‘The Squashbuckler Diaries’ are the daily tales of Joy Shelley’s Life in the Dream. The ‘Lost in Dreams’ books will tell the story of what happens to her at ages 6, 9, 12, 15, and so on. The diaries tell us what happens before, after, and between the books.

#119: The Genie in the Lamp, Part 2

“Ask for something!” The genie begged Dragon Little. 

“No!” 

5-year-old Dragon Little had taken it quite badly that the genie could not summon her father or myself. Now the blue creature was floating behind her while she did her best to avoid him on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge.

“Ask for anything! I’ll grant you anything!” 

“Go jump off a plank!” she started running away from him. 

“Please make a wish! Please! Please please please please pleeeeeeeze!”

Dragon Little ran into her cabin and slammed the door shut. 

The genie floated through the wall and into her cabin. 

“I’ll give you four wishes!”

“No!”

“Five wishes!”

“No!”

“A million wishes!”

“No no no no no no!”

Then there was silence. 

The genie soon floated through the wall and hovered above the deck of Bonny’s Revenge

He looked to his left and right in what appeared to be despair. Then, suddenly, he began to wail. 

It was heart-wrenching to hear such pain. 

Dragon Little kicked open the door to her cabin and stood there, face switching between anger and empathy. 

“All right. All right! One wish!”

The crying stopped immediately. The genie looked at her, excited. “You mean it?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Tomorrow I will tell you more about the wish she made and what happened afterwards. For now I must rest.

—Told by The Red Dragon

#120: The Genie in the Lamp, Part 3

#118: The Genie in the Lamp, Part 1