Six Sentence Story: Careful What You Wish For

"Don't give me that 'Your wish is my command' stuff," he gruffly said as he glared at the apparition that had materialized out of the ancient bottle he held in his hand, then added, "I know how these things always turn out, and it's not good!"

The Djinn looked bemused and out loud said, "Whatever you say, boss, I can go back into the bottle," then added silently, I can wait until you get desperate, you humans always get desperate.

Still glaring, he asked, "What's the true story behind you -- do you really make things happen, or just make people think they happen, and how do you happen to exist anyway?"

"How do you exist?" the Djinn asked, then added, "and do you understand reality, or only think you do?" 

"You might just as well get back in the bottle and let me stick it back in the pile of junk where I found it," he said, looking around his grandparent's attic and wondering if they had ever known about this particular item, and if they had, what they had perhaps wished for, if maybe such a wish was why things were the way they were in his family.

"I'll be waiting," the Djinn called out with a knowing smile as it turned into a puff of smoke and went back where it had come from, while he wondered how long it would have to wait as he thought about the troubles that would press upon him as soon as he descended the attic stairs.

Linking up with Uncharted Blog and Six Sentence Stories, where the cue word is Command.



Today is:

Calgary Folk Music Festival -- Calgary, AB, Canada (one of Calgary's biggest and most fun festivals; through Sunday)

Coldest Day Ever -- the lowest natural temperature ever recorded on Earth was -89.2 *C (-128.6 *F; 184.0 *K) at the Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica on this day in 1983

Comic-Con International -- San Diego, CA, US (through Sunday)

Feast of Damo -- Ancient Greek Calendar (keeper of secrets of philosophy; daughter of Greek sages, Pythagoras and Theano, date approximate)

Folkmoot USA -- Waynesville, NC, US (festival of international folk dance; through the 31s

Get To Know Your Customers Day -- third Thursday of each quarter

Hemingway Birthday Celebration -- Hemingway Museum, Oak Park, IL, US

Independence Day / National Day -- Belgium(1830)

Kazanskaya -- Russia (Feast of Our Lady of Kazan)

Lakota Sun Dance -- Lakota Native Americans (festival of the sun god Wi, with offerings to Maka (mother earth) and Haokah (father sky), both aspects of Creator Tukaskanskan; dating approximate, as outsiders are usually no longer allowed at these multi-day ceremonies)

Liberation Day -- Guam (1944; from Japan)

Lucaria -- Ancient Roman Calendar ("Feast of Clearings", with prayers said as land was cleared for planting)

National Junk Food Day

No Pet Store Puppies Day -- ASPCA sponsored this day in previous years, and while i can't find a confirmation of another campaign, you can still Take The Pledge to not shop at any pet store that sells puppies, because they are almost certainly from puppy mills

Nova Scotia Bluegrass and Oldtime Music Festival -- Bible Hill, NS, Canada (Canada's longest running bluegrass festival and a great event for the whole family; through Sunday)

Quilt Odyssey 2016 -- Hershey, PA, US (national quilt competition, through Sunday)

Racial Harmony Day -- Singapore

Sapporo Summer Festival -- Odori Park, Sapporo, Japan (through Aug. 20, the park becomes a beer garden)

Schoelcher Day -- French West Indies; Martinique (Schoelcher worked for abolition)

St. Lawrence of Brindisi's Day (Patron of Brindisi, Italy)

St. Praxedes' Day (Patron of single laywomen)

Touch Hammer's Birthday Bargain Day -- Fairy Calendar

Tug-Of-War Tournament Day -- if you have a problem with someone today, solve it with an old fashioned tug-of-war!

Whitstable Oyster Festival and Blessing of the Waters -- Whitstable, Kent, England (celebrating the areas famed and protected oysers, Ostrea edulis, with the blessing ceremony at Reeves Beach, a ceremony held each year since 1657, to appease the cruel seas and give thanks for its bounty; the Oyster Festival istelf runs through Friday)


Birthdays Today

Hatty Jones, 1988
Josh Hartnett, 1978
Justin Bartha, 1978
Lance Guest, 1960
Matt Mulhern, 1960
Jon Lovitz, 1957
Michael Connelly, 1956
Robin Williams, 1951
Garry Trudeau, 1949
Cat Stevens, 1948
Kenneth Starr, 1946
Tony Scott, 1944
Edward Herrmann, 1943
Janet Reno, 1938
Norman Jewison, 1926
Don Knotts, 1924
Kay Starr, 1922
Isaac Stern, 1920
Marshall McLuhan, 1911
Ernest Hemingway, 1899
John Joseph "Johnny" Evers, 1881


Today in History

Herostratus sets fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, BCE 356
A tsunami devastates the city of Alexandria, Egypt, 365
The first landing of French troops on the coast during the French invasion of the Isle of Wight, 1545
Twenty-four-year-old Scottish physician and explorer Mungo Park became the first European to see the Niger River, the third longest river in Africa, 1796
In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first true western showdown, 1865
At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American Old West, 1873
Louis Rigolly, a Frenchman, becomes the first man to break the 100 mph (161 km/h) barrier on land, driving a 15-liter Gobron-Brille in Ostend, Belgium, 1904
In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100, 1925
Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first men to walk on the Moon, during the Apollo 11 mission, 1969
After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed, 1970
The world's lowest temperature is recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at -82.9*C (-129*F), 1983
The fully restored USS Constitution (aka "Old Ironsides") celebrates her 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years, 1997
NASA's Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135, 2011