THE MOMENT
"What do you mean you can't grant me wishes?" Abner found it almost insulting. The man was only half there, with the rest of him below the waist existing as ethereal smoke. "You're a Genie aren't you?" Abner asked as he deliberately appraised the incomplete form.
"No, I'm a Jinn! Genies aren't real," the Jinn replied.
"Awww, c'mon. Just a teeny, little wish...," Abner swayed a little too much and had to lean on the serving counter for support. But, he also used his unsteady momentum to pinch his fingers in front of the Jinn’s face to further illustrate how small the wish he had in mind was. His hand moved a bit too close to the Jinn, and he leaned back out of discomfort.
"Abner, you leave this nice man alone. He's not a genie, and you're cut off for the rest of the night," Glory noticed Jinn's discomfort from the other end of the bar and hurried to help him. She knew Abner didn't mean any trouble, but she'd never seen the Jinn before and didn't want any misunderstandings.
"Sorry, Glory," he mumbled and nodded with a limp neck, then he repeated the gesture at the Jinn. "Sorry Mr. Not-a-genie."
"I'm sorry about him," she smiled at the Jinn. "My name's Glory Autumn, and I run this lovely little watering hole. He's a few deep, but I promise you're perfectly welcome," she said.
"You're not going to ask me for a wish, are you?" the Jinn smiled with the question, and Glory nodded vigorously.
"As a matter of fact," she said. "If you're offering up wishes, I gotta know; what is it you wish to eat?" she winked, and they shared a laugh.
"Nothing just yet. In all honesty, I just needed a moment to catch up mentally. I was sealed away for a few thousand years, and when I'm finally freed... it was a done by an intern who said I was free to explore the multiverse... I didn't even know we had a multiverse," he chuckled to himself as he shook his head. Then, his eyes opened wide. "Wait, did you know about the multiverse? They told me not every Earth does. I promise I'm not crazy!"
"Hon, you're not even all here," Glory smiled and made a broad gesture at the rest of the patrons. Golden hour light was streaming in through the windows, and over two dozen patrons were spread out between half a dozen tables. Everyone else was minding their own conversations, and enjoying their drinks. "My regulars have seen stranger folk come through. Don't you worry, we're well aware of the multiverse."
"Ah, then that explains our friend, Abner," the Jinn laughed as he cast a glance at the old man. Glory said he'd been cut off, but that didn't seem to even sour his night. He still sat with others and shared a hilarious story that filled the bar with laughter.
"I hadn't even been here two minutes before he wandered over and asked for a wish," the Jinn shrugged. "He didn't even rub a lamp and still decided I was a genie and that somehow entitled him to a wish."
"He's too friendly sometimes," Glory nodded, and the Jinn shook his head.
"No, honestly, I kind of appreciated it. I mean, not the insensitivity of demanding a wish, but this has been kind of nice," he shrugged as he met Glory's eyes. "I'm still working through the whole 'multiverse' thing, but I gotta say. It feels good to be treated like a person after being locked away for so long."