Return of the Genie

Astra turned her gaze away from the setting sun. For a moment she couldn't see anything - looking at the sun, even at sunset, isn't really a great idea - but then her vision cleared and she saw the genie. He still looked rather damp from his immersion in the sea. "I hoped I'd seen the last of you," she said. "You've brought me nothing but trouble."

"That's not very nice. You don't get rid of me that easily. Genies are like homing pigeons; we always have to return to our homes, in my case that bottle. Where is it?"

"Somewhere on the beach where I dropped it, I suppose," Astra said. "Unless the waves washed it away like they did you."

"Don't say that. To be a homeless genie is a terrible thing. But it hasn't been washed away. I can feel it; it's very close."

The genie looked around, then spotted his bottle half buried in the sand a short distance away. "There it is!" he said.

He was about to withdraw inside when he noticed an unfamiliar figure silhouetted against the bonfire fifty yards or so further along the beach. "Who's that?" he asked.

"Captain Fogeno." An idea occurred to Astra. She wasn't sure if it was a good idea or a very bad idea. Fogeno was unquestionably male. Therefore, if she presented him with the genie in the bottle, he would be entitled to three wishes. Perhaps he could be persuaded to use one of them to restore her breasts to normal size and another to transport them all back to civilisation?

1. Astra decided that she had nothing to lose. Things could hardly get any worse. "Get in your bottle," she told the genie. "You're about to have a new master."
2. Astra could hardly think of anyone less trustworthy than Fogeno (apart from Robert, of course). He was probably drunk on rum by now, which was unlikely to have improved him any. How could she make sure that he didn't become the genie's master?

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