The Round Genie From Behind The Moon Village

     “The moon, look at the moon” cried the little, round genie, ignoring the fact that there was no-one around to hear him. His real name was Pampabald, but his parents and friends called him Billy, for short. “I must be traveling downwards,” he thought, as he was drifting across the Universe, led sometimes by the solar winds and some other times by magnetosonic waves. The little genie had no e-watch or compass, and for a while felt rather confused, trying to figure out if he was going South, East or West (somehow, he sensed that he was not led Northwards). Sailing through the dark emptiness of alien space sprinkled with only small flickers of burning Stardust, everything seemed so familiar. Billy’s, his parents’ and friends’ vision in the dark was rather poor, so during very dark nights, when they still had work to do, they lit up small areas around, using Stardust or Pixie dust, which to the untrained eye looked very similar. They also used the two interchangeably, for lighting the stove during cold winter nights and for daily cooking. The usual lamps or chandeliers using incandescent bulbs or LEDs had been out of use long before Billy or his friends were born.  

   When the little round genie suddenly found himself facing the bright side of the Moon, which he had never seen before, the beauty and peacefulness of the biggest celestial bulb, hit him like a love-dipped arrow. The majestic face of Night's Queen, revealed itself clear and close, emanating white, perfect moonlight. Spellbound, Billy could not turn his gaze away. His eyes drank the light, like a bee sipping magic nectar, until his whole little, round body felt inebriated by the divine, white brightness. He wasn’t sure if he imagined, or could actually smell the moonlight's fragrance. 

     Billy could not keep his thoughts in check, as he was sinking deeper and deeper into the ocean of love. Ideas kept fighting in his head, at the fast pace of his love driven heartbeats. “I have to marry her soon” was the only thing his thoughts agreed upon. His mind was producing new, conflicting ideas every minute, and they were screaming in his head, arguing over wedding plans (some more aggressively pulling towards kidnapping the Moon and bringing her to his village, while others, were pushing towards a more conservative strategy, of inviting her to his home, hoping she will like him and his parents, and lovingly consent to marry him). The little genie felt his brain was becoming a rough battlefield, and his heart was behaving like a galloping horse. Exhausted, he decided to close his eyes to allow both organs to calm down.

The Family History

    The little round genie, his mother and his friends were born and lived in Behind-the-Moon village. Billy’s mom was small and round, and Billy looked very much like her. She was kind and could make up lots of stories. The DNA test which was compulsory for the Behind-the-Mooniens for tracking their ancestry, showed that she was the distant kin of Princess Scheherazade. No one knew where Billy’s father was born. Rumors had it that he existed forever, just like the Universe. He was a tall genie, of a holographic consistency, looking mostly like a smoke spiral column. But, like any self-respecting hologram he also could take any other shape. Changing forms in a blink became Billy’s dad’s claim to fame and actually made him quite the notorious entertainer at “your next party, baptism, or just any celebration”. For the length of cosmic time, he was in high demand by the village Behind-the-moon kids, neighboring villagers, and other villagers across the Universe. Billy’s dad could materialize, or rather virtualize anywhere. His fame as an entertainer brought about an explosion of requests throughout the universe. “Oh look Billy’s dad is here” the celebration party would call out, but by the time they finished their enthusiastic cheering, puff ...he would evaporate, or change shapes to something that no one could identify. And then the fun part began: everybody would be going around searching for Billy's dad for hours, getting into unexpected, memorable adventures, as it was quite customary for the Behind-the-moon partygoers. Sometimes he took Billy with him, to witness and record these expeditions, for future advertising and also for historical documentation. 

    His quantum nature made Billy’s dad easily amenable to more than one place at any given time. Purely for business purposes, being most of the time simultaneously home and away, the address marked on his business card did not indicate village Behind-the-Moon or any other constant location. Under “Address” he just wrote: “Universe, dark, familiar” and “Alien slice of space”. Nevertheless, despite the confusion surrounding his precise location at any given time, he very much loved Billy and his mom, spent lots of time with them and often made them laugh. The round genie's friends were also quite fond of his father and envied Billy for having such a fun, unreal dad.

The Adventure

   The day Billy started on his journey it was his 15th birthday. At the height of the party, his dad performed his disappearing trick, and everybody present, including his son, the little round genie, started looking for him. And so, Billy’s adventure, at the beginning of which he fell in love with the Moon, started.

       Searching for his illusive dad, Billy soon found himself having drifted away from his friends, alone on his journey throughout the Universe, surfing on the ice-cold slippery ether. Skillfully circling larger fragments of stardust or other celestial debris along the way, he held on to ladders braided of shiny sun rays, which he carefully gathered and wrapped around his body for warmth. Hovering near larger heavenly shards, the swinging motion of gravitational waves cradled him in the ethereal smooth and soft hammock until he fell asleep and forgot all about time or any other constraints so relevant to Earthlings, and totally unimportant to Behind-the-Moonians.

