In the midst of the Great Recession, computer analyst Harry Jerome finally found a job as driver and general go-fer for millionaire investor Tommy Del Fino. Del Fino is a bully who constantly belittles Harry. Then Harry finds a magic lamp.

Djinn Game IV
By Ellie Dauber (c) 2004

Harry Jerome pulled the car over to the side of the narrow dirt road. "I don't think this is the right road, Mr. Del Fino."

Tommy Del Fino leaned forward from the back seat. "What're you talking about? The map says this is the way to the hotel." His company, Del Fino Investments, owned 30 percent of Coral Breeze, a popular resort complex. Del Fino had decided to spend a long weekend checking out his investment -- and its female clientele.

"Didn't you say I should drive for five miles after we got off Rt. 119? The road was supposed to open onto the Coast Highway."

"You got it; it's right here on the map. What's the matter with you?" Harry could hear the sound of rustling paper.

"I've driven almost ten miles. There's no sign of the highway, and there's nothing ahead but a section of beach."

"You must've done something wrong; turned left when I said turn right."

"I've been following your directions exactly."

"Yeah, sure. I don't know why I ever hired a wuss like you to drive for me."

Harry clenched the wheel with both hands. 'You hired me as your executive assistant,' he thought, 'not as your personal slave.' Aloud he asked, "May I see the map?"

"Listen, you fag, I spent two hitches in the Guard. You telling me I don't know how to read a map?"

"I thought I could see where _I_ went wrong." Del Fino had been insulting Harry since the day he hired him. The way the economy was going, Harry tried hard to ignore it. The eight months he'd spent unemployed before he met Del Fino had taught him patience, if nothing else.

Del Fino looked out the window. "We're on a hill. Let's take this outside. You can spread the map out on the hood and look for landmarks."

"I'd rather stay inside if you don't mind. It's kind of windy out there. It'll be easier to work the map in here."

The rear door opened. "Now he's afraid of the damned wind. Get out of the car, you pansy." He climbed out without giving Harry a chance to argue. By the time Harry had gotten out and walked around to the other side, Del Fino had the map opened. It was catching the wind like a sail. Here, flake, you take it."

Harry reached for the map. At that moment, the wind gusted. It tore the map out of Del Fino's hand and lofted it like a kite. "Shit," Del Fino said. "Now look what you did."

Harry sighed and chased after it. Del Fino followed. Harry was a slender man in his early twenties, who ran three times a week. Del Fino was almost two decades older; he was larger, built like a wrestler, but with a well-developed beer belly. He soon fell far behind his employee.

The wind was playing with the map, lifting it to treetop heights before it swooped down like a hungry bird, almost touching the ground. Now the wind carried it out onto the beach. Harry speeded up, having no wish to follow the map into the ocean. If that was where the map went, Harry knew that Del Fino would expect him to follow.

The map swooped low. Harry saw something shiny sticking out of the sand tight where the map was heading. "Get it, please," he whispered, a sort of plea to the object -- whatever it was -- as he ran. "Have a spike, a sharp edge, anything to catch that damned map."

The object had something. The wind all but pushed the map towards the object. It ripped wide as it impaled itself on what looked like a horn at one end. Harry ran over and crumpled the map around the object before the wind ripped it loose. "Thank heavens," he said and started walking back to the car.

He'd walked about thirty feet by the time Del Fino caught up with him. "Took you long enough to catch that thing," he said, gasping for breath. "What the hell's it wrapped around?"

"I didn't look," Harry answered. He carefully pulled back a piece of the map, trying not to tear it any more. The object was brass, some kind of candle holder. No, it was... "A lamp," Harry said in surprise. "Like something out of the Arabian Nights."

"Yeah, and I suppose if you rub it, a what-ya-call-it... a genie'll pop out." He laughed. "Kid, you're even dumber than you look, and that's saying a lot."

"I didn't say it was magic," Harry said defensively. "I just thought it was an interesting looking piece of brass. I think I'm going to keep it."

"Keep it. Marry it. I don't give a damn. Just find the way to the hotel, or you'll need to hock it to eat. You understand me, fruitcake?" He turned and headed for the car, now several hundred feet away.

"Yes, sir." Harry folded the map as best he could and crammed it into a pocket of his jacket. He brushed some clumps of moist sand off the lamp and began to push it into another pocket when...

The lamp began to "thrummm!"

Harry almost dropped the lamp. A thin stream of greenish smoke flowed slowly out of the nose of the lamp. Rather than rise skyward, the smoke hung a few feet above the ground, forming into a thick cloud. Gradually, the cloud of smoke assumed a humanoid form.

