Страница 41 из 61
“The Thief of Bagdad... 1939 version... but Rex Ingram was just an actor, they only made him look big.”
“Even so. As big as he was, if this genie is only half that big, playing macho overprotective chauvinist hubby-”
SO HUMANS CONTINUE TO PRATTLE LIKE MONKEYS EVEN AFTER TEN THOUSAND YEARS! WILL NOTHING CLEANSE THE EARTH OF THIS RAUCOUS PLAGUE OF INSECTS?
“We’re going to get thrown right out of here,” Da
“If the cops don’t beat the other tenants to it.”
“Please, genie,” Da
OFFSPRING OF A MILLION STINKS! SUFFER!
“You’re no genie,” Co
“He’s no genie? Then what the hell do you think he is?”
She swatted him. Then put her finger to her lips.
THAT IS WHAT I AM, WHORE OF DEGENERACY!
“No you’re not.”
I AM.
“Am not.”
AM.
“Am not.”
AM SO, CHARNEL HOUSE HARLOT! WHY SA Y YOU NAY?
“A genie has a lot of power; a genie doesn’t need to shout like that to make himself heard. You’re no genie, or you’d speak softly. You can’t speak at a decent level, because you’re a fraud.”
CAUTION, TROLLOP!
“Foo, you don’t scare me. If you were as powerful as you make out, you’d tone it way down.”
is this better? are you convinced?
“Yes,” Co
forever, if need be.
“And you can grant wishes?” Da
naturally, but not to you, disgusting grub of humanity.
“Hey, listen,” Da
ah! correction, filth of primordial seas. there are some dji
Da
ah! but you ca
And thunder rolled in the sky.
“What are you going to do?” Co
do? just ask me for something, and you shall see! “Not me,” Da
There was sincerity in the voice from the lamp.
“Well, sure, I want money, but-”
The dji
what a lousy disposition i’ve got! the dji
It went on for a week.
They could not get away from him, no matter where they went. They were also slowly starving: they could not go out to buy groceries without the earth opening under their feet, or a herd of elephants chasing them down the street, or hundreds of people getting violently ill and vomiting on them. So they stayed in and ate what ca
First came the frogs, then the flood of blood, then the whirling dust storm, then the spiders and gnats, then the snakes and then the locusts and then the tiger that had them backed against a wall and ate the chair they used to ward him off. Then came the bats and the leprosy and the hailstones and then the floor dissolved under them and they clung to the wall fixtures while their furniture-which had been quickly delivered (the moving men had brought it during the hailstones)-fell through, nearly killing the little old lady who lived beneath them.
Then the walls turned red hot and melted, and then the lightning burned everything black, and finally Da
“I’ve got to get away from all this!” he screamed hysterically, drumming his heels, trying to eat his pants’ cuffs.
you can divorce her, and that means you are voided out of the purchase contract: she wanted the lamp, not you, the dji
Da
Co
When the downstairs buzzer rang, the men from the Home for the Mentally Absent came into the debacle that had been their apartment and saw Co
Co
She slumped down in the pool of molten slag, and tried to think while ants ate at her flesh and rabid rats gnawed off the wallpaper.
i’m just getting warmed up, the dji
Less than three days after he had been admitted to the Asylum for the Temporarily Twitchy, Co
She smiled at him gently. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you weren’t simply overjoyed to see me, Squires.”
He slid under the sheets till only his eyes were showing. His voice came through the covers. “If I break out in boils, it will definitely cause a relapse, and the day nurse hates mess.”