"Exactly!" Mandy sat up straighter, encouraged by Jacinth's grasp of the concept. "It's taking that spark of inspiration - often no more than simply afeeling- and building something new from it. The final character might share one or two traits with the original inspiration, but they become their own person through the writing process."
"Oh, I understand." Jacinth's dimples appeared. "I just love teasing you. You get so adorably flustered."
Heat crept up Mandy's neck. "You're terrible."
"I know." Jacinth's eyes sparkled. "You're fun to tease. Kieran just gets exasperated and gives me that look."
Mandy burst out laughing, perfectly picturing Kieran's expression of long-suffering patience.
"Just like when you derailed his grand entrance," Mandy snickered.
"He tries so hard to be stern and princely." Jacinth frowned a little, and her gaze was suddenly a little assessing as she studied Mandy. "But sometimes he forgets and actually laughs. Like he did with you."
Heat crept up Mandy's neck, remembering that rich sound. How it had transformed him, making him more approachable - though 'human' wasn't quite the right word for a Djinn prince.
"I still can't believe you didn't tell me before that he's royalty," Mandy muttered, fiddling with her napkin.
Jacinth suddenly straightened, her dark eyes widening. "Oh! I completely lost track of time." She jumped up from her chair with that otherworldly grace. "I'm so sorry, Mandy, but I have to go - Douglas is watching the children, but I never miss their bedtime.
"Of course," Mandy urged, understanding completely. "Family first!"
"Thank you for tonight. We'll talk soon!" Jacinth vanished.
Mandy stared at the empty space where the Djinn had been, still trying to process everything that had happened. Mozart jumped into the vacated chair, looking around in confusion for his new friend, while Bach settled into her lap with a contented purr. The apartment felt oddly empty now, though the lingering scent of garlic bread and the warmth of the pendant against her chest reminded her that it hadn't all been a dream.
Chapter
Seven
Mandy layin bed that night, watching shadows dance across her ceiling. Her mind refused to quiet. Magic was real. Three wishes. Two Djinn - one a prince - had spent the better part of the day (and evening!) in her living room. Even finding her kitchen magically cleaned and leftovers neatly stored hadn't made it seem more real.
Mozart curled against her hip, but tonight even his purring couldn't soothe her.
The pendant pulsed warm against her chest, reminding her this wasn't a dream. She touched it, remembering Kieran's unexpected laugh, his stern features softening. A Djinn prince, sitting with her cats.
After another hour of tossing and turning, Mandy gave up. The clock's glowing numbers read 2:03 AM. Her back protested as she pushed herself up, careful not to disturb Mozart.
"Sorry, sweetie," she whispered as the cat blinked sleepily at her. "Can't sleep."
She pulled on some jeans, a loose shirt, and her comfortable walking shoes, grabbed her purse, cane, and car keys, and headed out into the warm Arizona summer night. Joe's, the 24-hour diner a few miles away, beckoned like a beacon of normalcy in her suddenly magical world.
The familiar bell chimed as she pushed open the glass door. The diner's fluorescent lights cast everything in a harsh glow, but somehow that made it feel more real, more grounding.
"Evening, Ms. D," called Jenny, the night shift waitress who'd served Mandy during countless other sleepless nights. "The usual?"
Mandy settled into her favorite booth, the vinyl seat squeaking beneath her. "Yes, please. Extra fudge tonight."
Jenny's knowing smile suggested she understood completely. The waitress had seen Mandy through many late-night writing sessions and bouts of writing- or pain-related insomnia over the years.
Minutes later, a brimming glass of iced tea and a massive hot fudge sundae appeared before her - two scoops of vanilla ice cream drowning in thick chocolate fudge, light on whipped cream, with chopped nuts, and a bright red maraschino cherry. The kind of dessert that would have horrified her doctor, but sometimes you needed what you needed.
Mandy picked up her spoon, watching the fudge sauce slowly drip down the sides of the ice cream mountain. The first bite melted on her tongue, sweet and cold and gloriously ordinary. No magic, no wishes, just good old-fashioned ice cream and chocolate.
Mandy stirred her rapidly melting sundae, watching the vanilla ice cream swirl with rivers of chocolate fudge. She needed to focus, to wrestle her chaotic thoughts into some semblance of order. The events of the past twenty-four hours tumbled through her mind like clothes in a dryer - magic, Djinn, wishes, princes...
A quote from Blazing Saddles popped into her head, making her lips twitch: "Out of chaoscomesorder." The character had attributed it to Nietzsche, delivered with pompous certainty. Shehad a nagging suspicion that someone else entirely had actually said it first, but she'd never bothered to look it up. The thought that one of the most frequently quoted "Nietzsche" lines might actually belong to someone else, perpetuated simply because Mel Brooks had put it in his movie, made her snicker into her ice cream.
The absurdity of sitting in a diner at 2 AM, contemplating mis-attributed philosophical quotes while magic literally hung around her neck, struck her suddenly. A bubble of laughter escaped before she could stop it.