"Greetings, my Master," the cloud said. It was now a slender man in green robes, his skin a darker shade of the same green.

"Who the... what the hell are you?"

"I, Master, am Ishaq, a princeling of the Green Djinn. You have freed me from my prison of a lamp, and I shall repay you with the granting of three wishes."

Del Fino ran over to the pair. "That man works for me. Those wishes are mine."

"What my Master has done to earn his bread matters not," Ishaq said. "He freed me from the lamp which he still holds. The wishes are his."

"Give me that thing, you little pansy." Del Fino pushed Harry in the chest.

Harry stumbled backwards, half falling half stumbling down the hill back towards the beach. His only thought was to hold onto the lamp, if only because Del Fino wanted it. He landed on his butt, and when he looked up, he saw Del Fino running towards him.

The older man had found a branch -- a piece of driftwood, maybe -- about three feet long. He was waving it menacingly as he ran.

Harry scrambled to his feet, moving backwards. He stepped into the water. "Help me, Ishaq. Help me."

"Is that your wish, Master?" The green man was suddenly next to him, sitting cross-legged about three feet off the ground.

"Yes! Yes, I wish you to help me, to keep Mr. Del Fino from hurting me."

"Done." The djinn made an odd gesture with his right hand.

Del Fino froze in place. A cone of silver energy surrounded him. 'He looks like a bug in a glass,' Harry thought. Inside the energy cone, Del Fino began to move again. He planted his feet and pushed against the cone with his whole body. When that didn't work, he began pounding it with his fists. Nothing worked.

"He cannot harm you, Master. He will remain within in that band of energy until you order me to release him." Ishaq chuckled unpleasantly. "Or until he dies."

"Dies? I-I never wanted him to die. I've thought about it, but I never really meant it. I still have two wishes left, don't I?"

"You do, Master. What would you have me do with this one?"

"I've had it with all his snide remarks about my manhood. I wish for you to change him... change him into a beautiful woman."

"What sort of beauty would you wish, Master?"

"What do you mean, umm... Ishaq?"

"Master, you are a son of Adam, a mortal human being. I am of the Green Djinn, an immortal of the Plane of Fire. Can you not perceive that we would have _very_ different ideas of feminine beauty?"

Harry thought for a moment. "Point taken. Go with the human..." He remembered something. "Wait a minute. I've read stories about what tricksters you djinn are supposed to be. Let's go with my idea of a beautiful woman."

"That is your wish, Master, that I transform this one..." he pointed at Del Fino "...into your ideal female beauty?"

"Yes, and I mean my _current_ ideal, not what I might have thought when I was five or what I might think when I'm 105 and senile."

Harry looked at Del Fino, who was mouthing something that Harry couldn't hear. From the expression on Del Fino's face and the gestures he was making, Harry suspected that the imprisoned man had heard every word that Harry and Ishaq had just spoken. Del Fino was pushing himself back against the far wall of the energy cone, shaking his hands as if to say, "No."

"Well played, Master, to word your wish as you have." Ishaq touched his forehead as if in salute. Then he made a second odd gesture at Del Fino.

The man in the cone _shimmered_. He shrank about six inches, his clothes shrinking, so that they still fit. As he shrank, Del Fino became slimmer. His shoulders narrowed. The muscles in his arms melted away. So did his rather respectable beer belly. His ham-sized fists became much smaller.

Del Fino's thinning, dull brown hair changed to a vibrant brown with auburn highlights. It became fuller, as it grew down over his eyes, past his neck, to pool around his shoulders, a mass of curls.

His square jaw softened. His face became heartshaped, with high cheekbones. His lips were thicker, with more of a permanent pout that begged to be kissed. His nose straightened and shrank to an upturned pug. His brown eyes were now green with gold flecks. He looked younger, too. Perhaps no older than Harry.

Two breasts suddenly blossomed beneath Del Fino's shirt. From the way they pushed it out, Harry guessed that they were at least 36-D. Del Fino's hips were widening as well. His pants were tighter now, around a narrower waist, and on down legs that had a much more girlish set of curves to them. There was no bulge at the crotch.

Tommy "Bull" Del Fino was now a woman.

And the changes weren't over. The sleeves of Del Fino's suit jacket disappeared, and it grew tighter as if becoming a vest. Shirt, vest, and pants merged into a single garment that looked like an odd jumpsuit. The garment altered, the pants flaring out and fusing together. It became oddly mottled. In a moment, it was a flowing, knee-length blue and yellow summer dress with a tight bodice and puffed sleeves. The collar was low, showing the tops of her pillowy breasts.

