This genie was a giant! His shiny, bald head touched the ceiling. A curly, black beard covered half his face. Muscles bulged on his brown arms, chest, and shoulders. The genie wore black silk pants and big gold earrings.
"Who is this?" cried Zeba. "Where did he come from?"
"He’s a genie!" answered Aladdin, leaping to his mother’s side. "He came from the lamp."
"Send him away!" begged Zeba. "I’m afraid."
"I am the genie of the wonderful lamp!" said the genie, crossing his arms over his huge, bare chest. "Do not send me away. I am your slave, ready to serve you."
"I don’t want a slave," Zeba said, shaking with fear. She turned to her son. "Tell him to leave, please."
Aladdin snatched the lamp from his mother’s hand.
"Do not listen to my mother, genie of the lamp," ordered Aladdin. "My mother and I are hungry! Bring us food a sultan would eat!"
The genie disappeared! But before Aladdin could even blink his eyes, the genie was back. He carried a large silver tray with six gold plates of food on it. He put the plates on a carpet on the floor.
"What a feast!" Aladdin shouted.
There was sausage made from beef and lamb. There was a dish piled high with beet salad and turnips. Other plates held rice and beans, olives, nuts, and cheese tarts—which smelled so good!
Then—poof—the genie was gone!
"Mother, come!" cried Aladdin with joy. "Let’s enjoy this feast that has been given to us."
"No!" answered Zeba. "I will not eat it. That terrible genie frightens me!"
"Sit down here with me," he laughed, patting the carpet next to him. "Eat and be glad!"
At last, Zeba gave in, sat down, and picked up a cheese tart. She had never tasted anything like it. It truly was food for a sultan’s table.
"Tell me, son," said Zeba, pouring Aladdin a cup of coffee. "Was this the genie who freed you from the enchanted treasury?"
"No, no," answered Aladdin. "The genie of the ring freed me. He was funny-looking, Mother, and not very tall. He had bells hanging from his cap." Aladdin remembered the little, apricot-colored genie and laughed. "The genie of the lamp is a different kind of genie, I think," he added.
"Yes!" said Aladdin’s mother. "He tried to scare me to death!" She leaned toward Aladdin and spoke in a whisper, "Son, you must throw the lamp away—and the ring as well. They will bring us only trouble!"
"I will not, Mother," said Aladdin. "We must accept our good fortune. Think about it—Magrib traveled all this way looking for this lamp. He wanted only this one thing from the enchanted treasury. It must be very important, so we will keep the lamp."
"And the ring?" said Zeba.
"The ring too," said Aladdin. "Without the ring, I would still be buried alive. You would never have seen me again. I will never take this ring off my finger."
Aladdin’s mother sighed and shook her head. "Do what you want," she said. "But I don’t want to see that horrible genie again!"