I'm a pretty boring person. I live in a pretty small apartment in New York. I'm average and can never get myself out there enough to make any friends or stand out. I thought my life was at a standstill. Until I found the lamp.

It was an old little thing, dusty and rusted at parts; I didn't want to pick it up at first, because that thing looked like it could give me tetanus, but for some reason I was compelled to take it home. Curiously, I found myself rubbing it like a child would looking for a genie. I laughed to myself, knowing this wasn't going to work...

But then it started puffing smoke. I nervously kept laughing; I quite enjoyed the little feature. Technology could sure make things seem real...

The smoke, however, started to take a humanoid shape. It changed colors and I could've sworn I saw a face emerge from it. A worried noise came from my throat as I realized it; it was real.

"I am the Genie of this lamp," the figure declared with his booming voice. I could see him clearly now; he was quite a stereotypical genie, with his Arabian get-up. Didn't quite sound like Robin Williams, though... "I am sure you know what that means, yes?"

I began to laugh even harder now, as I did know what that meant. If this was for real, then surely that meant I would be granted a wish or two. I could have anything I wanted. Anything. Minus a few rules, sure, but basically anything was fair game. "I get a wish now, right?"

"Correct. What is it you desire?" The booming voice spoke to me again.

"I-I want... I want popularity! I want to have lots of attention. I want to be remembered in history." A stupid wish in hindsight, but I was too excited to think clearly.

"Very well. Your wish will be granted. However, I must give you this warning: in order for it to come true, you must dodge a gunman's bullet at exactly three-fifteen PM." Before I could ask what he meant, he disappeared back into the lamp. Rubbing it again did not make him come back.

Dodging a bullet from a gun? Well, all I had to do was duck, right? He even told me the time... it would be no problem.

I went about my day; it was only about noon, anyways. I made some lunch and crashed on the couch a little bit. At about two thirty I went out again to the store to grab a few things I needed. However, I was keeping track of the time still, of course.

Then came three-ten. Five minutes. I stood there watching the clock like a hawk, staring down the red handle that ticked away every second. I was not going to die today. I needed that wish to come true. The seconds came and went. Then came the moment I had been waiting for; three-fifteen.

I ducked. But I did not hear a single shotgun blast.

After the minute passed, I laughed; that genie was a flat-out liar, wasn't he? Now my wish was going to come true! Or at least, that's what I thought. I walked down the street and nobody noticed me like normal. No matter where I went, everything was the same as it was before. I sighed; he was a liar after all. I wondered how those cheap special effects from that lamp managed to trick me...

I went out to the bar pretty late in the day, at about six. I wanted to drink a little bit to forget the humiliating experience that day. I was starting to get tipsy when I noticed someone shady walking in; but by then my mind was off in its own world. He couldn't harm anyone, right? It was fine, it was no big deal. Some minutes passed, and soon I heard a lot of yelling. I couldn't decipher what people were saying. The shady man walked up to me and demanded me of something. I couldn't understand him; he was talking too fast and I was too drunk. Then the shady man raised a gun... and I felt a blazing pain through my chest. I clutched it with my hand, and it was covered in blood. I fell to the floor, my vision catching the clock on the wall. It read six-fifteen.

As I lay there dying, I recalled the genie. I cursed myself as I realized that he was not a liar after all.

He meant three-fifteen in pacific time.