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Zain saw a flicker of a smile, and then Hama relented.

“Right now there are effectively two versions of me in existence,” she said, holding up her hands and cupping a mote of light in each. One was purple, the other pink. “Hama the girl, and Hama the genie. Two persons in one, two paths down which my life could travel.”

She drew her hands together, never letting the two flames quite touch. “Right now I’m somewhere in the middle, not fully human or jinn, but once I have a master, the human path will be closed to me, completely and totally.”

She closed one palm, snuffing out the light, and then extinguished the other.

“Girl or genie, genie or girl; the universe will only allow one to exist. Once you or anyone else makes a wish on my lamp and binds me to them as my Master, I am a genie, one hundred percent. No going back, no wishing of freedom, just me and my lamp. And to ensure I am committed to that path, without regrets to give me doubt, everything about the girl I was, every sign I ever existed, birth records, pictures, accomplishments, will be erased from the world. Even the memories of people who knew me will blur and fade. I will have never existed as a human being, even in my own mind.”

She folded her arms, and looked at the ground, unable to make eye contact.

“You’d forget?” Zain asked, suddenly feeling cold. “You’d not remember anything before today.”

“I would be a genie,” Hama replied, still not looking her in the eye. “My life would have begun today. My entire identity would be Hama of the Lamp, and everything else would be gone and forgotten. Hama the girl would never have been.”

Then she lifted her head, determination in her eyes. “And I would be okay with that.”

Zain realised that she meant it, and to be fair, Hama’s life to date was a story of loneliness and casual abuse. Who wouldn’t want to give that up if the trade-off for forgetting was immortal life, and a purpose, and amazing power.

‘And she wants to share that power with me, to give me control over how she uses it.’

But there was one thing that Zain knew both she and Hama treasured, and that was their friendship. Was she willing to sacrifice that too, chasing this new dream?

“What about me, would I forget as well?” Zain pressed, chilly fingers running up and down her spine. “Would I only remember you as the genie whose lamp I happened to find, not as the friend I knew?”

“That’s right,” Hama nodded, before smiling. “But that’s not so bad. I had nothing to live for, no real friends beside you, and my guardians only saw me as an easy means to accessing my family’s money. And although we’d be starting over from scratch I can see from your Light that you’d treat me the same way you did when we first met, as a person and a potential friend, not some broken thing assigned to you as a roommate. I know we’d become friends again, I can see it as surely as I can see you in front of me.”

She reached out, and took Zain’s hands in her own, eyes shining with excitement. “Zain, I’d be your genie, the loyal companion who yearns to make your every wish come true. I know you’ll use me wisely, to bring joy, peace, and laughter to the hurting people of the world, and I trust you to pass me on to a worthy successor when your time is at an end. Once bound to a master, my lamp can’t be destroyed or stolen, so we’ll be free to take on the world together, for as long as you live.”

Zain smiled weakly, and Hama grinned back.

“And trust me, with a genie’s magic backing you up, your life can be a very long one indeed; once I’ve grown into my powers, you’ll never want for anything again.”

She stepped away from Zain and recovered her lamp, eyes full of promise.

“Disney got one thing right about this genie, ‘you ain’t never had a friend like me!’ All you have to do is make a wish, any wish.”

It sounded amazing, like life had suddenly become a fantasy, full of magic and adventure. And yet…

“I don’t want a friend like you Hama,” Zain repeated, her brief smile fading. “I want my best friend. I want you.”

She focused on the memory of Hama’s hands. Her fingers had felt soft and warm, and yet strangely different. There was firmness to them, but not of flesh and bone, and Zain had gotten a sense of immense energies shifting beneath their surface. It was as if Hama’s whole body was an electric cable sheathed in velvet. You could touch it in complete safety, and yet still be conscious of the current thrumming within, all the power and the danger.

“How do I know,” she said, trying to find the right words. “That this is really you, and that you’ve not been tricked or enchanted into saying you want this. How do I know that the real Hama isn’t screaming inside of you to be free.”

Looking up she peered into Hama’s golden eyes, as if expecting to see her friend crying for help in their depths. Instead she saw the cosmos looking back, a glinting galaxy beyond the windows to Hama’s soul.

