed the lamp with my sleeve and soon a cloud and then a genie came out of it. He was green-eyed and had curly black hair and was very
young. He was dressed in bright, colurful clothes and the turban on his head
had many patterns that were lovely to behold.
“Hi, my new master,” he said. "Your wish is my command. What can I do for you?"
“I? Oh, no!
I could never be anyone’s master. It wouldn’t be like me at all. I value
independence. Besides, the lamp isn’t mine. It belongs to a married couple that
is trying to get some sleep in the basement of the manse. They are plagued by a
strange noise. A persistent little tapping. I’m not hearing it now, but perhaps
you know the noise I mean. Who or what made it?”
“I, with my little hammer of gold,” he said,
showing me a small hammer that did seem to be made of solid gold. “The lamp was
deformed in an accident and I am restoring it. Don’t say the lamp isn’t yours,
master. Just steal it! That’s what everyone does. I will shrink it back to its
original size so you can stow it in your satchel. I like you and will be happy
to serve you.”
“I don’t think the Shyboys will give you much
trouble,” I said. “They aren’t ambitious. They had a golden chance to get rich
when they sold this house and exchanged it for practically nothing.I think the
most they will trouble you for is pizza or carry out Chinese food once in a
while.”
“But I want to show my skills off! I want to
build breathtaking palaces. Find incredible treasures. Carry off harems full of
stunning women. Win bloody battles against invincible armies singlehanded! Make
formidable enemies bite the dust!”
“I see,” I said. “I’m not much into fighting.
And I’m too romantic not to want to be monogamous. But there is one thing you
could do for me. I’ll steal the lamp for a few minutes to ask you where I can
find some magic pencils I would treasure.”
Batish Afsoon smiled. He said he had already
put three of those pencils in my satchel. One was my sister’s pencil. The other
two were Ty’s. I said Ty had only promised me one and we would have to return
the other. He was a graffiti artist and might not want to be left without at
least one of these pencils. When I had all the other four, I would speak to him
and maybe he would allow me to acquire the one he had left.
“Forgive me for interrupting you, master,” said
Batish Afsoon. “But I must ask you if you really want to mess up your life.
These pencils are not worth the trouble. I feel I should warn you.”
“What is the trouble?” I said.
“The last two pencils I would have brought to
you too, but you would have problems with those in whose power they are now. The
fourth pencil, for instance, is in the hands of
an individual who is being instructed in the dark arts in a school in a
cave by the Devil in person.”
“Oh!” I said. “The Devil, is it? Well, I don’t want to steal anything from him or
anyone else. And I can understand your not wanting to have problems with him.
But if it is someone else who owns the pencil, maybe I can bargain for it with
that someone without involving the Devil. Where is the cave?”
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