The Genie of the Magic Guitar
    by
          Lance Ovelson


Not so long ago in a place not too too far away, there lived a young man by the name of Brooks Bennett. Brooks was a struggling musician who was trying to make ends meet but with very little luck. One night when he was walking with his girlfriend Lari Oakes, the two of them noticed something lying on the beach that would change the course of their lives for years to come.

It was a guitar. It looked like one of the guitars that Willie Nelson had except a little worn around the edges but still a guitar nonetheless.

"Maybe we should take this home and fix it up some, it might be worth something," Lari said as she looked at the guitar then to Brooks. However Brooks was a little unsure but picked it up as he looked at her. "Maybe I should play you something before I do, Lari."

So Brooks played a tune that was in his head, it was like a calm, Jimmy Buffet-ish tune but to the surprise of the both of them a genie popped out of the lamp. This genie was big, green, bald with a couple strands. In other words... this genie looked like a green Homer Simpson. He looked down at the surpised couple and spoke kindly. "I am Elvayze, the genie of the magic guitar and I humbly thank whoever it was for awakening me."

A suprised Lari was just sitting there as Brooks rubbed the back of his bald head in shock. Neither of them expected the guitar to be a magic one, let alone have a genie. Brooks stepped forward as he gently took Lari's hand and smiled. "We both did." Elvayze smiled as he looked the bald man with his blonde girlfriend over and nodded. "You both did, hmm? Well, normally with most genies they grant 3 wishes. But..."

"But?" Brooks said. "Somehow, I think there's more."

"Of course there is, now shhh!" Lari nudged him as she looked at Elvayze.

"But since there's 2 of you, I'm going to allow you 6 wishes, 3 per person since the two bearer thing and yeah..." Elvayze continued as he rubbed his pointed beard as he floated around, getting used to being outside again. "So what I'm trying to say is you have 6 wishes, and no wishing for a million wishes, because that trick never works. So think about your wishes well, ummm what're your names?"

Brooks smiled at the genie. "I'm Brooks. Brooks Bennett, the country singer."

"And I'm Lari. Lari Oakes, Brooks' girlfriend and music publisher." Lari grinned at Elvayze and looked to Brooks as she nudged him again. Elvayze smiled as he saw the happy couple and looked in one direction towards their home which was this rundown trailer that had to be about 50 years old but it kept them going.

Just when Elvayze had a feeling of something Brooks smiled as he winked at Lari. "I know my first wish... instead of the trailer... I wish we had a rather good sized beach house."

Just as soon as Brooks uttered the words, Elvayze twitched his ears as he pointed at the trailer. "Alakapresto! There, new house! Go on inside and see what's there for you, which reminds me... Everything you had in the trailer, be it clothes or food is still there."

Lari ran up ahead towards the new house like a kid at the sight of a new toy that they like. When she got there, the two heard Lari yell "I love this place already!!" As they walked... (Well one walked and the other floated, ok?) when they got to there, Lari was looking around as she looked at them confused. "Hey, how come there isn't that much furniture here?"

Elvayze looked at her with a smile that knows what she wanted. "So you want some furniture in this place?" Lari nodded as Elvayze once again twitched his ears and brought his hands out. "Bigglesomethingston!" Just then, a bright flash of light blinded Brooks and Lani but when the light died down, they saw that Elvayze gave them furniture except it was the kind that made a somewhat quaint home but with a bit more of a classy touch, along with a fireplace and a few touchups.

Brooks looked at Lari as she got this wide grin and jumped at him. "This has been the best day of our lives so far! I have a feeling tomorrow will be much better."

Brooks smiled as he blushed as he looked at Lari and then to Elvayze. "Yeah... which reminds me... Elvayze, since you've been in the guitar for a while, care to roam around, see the world and all, plus if we need ya I can just strum."

Just at that moment, Elvayze got a wide grin as floated towards the door. "Sure, I always wanted to check out Las Vegas!" After the green spirit flew out in glee, the happy duo sat down to dinner in their new home. As soon as dinner finished, they got a call from Carl, one of the musicians in Brooks' band, explaining some record company was going to buy them out unless they come up with some amount of cash they didn't have by next week.

"Well, I do have an idea but I want to wait 'til sunrise to pull this off, Lari." Brooks said as he sipped his cola. Lari got a smile that knew the idea that was going on in his head as she messed up his hair. "You're insane you know."

"Yeah," Brooks said, "that's kinda why we started ummm... yeah." Lari picked up the guitar and strummed the tune and wouldn't you know it, Elvayze appeared in a puff of smoke.

"Now you decide to call me? Right when I was on a roll at the craps table? Oh well, how can I help you?" Elvayze said as he took off his new sunglasses.

"Well, here's the thing," Lari began, "our record company's being bought out by this one group and they're asking for an insane amount of money. I wish that my label is a rather successful one and anyone under my label is very well paid."

