‘So,’ the Genie mused, as he sat on James’ sofa. He had a can of beer in his hand and a lazy grin on his face. He was handsome, that was for sure. “You can guess the drill; you get three wishes.”

“I get three wishes?”

“Three,” he said with a smile, “and none of that fooling me like Robin Williams crap, I wasn’t born yesterday.”

“When were you born?”

“Three thousand years ago.” He winked broadly at James.

“Oh.”

“Yup.”

“So ... I should decide my wishes?”

“Yup.”

“Standard drill.”

“Yup.”

“I want to be able to recall all of my memories,” James said. “But none of this remembering it all at once crap.”

“Gotcha.”

“That’s wish one.”

“I’m going to cut you some slack and help you set the parameters on this wish. Because I like you. Well, actually, I like the beer. How far back do you want the memories to go?”

“Interesting,” James hadn’t thought about that, “As far back as I can get, I imagine. Hmm. Would you allow me to discuss a modification to wish one?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know the film, Limitless?”

“Yes.”

“The protagonist finds a drug that gives him unlimited cognitive abilities. Would I be able to mix that in?”

The genie paused, “I know what you mean. Essentially, you want to be like Eddie Morra but without all of the negative side effects.”

“Exactly.”

“But I sense there’s more?”

“Yes,” James nodded. “The Assassin’s Creed games. Would it be possible to have all of the memories that Desmond Miles has and gain the same set of skills?”

“All this in one wish? You do realize that Miles is a fictional character, right?”

“Yes and yes, sir. Even if I only get the skills and the compete knowledge available within the games, it will be useful.” James felt it necessary to be polite and clear with the genie.

“Okay that’s easy. And because I like you, I’ll cut out the memory problems as well.”

James smiled.

“Thanks. I like you too.”

“Okay. Progressing on to wish two.”

James was ready. “Do you know the film Now You See Me?”

“Yes.”

“I wanted the same mentalism abilities as the Woody Harrelson character.”

“Oh. What is with the fictional characters? Nevertheless, I appreciate your desire for self-improvement. Good call,” the Genie nodded. “I get it. Done.”

“Do you know Quantum Leap?”

“Oh brother.” He rolled his eyes and nodded, “How far back do you want to go?”

“A few years if I can. I’d like to clean some stuff up.”

“To, say, the cruise?”

“Oh! Your turn for a good call,” James complimented his benefactor unabashedly.

The Genie nodded, “Okay. You have good wishes. Thanks for the beer. See you on the flip side.”

With a snap of the fingers, the genie was done. James’ world vanished and he found himself in bed. He felt younger. He ran his hand through his hair, which was thicker. At the same time he realized that it wasn’t just his hair that was thicker – so was his waist. He needed to start an exercise regimen. Checking his memory, he realized he knew the date and that he had a few months yet before the cruise.

Okay, first things first.

He sat down and started rooting through his memories; he spent the next several days organizing them all. It was like the preparation of a big reference book. One by one, he recalled all his experiences in the 12 years he had spent at the hotel, along with all he had heard and all the papers and memos he had read.

There was no difficulty in discarding the irrelevant and unimportant to store them in a “hold till further notice” compartment where they did not interfere with his analysis. Other items were put in order so that they established a natural progression.

Against that skeletal organization, he resurrected the scuttlebutt he had heard: the gossip, malicious or otherwise; casual phrases; and random references during the hotel’s conferences which he had not been conscious of hearing at the time. Those items which did not fit anywhere against the background he had constructed mentally were worthless, empty of factual content. Those which did fit into his internal edifice clicked firmly into place and he judged them as true by that mere fact.

The further the structure grew, the more coherent it all became. Significant new items immediately elevated themselves. Correspondingly, it was trivially easy to fit them into his memory palace.

He realized that he could multiply and divide as fast as a computer because at some time in his life he had come across almost every simple bit of arithmetic and he could recall the answers. James had even read a table of square roots at one point.

This was amazing.

When he was done processing his lifetime of memories, James was able to access ancestral memories readily. Once again, everything seemed to click into place with relative ease.

‘Nice.’

Using his predecessors’ memories as motivation, he spent the next three months getting fit. He found himself driven by the many lifetimes of family members who performed physical labor and took fitness for granted.

At work his newfound skills were noticed. He could speak fluently six different languages now: Arabic, Italian, French, Romanian, and Polish besides English. He could get by in Russian, Mandarin and even knew some Navajo.

The last one he never used but Mandarin did come in handy. James didn’t tell anyone that he could speak anything other than English. That approach was very useful when he was hanging around the hotel’s reception lobby. Guests would stand there and natter away in their language, not knowing that James understood every word they said. James lost weight and even gained some muscle by the time the calendar flipped to cruise departure day. James had everything packed and, when his mother picked him up for the trip to the port, she noted his excitement and the dramatic change in his physical appearance.

At the port entrance, his uncle and father met James and his mom. Together they headed to the cruise ship. The four of them got through security eventually, and after a couple of hours of thumb twiddling, they made their way onto the ship.

