“So you're a thief?” Rick asked with a knowing eyebrow.
Laughing for the first time, Asha threw her head back, and as she giggled, her boobies playfully danced.
“I am a thief, when I need to be a thief, yes,” she finally answered him.
As she continued to chuckle, Rick couldn't help but smile too, but then Asha suddenly got very serious, and she reached out and put her hand on his face again.
“Rick Hancock, you must give me this cap. The kull, an entire race of beings, they will all be hunting you unless you hand it over. I cannot see a hair on your head harmed, Rick Hancock. Please, I beg you. Please, give me this cap and then me and you will have no more problems from these kull and can live like kings with the wealth we will get in return. Then, we can make love all hours of the day,” Asha begged him, reaching down with one hand and playfully stroking the inside of his leg.
Rick thought it was a little more than ironic that the object Asha sought was in the pocket of his slacks, which were laying right on the floor only a foot or two away from her feet. Rick's eyes then settled on those slacks for a moment, and then he abruptly stood up and pulled himself away from her embrace. Staring at the wall of his condominium, Rick could only see Jizzy's peerless face in his mind. She wasn't responsible for whatever her people had done, and even though he barely knew her, he couldn't hand over that cap and look himself in the eye knowing that it would spell her certain doom.
Turning to Asha, who stared up at him expectantly, Rick made up his mind right then and there.
“I can't give you that cap, Asha. I will not be responsible for her blood on my hands...”
“But...”
“No, listen to me for a minute. Her people might have wrongly oppressed and enslaved these jann, or kull, or whatever, but Jizzy told me herself that she has been inside her bottle a long, long time. I don't even think she knew about any of this stuff.”
“It does not matter if she knew...”
“No, you're right, it doesn't matter from the kull's point of view, but I will not hand her over to the executioner, Asha. That is my part in this. I just won't do that. I can't. She's... She's a happy person and has made a positive impact in my life in a very short period of time... In fact... I... I want to go and rescue her... get her out of there... get her away from this Manza-bar, or whatever his name is,” Rick stuttered, suddenly excited and feeling his blood pumping a little faster in his veins.
“What?! Rick Hancock...!” Asha blurted out in surprise, her glowing eyes bulging in shock.
“No, I want to go and get her back. She was mine, and those... those fuckers took her from me. Ya, ya, I want to get her back. Will you help me?” Rick spoke quickly, nodding his head several times as he internally firmed his resolve by the second.
“Rick Hancock...?!”
“I mean, having a djinn on our side will be a pretty powerful thing, right? I mean, once we have her, these kull, this Manza-zar, will leave us alone, right? We can literally make their fears become reality with just a few words and a nod of Jizzy's head,” Rick quickly rambled, suddenly seeing it all in his mind.
Shaking her head, Asha looked completely bewildered, and she advised, “Rick Hancock, this is not a wise course of action...”
“Will you help me, Asha?!” Rick suddenly asked, turning to her. “Will you help me?”
“You... You... You will excuse me, Rick Hancock, but while you might be a wonderful lover, and you are, I do not believe you are a warrior among your Earthling peoples, correct?” Asha pointedly asked, completely flabbergasted that he'd even be considering going up against Manza-zar.
“No, but you are, and we have a saying on Earth; it is not the size of the dog, but the size of the fight in the dog,” Rick countered, nodding his head and suddenly skipping over to the other side of his bed. “These kull motherfuckers want to fuck around with Rick Hancock,... then... then those fuckers will get to eat lead! Steal my motherfucking genie, you gonna have some fucking problems!”
As Rick rambled on, he bent down, reached under his bed, and he pulled up a gun case and dropped it onto his damp sheets. Flipping it open the next second, Rick stared down at a pump-action shotgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in boxes. Standing right beside him, Asha cocked a skeptical eyebrow.
“That is a rather primitive weapon,” Asha unenthusiastically noted.
“I've taken this baby out on the range dozens of times, Asha. Have you ever seen what a shot from this baby can do to a watermelon...? Pop!” Rick excitedly explained, flashing open his fingers suddenly like an explosion.
“The kull are not watermelon, Rick Hancock,” Asha casually countered.
“You know what? Fuck them! I got you, and I got good ole Betty Buckshot here! Manza-zar and his crew are finished! Are you with me? Huh, are you with me, Asha?! Let's go and get Jizzy back!” Rick encouraged, his eyes flashing as his blood rushed through his veins.
His mind swept away on this fantasy of rescuing Jizzy, wherever she was being held, Rick picked up one of the empty bandoleers in the case and began loading shotgun shells into it as he mumbled repeatedly how he'd go and get his genie back. As Rick worked quickly, Asha took a step back from him with an expression on her face like she thought he was more than a little crazy.
“...Steal my motherfucking genie, goddamn it... You motherfuckers got another thing coming...!”
After throwing the bandoleer of shotgun shells over his bare chest, Rick then retrieved his shotgun out of the case and began loading it. As he did so, he continued to mumble on and on, and Asha stood a few feet away, a pair of hands on her hips while her eyes wandered around in her head.
“... We'll show them, goddamn it! There! Let's go get her!” Rick suddenly blurted out, standing with only a bandoleer of shotgun shells over his naked chest and his shotgun in hand.
Looking at him, Asha couldn't help but burst out in laughter.
“Perhaps, Rick Hancock, some clothes would be nice, first?” Asha managed between her laughs.
