Unexpected Genies

Based on a true story. Do not ask how or why. Simply accept that there is magic that happens all around us every day.

"Quit jokin'! It ain't right to mess with people's hearts and minds, Cara!" Almost imperceptibly, the briefest look of impossible hope had flickered across Billy's face before being replaced with annoyance.

"I'm tellin' you for the last time, Billy. It's real. When I got them back in 2012, I don't know what possessed me to buy 'em. They might as well have been Jack's magic beans. But somethin'..." 

Billy jerked towards the house and stomped away in aggravation, his boots kicking up dirt in angry little clouds. Cara bolted after him, yanking him harshly. 

"Somethin' told me to get them, Billy! I thought they was a joke. I even forgot about 'em! But they're real." She slid her pencil behind her ear and shoved the little black book harshly against his chest in defiance. "And I ain't laughin' no more." Her eyes flashed a fierce challenge as she waited for his response.

That same flicker of hope danced across Billy's features again, lingering a bit longer before he flipped open the book. His eyes scanned the gibberish written inside. "This supposed to mean somethin' to me?" he spat out.

Cara knew she had his attention now, but she also knew that the next few minutes of explanation would be absolutely critical. According to her calculations, everything would depend on it.

"It's a key." She paused, thinking back to how it had been explained to her. It seemed a complex concept, but in reality, it was similar to stock. If you had 1000 shares in a company, and enough people invested in that company, the value of your stock went up. The only difference was this "stock" was completely digital, and the only way to access the funds was with the key. Lose the key, lose the funds. Game over.

She taught Billy the basics quickly enough to keep him engaged, but slow enough to confirm he was still tracking. Then, the more delicate part of the conversation began.

"So you copied down this...key," Billy pointed at the long alpha-numeric code.

Cara nodded.

"And this?" His finger slid down the left side of the column. 

"All me," Cara whispered.

"But this?" He flicked his finger over the lines on the right, clearly a different handwriting. 

"Not me," her voice was barely audible, and her eyes were as round as saucers. 

Silence hung in the air. All their lives, she had loved to tease him, and wasn't ashamed of making a fool of him for a cheap giggle. But this? He evaluated her behavior. The intensity of her expression erased all doubts that it was a joke, unless she was also the victim of some cosmic prank.

"And it went up 20 grand in a few minutes?"  He flipped the paper back and forth, as if something hidden between the pages would reveal a clue to this mystery.

"No. Seconds, Billy. It went up 20 grand in seconds."

"Alright. So how do we get it?" Billy broke the silence with the natural question that would be on anyone's mind.

Snapping into her analytical mode, Cara became focused. "Well, that's the thing, ain't it! It took me a while to figure out part of it. I joined me one of them groups? The ones that talk about all this digital stuff, ya know? Well, once I landed in the right place, I figured the basics quick enough. It ain't hard at all to get it out, Billy. That's simple enough. It's just like any other wallet. It's the other writin' that we need to figure." She prompted his attention to the green and red writing on the right margin of the page.

Billy piped in, "How the value keeps changin'."

"Right. Cuz it ain't simple math, that. If we have 1000 'shares' and we take out 10, the value left should just be 990 times the current value."

He interrupted again, "And here, you wrote your entry in pencil on the right. But that other writin' is green and it's much more than what you started with." He continued quickly, and pointed to a later entry. "But here is your entry from last month, and that other writin' - the value is low and red."

"That puzzle took me a few days. But then it hit me! I went back to the dates and looked at the market on those days too! That," she pointed at the mystical writing, "ain't the value of the transaction. That's the new balance in my wallet."

"I don't get it." Billy's confusion was understandable. Something extraordinary was happening, and though Cara couldn't explain it - she saw, she believed, and now she was going to have to prove it.

"Check it!" Cara pulled her phone out of her back pocket and opened a site that tracked the movement of her shares over time.  "On this day, I wrote 'pay for Lindsay's education'. That should have depleted the account by at least 10%, but the value of the market skyrocketed at the same time!  My wallet value jumped so high - it was like Lindsay's entire college education was free!"

"But look at this date," she adjusted the chart on her phone to look at a period two weeks prior. "Look at how the market took a dive, and my wallet value is much lower, and red." 

He corroborated the data, and followed the line back to her entry. "Cuz you was goin' on that trip?"

She shrugged. "I was mad at the time, and I wrote it in. I didn't actually book it!" Her face flushed in shameful regret, "You knew I wasn't leavin'. But the point is- the book. made. the market. drop." She jabbed her finger at the book, punctuating the words with forceful stabs.

"The book made the market drop," Billy repeated her words, hoping his echo would dispel his doubts. "So," he paused and shook his head a bit. "The value of the wallet depends on you?"

"Way I see it? The value of the whole damn market depends on me."

"Or - maybe there are others, too?"

"Maybe others, but for sure, me."

"And if you plan to help someone else, it goes up. Plan for you, it goes down?"

Cara sighed. This was the part that was even more confusing. Some choices were obvious. Giving generously automatically predicted a spike in the market, and conversely, planning a selfish act predicted a sharp fall. But some others? No red or green writing appeared at all. Perhaps that meant, it stayed neutral? Perhaps the money would be debited then as a normal account without affecting the larger market?

"All I know is this: If we're generous, I think we can figure it so it never runs out. We could change people's lives, Billy. A lot of 'em." Cara's voice trembled with nervous joy as the full weight of their new reality dawned on her.

Billy snorted lightly, "and live as paupers."

Cara giggled, "Well, it ain't like we'd starve. It'd let us take care of our needs."

"True. And maybe keep us on the straight and narrow, " Billy nudged her and winked. "Well, me anyway. Not much hope for the likes of you."

She flashed a beaming smile, and they shared a wonder-filled look. This was real. Life was about to take some very strange, very fun, and very fulfilling turns. 

He pulled the pencil from behind her ear and held it out for her to accept.

"Well, get scribblin' then, Madame Genie. Let's change some lives. Where do we begin?"

Cara arched her eyebrow and smiled. The soft, scratchy sound of pencil on paper was accompanied by the melody of her exhilarated giggle. Green numbers began appearing on the right margin. She turned the book around for the anticipation of his approval. "Yeah?"

Billy barked out a laugh, as his eyes widened with the sharp increase of the wallet value.  "Hell yeah!"

Cover image source by Aaron Burden, Unsplash.com. Edited for the purpose of this story.