The kids crawled up on the sofa and into Samantha’s lap, competing for space.
“Okay,” she said, “let’s see what we have here.” Samantha looked at their scrawled pictures, alive with color and bursting with the unrestrained creativity and unrealism of three-year-olds. “Oh, these are both wonderful. Just beautiful. I don’t know how I can possibly choose a winner.”
“Great job, kids,” Rosie said, mussing the twins’ hair. It was reddish-brown like their father’s. “It’s starting to get dark. Why don’t you switch on the lamp so you can see better, Charlie.”
“Wait!”
All eyes were on Samantha.
“I have to warn Lugal first.” She turned to him, licking her lips nervously. “Okay, you’re going to see some light, illumination, come on like magic when Charlie touches the lamp. It’s perfectly natural. Please don’t go nutsoid on me.”
“I know not of nutsoid, but be assured I would not draw my saber in the presence of children, Samantha, unless it was to protect them from danger.”
“Trust me, they don’t need any protection from my lamp, which, by the way, used to be my grandma’s, so I’d hate to see it end up hacked into bits.”
“Ready?” Charlie asked, his hand on the lamp switch.
“Ready,” Lugal said, his mouth in a grim line, as if the two of them were engaged in some possibly deadly experiment.
Charlie switched on the light and Lugal’s eyes went wide as his muscles tensed.
“Such speed…such brightness. How?” he asked quietly. “Oil? Tallow?”
“Electricity. It’s called an electric light,” Charlie answered. “Light bulbs hadn’t been invented in 1859,” he told Rosie and Samantha. “If we have more time together I can explain it to you, Lugal.”
“And microwaves and refrigerators and cell phones,” Lugal said. “I must learn of all these things.”
“Look, Daddy, look.” Mandy waved her drawings under her father’s nose.
“My questions must wait for another time,” Lugal said with a smile. “The little goats await their father’s praise.”
A moment later, Charlie looked from the brightly scrawled drawings to his children. “You made your genies bigger than the castles,” he noted, studying the crayon depictions as if he were surveying a college student’s thesis. “And the sun is disproportionate to the foreground. The proper prospective would be—”
“What Daddy means is that he loves your beautiful, very imaginative drawings,” Rosie cut in. “Isn’t that right, honey?”
Charlie grinned, his cheeks taking on that familiar blush. “Mommy’s right. That’s exactly what I meant.”
Lugal came to the side of the couch on which Samantha sat, squatting to peruse the children’s drawings. “Ah, such wondrous artwork. Tell me, Mandy, which do you like better, the genie you drew or the castle?”
Mandy looked hard at her pictures. “I think the castle, because there’s a princess inside. See her at the window?” She tapped a pink blotch on the paper and Lugal nodded. “And she’s getting a fancy tea party ready for the genie and all of her dollies.”
“And you, Kevin,” Lugal urged. “Which of your drawings do you like best?”
“The genie,” Kevin said without hesitation. “Because he has a sword and because he can do magic and because he can be the winner of everybody in the whole wide world!”
Lugal and the others chuckled. “I agree with both of you. It seems to me, Samantha, that we have two winners,” he suggested. “One for the best castle and one for the best genie.”
“Perfect!” Samantha said, amazed at Lugal’s acumen concerning children. “And I’ve got a special prize for each of you. A brand new book from the special Auntie Sam collection!”
“Yay!” the kids cried in unison.
Samantha smiled as she moved the twins from her lap to the couch and got up. In this age of electronic games, videos and computers, it was rewarding to see their enthusiasm and love for books. Their parents were certainly doing something right.
“I’ll be back in a minute with your prizes.”
“Come,” Lugal said, “while you wait for your aunt to return, I will give the winners an onager-back ride…with your parents’ permission, of course.” He looked to Rosie and Charlie.
“What’s an onager-back ride?” Rosie asked.
“An onager is animal similar to a donkey or horse used by the ancient Sumerians to pull their carts and chariots,” Charlie answered absently. “Sure, go ahead, Lugal.”
