The stranger took one step closer. A man as solid as a tree trunk, he loomed over her. She could see that long scars crisscrossed his chest, which was bare beneath his toga. And she could smell him, a strong but not unpleasant odor that might be patchouli, she guessed. But although he was nearly invading her personal space, Hildy, her anger still hot, stood her ground despite his bellicose appearance.

Unexpectedly, right at that moment, the man saluted her, thumping above his heart with his right fist. He bowed his head. "My name is Antonius Eugenius. I once was a Centurion commanding a cohort in the Roman army. In the reign of Caesar Augustus I was stationed in Britannica before I was sent to Judea to subdue the Jews. But you asked what I am now."

Sadness flickered across his face. "I am what was in the bottle." He pointed to the amber glass container which remained eerily illuminated where it lay on the floor. Then he looked directly at Hildy with eyes which were a deeper blue and much older than her own. When he began to speak again, the glow of the bottle seemed to come into them, lighting him up from within. "What I am is a genie."

With those words he levitated off the floor and melted away into a plume of smoke which curled upward towards the ceiling and sparkled with a thousand tiny lights like a spray of golden glitter. Then the smoke whooshed downwards, and turned back into a human form. Once again the Roman Centurion stood in front of Hildy, his flesh solid, his sandaled feet back on the floor.

Hildy's mouth fell open. Her head felt light and strange. The room began to spin around in a dizzying whirl. She cried out "Oh!" and tried to fight the darkness of oblivion that overtook her, but consciousness slipped away. She slid in a faint to the floor.

Pennsylvania

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