Slowly gliding down with his eyes closed, still dreaming of his marriage to the Moon, of how surprised his mom would be at his marriage plans and of his dad’s fun entertainment tricks at his wedding, Billy suddenly realized he was going to land on Earth. Looking up from where he was, he felt again deeply enthralled by the sight of the night sky over which his desired bride, the Moon, presided. Once more, just like the first time he saw the moonlight, the little round genie from Behind-the-Moon village, could not contain his wonderment. So intense were his emotions, that any other creature lost as he was, throughout that part of unrippled cosmic emptiness, would feel enveloped in the lace of genie’s vibes of strong excitement. But, nobody was around, so Billy's enjoyment of the surrounding beauty remained unshared. 

     Genie's peaceful slumber and excitement did not last too long. Suddenly, with a light thump, Billy landed on Earth. The Moon was sending down a few light beams, seemingly watching Earth with one eye, while she kept the other one shut. There was just enough light for the little genie to realize that he landed in the legendary city of Agrabah. Had the Moon kept her other eye open, she would have sent down too much glare, and so everybody on Earth, could observe everything. “That would really spoil the magic” the Moon whispered in the ear of the now only dimly lit Night Sky. The Night Sky blew a warm breeze in agreement, which rippled only a little bit the smooth face of the ocean. 

    “The cave!! Aladdin’s cave?!” Billy muttered incredulously (as he was alone, one can assume he was just talking to himself). The face of Night’s Queen quivered, sprinkling crumbs of light to dark corners. Billy’s eyes followed the light scraps and suddenly froze. In front of him, snarling as loud as a military fanfare lay the terrifying treasure’s guardian dragon, green and huge, and more so that night than he imagined when reading other dragon legends. The Moon worried and half closed her one open eye, in her mission to hide her little round hero. Judging by her actions, one would assume that she was becoming rather fond of Billy. The night grew darker, and waves of mystery seemed to trigger the air to swell, like a huge black wave rising from the belly of the ocean.  

    The little round genie who innocently and randomly landed next to the cave, literally having fallen from the sky, found himself feeling flabbergasted and terrified, watching the action that was fast unfolding in front of him: vicious plunderers, and many cohorts of them, armed, driving or sailing from all corners of the Earth were attacking the guardian dragon, trying to force their way into the cave,. They were all after the famous treasure hidden there, hunted by bandits, pirates, by kings and queens since immemorial times. Billy watched the battle afraid to even blink. There were thousands of them, holding pitch forks, guns, wicked potions and other witchcraft materials. For the first time in his life, the little genie felt lucky that being so small, nobody noticed him. 

   I should break the course of the story here just to inform the readers that, a few days later, the dragon was interviewed on Intergalactic Television about the treasure and the events of that night (a fact which obviously indicates that he survived the attack and therefore was able to tell the story). Appearing as terrifying as ever in front of the cameras, the fantastic beast described the incident in the most journalistic, objective manner, with only a few embellishments here and there. He ended his account with the famous, bragging dragon phrase: “I have no idea if these were always the same group of looters or not, but I can testify in front of any Intergalactic Police squad, that nasty scoundrels have been making their malicious attempts every single night, and every night they all leave empty handed”. Upon more questioning, he added: “I was not aware that a small round genie may have been around that night”.  

    Coming from an alien world, Billy had no terrestrial odor, and so despite the dragon’s huge nostrils, the little genie remained undetectable, while the fantastic fight went on. “What a spectacle” Billy wondered silently, feeling he was experiencing an epiphany related to the dangers of life on Earth. “Next time, I shall stay away from Earth and look for other places in the Universe, where I can show myself, make friends and have fun”. Billy held his breath watching the ferocious monster fight the thieves. The beast hissed and spat fire from his throat, called upon cauldrons of bats, spread blinding sand waves with batted wings, his tail tormented the sea capsizing pirates’ boats, and performed many other dragons' combat tricks. Frightened, the looters ran fast, hiding behind trees or in any shrubbery they could find. As Billy watched dumbfounded, he heard his thoughts enthusiastically shouting: “Look, the dragon caught a few and threw them to the four winds”; “And look, the others are running on the seashore like mice!” his other thoughts answered. 

And then...

   Right at that moment everything suddenly stopped. Every bit of action, dust, and reminiscence of the night battlefield around the treasure cave disappeared as if evaporated into nothingness, or erased with a sponge from a blackboard. Peace and quiet engulfed Agrabah, the Earth and the Universe (which, when you think about it, hasn’t been disturbed much, and couldn’t care less anyway). 

And Billy?... 

    “Wake up Billy”, his mother’s voice resounded as if morning had already arrived. He raised his nose above his cover, opened one eye, and, still half asleep, reluctantly let words come out of his mouth: 

“Good morning mom!” 

   “Time to go to school Billy, your breakfast is ready and your friend came by and left a book for you. I asked him to wait, but he was in a hurry”. 

   Billy got up to look at the sky. He felt a little pinch in his heart noticing that the Moon had left. The sun was slowly rising, spreading a wide smile across the Universe.

   “Mom, I had a strange dream last night”, Billy said, his voice still muffled. But then, he fell silent. On the table, next to his breakfast sandwich, was lying a book, and on its cover, an old, long forgotten treasure chest and its scaley, huge, green guardian.