Genie

By Gary J. Davies

The five house cats that Harold inherited from his sister are driving him crazy and eating him out of house and home. The good news is that he also inherited a magic lamp with a genie from her, and he can make a wish to ensure that his life becomes a happy one! The bad news is that the genie’s wishes sometimes don’t work out as expected, for with this genie’s wishes there are conditions and flexibilities involved. Enjoy this short story!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gary J. Davies
• Release date: Sep 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370158973

Gary J. Davies

Now retired from engineering, I have been writing science fiction and fantasy short stories and novels as a hobby for three decades. Born in Erie PA, my wife and I currently live in Cherry Hill, NJ. We have also lived in Mechanicsville, MD, and Horsham, PA.

Book preview

Genie

By

Gary J. Davies

Published by Gary J. Davies at Smashwords

Genie

Copyright 2017 Gary J. Davies

Smashwords Edition License Notes

Thank you for downloading this e-book. This book is the copyrighted property of the author and may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed for any commercial or non-commercial use without permission from the author. Quotes used in reviews are the only exception. No alteration of content is allowed. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy.

This e-book is a work of fiction created by the author and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are a production of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously. Thank you for downloading this e-book!

Contents

Forward

Genie

About Other Publications by This Author

Forward

There are enormous advantages to short stories. For the reader they of course take less time to read than novels. For the author in some ways they are harder to create, but generally they are much less work to write and edit than novels. The exception is of course book covers, which are required for publications of any size, but at least covers are fun to make.

This is my twenty-third published short story. Like many of my stories it is contemporary and largely fantasy but with a veneer of science. This particular story was inspired by my amazing pet cats. Enjoy!

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Genie

Bang, bang, bang, came the annoying noise from somewhere in the house, not nearly as loud as for example gun shots, but plenty loud enough to wake Harold Tizard from pleasantly sound sleep. When he opened his eyes he noted that dull light was coming in through the bedroom window, so it was evidently morning already. Here in the outer suburbs, there were no street-lights or other nearby sources of artificial light, and there was no moonlight for the night either. But it felt too damn early! He was still tired, much more tired than when he went to bed! The banging went on for maybe half a minute, then stopped, but resumed a short time later.

Damn! he exclaimed angrily as he finally with difficulty sat half-way up in bed and propped himself on his elbows. Got to be those damn cats! He said it loud and angry enough to cause Flip and Cody to raise their heads from where they had been resting them over his right leg and stare at him with deep inquiring cat eyes. Otherwise the heavyset orange cat Brothers didn't move from their favorite positions where they lay to share his company and body warmth, but Harold knew that they were now on the alert and ready to spring away if necessary.

It was seldom necessary, at least nowadays. He had many months ago gotten over throwing slippers at them and such. When his dear sister Emily passed on a year ago and her five cats came to live with him there had been several human fits of anger against the cats in response to their antics for a few weeks, but those had proven to be useless. Worse than useless, as the cats had responded with even more bizarre behavior: defecating out-of-the-box, fighting with each other, and more passionately tearing up rugs and furniture. Yelling at them only made things worse he quickly learned; they were too dumb to understand what he wanted and much too selfish to care.

Amend that,