Dear Genie In The Lamp

Dear Genie In The Lamp,


I figured I'd write you a letter because my teacher said we had to pick someone who we wished was actually alive and write to him or her like we had been friends for a long time.  And I choose you!  She said because we are only in 4th grade we are allowed to make our letters sort of short but I will try not to make them too short to you because that would seem like we aren't actually friends.  And now, since I'm writing you this letter, we kind of are.

So how are you, Genie?  I bet you wonder why I'm writing to you.  My Mom actually sort of chose you for me, because she made me watch Aladdin the other day for the first time.  She said it was a "classic" and that they "don't make movies for kids like this anymore."  At least I think that's what she said.  Anyway, she said that you were her favorite Disney character ever and that when she was little, you made her laugh a lot and she broke her VHS tape of Aladdin (which is like a DVD for old people, I guess) because she watched it over and over again.  She also said her favorite song ever when she was four was "Friend Like Me" which you sing in the movie.  Mom said she'd dance and jump on her couch cushions in her living room until her Mom (who is my Grandma, Genie) would tell her to get down "before she cracked her head open."  When I was little, my Mom would say that to me, so I know she is telling the truth about the movie and Grandma and you.  I asked her why it took her so long to tell me about how special you were to her and how much she loved the movie, and she only said that she didn't know while she was looking into the tunnel of her hot chocolate.

Aladdin was pretty cool.  I didn't want to watch it at first because I don't really like kid movies anymore, and my Mom knows that so it made me mad.  Sometimes she thinks I am still a baby, and sometimes I think she acts like she is old.  And she really isn't, but whatever. So anyway she said it meant a lot to her if we could watch it together, and I asked her why, and she said recently she lost an old friend who wasn't really her friend in life, but that she felt like he was.  She said, "Harper, someday you'll know what I mean."  I hate when she says that, like I'm stupid or something, but my Mom is really smart so maybe she is right.  We watched the movie one night when Dad took Miles out to dinner.  It was weird because when you came out of the lamp and sang that song about friends my Mom started to cry.  I didn't know what to do because I couldn't figure out why she was sad, plus nothing sad really happened in the movie.  She repeated herself about losing a friend that wasn't a real-life friend, and that you were like her friend growing up for a few years.  I know she was lonely sometimes when she was little because she told me about it after the time I felt lonely at school when Alexis said I couldn't sit with her at lunch.  I think that's why she liked you so much--you made her feel un-alone.

Genie, I think we should finally get down to business.  I watched your movie, and I liked it even though I didn't want to, and now that song about friends is stuck in my head.  I will probably watch it again since I know it makes my Mom happy even though it actually makes her sad.  But the business is that you grant wishes and I have three of them for you to listen to, even if you can't make them true.

Wish one is that Dylan will ask me to sit next to him in lunch and maybe try to hold my hand at our after-school program.  I think he likes me and Jenna said that he told her he thinks I'm pretty, but I won't know if that is true unless he tells me or wants me to be near him.

Wish two is that you please make Mrs. Greenwood not smell so bad in class.  Sometimes when she helps me with our quick pick problems, her armpit is right in my face and it is hard to breathe.  It sort of smells like old meat in the dumpster mixed with baby powder.  My Dad always makes a funny face and says "Pee-You" when we walk past the one near the fire station, and I laugh.

Wish three is that you write me back.  I know that isn't possible because you aren't real, but my teacher says that after she reads our letters every month, she will try to send them to someone who might be able to respond to us.  I think a lot of kids are picking real people that just aren't in their real lives, like the boys from One Direction and Jennifer Lawrence from The Hunger Games, not ones who are characters in movies. So maybe, even though you're not real, someone can respond for you and write back to me.  I kind of feel like you're real after watching Aladdin, and plus someone gave you a voice in that movie.  Maybe he can write me back and tell me if playing you in the movie was fun, and how he feels knowing that it is my Mom's very favorite Disney movie that made her feel un-alone.

Okay Genie.  Mrs. Greenwood just said we have one more minute to finish the sentence we are working on.  So I'm saying goodbye now, but I will write you again next month when she tells me to.  Maybe I will start watching Aladdin every month too, so I feel like you're even more real and that I'm not writing to someone who isn't actually alive.  It might make me feel like I've got another friend, which is good even when Alexis says I can sit with her at lunch.

Love,

Harper