A bottle that saved the Earth

It’s been long since my wife, Mary and I have eaten a stomach full. My mates and I have tried
fishing in various parts of the sea with no luck. Today again, I boarded my smack and set sail thinking to myself “Today might be my lucky day!” The selfish and lazy inhabitants of this planet have mercilessly dumped plastic waste, pieces of foam, and spilt oil into the water and the fish
have retreated further and further away from the coast.

As I sat dreaming about catching a net full of fish, I saw something glinting in the sunlight. Going
closer I saw that it was a beautiful old bottle. “Mary would like that” I thought to myself as I picked it up. After hours of disappointment, I went home having caught nothing of value. I threw the fishnet in the corner in despair and sat fiddling with the bottle. I tried removing the cork at its mouth but though I pulled and tugged but it just wouldn’t budge. Suddenly it came off with a loud ‘pop’.

There was a whoosh, hiss and then smoke arose from it. I dropped the bottle and fled to the

corner of the room. As the smoke filled the room a green figure erupted from it. We covered with fear as the figure said in a booming voice “I am the Earth Genie, and since you freed me I will grant
you three wishes in all, but only on three conditions……”. “Food, money, clothes!” Mary exclaimed, butting in…”Yeah, that’s all I want”. The genie continued…”The three conditions are, one, the wishes should help protect earth, two, I can’t change people’s minds, three, you cannot wish for more wishes. All that night, Mary and I discussed what the three wishes should be. The next morning, armed with my three wishes, I went to the Genie who was twirling his lush, olive green hair while relaxing on a cloud of smoke. “My first wish would be that all the pollution that covers the world’s water, land and air should all vanish”. But, the people would continue polluting and it would quickly get back to this state, so I addressed that next. “My second wish is that any waste that is not appropriately disposed should find its way back into the culprit’s house or factory”. I was sure that
this would deter anyone from being careless about harming the environment. “My third wish is for trees to be planted in all the barren lands where there have been trees felled”. The Genie fulfilled my wishes. Before disappearing the Genie said ‘Take my magic bottle to sea and throw it away.’ The next day I boarded my smack and set sail. After all the waste had gone for good, the sea breeze felt so enchanting that I felt like mother Earth was thanking me. I did just as the Genie requested and I never saw him again.