A thumb smudged out the hollow of my chest, pressing down upon me and pinning me to the earth, to the soft chair at my back and beneath the presence bearing down upon me. It was a shadow, a wraith, a vast and knowledgeable weight.

Or that could have just been the chronic we were all smoking.

Above us, Corsican food was prepared in a tiny kitchen that could not comfortably hold two people, and so naturally, six worked in it. It was theirs to create warmth, by love of each other and the food beneath their hands and on the plates.

The basement lacked ventilation and so turning down the cigarillos we’d make by slitting a cheap cigar and re-rolling it with chronic was a futile gesture. I could choose to smoke or I could choose to leave.

So I smoked, they smoked and sometimes Sev would tell us stories.

Sev was a semi-devout Muslim. He’d frown at us for drinking even as he accepted the blunt with a smile and lit a Marlboro after it was passed.

“You guys know about the djinn?”
“What? Like genies?”
“Yo, dog, I Dream of Genie, yo. Remember that shit?”
“That shit was dope, yo.”

You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a gangbanger from Chinatown do the genie nod and blink, I promise you that.

“What about Aladdin?”

“Yo, I liked the monkey, what was his name?”

“It was like Ah Shit or something.”

“Dumbass. Apu, his name was Apoo.”

“Ah Poo? Yo, you heard? He said, Ah Poo. Like I said, Ah Shit, motherfucker. You stupid.”

“Fuck you, yo. Pass the L.”

Disney, pop culture and public school had sold us broken skeleton keys to other worlds, leaving us to peer through the keyholes instead.

“The djinn are not the same as those children’s stories. They live amongst us.”

“So what’s their deal?”

I asked Sev no questions. I was too high for speech.

“The djinn were god spirits, you infidels might call them angels.”

Sev loved to call us infidels when he was fucked up. He also loved to tell us about the murderous Serbs, the smell of burning hair outside Montenegro and show us photographs of his country home and his collection of thirty or more assault rifles. Full auto, he’d say, and grin. But then he’d also say that when the end-war came, god would reach down and make the bullets stop working.

“The djinn angered god. And he cast them down to walk forever on the earth.”

“Like the devil?”

“Shaitan is no djinn. Shaitan is a power to threaten Paradise. The djinn were punished by being given human appetites, infinite life spans and just enough of their powers feel their loss.”

We laughed. “They walk among us, huh? So what do they do?”

“They must do as we all do. They must eat, sleep and fuck.” Sev answered.

“Are they evil?” I finally asked. Sev was given to looking at me very sharply whenever I asked questions.

“Sometimes. They are spirits who want what they want. Tricksters. Never trust a djinn. They do not serve man as God does. God said he shall place no burdens upon you which you cannot bear. The djinn will load you up like a donkey and not care if you bray.”

“Yo, what’s bray mean?”

“The noise a donkey makes. Shut the fuck up, yo.”

“How do you know them when you see them?” I asked Sev.

“Check this motherfucker out, getting all serious. They ain’t real, dude.”

Sev and I ignored that and when his turn at the blunt came, he pulled hard. Voice tight with the pressure of his smoke, “You must look at the djinn from the corner of your eye at twilight and then you will see the perfect ruin of half his face. The half that they turned toward god when his compassion became wrath at their defiance was burned and scorned.”

“Yo, that’s fucked up. God’s a badass, yo. Burning dudes faces and shit.”

Somebody stood up to hand Sev the blunt and knocked over the only lamp. As he rooted for it behind the couch, the light in the room shifted and I happened to be looking right at Sev when it did. Half of his face was bisected by shadow and darkness and the other half was sharper now, carved of hard precise lines.

Sev caught me looking and for a moment we stared at each other, me in fear and him in speculation.

Our clumsy friend found the lamp and righted it, giving the room back its normal light and with it, Sev’s face as I had always known it. Sev laughed out smoke.

“You okay there, killer? See something fucked up?” He raised an eyebrow at me.

“Shit, I am fucked up. This is some strong shit right here.” I answered.

“This motherfucker tore up from the floor up.”

I nodded and smiled foolishly while Sev puffed and passed.