Like the last time, the twitching and the hand motions started. "Alakapretzelsandbeer!" Just as soon as Elvayze finished, the phone rang as Brooks picked it up. "Hello?"

"Brooks, it's Carl.  Something's happened... I went to our building and something's not right because... how can I word it... it's like magic that our building's now pretty big and we've got artists coming out of every which way but pop."

Brooks looked at Lari and Elvayze grinning as he tried not to laugh. "Oh everything's alright, Carl, don't worry about it, and Lari deposited your paycheck into your account."

"Well, I'm at the bank now and it doesn't look like..." For about the next few minutes, Carl's line was pretty quiet... you would be too if you found out you had at least $150,000 for a paycheck from out of nowhere.

Lari went to her laptop to check the shared account also and to her surprise with a large grin, the account had more money than she knew what to do with for the moment. So she decided to drag Brooks and Elvayze downtown to the most swankiest of restaurants for dinner, but to the two of them what would happen was yet to come.

The next morning started the way it usually does: Brooks waking up to cook breakfast for the two, Lari checking her stocks and business reports, but with Elvayze waking up feeling woozy and sick.

"Too... many... triple bacon cheeseburgers...." Elvayze groaned as the phone rang. Lari picked up the phone as she heard Carl's voice, somewhat frantic as if he was haunted by a ghost.

"Lari... something happened, that company's still trying except this time, they brought in the RIAA, and they're not going to stop until we're under them!" Carl said as he paced around his living room, nervous about the situation.

"Carl, calm down, trust me, I think I got an answer to this... give me a few minutes." She hung up as she looked at Brooks and told him of the situation.

He simply looked at her as he blinked. "Since you're down to one wish from my idea, I'll return the favor... I wish the RIAA and that label would turn into something no one wants to see."

Elvayze stood up as he looked at him like he was nuts as he held his stomach. "Be specific... unless you want me to create something so horrible that it'd take the national guard to stop..."

"National guard one sounds good so let's go with that." Brooks said as he got some coffee ready and sat down. Just as soon as he sat down, Lari looked at Brooks like he was crazy again but this time like she really meant it. "Seattle!!" Elvayze said as he transformed him into something no one expected... until it was on the news a few minutes later.

The news reporter on the scene looked around making sure not to get trampled as panic roamed the streets and the cause of it was unexpected. Behind her was one monster no one would ever guess... it was about ninety feet tall, had webbed feet and it's call was 'whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo'... it was a giant version of Daffy Duck.

Lari and Brooks looked at the t.v. in disbelief as Lari looked at Brooks slightly ticked off. "You twit! You made the RIAA into Daffy Duck!!"

Elvayze just looked at Lari and sighed. "It was Brooks' wish, however I have an idea" he grinned as he rubbed his chin and hovered around the room. "But first, you'll have to take me downtown where the monster is..."

The two seemed a little unsure at first but decided to drive him downtown in their car. As they came towards the city, they saw some helicopters flying around hoping to take the big duck down only to get shot down cartoon style. As they neared, Elvayze got out of the car and had one of those grins on his face as he turned into a 90 foot version of Bugs Bunny. Lari shook her head as she thought about what was going to happen. Elvayze... err... Bugs went up to Daffy and looked at him, carrot in hand and began chewing on it. "Ehhh.... what's up, doc?"

Daffy looked at Bugs as he started to get steamed, always disliking that despicable rabbit. "What's up? It's rabbit season!!"

"Duck season," Elvayze/Bugs said. Well to those of you who know where this is going, let's just cut to the chase.

Daffy walked in the middle of an intersection and said "I SAY IT'S DUCK SEASON AND I WISH YOU WOULD JUST FIRE ALREADY!!!!" Well... the national guard had their targets set on Daffy and began firing him into orbit... or the Sahara... it's up to you where to he goes.

After the celebration ended, Brooks and Lari looked at each other then to Elvayze who was back to normal. "Elvayze, I think we got our last wishes ready." Lari smiled as she turned to Brooks. "I wish for a family with Brooks."

Elvayze laughed as Brooks turned a few shades of red. "I don't know how to break it to you, Lari, but... you did that on your own."

Brooks grinned at Elvayze already sure of what he wanted. "In that case... I wish for a bigger house for us since I have a hunch it's not gonna be a small family." Elvayze nodded as he did the wiggle and chant. "Alakastow!" As soon as he did the chant, Brooks smiled as he rubbed the back of his head. "And I think I know what Lari's last wish is..."

"Yeah," Lari began, "I wish you free, Elvayze. We noticed how you liked Las Vegas so you can take a vacation there if you want." She smiled at Elvayze as he got his legs back, some hair and a goatee as well. Elvayze now looked somewhat human... again.

What happened after that night though, well... Elvayze still visits Brooks and Lari. Lari did have a girl and Brooks' cd went platinum. Five times over. As for Elvayze though... last we saw of him, he was in Las Vegas doing a new show. The city's never been the same since. As for what's in store for Brooks and Lari, well, that's another story.

The End