With that final statement, Louise stood, taking her pocketbook in her right hand and held it under Roly-Roly’s bottom as she made her way to the foyer with Maurice trailing behind. Maurice held open the inner door of the restaurant and watched as the Madonna and her reborn babe left the restaurant to begin their life together anew. Roly had heard her statement and buried his face in her the nape of her neck as she walked out the door. With a sudden shock, he knew that Louise would make the perfect candidate to be his Mommy. Roly-Roly whimpered as he realized that Louise was serious and would never let him grow up again. He would be her baby forever! He shivered in her arms in a paroxysm of utter horror at the culmination of her plan for him. He was so frightened that by the time that they reached the car, he had peed his diaper again, making him realize the futility of contesting his plight. As she securely strapped him into the baby seat which she took out of the trunk of the car, and mounted in the back seat, he realized that he was in truth, a baby again and needed a Mommy to care for him. With a sigh of surrender, Roly-Roly put his thumb in his mouth unconsciously and began sucking it as Louise started the car and began driving home.
“Yes, indeed, Madam, you are right,” Maurice whispered quietly to himself as he repaired to his station at the front of the restaurant, “Your husband was a merely a child pretending to be a man. He shall be happier as your babe. Elsewise I could never have made the reservation for you in good conscience. May the Blessings of Allah go with you both.”
Happy Hour’s earlybirds would be arriving soon and he was needed to sort them out to maintain order in his allotted portion of the Universe. It was difficult to insure that each of the restaurant’s patrons who visited Louder’s at “Happy Hour” was became happy or at minimum contented with their lot by dining at Louder’s. Mortals spent their energies so unwisely and worried about the most inconsequential things. The lot of a Genie who had been commanded to be the Maitre-de of Louder’s Café was not an easy one, but it was more interesting than spending five hundred to a thousand years cooped up in a tiny bottle or lamp. Studying humanity and the nature of the Universe for three thousand years had been interesting to be sure, but there was nothing like actual interaction with one’s subject to give one a feel for one’s scholarly pursuits.
When one is immortal, one must by need find a hobby, and Maurice had found his; humanity and the structure of the Universe. For him their study was a pleasant pastime that whiled away the centuries.
“There are worse things than being a Maitre-de, or for that matter, becoming the babe of an adoring mother,” Maurice reflected as he took up his station again.