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Story 2: The Wishwriter's Wife
by Ian McHugh
In the days when to fetch the wishwriter
fairies were still to be from his club or the
found in the world, baths or the gaming
and wishes could house. Then, once he
come true, there lived had snuck in the back
a wishwriter and his door and up the
wife. The wishwriter servants' stairs, she
was a clever man, but would take the clients
plain, and born with a up to his study, where
twisted back that the wishwriter would
made him stoop. His now be ensconced
wife was beautiful, gentle and generous, behind his desk, his features shrouded
and she loved him just as he was. beneath a scholar's hood.
The wishwriter was happy, for this was "It all adds to the air of mystery," he told
just as he had wished. His wife contented her, "which is very important in this line of
herself that her husband, too, was gentle work."
and generous, and it did not hurt her to The wishwriter's wife was fascinated by
love him. the many heart's desires of the people who
The wishwriter made his living because sought her husband's services. One day,
no matter how many fairies came into a she might open the door to find a woman
person's possession, they could only ever clutching a breadbox, inside which was the
have one true wish. A wish could only be for fairy she had caught raiding her pantry.
a single thing; a person could not wish for The woman would tell of her husband, who
fame and fortune, or a beautiful palace and could no longer ply his trade as a
a handsome prince. It could not be an woodcutter since an accident that cost him
infinite thing -- eternal youth or a purse his arm, and she wished for him to be
that was always full of gold--or even too whole. Yet at the same time she herself was
large a thing, or the wish would not bind barren and longed for a daughter. Then the
and take. wishwriter would send her away for a week,
"It is important for the wish to bind," the and when she returned he would give her a
wishwriter said, touching his wife's cheek, tiny scroll on which was written: "I wish, I
"otherwise it might fade, or simply vanish. wish, I wish to find at home my delighted
"And that," he said, "would be husband holding aloft our infant daughter
heartbreaking." with his two strong arms." The woman
His wife showed him a smile, and would speak the wish, and the fairy would
wondered what it would be like to not be give up its magic and its bright tiny life to
bound. make the wish come true.
"And a wish cannot make more wishes," Or the wife might discover a young boy
the wishwriter said, always pleased to show waiting on the step, who in desperation had
off his expertise. "So if a person has more traded his father's precious violin to a fairy
than one heart's desire, and many do..." He trapper. The boy's father had been a great
spread his hands with a self-satisfied grin. composer, but was now deaf, and the boy
"...they will come to a wishwriter," his wished for him to be able to hear and make
wife obliged. music again. At the same time, the boy felt
It was the wife's role to greet her himself a disappointment to his father, for
husband's clients, and to flatter and fuss he had not inherited his gift for music and,
over them while--usually--the houseboy ran what was more, his father would certainly
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