THE MOMENT
It was perfect, obsessively so. Nadia wrestled with the wording for years after learning of the genie's existence. Wish granting genies were found as often as someone won the lottery; but, an 'All-knowing' genie who can answer any one question was a different situation entirely. She had already been trying to formulate the perfect wish as a 'just in case', hoping one day she might be that lucky. She changed her focus to try and come up with a flawless, informative question that would give her insight into the universe itself.
After endless weeks and months, she'd finally crafted what she considered to be the ultimate question. She moved phrases around, changed the words and considered the meaning hundreds of thousands of times so that it couldn't be misinterpreted. Genie Lawyers were a common enough business, but she did not want to give away her idea, and she couldn't afford any of them anyway. Most of the time they required a cut of the wish; but, this genie didn't grant wishes, only knowledge. Still, even without their assistance, the wish was finally planned to perfection. And, as if the universe itself knew she was ready, Nadia finally found the mythical lamp containing the genie who could answer any one question.
Although 'found' wasn't the best description. Nadia lucked into inheriting the lamp on a cool Wednesday morning. She had a regular habit of jogging along the beach at dawn before she got ready and headed to work, and she was never the only one there that early. There was a regular crowd of familiar faces every week, even if she didn't see them every day. That morning she saw one of those friendly strangers holding a very familiar lamp. The lamp of the All-Knowing genie wasn't the same golden oil lamp that the wish-granting genies usually had.
A portly, young blonde woman in overalls was standing by the water holding something that looked like a tiny watering pail made of blue crystalline metal. And, she was winding her hand back about to launch it back into the ocean.
"WAIT!!" Nadia dashed forward, and thanked her lucky stars it was someone she'd shared a smile in passing with most mornings.
"Hi," the younger woman did indeed wait and she relaxed her posture as Nadia rushed to her. "Everything okay?" she asked.
"Is that...," Nadia huffed to catch her breath. She wasn't out of shape by any definition, but it had been a sudden strain at top speed, and her body wasn't warmed up for that yet. "... That's the All-Knowing genie!?" she asked.
"Uhuh," the blonde nodded. "I've seen you, my name's Barley," she smiled and shifted the lamp to one hand to offer Nadia a handshake.
"Nadia," she accepted the greeting.
"I'm done and I was just gonna throw it back; but, do you want it?" she asked and offered the lamp.
"Really!?" Nadia was shocked enough to ask the question even as she accepted it and took it out of Barley's hand.
"Sure, you're nice," Barley smiled.
"Thank you! Please don't think I'm rude, but I've been waiting a long time for this!" she rubbed the lamp and blue smoke poured out of the end like water. It fell straight down without rising, yet it seemed to fill a solid shape like revealing an invisible glass.
"Sure," Barley giggled and stepped back, but only slightly. She was a curious person by nature. The smoke took the shape of scholarly gentleman standing upright on the sand. He wore a golden and blue graduation gown with spectacles that went well with his bushy silver beard.
"I am the -," he began, but Nadia interrupted him.
"I'm ready!" she said.
"You see?" The genie looked over at Barley, and the woman giggled with a nod. But, then, the genie sighed and set his gaze on Nadia.
"Speak your question." Nadia had her phone ready. Sure, she memorized it, but there were to be no mistakes. Everything was perfect already and she needed to stick the landing. She'd put too much deliberation into each and every word to misspeak now out of pure nerves. She didn't risk wasting any preamble either.
"What answer would you give had I asked the perfect question if you had to restate the question in your answer?" she asked. He smiled at her, and she heard Barley laugh a little bit more, but she was focused.
"This one matters most of all," the genie said. Then, he dissolved into smoke again and flowed back into the blue lamp.
"HEY!" Something went wrong. "THAT WASN'T A COMPLETE ANSWER!" she yelled at it.
"It wasn't a complete question," Barley offered.
