A retired railroad brakeman named Eliot Show was cleaning his barbecue grill one afternoon when he inadvertently spilled a bucket of ashes and loosed a swarm of jinns on the neighborhood.
A cleric who was later summoned for advice on dealing with the infestation informed the neighborhood council that jinns had long been disposed to nest in ashes, and if undiscovered for even a relatively brief period were known to be rapid and promiscuous breeders.
The jinn took up residence in a neighborhood park, christened their encampment Jinnistan, and launched a relentless assault on surrounding streets and homes with rocks and flaming arrows.
Initially, whenever the jinn strayed from the park they confined their mischief to stealing wash from clotheslines, pilfering meat from local butchers and markets, and disrupting domestic life in small but nonetheless unsettling ways: spilling milk, rearranging furniture, scrambling television reception, and knocking on windows in the night. As their numbers grew, however, and as attempts to appease and relocate them failed, they became more brazen.
Many of them used their shape-shifting powers to assume human form, and, disguised as residents of the community, seduced and impregnated women, bilked elderly citizens of their life savings, sold insurance, and ran for city office.
Eventually, after the jinn became increasingly more aggressive and began to steal babies, the city attempted to eradicate them by repeated aerial bombardments of the park with salt.
Shortly after the Mayor announced in the local paper that this offensive had been a complete success the entire city was consumed by a tremendous conflagration, and a jinn civilization, larger than any previously seen on earth, rose from the ashes.
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