Lugal removed the saber and its sheath from his hip, positioned it atop a tall bookshelf and then got down on all fours, close to the floor to allow the kids to climb on easily. “Climb on,” he told them.
“Oh, like an old world version of a piggyback ride,” Rosie said. She helped position Mandy and Kevin on his back.
Samantha arrived back in the living room a moment later, in time to hear Lugal tell the twins, “Hold on tight to my vest and I will tell you a story of the ancient land of Sumer as I take you for a magical ride.”
Leaning against the doorjamb, she smiled at the sight of her big, bold warrior tranquilly playing with a couple of pint-sized kids. As he crawled around the room, he told them about how not everyone in Sumer was lucky enough to learn to read and write. Only certain children selected by the gods were called to be scribes. And most of them were male.
“What about the girls?” Mandy asked.
“They became wives, mothers and sometimes priestesses who served the gods in ziggurats.”
“I don’t like rats,” Mandy said.
Lugal laughed. “Ziggurats were very tall buildings made of mud-brick, temples where the local people brought offerings and sacrifices to the gods.”
“Amazing…” Charlie muttered.
Lugal told the twins that little boys began to study at the age of eight and finished when they were twenty. Using a reed, the scribes wrote on clay tablets. The picture marks they made symbolized the words of the Sumerian language.
Samantha found it all fascinating. In fact, everyone seemed captivated by the story, including the children, who were treated to side-to-side sways and up-and-down onager movements of Lugal’s back as he gave them their entertaining, yet educational ride.
He finished by telling them how fortunate and privileged they were to be given the wonderful gift by their parents and their Aunt Samantha to be able to learn how to read and write.
Samantha could easily see Lugal as a father. He’d make a sensational dad. He seemed to love children, was gentle, wise, and full of patience. That’s exactly the kind of father she wanted for her own children some day…if she was lucky enough to have any before her biological clock ran out, that is.
And, oh, what fun she and Lugal would have trying to conceive!
Of course, life with Lugal might be somewhat out of the norm…
“Hi, honey, how was your day?”
“Excellent! I granted a dozen wishes, slew four chariot drivers suffering from road rage, tamed two refrigerator beasts, annihilated one cell phone and got a big rip in my balloon pants for the trouble. Can you sew them up for me, sweetheart?”
“You know your ancient history as if you were there,” Charlie said, snapping Samantha’s thoughts back to the present as he plucked the kids from Lugal’s back.
Getting to his feet and straightening to his full, imposing height, Lugal flashed a white-toothed grin. “Yes. I do, indeed.”
“Were you a scribe?”
“Nay. A professional soldier. My father was a scribe. In secret, he and my mother taught me, as well as my brothers and sisters, to read and write.”
“I wanna read and write so I can be big and strong like Lugal when I grow up,” Kevin announced, making a muscle.
“Size does not matter,” Lugal said.
Samantha had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. She didn’t dare chance a glimpse at Rosie, because she knew damn well the two of them would erupt into fits of juvenile laughter.
; Good Lord, here Samantha was lusting over her genie like a hormone-driven teenager, right in front of the kids. Not to mention all that wetness going on between her thighs every time she thought about his magical cock. This was terrible. Shameful! She really had to get a grip.
“It is what’s up here that matters, Kevin.” Lugal tapped his temple. “And here.” He clapped his hand over his heart. “Many big, mighty giants have been deceived by men of smaller stature because those men used their brains instead of relying on their size to defeat their enemies. There is great power in intelligence.”
“My daddy is very ’tellgent,” Kevin said.
“He is. And if you study very hard,” Lugal replied, “one day you will be lucky enough to become a man of great intelligence just like your father.”
Kevin ran his father, plastering himself to Charlie’s leg like a koala bear to a tree trunk. Soon Mandy was at her dad’s other leg, following suit.
Charlie looked up at Lugal, offering a smile and nod. “Thanks,” he said softly, clearly relishing the loving attention from his children, and the new sense of pride he must have noted in Kevin’s eyes.
