Family matters - Part 2

Late that night, Martha sat in her old room. Her parents had kept her room the way it was, when Martha was sucked into the lamp. It was a strange feeling. Over the last three years, Martha had arranged her life in Switzerland and now, she was back to a world she left three years ago. She took a snow globe from her night stand and shook it. A snowstorm enveloped a castle. Three years ago, Martha had never seen snow for real. Now she had spent three cold winters with lots of snow. Feeling the cold would indeed have been a strange experience for a girl from Brazil, but luckily, extreme temperature were less affecting to genies. Another advantage of being a genie.

 

Suddenly, the door to Martha's room opened and her sister stepped in. "Hello sis. How are you doing?"

 

"I'm fine, Cathrina. Come one, sit down." Martha offered her sister a spot on her bed.

 

"Martha, I'm just wondering..."

 

"Yes?"

 

"How's it like to be a genie?"

 

Martha thought for a moment. "It is certainly different being human." she said. Martha remembered her human life, but it seemed so different to her now, like the life of another person. "I think the best about it are the genie powers. Especially when you're not bound to grant stupid wishes anymore."

 

Catharina was disappointed. "Oh... You're not granting wishes anymore?"

 

"That's not what I said. I'm no longer a genie slave. So I'm no longer forced to grant any stupid wish any greedy dork, who's just holding my lamp, states. But I can still give wishes away to friends, if I like."

 

"I was wondering..." Catharina began. "Would you grant me a wish?"

 

Martha took a deep breath. Her experiences with past masters had taught her that wishes too often went out of hand. "What do you wish for, Catharina?" she asked.

 

"A few weeks ago I took my final exam, but Mr. Silva, my maths teacher let me fail."

 

"Mr. Silva? That old geezer?" Martha remembered that particular teacher pretty well. She never get along with him in maths class either. "What did he do?"

 

"He told me something completely different from what he finally asked for in the final test. That was totally unfair."

 

"And now you wish that you had passed the exam?"

 

Catharina was surprised by this question. "No... err... that would be good too! Actually, I was thinking about teaching Mr. Silva a lesson."

 

Martha thought for a moment. Her past experience with vengeful masters should have taught her, that such wishes usually end up in a mess. But then, this was her sister and Martha herself had suffered under Mr. Silva. Eventually, her thirst for revenge took the better part of Martha. "Sounds good. He will suffer for what he did to us."

 

"What are we waiting for?" Catharina asked. Martha blinked and both girls teleported away.

 

 

In another part of town, Martha and Catharina appeared again. "He lives over there." Catharina walked over to a nice house and rang the bell while Martha took cover behind a tree.

 

After a few seconds, the door was opened by an older man. "Catharina dos Santos, what are you doing here?"

 

"I want to talk to you about my failed exam." Catharina said.

 

"We already talked about this. And I told you that you have an insufficient working attitude." Mr. Silva explained.

 

"You mean I have been lazy?" Catharina was outrageous. "That's not true. I studied one month for this exam, every day."

 

"Maybe you should have showed this devotion over the complete last three years. But I guess that's too much expected from a dos Santos."

 

When Martha was hearing this words, her anger washed over her. She stepped in front of the tree and pointed her finger at Mr. Silva. "That's the final straw: I always had the feeling you badgered me on purpose. Now I will teach you a lesson."

 

Mr. Silva was seemingly surprised by the sight of the green-skinned genie. "Martha dos Santos? What's the meaning of this?"

 

"Now you will learn by yourself what it means to be a schoolchild being humilated by the teachers!" Martha unleashed her magic on Mr. Silva. The maths teacher shrunk be about half a head when he regressed into a school boy the same age like Catharina.

 

"What did you do to me? Make me normal again." He demanded close to panic.

 

Martha felt tempted to fulfill his demand an change history so that Mr. Silva was really a schoolboy now. But then, she thought it would be a bigger punishment if she let him retain his mind, so he would always remember what he had lost. So, she added a mind protection to her spell.

 

"Martha, I understand that you are angry about me. I guess because of the marks I gave you when you were still my student. But you have to understand that I just did my job and gave you the marks you deserved." he tried to argue.

 

"Yeah, that's what you teachers always do: Giving us the marks we deserve. You have no idea hard bad marks hit you. For you, it's just fun to see us suffering." Catharina chipped in.

 

"You think it's fun giving bad marks?" Mr. Silva says. "You two have no idea how hard it is to be a good teacher. It's certainly not fun to give bad marks. I think a lot about what marks I give to my students. And bad marks are the hardest to give. If you knew what it means to be a teacher, you'd know what I'm talking about."

 

"Don't play me for a sucker!" Catharina replied. "These are just lame ex..."

 

"Shut up, Catharina." Martha interrupted her sister. "Mr. Silva, I worked as a receptionist at hotel over the last years. I know how hard it is to please all patrons. You know what, I'll accept your dare. With you being a school boy now, the class needs a new maths teacher. I'm willing to fill that role for the remaining two weeks of the term."

 

"That's an intriguing offer, Martha, but are you qualified for the job?" Mr. Silva asked.

 

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm a genie. It's no deal to conjur up the necessary papers, like university and such. And with a bit off magic, I'm sure the principal will hire me as a replacement teacher for the rest of the term." Martha thought aloud.

 

"I don't doubt that, Martha. But do you have the knowledge to teach maths?"

 

At these words, Martha blushed. "I admit, I'd be better in teaching English or French or German."

 

Mr. Silva smiled wickedly. "How about this: You teach the class for the remainder of the term. I can help you with the mathematics. But you have to show that you can control the class. And if you come to the conclusion, that I gave Catharina fair marks, you will turn me back the way I was before."

 

Martha nodded. "Alright, it's a deal."

 

"WHAT!?!" Catharina shouted. "Are you crazy, sis?"

 

Martha gave her sister a strict stare. "You shouldn't talk like this. From Monday on, I will be your new math teacher."

TO BE CONTINUED...

Part 1: Family matters - Part 1

Part 3: Family matters - Part 3
Part 4: Family matters - Part 4