The genie looked surprised. “That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind”

Once upon a time, in a local land, there lived a prince. He was my prince, he was two years old, and he ruled our castle with an iron hand.

Having been blessed with a new baby sister, he, too, insisted on drinking milk from a bottle, and he was very specific about which bottle it would be. And it was bedtime, and I couldn’t find it anywhere. (My husband has the distinct privilege of being out all day with other sane adults and wasn’t available to rescue this damsel in distress.)

Finally, I located it. Under the couch. It was full of green stuff.

I expected it to smell when I opened it, but instead, the haze of green stuff floated out of the bottle and hovered in the air. It twinkled, shimmered, and coalesced into a glittering green genie who stretched, rubbed his eyes, and rumbled, “Thank you for letting me out of that bottle.”

I stared at the genie. I really need to get more sleep.

The genie bowed. “As a sign of my gratitude,” he continued, “I will grant you three wishes. The boundaries of time and space are no limitation. Name your heart’s desire!”

I blinked. “I can ask for anything?”

He hesitated. “Well, almost anything. There’s one exception — one wish I can’t fulfill.”

That was still pretty good odds. “Okay,” I said. “For my first wish, I want to go out to night seder and Maariv.” I paused and added, “Every night.”

The genie looked surprised. “That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”