“You have nothing to thank me for,” Lugal said, returning the smile. “I merely spoke the truth.”
“You must realize my mind is racing with dozens of questions for you,” Charlie said. “How long will you be here?”
“For six lunar cycles, or as soon as Samantha makes her three wishes. Whichever comes first.”
“Then what happens?” Rosie asked.
“Once I have completed my servitude to Samantha, I shall return to the bottle to await my next possessor.”
It seemed the three adults were holding their breaths.
“Were you a criminal?” Charlie finally asked. “Did someone cast a spell on you because you broke a law?”
“Nay, I have never been a criminal. And it was not a spell. There was no witchcraft involved. It was an incantation to place me in eternal service to womankind, spoken by a priest and priestess. I was falsely interned, defending the honor of a young, virgin priestess.”
“Who was the incantation was directed to, Lugal?”
“To the great Inanna,” Lugal began. “The Queen of Heaven, goddess of—”
“Love and war,” Charlie finished, shaking his head. “Wow, she was believed to be pretty powerful.”
“Obviously,” Lugal said simply, folding his muscular arms across his chest.
“What was happening in your time before you were imprisoned?” Charlie asked. “What battles did you fight in just before this happened?”
Lugal had a faraway look in his eyes. “On the banks of the Euphrates, with my troops I defended the walls of the Sumerian cities against the siege of Sargon of Akkad’s army.”
“Sargon…Akkad…” Charlie sat still and silent, apparently in deep thought. “Dear God,” he said a few moments later. “That was the third millennium BC.” He started up into Lugal’s eyes. “You’ve been in captivity for—”
“Five thousand years,” Samantha whispered, swiping at the fat set of tears streaming down her cheeks. She felt sure her heart would break right in two at the sad realization.
“You said eternal,” Rosie said. “You mean there’s no way for you to get out of this spell or incantation or whatever it is?”
Lugal shook his head. “I thought at one time there might have been a way. Sabit, the poor, foolish, lovesick priestess of Nanna, the Moon God of Ur, promised to find a way to free me but…” His words trailed off as his eyes narrowed and a scowl marred his handsome features.
“She was the one whose honor you defended?” Samantha asked.
“Yes.”
“What happened?” Rosie asked.
Lugal looked at the two small children and back to the adults. “It is not an appropriate discussion to have in the presence of the little goats. I will tell you about it another time…if I see you again.”
“Well, of course you’re going to see us again. You’ll be here for six months,” Rosie said.
Charlie nudged her with his elbow. “Unless Samantha makes her wishes before that,” he reminded his wife.
“Oh…”
“Don’t worry,” Samantha assured them. “You’ll be seeing Lugal again. I guarantee it.” She’d make damn sure she kept him here with her until the very last possible moment.
Mandy yawned and Kevin followed.
“I think we’d better get our little goats home,” Rosie said, chuckling. “Are you coming in to work tomorrow, Sam? I’m working the morning shift. I hate Saturday mornings there. It’s like a madhouse.”
“I was switched to Monday morning, instead,” Samantha answered.
“You speak of the job where you fight to make people gaunt?” Lugal asked Rosie. “The job that demands that Samantha loses more weight from her already slender frame?”
“That would be the one,” Rosie answered. “You mean to tell me the men of your time didn’t like their woman bony?”
Lugal looked as though he’d just swallowed curdled milk. “Of course not.”
Rosie sighed. “Oh, he really is a keeper, Sam.”
Samantha smiled in silent agreement. “That gives me time to take Lugal shopping to get him some clothes.”
“Gee…I kind of like what he’s wearing now,” Rosie teased.
“Did I suddenly become invisible?” Charlie joked.
“Of course not, honey.” Rosie hugged his arm. “I was just picturing you in a pair of sultan pants like Lugal’s, that’s all.”
“Uh-huh. Rosie?”
“Hmmm?”
“Forget about it,” Charlie warned. “Come on, kids, time to say goodbye to Auntie Sam and Lugal. We have to go home.”