‘She’s seen something greater than herself, become a part of it,’ she realised. ‘This is still the Hama I know, just... different. Transformed. Something bigger, something better.’

But bigger or better didn’t mean right. She tightened her jaw.

“I don’t want a slave Hama, I want you, the wonderful, smart, sensitive girl who’d been hurt so much, and yet still managed to smile.”

“I smiled for you, Zain,” Hama replied. “I smiled because it made you happy, and because it made me happy to see you so. That’s how I kept going when running away to university didn’t take me away from the pain, just brought it with me. Because I met you, who gave me a release through our friendship. You’re the definition of a true friend, someone who stuck with me and helped me when nobody else would.”

She shifted the lamp in her arms. “You might see this thing as a prison, but it’s not. It’s my being; everything that makes me who I am, my mind, my soul, everything that is me, is held safe in here. This body talking to you now is a puppet, a construct that allows me to see and touch the world. But this lamp is the core of me.”

She held it towards Zain, imploringly. “And I want you to have it.”

Zain reached for the lamp and then stopped, pulling her hands away.

“Can I believe you?” she said. “Can I trust that this is really you, and not some kind of brainwashing, a trick that will leave you bound to a lonely destiny? You might end up just like Disney’s genie, trapped for centuries between Masters.”

Hama’s face grew sympathetic. “I might have been afraid of that myself if I didn’t know better, but everything’s become clear... I’m not afraid anymore, not afraid of anything.”

She lifted the lamp slightly and closed her eyes. “Inside here, everything I was has become crystal and gold, become solid. A palace of self, with halls of memories, gardens of thought, galleries of possibilities.”

As she spoke, describing her inner space, she seemed to trance out, loosing hold of her legs and instead floating, smiling at a beautiful world only she could see.

“I can remember back to the moment my soul first emerged into consciousness, with perfect clarity. I can feel the love of parents I’ve never known, my first thoughts and words, can relive my happiest moments as if experiencing them for the first time, whenever I want. And that clarity has stripped away all the lies and illusions we all spin for ourselves. I know now that I’m a good person, with some foibles yes, but fundamentally good, so I don’t need to despise myself any more, don’t need to believe that I deserve all the bad that’s happened to me. I can be at peace with myself, and would have so much of me to explore within the lamp that I could never be bored, even if I have to wait ten thousand years for a master.”

Zain felt another shiver pass down her back. Hama had spent months at a time tackling with depression, but now she looked so serene. At ease with herself and the universe. For a moment Zain envied her, before she remembered the price Hama would pay if bound to the lamp.

“But you’d lose all those memories Hama, you’d be starting fresh.”

“Yes, but with a clean slate, without the burden I used to carry. And I’ll have years at your side to fill my palace with wonderful new experiences.”

Hama sighed again, her costume jingling.

“And I’ll be free to love myself and this world. I don’t need to eat or drink or breathe anymore, don’t need sleep, though I can do all those things if I want. I can’t be hurt, my lamp can’t be destroyed by any means of man, so all my old phobias have just evaporated. And I now understand that although evil exists, it is just the shadow cast by the light of good. Once I truly become the genie of my lamp, I’ll be able to shine bright on that shadow, stealing it of its power piece-by-piece the more brilliant I burn. Until time beats its last, or the Highest calls me home for a final accounting, I’ll be free of fear, of want, of doubt. I’ll understand who I am, and know the purpose I was born to fulfil.”

She held the lamp out, and placed it in Zain’s hands. “I’m Hama of the Lamp, and I’m a good person.”

Gently, she closed Zain’s fingers so that they gripped the lamp by its base. “But I know that you’re an even better person Zain, knew that from the second you welcomed me into your life. If anyone should guide my powers and will, it should be you.”

The earnestness in her eyes hurt Zain to look at. But she couldn’t be the one to condemn her friend to a live of eternal servitude.

‘But if I wished her to be human again...’ she thought, and that thought must have burned bright in her mind, because Hama suddenly reached over and grabbed hold of her shoulders, raw terror in her eyes.

