Once upon a time there was a young man named Fresco who had fallen in love with a beautiful raven-haired girl named Dahlia. Dahlia had the kind of big brown eyes that caused a weakening in the knees of many a man that went through her checkout line at the small grocery store where she worked after school. With thick black eyelashes and a serious-yet-playful look, her eyes were surely created to burn a hole through the soul of men, and Fresco was now a man in flames.

Lips full and red, Dahlia seemed oblivious to the way Fresco looked at her as he made it a point to buy something each day from the little country store. Inside, Fresco's desire boiled hotter and hotter to the point of obsession. He wanted so badly to tell her of his feelings, but her beauty paralyzed his mouth from speaking, and at times Fresco seemed retarded of emotion in front of her, except to stare blankly. Knowing what odd reactions she caused in some men, Dahlia just kind of smiled and went about her work thinking Fresco childish and cute.

During the day Fresco worked in a small antique shop near the center of town. The shop, called I Dream of Genies, was located on the ground floor of a 150-year-old Victorian house that had once been the home of a wealthy slave trader known as Alfred Bellows III. The story was that the never-married Bellows would take young African girls up to the small attic for slow torturous sex, eventually ending their life by assorted means, including bloodletting and then consuming the blood of his victim.

One day while Fresco was in the old dusty attic searching for any valuables that might be sold in the shop below, he discovered a 19th Century brass oil lamp. Chuckling to himself, Fresco thought how silly it was to believe genies possessing magic powers lived in such innocent household objects. However, sometimes curiosity overrules logic, and Fresco, while feeling foolish, rubbed the lamp as hard as he could and summoned a genie to appear. When Fresco opened his eyes and stopped his furious rubbing he saw a cloud of green smoke directly in front of him.

Fresco stood silent, but soon gathered his thoughts enough to mutter his ultimate wish, "Please grant me the wish to be closer to my secret love, Dahlia! I want to be near her day and night....I want to wake up each morning with her by my side, and us to spend the rest of our days together."

The young slave looked up into Fresco's eyes and assured him, "It will be done, Massah...close yoa eyes! When you opens dem you will have yoa love foevah by yoa side."

As she spoke these words her shackles disappeared, and Fresco opened his eyes to see the ceiling of his bedroom. Realizing he was now in his bed, Fresco smiled and turned to see his precious Dahlia who was indeed lying beside him in sleep. As he reached to put an arm around her and wake her with a kiss he discovered they were joined at the hip the same as Siamese twins were locked together for life. Waking to the movement, Dahlia opened her eyes to the horror of being connected by body to a man she barely knew.

According to legends, Fresco and Dahlia cried together for hours as Fresco explained the whole incident. He cursed himself, and begged his beautiful doe-eyed Dahlia to forgive him, but Dahlia could only hang her head and cry. There was no way out, as Fresco remembered the vision-slave saying, sinking his heart lower and lower.