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“There was silence then—this terrible silence—and she stood up and smiled at me. She said—very soft now—she said, ‘You are my djinni.

“I do not grant wishes,” the djinni says.

She also said Mr. Diyab believed that a djinni, a kind of mythical demon, might be inhabiting his body.

The djinni made a small hissing noise that had something in it of contentment.

When Salim attempts to wake the sleeping djinni, who has dozed off in the drivers’ seat, he witnesses what his driver truly is with a glimpse of those fiery eyes.