“Please don’t! My soul is knocking at Heaven’s gate Zain, you can’t deny it to me at the last second. I’m like a computer connected to the internet for the first time, don’t pull my link to the cosmic network I’m now a part of!”

“But I don’t want to lose you!” Zain replied, realising that tears were running down her face.

“If you wish me human again you will!” Hama cried out. “If you do this to me, I know you’d do it out of good intentions, pure-hearted and true, but it would be too cruel for me to bear. And that would be the real end of our friendship.”

The two girls, human and jinn, stared into one another’s eyes, trembling on the edge of forever. Their lips quivered, and then first Zain, then Hama, looked to the photo pinned on the wall.

Best Friends Forever.

Shaking, Zain pulled away from Hama, who sank to her knees.

“Please don’t do this Zain,” she whispered. Ignoring her, and hating herself for doing so, Zain crossed to the photo and pulled it free. She stared into it, trying to remember when that photo had been taken, what it represented.

Then she reached deep inside of herself and realised what she had to do. She wiped the tears from her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt.

Lamp in one hand, clutching the photo to her chest, she turned to look at the kneeling Hama.

“I’m ready to make my wish, Hama. It’s the right thing to do.”

Seeing the look on her face, the genie’s hopeful expression collapsed, and her eyes fell to the floor. She slumped slightly, and for a moment Zain saw the old Hama in front of her, sad and alone and a little scared.

“As you wish, Master,” she said, managing a brave smile. “Well, at least I get to grant one wish.”

Zain took a breath, closed her eyes, and gripped hold of the lamp.

“I wish... I wish to be a master worthy of my friend, Hama of the Lamp,” she said, and heard Hama give a gasp of surprise, even as her own heart broke. She’d committed the both of them, and neither of them would even remember.

The words said, she let go of the lamp, and it dropped to the floor. Then, fresh tears pricking at her eyes, she opened them and looked towards Hama, who was smiling with relief and joy.

“Thank you Zain,” she said, before her eyes widened and her mouth opened in a gasp. “Oh...”

TO BE CONTINUED...

"Hama of the Lamp"
can be purchased and read in its entirety
right now from

Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

Description
Zain saw a flicker of a smile, and then Hama relented.

“Right now there are effectively two versions of me in existence,” she said, holding up her hands and cupping a mote of light in each. One was purple, the other pink. “Hama the girl, and Hama the genie. Two persons in one, two paths down which my life could travel.”

She drew her hands together, never letting the two flames quite touch. “Right now I’m somewhere in the middle, not fully human or jinn, but once I have a master, the human path will be closed to me, completely and totally.”

She closed one palm, snuffing out the light, and then extinguished the other.

“Girl or genie, genie or girl; the universe will only allow one to exist. Once you or anyone else makes a wish on my lamp and binds me to them as my Master, I am a genie, one hundred percent. No going back, no wishing of freedom, just me and my lamp. And to ensure I am committed to that path, without regrets to give me doubt, everything about the girl I was, every sign I ever existed, birth records, pictures, accomplishments, will be erased from the world. Even the memories of people who knew me will blur and fade. I will have never existed as a human being, even in my own mind.”

She folded her arms, and looked at the ground, unable to make eye contact.

“You’d forget?” Zain asked, suddenly feeling cold. “You’d not remember anything before today.”

“I would be a genie,” Hama replied, still not looking her in the eye. “My life would have begun today. My entire identity would be Hama of the Lamp, and everything else would be gone and forgotten. Hama the girl would never have been.”

Then she lifted her head, determination in her eyes. “And I would be okay with that.”

Zain realised that she meant it, and to be fair, Hama’s life to date was a story of loneliness and casual abuse. Who wouldn’t want to give that up if the trade-off for forgetting was immortal life, and a purpose, and amazing power.

‘And she wants to share that power with me, to give me control over how she uses it.’

But there was one thing that Zain knew both she and Hama treasured, and that was their friendship. Was she willing to sacrifice that too, chasing this new dream?

“What about me, would I forget as well?” Zain pressed, chilly fingers running up and down her spine. “Would I only remember you as the genie whose lamp I happened to find, not as the friend I knew?”