After all had said their goodbyes, including big sloppy kisses to Lugal’s cheek from Mandy and Kevin, the Dudchowski family left.
Lugal watched out the window as they got in their car and Charlie backed out of the driveway. Clearly aghast, he asked Samantha, “What is this wondrous horseless chariot they travel in?”
“It’s called a car. An automobile. It operates on a gas engine and—” She held her hand up as Lugal’s mouth opened to speak. “That’s all I really know about it, so just add it to the list of things you’re going to be learning about over the next six months.”
“I will not be here that long,” Lugal said.
Samantha gasped. “What do you mean? Why not? I thought you said—”
“No woman has ever waited more than fourteen days to make her wishes, Samantha.”
“Two weeks?” The tears started falling down her cheeks again. “You mean to tell me that you’ve never had an opportunity to walk around outside that bottle for more than two weeks at any given time?”
“Nay. But I have grown accustomed to it.” He smoothed away her tears with his thumbs. “There is no reason to cry. It is simply my destiny. I hold no animosity toward any of my previous possessors for wanting to make their wishes quickly.”
He paused to wrap Samantha in his strong arms and hold her close to her chest. “And I will cleave to no ill feeling about you, little one, when you make your third wish and I return to the bottle.”
“Oh, Lugal,” she whispered against his chest, “I wish I could—” With an audible gasp, Samantha pulled out of his embrace, holding Lugal at arm’s length. “Oh my gosh. I have to be careful from now on. I don’t want to squander my wishes on stupid mindless stuff because of a slip of the tongue.”
“This is true.”
Samantha thought for a moment. “Okay, here’s how we’ll work it. Just ignore anything I say using the words I wish unless you specifically hear me say it like this—for my first official wish, I wish—and so on, until the third wish is used up. That way there won’t be any mistakes. Understand?”
Lugal nodded. “I understand. I shall await your official command before granting any wishes.”
“The thought of accidentally returning you to that little bottle because I was stupid enough to say somethi
ng like, gee, I wish I had a candy bar, is positively horrifying. So, no matter what I say about wishing I had some chocolate or French fries or anything else that I’m not supposed to have on my diet, just remember to ignore it, okay?”
Lugal chuckled. It was a pleasant sound that rumbled up from deep in his chest and came out with that same dreamy accent.
“You are a very special woman, Samantha.” He drew her to him again and she rested her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. “I will enjoy my time with you, however long it may be.”
When he scooped her into his arms, she gave a surprised little yelp. “What are you doing?”
One look into his heated gaze told her all she needed to know.
He tugged on her bottom lip with his teeth, drawing it into his mouth and suckling on it before exchanging it for her tongue. She moaned.
“I like your friends very much, Samantha, but I am glad they are gone.”
“Why?” Now that was a monumentally stupid question.
“Because you make the blood in my veins boil, Samantha. It has been most difficult keeping my cock from making itself known in front of your guests. The strain is taking its toll on me.”
“Oh really?” Samantha found she liked where this conversation was going. Very much. “And just what do you suggest we do about your problem?”
“First, we go to the kitchen to get the can of the cold, white fluffy cream. Then we go to your bedroom, where you will teach me to turn on all the lights. I want to see the way every succulent inch of your body reacts to my touch as I drive you wild with passion.”
“Good answer,” Samantha whispered.
Chapter Seven
“Are there no more lights to turn on?” Lugal asked excitedly. “I am loving this electricity and electric light bulbs. I must learn all about them and what makes them work.”
Click.
On. Off. On. Off. On…
Samantha looked around her small bedroom as Lugal went from lamp to lamp, flicking the lights on and off a bazillion times. She’d never seen the bedroom lit up so bright at night before. Lugal had insisted she also turn on the lights from the master bathroom for additional illumination.
Thinking of him eyeing her naked way-less-than-perfect body highlighted in all that stark clarity had her knees knocking.
Samantha and Her Genie Page 10
