'That One Wish'

Once upon a time, there was a little girl in a small village named Aisha. Aisha lived with her parents and her little sister in a small house, in a small village in Egypt. Her village had lots of conflicts between neighbors and some days even fights broke out. That is because it was a poor village with many thieves and scammers living. The scammers would scam the old people and steal their money and the family of these old people would search for the scammer and fight with them.

So the village they lived in was poor, so that means they need to work. Even Aisha worked, even though she was too young to work, she went every morning with her little sister to the streets to look for work and earn some money. Aisha was a brave girl who was not afraid of others.

Her father worked every day and night to bring home some food to feed his wife and children. But the money he earned was not enough to get enough food for everyone. It was also not enough to take care of their health. Her mother was a housewife and was constantly cleaning the house even though the house was not strong enough and was about the collapse. Her little sister Fatima was also too young to work, so she was always with her big sister Aisha walking on the streets.

One day when she was sitting in a corner on the street with Fatima, an old woman came over wearing a red headscarf with blue little flowers on top of it. The woman looked very old and was carrying a little bag. Aisha and Fatima were sitting on the ground on a small dirty cloth. The woman saw them and the girls saw her. Aisha greeted her with a smile. The old woman bent down and searched in her little bag. She grabbed an old vase that looked like those of the time of the Egyptians and gave it to Aisha. She gave the girls a warm smile and said "I have something for you girls that you might like" and then left. Leaving the girls confused.

They were confused and also curious about the vase, because it was a bit heavy. "What is in the vase?" asked Fatima. "I don't know, but we are now going to find out" said Aisha. They opened the vase and a genie came out of it. It had a human face and body except for legs and had also a blue skin color. Fatima hid behind her sister, but Aisha was not scared. Aisha asked the genie "Who are you? ... or a better question is; what are you?". The genie responded with "Greetings my master, I am creature called genie and whoever takes the vase becomes my master". Fatima was scared and asked "Are you going to eat us?" with a scared little voice. Aisha calmed her sister and said "Fatima don't be scared, you know those stories about genies who grants you wishes? The genie is not harmful, look at him". The genie smiled at Fatima and Fatima became a bit calmer.

Aisha said "So you are a genie and from what I know about genies is that you give is three wishes, right?". The genie said "Yes, but you have only three and wishing for unlimited wishes is not allowed". Fatima whispered something in her sister's ear. Aisha said "Alright our first wish is ... we wish that our parents are happy forever and never will be sad again". "Your wish is granted" *POOF* said the genie and clapped once. Aisha and Fatima saw their father walking home from work, looking really happy. Aisha and Fatima looked at each other with excited faces.

Then they decided that their second wish was that the bad people in the village would never do evil things again. The genie granted their wishes *POOF*. They saw one of those scammers hugging an old man crying and asking for forgiveness. Aisha became very happy seeing that.

They now only had one wish left. Aisha whispered in Fatima's ear "Do you want to wish for some candy?". Fatima said excited "No, lets use our last wish for the old woman Aisha!" and Aisha looked proudly at her little sister and said to the genie "We wish that the old woman we met, has a great health and lives happy with her family!". "Your wish is granted" *POOF* the genie clapped with his hands for the last time. Now the sisters were curious, because they did not know if the woman was happy and healthy with her family. So Aisha asked the genie for some proof and the genie clapped in his hands and showed a bubble. In the bubble they saw the old woman sitting happy in her house and laughing together with her family.

- some years later –

It was now time for the wedding of Aisha ..... . Aisha was only fifteen years old and was forced to marry a 30 year old man. She did not want to marry him and explained this to her parents, but her family needed more money, because otherwise their parents would die. Some years after Aisha and Fatima were gifted the vase with genie, her parents were caught by a very bad disease that was common in her village. She was marrying a man of a rich family, who could pay for the treatment at the hospital. So Aisha needed to agree with this marriage, because she did not want to let her parents die.

There was not going to be a big wedding nor their marriage would be announced. The groom's family only wanted to get his son married and that no one knew about it. So the marriage would be in Aisha's house. Aisha's parents were sitting next to Aisha and were not in the hospital yet, because the groom's family only agreed to pay for the treatment when Aisha and the man were really married.

Then the rings for the couple arrived. They were both going to put the rings on their finger, when an old woman stormed in the house. She screamed "Stop this right now!" and everyone went silent. Then the father of the groom asked angrily "Who are you and why are you here?!". Then Aisha's eyes recognized the old woman "It was the old woman from years ago that gave you and me the old vase!", she whispered to her sister that was sitting next to her. Fatima was really shocked to see her here too. The old woman came towards Aisha and took her gently from her arm and asked "Do you really want to marry this man?" and Aisha shook her head. The old woman said to Aisha's parents "Come on, we are going to get you a good treatment at the hospital!" and opened the door and pointed at a really luxury car. The groom's family was furious, but then the police came for them for allowing a minor to be married with a 30 year old man and took them to the police station.

Then Aisha and her family stepped in the old woman's car, when Aisha asked "How did you know about this?". The old woman said "I heard it from a neighbor talking to another when I was shopping at the bazaar". "When I gave you the vase, I was really sick and poor and my family never came to visit me. But some days later I surprisingly was feeling better and my family came to visit me more and they gave me money. I knew it had something to do with you two little girls!" Then Aisha explained the situation to her parents together with Fatima while riding to the hospital for their parents treatment. Her parents were really amazed by their story and thanked the old woman and the old woman thanked them for raising amazing children. Aisha's family and the old woman lived happily ever after.