“That’s right,” Hama nodded, before smiling. “But that’s not so bad. I had nothing to live for, no real friends beside you, and my guardians only saw me as an easy means to accessing my family’s money. And although we’d be starting over from scratch I can see from your Light that you’d treat me the same way you did when we first met, as a person and a potential friend, not some broken thing assigned to you as a roommate. I know we’d become friends again, I can see it as surely as I can see you in front of me.”

She reached out, and took Zain’s hands in her own, eyes shining with excitement. “Zain, I’d be your genie, the loyal companion who yearns to make your every wish come true. I know you’ll use me wisely, to bring joy, peace, and laughter to the hurting people of the world, and I trust you to pass me on to a worthy successor when your time is at an end. Once bound to a master, my lamp can’t be destroyed or stolen, so we’ll be free to take on the world together, for as long as you live.”

Zain smiled weakly, and Hama grinned back.

“And trust me, with a genie’s magic backing you up, your life can be a very long one indeed; once I’ve grown into my powers, you’ll never want for anything again.”

She stepped away from Zain and recovered her lamp, eyes full of promise.

“Disney got one thing right about this genie, ‘you ain’t never had a friend like me!’ All you have to do is make a wish, any wish.”

It sounded amazing, like life had suddenly become a fantasy, full of magic and adventure. And yet…

“I don’t want a friend like you Hama,” Zain repeated, her brief smile fading. “I want my best friend. I want you.”

She focused on the memory of Hama’s hands. Her fingers had felt soft and warm, and yet strangely different. There was firmness to them, but not of flesh and bone, and Zain had gotten a sense of immense energies shifting beneath their surface. It was as if Hama’s whole body was an electric cable sheathed in velvet. You could touch it in complete safety, and yet still be conscious of the current thrumming within, all the power and the danger.

“How do I know,” she said, trying to find the right words. “That this is really you, and that you’ve not been tricked or enchanted into saying you want this. How do I know that the real Hama isn’t screaming inside of you to be free.”

Looking up she peered into Hama’s golden eyes, as if expecting to see her friend crying for help in their depths. Instead she saw the cosmos looking back, a glinting galaxy beyond the windows to Hama’s soul.

‘She’s seen something greater than herself, become a part of it,’ she realised. ‘This is still the Hama I know, just... different. Transformed. Something bigger, something better.’

But bigger or better didn’t mean right. She tightened her jaw.

“I don’t want a slave Hama, I want you, the wonderful, smart, sensitive girl who’d been hurt so much, and yet still managed to smile.”

“I smiled for you, Zain,” Hama replied. “I smiled because it made you happy, and because it made me happy to see you so. That’s how I kept going when running away to university didn’t take me away from the pain, just brought it with me. Because I met you, who gave me a release through our friendship. You’re the definition of a true friend, someone who stuck with me and helped me when nobody else would.”

She shifted the lamp in her arms. “You might see this thing as a prison, but it’s not. It’s my being; everything that makes me who I am, my mind, my soul, everything that is me, is held safe in here. This body talking to you now is a puppet, a construct that allows me to see and touch the world. But this lamp is the core of me.”

She held it towards Zain, imploringly. “And I want you to have it.”

Zain reached for the lamp and then stopped, pulling her hands away.

“Can I believe you?” she said. “Can I trust that this is really you, and not some kind of brainwashing, a trick that will leave you bound to a lonely destiny? You might end up just like Disney’s genie, trapped for centuries between Masters.”

Hama’s face grew sympathetic. “I might have been afraid of that myself if I didn’t know better, but everything’s become clear... I’m not afraid anymore, not afraid of anything.”

She lifted the lamp slightly and closed her eyes. “Inside here, everything I was has become crystal and gold, become solid. A palace of self, with halls of memories, gardens of thought, galleries of possibilities.”

As she spoke, describing her inner space, she seemed to trance out, loosing hold of her legs and instead floating, smiling at a beautiful world only she could see.