"YES IT -," Nadia was a nice person by nature. Sometimes she was easily distracted; but, in general she preferred to be pleasant. And, she was yelling at someone that had nothing to do with why she was angry. "I'm sorry... but, it was," Nadia said with a softer tone. "I put a lot of planning into that wish! It was complete!"
"I'm not sure...," Barley shook her head. "... but, you have given it a lot more thought than I have. Can you walk me through it?" she asked. Nadia was still regretful about lashing out, and even more so when she realized Barley seemed to be on the 'simple' end of the spectrum.
"Okay," she nodded with a sigh. The frustration at her missed opportunity would return later; but, right now she could spare a moment for a friendly conversation. "So, the genie knows everything right? And if he knows the answer to a question, he should also know the question that asks for that answer, with me so far?" Nadia asked. There was a long enough silence for Nadia to listen to waves before Barley processed the information and nodded.
"The genie knows the answer and he knows the question, and so I thought up a way to ask the genie for both using a whole different question. And, that's the wish, 'what answer would you give had I asked the perfect question', gets the answer. And the part about, ' ...if you had to restate the question in your answer...," covers getting the question. Does that make sense?"
"But, what's the question?" Barley asked.
"The perfect one. The ultimate one, the answer to everything," Nadia answered.
"No such thing," Barley shook her head, then she shrugged. "Perfect for what?"
"What do you mean?" Nadia asked. "The genie knows perfect for what, he knows everything!" She hadn't meant to raise her voice, and fortunately she realized it in time to calm down again. It was still a fresh nerve.
"Maybe, but I don't think that's how it works...," Barley shook her head. "'Perfect' is subjective, your idea of it is different from everyone else's. And even then, there are infinity number of topics. You could have a perfect question about how to make good eggs, or you might have a perfect question about how to find meaning in your life," she said. "There's no one universal perfection."
"But, he still gave me an answer...?" Nadia asked. She could kind of make sense of Barley's points; but, the fact was her wish for knowledge was wasted as far as she could tell. ".. a useless answer I guess..?"
"You said the genie should know what you meant by 'Perfect'. Maybe he did? What question would you have asked him if you weren't trying to ask him the perfect one?"
Nadia was glad for the conversation. Barley had given her an unexpected insight and it wasn't until that moment she realized it. She did have a perfect question in mind that she hoped was the one that got answered. She wanted the answer so badly that she lost sight of it to focus on getting all the words just right. But, Barley had accidentally brought it up.
"I want to find meaning...," Nadia said. She wanted the answers; she wanted to know the meaning of the universe, and more importantly, she wanted to know how, when, or where to find it.
"Well, that's not a question," Barley giggled.
"I know!" Nadia raised her voice again, but it was more playful this time. "That's the problem I had!" she giggled along with Barley. And, the amusement somehow lined things up in her mind. She'd been going over the wish and her wants and even Barley's advice and the question just fell into place.
"What moments matter throughout my life, past present, and future...," she said idly as her mind worked. "Which ones are important!" the thought clicked. "THAT'S WHAT I WOULD HAVE ASKED!"
"Told'ya!" Barley giggled. "He totally answered your question."
"Damnit...," Nadia sighed. It was clear now. The genie knew she was making a mistake and that was the moment that mattered the most. Arguably, the perfect moment where everything could have gone differently. "But... he only answered part of it!"
"The part you asked," Barley nodded with a smirk.
"But, that's not the whole context...," Nadia was arguing to make peace. The moment was gone, but she was still trying to let go and having Barley poke holes in her complaints was helping.
"You focused so much on the question you didn't say a thing about context. But, he gave you a great answer anyway," she said.
"I guess...," Nadia sighed. "... but, it doesn't do me any good to know I messed up the most important moment in my life..."
"When?" Barley asked.
"Just now!" Nadia said. She decided she was done and made a heaving effort to launch the lamp back into the sea as Barley was going to do. "And, maybe he was right. But, there's nothing else I can do about that moment anymore," she said.
"Oh, I think you're still missing it a little bit," Barley giggled and shook her head. "He wasn't talking about that moment that passed. He was talking about this one, right now," she smiled.