Initiation was boring, mostly because it was outside next to the lifeboats. His group got to listen to them drone on about security in the freezing cold. Finally, all were dismissed and James weaved his way through the crowds as though he were a will-o-wisp. He found it second nature and realized this ability was taken from one of the ancestors. ‘Very handy,’ he thought.

“Jesus, you got here quick.” His uncle had bailed on the lifeboat “nonsense” and had snuck back to the room for a quick nip of whisky.

He nodded agreeably, “I know how to navigate the crowds.”

“Yeah,” his Uncle scowled. “I wish I knew how to do it that well.”

James smiled, thinking, ‘Oh the irony.’ Two hundred years of information helped. But he kept that part to himself.

“So, when are we leaving?”

“Not for another couple of hours, I think.”

James nodded.

The rest of pre-launch was spent exploring the ship. He didn’t get seasickness anymore, given that more than a few ancestors had been on boats routinely. One had even served in the British Navy and this familiarity with seafaring transposed onto his psyche. He saw the crew working and admired them for skills.

Still, he was there on holiday, so he enjoyed himself. He found himself following his family around this time, particularly enjoying the trivia quizzes because he remembered everything now, not to mention having 22 lifetimes worth of history in his mind.

“How do you know all of this?” his mother wondered aloud.

“I read,” James said.

His father shrugged it off.

The next day they were in international waters and it dawned on James that the casino would be open. On the way to lunch, he commented on its bright lights and the lure of the sounds.

“We’ll visit it after dinner,” his father said with a grin.

“Sweet.”

Dinner was blasé. He wasn’t particularly impressed, given his new expanded palate. For example, James could even eat fish now. He tried the trout and found it unremarkable.

His mother, being a mother, commented after they had all ordered, “I thought you didn’t like fish. When did that change?”

“I didn’t.”

“But?”

He shrugged, “I’m trying to improve myself. This fish isn’t really helping that cause.”

His father rolled his eyes, his mother sighed, and they all ate, talked, and ate. Eating is what one does on a cruise.

James got his waiter talking. The waiter was soon engaged in sporadic conversation with the whole family. James asked about the ship, his life, hobbies and everything that the waiter did as part of his duties. The parents and his uncle enjoyed sticking in the occasional prying query and when dessert and coffee had been served, his father asked the obvious question: “Since when did you become so chatty? I’ve never seen you so voluble.”

“Did you hear me give away any information about myself? Did I let any of you expose anything about our family?”

His father frowned and thought about it, he shook his head, “No.”

James shrugged. “I’m getting good at encouraging people to talk.”

“I’ll have to remember that.”

After dinner they headed towards the casino. James decided to challenge himself. “Dad, have you got a twenty?”

“Sure.”

He handed it over and James bounced into the bright lights and glitz, while his father rolled his eyes and followed. James walked over to the machines but saw a better opportunity. Sitting at the entrance to the casino, designed for the sole purpose of attracting the casual passerby, was a $2 Blackjack table.

“Blackjack.”

“You know how to play?” James frowned briefly as he realized his dad didn’t have any reason to think James would be a card player. Of course, several of his ‘ancestors’ were card sharks.

“Apparently I do,” James grinned evilly.

This would be just the thing to force him to focus his mind, and at $2 a hand he could sit there for a long while even if the deck ran against him.

James nodded at the dealer, who was a woman with nice breasts. He noticed they strained at her top, which was probably by design. He sat down at the table and placed the 20 on it. She nodded acknowledgment when he said, “All white, please.”

“Changing 20,” she called.

She picked up a stack of white chips. Checking the stack down to piles of 5, the dealer showed 4 even stacks, placed 2 on the spot in front of James and pushed the rest back to him.

“Thanks.”

She nodded.

James looked at the other players.

These were not hardcore players. Of course, neither was he. He was still an amateur until he refined his skills. He didn’t know how his abilities would manifest themselves.

Sitting at first base - the dealer’s immediate left - was the “Second Wife.” The expensive watch, the designer clothes, $1000 handbag and the half-full Bloody Mary in front of her, all announced her title as though it were emblazoned on her forehead. Meanwhile, her husband was nearby, just outside the casino, spending time with his “first wife” (married to his job came to mind), phone glued to his ear while he talked business. Undoubtedly, he had stood behind his wife until his phone rang, then was shown the door when he attempted to answer inside the casino. No Cell Phones On The Casino Floor was posted on every pillar in the place.

She saw James, exuding confidence, looking her over unashamedly. Because that confidence was something he had never felt before, it was exhilarating. He was the alpha here, ‘The Man.’ She smiled, full lips curving up, her eyes dancing with excitement. He winked and continued his round of observation.

The young man in the next position was mid 20’s with classic preppy dress, right down to the sockless shoes and the latest in logo shirt. Just out of college, probably, with a degree in math or finance, completely confident he knew how to play the odds and what to do with every play. He was going to break the bank and own the ship. The force of his attention on the cards and every move the dealer made was palpable. The only time his attention ever left the cards was to look at the couple sitting beside him in disgust.

That couple was the Newlyweds, giggling and semi-intimately touching each other, paying little or no attention to the game or even mindful of the people sitting beside them. It seemed they were simply spending some time out of the cabin and doing things around the ship so they could tell their friends they did not spend all their time on their honeymoon having sex.