“I can remember back to the moment my soul first emerged into consciousness, with perfect clarity. I can feel the love of parents I’ve never known, my first thoughts and words, can relive my happiest moments as if experiencing them for the first time, whenever I want. And that clarity has stripped away all the lies and illusions we all spin for ourselves. I know now that I’m a good person, with some foibles yes, but fundamentally good, so I don’t need to despise myself any more, don’t need to believe that I deserve all the bad that’s happened to me. I can be at peace with myself, and would have so much of me to explore within the lamp that I could never be bored, even if I have to wait ten thousand years for a master.”

Zain felt another shiver pass down her back. Hama had spent months at a time tackling with depression, but now she looked so serene. At ease with herself and the universe. For a moment Zain envied her, before she remembered the price Hama would pay if bound to the lamp.

“But you’d lose all those memories Hama, you’d be starting fresh.”

“Yes, but with a clean slate, without the burden I used to carry. And I’ll have years at your side to fill my palace with wonderful new experiences.”

Hama sighed again, her costume jingling.

“And I’ll be free to love myself and this world. I don’t need to eat or drink or breathe anymore, don’t need sleep, though I can do all those things if I want. I can’t be hurt, my lamp can’t be destroyed by any means of man, so all my old phobias have just evaporated. And I now understand that although evil exists, it is just the shadow cast by the light of good. Once I truly become the genie of my lamp, I’ll be able to shine bright on that shadow, stealing it of its power piece-by-piece the more brilliant I burn. Until time beats its last, or the Highest calls me home for a final accounting, I’ll be free of fear, of want, of doubt. I’ll understand who I am, and know the purpose I was born to fulfil.”

She held the lamp out, and placed it in Zain’s hands. “I’m Hama of the Lamp, and I’m a good person.”

Gently, she closed Zain’s fingers so that they gripped the lamp by its base. “But I know that you’re an even better person Zain, knew that from the second you welcomed me into your life. If anyone should guide my powers and will, it should be you.”

The earnestness in her eyes hurt Zain to look at. But she couldn’t be the one to condemn her friend to a live of eternal servitude.

‘But if I wished her to be human again...’ she thought, and that thought must have burned bright in her mind, because Hama suddenly reached over and grabbed hold of her shoulders, raw terror in her eyes.

“Please don’t! My soul is knocking at Heaven’s gate Zain, you can’t deny it to me at the last second. I’m like a computer connected to the internet for the first time, don’t pull my link to the cosmic network I’m now a part of!”

“But I don’t want to lose you!” Zain replied, realising that tears were running down her face.

“If you wish me human again you will!” Hama cried out. “If you do this to me, I know you’d do it out of good intentions, pure-hearted and true, but it would be too cruel for me to bear. And that would be the real end of our friendship.”

The two girls, human and jinn, stared into one another’s eyes, trembling on the edge of forever. Their lips quivered, and then first Zain, then Hama, looked to the photo pinned on the wall.

Best Friends Forever.

Shaking, Zain pulled away from Hama, who sank to her knees.

“Please don’t do this Zain,” she whispered. Ignoring her, and hating herself for doing so, Zain crossed to the photo and pulled it free. She stared into it, trying to remember when that photo had been taken, what it represented.

Then she reached deep inside of herself and realised what she had to do. She wiped the tears from her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt.

Lamp in one hand, clutching the photo to her chest, she turned to look at the kneeling Hama.

“I’m ready to make my wish, Hama. It’s the right thing to do.”

Seeing the look on her face, the genie’s hopeful expression collapsed, and her eyes fell to the floor. She slumped slightly, and for a moment Zain saw the old Hama in front of her, sad and alone and a little scared.

“As you wish, Master,” she said, managing a brave smile. “Well, at least I get to grant one wish.”

Zain took a breath, closed her eyes, and gripped hold of the lamp.

“I wish... I wish to be a master worthy of my friend, Hama of the Lamp,” she said, and heard Hama give a gasp of surprise, even as her own heart broke. She’d committed the both of them, and neither of them would even remember.

The words said, she let go of the lamp, and it dropped to the floor. Then, fresh tears pricking at her eyes, she opened them and looked towards Hama, who was smiling with relief and joy.

“Thank you Zain,” she said, before her eyes widened and her mouth opened in a gasp. “Oh...”

TO BE CONTINUED...

"Hama of the Lamp"
can be purchased and read in its entirety
right now from

Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk