Genie Switch

At the end of her rope, Jennifer stumbles upon an ancient bottle on the beach that may just contain the answer to her prayers.

Excerpt:

I morosely kicked a pebble further down the beach. I'd been kicking the same pebble for the last ten minutes.

In some ways I felt just like that pebble: life had also been kicking me around so much that I couldn't take it anymore. I wanted off Mr. Bones' Wild Ride. I'd had enough.

I lifted my head and looked out over the beautiful, but very, very deadly ocean. I watched a lone seagull circle around a school of fish, then suddenly swoop down and a moment later emerge with his prize.

I blinked away a tear, but it didn't matter, with more tears behind the first one, my vision blurred and the distinction between the inner and outer world also blurred.

"Why?" I cried out to the empty beach. "Why had I been born in the wrong body?"

Everyone from the doctor to the nurses to my parents knew that I was a male trapped in a female's body. But my parents - God bless their old-fashioned hearts - tried every trick in the book to cover that up.

All throughout my childhood, I was made to wear very frilly and VERY feminine clothes. Pink was their favorite color. Didn't matter that throughout history pink was associated with kings.

They also forbade me to ever cut my hair, swear, climb trees or anything that could remotely be considered a male activity. I guess they thought that they could force my gender.

They thought wrong.

The moment I left home I cut my hair, started wearing jeans, drank, smoke, swore like a sailor and generally became "one of the boys." But it was never enough. No matter how hard I tried I never really fit in.

I was woman in name only, yet wasn't accepted by either sex. It was like I was some kind of freak. No matter how hard I tried, everyone knew I was an impostor.

I was sick of being an impostor. I just wanted it to be all over with.

But, the Universe had a different plan for me.

As I was kicking the stupid rock down the beach, I saw the sun glinting brightly off something off in the distant. At first I thought it was just a piece of glass, but the closer I got, the more I realized it was a bottle.

"Probably a message in a bottle," I muttered to myself.

When I came upon it, though, I noticed it had an eerie blue glow surrounding it. I figured it was just the light glinting off the glass, but when I held it in my hand it was unnaturally warm to the touch.

"What on earth?" I asked myself as I studied the odd glass bottle. I didn't think this was any ordinary bottle. For one, the intricacy of the carvings on the glass was extremely sophisticated - something that I didn't think could actually be accomplished by even our best artists.

But if it wasn't made by our modern methods - when and by whom was it made?

For the moment at least, I'd forgotten all about my troubles. I was suddenly very curious about this...glass bottle. I had a funny feeling that it was more than just an ordinary bottle. Much more.

I wonder if it's one of those genie-in-a-Bottle things like in the movies?

There was only one way to find out.

I felt absolutely stupid, rubbing the bottle and grinning like a fool. Of course genies weren't real; they were just fantasy, but it couldn't hurt, right?

A few moments later my hand started to get a bit tired and I started to pull away, but before I could, I heard a hissing noise and the cork popped off, nearly hitting me in the eye.

"What the hell?" I hissed and threw the bottle to the sand. I expected it to break, but it didn't.

Blue smoke began to pour from the opening. My first thought was that it was some kind of poison. I wanted to just turn around and run at that point.