Being so swept away in his frenzy, Rick was suddenly embarrassed, as he then realized he was only wearing a bandoleer of shotgun shells but was otherwise completely naked.
“Oh ya, right! My mom always said I get a tad bit carried away at times,” Rick nervously told her, shedding the bandoleer of bullets.
As Rick picked out a pair of boxer shorts, bluejeans, and a black shirt with a skull and crossbones on it and put them on, Asha's face got sober and then very serious.
“Are you sure this is what you want to do, Rick Hancock? This is very dangerous, my love. Your life here on this little world is without danger and very comfortable. Most would not exchange this comfort, security, and simplicity, for what could very quickly lead to death. The kull are not foolish children. They are dangerous and deadly, and if they see you as a threat, they will stop at nothing to kill you,” Asha warned him.
Turning to her and pointing at his shirt, Rick asked, “What do you think?”
Staring at the shirt he wore, Asha then read the words printed over the top of the skull and crossbones out loud, “Surrender the booty.... Cute!”
“I liked it too! I got it at a nice little resort on a Caribbean Island cruise I was on. The place used to be a pirate haven back in the seventeenth century, or something like that,” Rick explained, nodding his head.
“In all seriousness though, Rick Hancock. You seem to be making this very serious decision quite cavalierly. Perhaps... Perhaps you should reconsider, my love?” Asha asked, stepping forward and sincerely gazing up into his eyes.
“No! No, this is what I want. I mean, are you fucking kidding me?! You don't understand, Asha. I have felt dead inside for the last fifteen years of my life working these fucked up jobs and living this shithole spectator of a life. I know all about death! I live it every fucking day! No! No! I want to do something! I want to do something important! I want to live for once!” Rick excitedly breathed.
“But you could die... and very soon,” Asha pleaded.
“I can die walking to the fucking subway tomorrow morning on the way to fucking work! I'm not so concerned about death, Asha, as I am about living my fucking life. Over the last twenty-four hours... this is the only time I have really felt alive in years,... in fucking years! I don't want to die in some fucking hospital bed around a bunch of people that don't even know me and don't give a fucking shit about me. I would rather end it sooner, doing something I think is important. No, these fuckers took Jizzy from me. She doesn't deserve to die just because her people were a bunch of slave-holding shitheads... But... But... I do need your help, Asha. I... I don't know where to go, or how to find her. Will you help me? I know I probably seem a little crazy, but sometimes a little crazy is a good thing,” Rick pleaded.
“I am afraid you do not know what you are asking,” Asha speculated, her face riddled with concern.
“I don't fucking care!” Rick whispered, and he reached out and took two of her hands in his. “I want to do this. I want to go and rescue Jizzy, wherever she is... no matter the consequence. This life I lead is a fucking joke anyway. There is no honor in it. I... I feel like a fucking wild animal that has been tamed and neutered. I hate it! It is a... a purgatory of domesticity. I fucking hate it! Maybe... Maybe I can start a new life though with you, and Jizzy, and whatever? I really want this! I want to live!... Shit! I realize now that I've wanted this for years!”
Looking up into his sincere eyes, Asha finally said, “Well, you have a strong bark for a dog. We'll see about that bite.”
“So you'll help me?!” Rick excitedly asked, his expression afire with optimism.
“Of course, my love. I will not allow anyone to harm a hair on your head, Rick Hancock,” Asha told him, pulling his hands to her mouth and kissing the back of both his hands.
After kissing her on the lips, Rick hurried over to his socks and shoes and quickly put them on. Then after that, he snatched up a backpack laying against the wall and threw all the bullets he could inside it, strapped on his bandoleer of bullets, and retrieved his shotgun. Finally ready, he walked over and pulled the cap to the genie bottle out of his slack's pocket on the floor, showed it to Asha, and then slid it into his jean's pocket. When he was done, he looked at Asha with a wild smile on his face.
“All right, so where are we going, and how are we getting there? You got a cool spaceship or something?” Rick excitedly asked, his eyes alive with all the possibilities.
“No, I have a sleigh,” Asha curtly corrected.
“A sleigh?! You mean like Santa Claus? Don't tell me you got reindeer too?” Rick asked, his face suddenly confused.
“Reindeer?” Asha asked, now equally confused. “Why would I need reindeer for a sleigh? No. My sleigh doesn't need any reindeer.”
“Oh, right. What was I thinking? Well, that's super. Let's, uh, go then... and get to the, uh,... sleigh,” Rick stuttered, feeling suddenly silly and imagining both he and Asha on Santa's sleigh and rescuing Jizzy from some deranged elves.
“You will need these... for now,” Asha then told him, picking up a pair of his sunglasses off his dresser and handing them to him.
“Oh, all right. It's pretty bright where we're going, huh?” Rick asked, slipping his sunglasses on, and then turning to walk out of his bedroom door.
“Where are you going?” Asha asked.
“To the sleigh,” Rick meekly answered, pointing to his front door.
“No, we are going here,” she corrected, pointing to his bedroom walk-in closet.
“Oh, right. Of course, how did I not know a sleigh spaceship wouldn't be in my closet?” Rick mumbled under his breath and joined her at the door to his walk-in closet.
Staring into his closet, Rick suddenly felt a little embarrassed as his closet was a real mess with dirty clothes scattered all over, random shoes and boots on the floor, and hangers with clothes hanging half-off them here and there.