THE MOMENT
"I get unlimited wishes?" Glenn asked simply to make sure he understood the important part. The blue, half-torso floating in his backyard gave a subtle nod.
"With the aforementioned stipulations, of course," the genie replied. It had been an unusally windy day and while he happened to be in the kitchen he heard what sounded like the hollow clang of a metal can scraping and tumbling across his back patio. Genies, and their lamps, were known to exist; but, he never gave the concept much thought. Many of his friends had go-to plans the moment they found a genie, and it was a frequent topic of discussion but, he didn't have anything like that. He always felt that if a lamp did land in his lap, he'd either come up with something on the spot, or maybe seek out some advice. He wasn't in any hurry to get any wishes granted, he generally liked the way his life was going and he never felt the need to improve it through magical means.
"Why unlimited? Every other genie I've heard about only grants three wishes, with pretty much the same rules," he asked. He was curious, but also keeping the conversation going while he wondered about his first wish. There was a kernel of an idea taking shape, and he hoped getting some answers would help it along.
"It's your lucky day," the genie grinned. "Consider yourself a lottery winner," he reached forward and offered Glenn a transparent glass card. "That's called a 'node', and, you can use it to verify my offer. I'm a genie from 'Sharp Development', a multiversal corporation. The company often sends out 'prizes' like this into the multiverse to see what happens. They're usually on the lookout for talented, or creative minds, and it's just an easy way to foster goodwill toward the organization."
Glenn accepted the card while the genie explained, and he was amazed at how clear it was. The time appeared digitally in red numbers when he touched it, and they almost seemed to be floating in mid-air.
"You mean alternate universes are real?" he asked. That immediately destroyed any frame of reference he was using for his initial wish. Did he have to take those other realities into account?
"Real, and infinite," the genie nodded. "Sharp Development services billions of alternate Earths across reality so, they can afford to hand out freebies like unlimited wishes," he said.
"Can I wish to be in charge of that?" It was just an exploratory question. He had no desire for that level of responsibility; he could barely wrap his mind around it.
"No," the genie shook his head. "'Unlimited' refers to a count, not the level of power involved. For safety reasons, all your wishes will only affect your Earth. Feel free to take charge of it."
"No thanks," Glenn shook his head with a smirk. The idea was almost there. The knowledge that only his Earth would be affected helped steer him. "So, I can change reality on my Earth without making waves anywhere else, right?" he asked. Even that level of control was too much for him to bother with; but, he was still gathering information. His mind revolved around one particular rule the genie mentioned, but he didn't know what to do with it yet.
"Of course," the genie nodded. Glenn idly checked his watch, it was a habit when his mind was working. He was known to think too long and too hard about ideas and over the years he learned how to let ideas go rather than waste too much time on them. The node had displayed the same time as his watch, and it made him wonder.
"This is from a different universe?" he asked about the node. "How does time work? Is it 3:38 everywhere too?"
"No," the genie shook his head. He seemed to be a friendly genie with a consistent smile and no pressure or rush to get through the wishes. "There is a standardized Time Zone, Sharp Standard Time, that allows alternate universes to coordinate. However, each individual Earth has its own time stream. The node is attuned to this Earth and it displayed your local time."
"Hah, 'local time'," Glenn chuckled. He'd been used to associating that phrase to discern the various time zones on his Earth. He assumed that was what the genie meant since the node showed his actual local time; yet, it was amusing to think that his entire Earth was his 'local' time zone. It was an interesting thought to consider the larger scale. As soon as he realized that, he had his first wish ready. He wasn't trying to actively cheat the system or get more wishes exactly; but, he had an insight he wanted to put to the test.
"Alright, so, you said, 'only one wish a day' right?" He asked and the genie nodded. "Okay, I'm ready for my first wish. I wish for the established definitions of 'Day' and 'Second', when discussing time, to be swapped, without changing anything else. 60 days in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 hours in a second. And, since it's limited to my Earth, according to your rules, from Sharp Development, I still have only one wish a 'Day'. But, it's up to my local time to determine when that 'day' ticks over, right?"
"Granted," the genie grinned as he snapped his fingers. He waited a moment, then nodded. "And, for your next wish?" he confirmed it worked.
"I dunno," Glenn shrugged. "I just wanted to try that out. Let me give it some thought, and I'll get back to you in a second or two."