Susan, Francine, Barbara and Katie had gotten together almost every night since they had met a decade ago. They were driven together by the same thing that had driven them out of every other clique in high school: their weight. Even after high school, when cliques were supposed to have broken up, their weight had kept them from marrying, amusement park rides, big promotions, and cheap clothing, the one thing it had done, however, was forged a bond between them that was stronger than any other relationship in their lives.

They usually met at Katie’s house. She was at least 400 lbs, maybe more, and couldn’t easily get out on her own. Luckily she had been able to make a really nice living doing voiceovers for commercials. She was able to record them in her studio in the basement and her agent took care of any on-site meetings that were required by clients. The other women hadn’t been so lucky in their careers. All three of them were still working in the same positions they had started in when they’d finished school, and so Katie’s house was the natural choice, because, in addition to having Katie in it, it also was the largest and nicest.

Francine was the least overweight of them all, weighing in at 280 lbs, and so she was still able to get out relatively easily. Most of her contribution to the conversation involved telling of various events that had happened to her while out in public, as well as showing off merchandise she had found a good deal on, and even the occasional modeling of new clothes she had bought. This last activity brought the most amount of excitement for Francine, since she was the only one who could occasionally find clothing in her size it meant she was the center of attention, at least for a few minutes.

On this particular evening Francine was in high spirits. She had been shopping earlier in the day and that meant all eyes, were on her, and every bit of the conversation was about her purchases, and were ultimately about her.

“I found this at the Salvation Army,” said Francine, pulling out a delicate blue lamp, “it was ½ off day so I got it for $5.”

The women commented on how cute it was, and how it would look fantastic in Francine’s house, and what a great deal it had been. The lamp made its way to Katie who noticed dirt on the bottom of it, so she wiped it clean with a napkin left over from the meal and almost dropped the delicate, cute lamp when a very loud and very male voice said, “I know its cliché, but your wish is my command.”

The four women stared in stunned silence at a large man dressed in an immaculate suit stood before him. His ebony skin was so deeply dark it almost seemed an impossible. He was dressed and groomed immaculately, and had an air of self-assurance that could never be mistaken for arrogance, but there was a sense of dignity about him that could only be described as gravitas. And he was staring at Katie expectantly.

Katie stared back with a stunned look.

After several minutes of staring the large man seemed to reach the end of his patience, and spoke again.

“You’re familiar with the story of Aladdin?” he said, “There is a bit of truth in those old stories, I live in a lamp, you released me, but you get only one wish, and so, as I said before, though it’s a cliché your wish is my command.”

Katie answered quickly, and unwaveringly, “I wish the four of us would for the rest of our lives maintain a normal body weight.”

“It’s my lamp,” screeched Francine, “It should be my wish!”

“She freed me,” said the man, “this is how it works. “

And then the man disappeared, as did exactly 589 pounds of body fat from the four women. There were no folds of skin that characterized extreme weight loss, nor any other mark on their skin that would indicate they had ever been anything other than normal sized women, except their clothes were suddenly far larger than any of them needed.

Katie quickly solved that problem by calling her agent and having him buy a variety of clothes sizes 8-10. He was used to acting as Katie’s errand boy, what he wasn’t used to was buying clothes, since all of Katie’s clothes normally had to be special ordered. Part of the reason why her agent was her agent is because he learned quickly to never ask questions, or make comments that referred to her weight at all, and as a result he didn’t ask a single question as to why she wanted clothes she hadn’t fit into since she was 9 years old. He simply knocked on the door, left the packages outside as requested, and left.

While all of the women had fantasized on a regular basis that losing weight would make them super model hot the reality was it only made them normal. But normal was enough to transform their lives. No longer were they invisible to their co-workers, or in the case of Katie she now actually could have co-workers, they could use stairs, fit into roller coasters, didn’t have to ask for chairs without arm rests, didn’t feel self-conscious when eating in public, and didn’t wonder if anytime anyone laughed, if they were making fat jokes.

Katie’s house no longer functioned as a fortress of solitude, instead it now functioned as a de-briefing center where the women came at the end of the night. Well, at least Susan, Barbara and Katie did. Francine had stopped going out with them after a week or so. In fact none of them had seen her in over a month. Katie proposed they call Francine and see what was going on. Susan and Barbara agreed and followed Katie into her office where they could use the speaker phone.

“Hello”, said Francine in a flat voice.

“Hi Franny,” said Katie, happily, “We were wondering if we’re ever going to see you again.”
Several seconds of uncomfortable silence followed.

“Hello?” asked Katie, “are you still there?”

“I’m still here,” said Francine, “but I can’t stand to be around you right now.”

The words hit Katie hard. Francine had been her friend for years, nothing had separated them before.
“What!?” asked Katie, “What’d I do?”

“It wasn’t fair,” said Francine, “That was my lamp. It should have been my wish.”

“You heard him,” said Katie, “that’s not how it works. Besides, what you have wished for besides weight loss?”

Several seconds of silence passed again. Susan, Barbara, and Katie knew Francine well enough that they knew she was weighing whether or not to say what she was thinking. Normally they would coax her out of her silence, this time, they let the silence hang in the air.

“It wasn’t fair,” said Francine, “we all got the same thing.”

More silence. More deciding by Francine.

She finally said, “you were the worst Katie. You gave up totally. You never tried to diet, you wouldn’t even go outside much less exercise. And you got the same thing I did. I may not have been successful, but at least I tried. Its NOT fair.”

“None of it is fair,” said Katie, her voice going flat and emotionless, “because you bought a stupid lamp at Goodwill, and because I was anal enough to clean the bottom of it, we all never have to worry about our weight again. We can eat whatever we want, we don’t have to exercise, and we didn’t have to struggle to lose weight in the first place. What happened to us was wonderful, and incredible. We got our lives back. And it was totally and utterly unfair for all of us.”

“But you were the worst,” said Fran, “I might have been fat, but I never gave up. I still dieted, I at least exercised, I could still find clothes to buy in the store, and actually leave my house. I didn’t have to use a stick with a sponge on it to wash myself. You just gave up and got fatter and fatter. It’s not fair that we got the same thing.”

“Frannie,” said Katie, her voice returning to its normal friendly demeanor, “it’s over. And it doesn’t matter if it wasn’t fair. Just come over and be our friend like before. There’s no reason to do this.”
Francine didn’t reply, instead she very calmly hung up the phone. The dial tone filled Katie’s office and seemed to dominate the space the few seconds it took for Katie to hang up the phone.