Del Fino's dark gray socks slid up his legs, becoming lighter, sheerer, joining at the hips as a pair of almost invisible pantyhose. Black oxfords whitened, losing their front as they grew a modest heel. They were now a pair of low-heeled slippers the same blue color as the dress.

There was polish on Del Fino's fingers and toes. His lips were colored with a pink gloss. There was blusher on his cheeks and mascara on his lashes. The odors of aftershave and male sweat were gone, replaced by the faint scent of lilacs.

Now the transformation was complete. Del Fino was truly lovely. Harry felt himself stiffen as he looked at her. "All right, Ishaq, you can release her now." He grinned evilly, as the energy field faded away and rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "This is gonna be _fun_."

Del Fino's eyes went wide with disbelief and -- yes -- fear. Then her expression changed. She closed her eyes and shook her head as if trying to clear it. When she opened her eyes a moment later, she was crying. She ran to Harry and fell to her knees in front of him.

"Begging for mercy, _Mr._ Del Fino?" Harry asked cynically. "It won't help you." His hand moved towards his zipper. "But as long as you're in that position..."

Del Fino looked up at him, her eyes full of tears. "Do... do whatever you want to me, Harry. I d-deserve it for the horrible way I treated you."

"Damn straight." His hand hesitated. There was something... something so very compelling about the woman.

He was trying to understand his feelings, when she suddenly blurted out, "I love you, Harry, love you with all my heart and soul."

He tried to laugh. "That should make it even more... even... more..." He reached down and gently helped her to her feet. "I... I can't do it. I... love you, too." He took her in his arms and kissed her, still unsure of what was happening. He felt her arms around him, her body pressed eagerly against his, as the kiss deepened from their new, _shared_ need.

When they finally, reluctantly broke the kiss, Harry looked around. The djinn was standing a few feet away, a satisfied grin on his face.

"You managed to trick me after all," Harry said. "I wanted to torture her, to pay her back for all the pain and humiliation she caused me when she was a man."

"Indeed, Master," Ishaq said. "And now you want to cherish and protect her." He laughed. "Yet, how can it be otherwise. You wished her to be your ideal woman, and what manner of man would not have his ideal woman love him?"

Harry completed the thought. "And what man could help but love his ideal woman? Regardless of who or what she had been."

"That, Master, is the cream of the jest. You truly love each other with all your hearts, even thought your minds tell you that you should not."

Harry thought for a moment. He was trained as a logic systems engineer, even if no one was hiring. This was just the sort of puzzle he'd been trained to solve. "Okay, Ishaq, my final wish is that this woman has always been... Mandy... Amanda Del Fino, daughter of the owner of Del Fino Investments, and... as of yesterday, my loving bride."

The djinn laughed. "Very well played, Master. It has been a long time since I came so close to meeting my match in such a game of Wits and Wishes, as we call it." He made a sweeping gesture with both arms, ending by pointing at Harry and... Amanda.

"I beat you," Harry said. He was feeling odd. He sat down next to Amanda, as a wave of dizziness flowed over the pair of them.

"Did you, my _former_ Master?" Ishaq began to fade away. "If she has _always_ been Amanda, then you have no memory of finding the lamp or making any wishes. How can you say that you have bested me when you have no memory of doing so?" As he finished, the djinn and the lamp vanished.

Harry suddenly found himself sitting in a beach chair, looking into the eyes of Mandy, his bride of one day. They were on the lawn of the Coral Breeze Hotel. Her father was one of the owners of the hotel complex, and their month-long honeymoon stay was his wedding gift.

"Are you all right?" she asked, gently running a finger along his jawline.

He smiled at her. "Just a little tired. I... we... ah, didn't get a lot of sleep last night."

"Maybe you should go lie down in the room for a bit."

"That might be a good idea." He stood and looked down at her. She was wearing a short, blue and yellow robe over a very skimpy matching bikini. "Care to join me?"

She raised her hand. He took it and helped her to her feet. "That might be a good idea." She leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "I think I could use a nap just now."

Harry put his arm around her lovely, narrow waist. "And you'll have one... eventually."

Now Mandy grinned. "Just so it's not too soon."

They joined hands and all but ran back to their cabana suite. As he ran, Harry thought that he heard a deep baritone laugh, but no one seemed to be around.