After a quick magical mini fas.h.i.+on show of casual clothing and underwear that threatened to sidetrack him all by itself, Jack settled on a pair of Daisy Dukes denim shorts and an ivory form-fitting ribbed V-neck T-s.h.i.+rt over white G-string panties and matching white bra. She made a face at this last, but he wasn't quite ready to parade her around braless yet, so told her to just make it as comfortable as possible.

Once they finally made it into his small SUV, Jack quickly discovered that 'adapted to the current culture' didn't mean accustomed to it. She knew what the vehicle was, and what everything in it was for, but that didn't keep her from pressing every b.u.t.ton in the car, giggling like a kid. Jack jerked to a halt halfway out of the parking s.p.a.ce and laughed indulgently as she played. Once it looked like she had satisfied her curiosity over anything that might cause them to wreck if pushed, pulled, or turned at the wrong time, he continued out of the parking lot. Just to be safe, though, he suggested that she find some music she liked on the radio. That occupied her complete attention for almost ten minutes.

Once she had finally settled on a station - his favorite new-rock station, he noted with pleased and slightly suspicious amus.e.m.e.nt - her fascination turned to the world outside the little SUV. Again, she knew what everything was, but that didn't stop her from "Oooing" and "Ahhing" over everything like a b.u.mpkin tourist.

Jack had wanted to take them somewhere nice for dinner, but due to his clothing situation he had changed their destination to an area mall, a trendy one with a variety of clothing stores and a surprisingly varied and high-quality food court. As it was late Sat.u.r.day afternoon, traffic was fairly light until they got close to the mall and became caught up in the dinner, shopping and movie traffic. Once their progress slowed to a crawl and her exclamations were only infrequent, Jack decided to get back to some of his questions.

"Ok, so tell me more about these "maintenance abilities."

She refocused her attention on him, or most of it at any rate, and answered, "They are abilities given to any Genie servant, regardless of his or her specialist abilities, to provide basic needs for both Genie and Master."

"Basic needs such as?"

"Well in my case, the primary ability is protection for both of us from dangers both magical and mundane. Beyond that, for you it would allow me to supply the basic needs for life: food, water, shelter, etc."