The Monkey's Paw (2nd version)

THE MONKEY’S PAW (version no 2)

It was through this object, which was suddenly in the attention of every single person living in the town. It happened that the object supposed to make three wishes to become as concrete as the reality itself. Its inventor made three wishes to his unfortunate discovery that even if technically the object was perfect, there were other matters, which couldn’t be solved by science. It all went terribly wrong. Something what supposed to be revolutionary failed in circumstances, which couldn’t be predicted…

Before it was used, the object went through one hundred and four chemical processes, three thousand five hundred and seventy one tests, to end up with few more treatments of the modern alchemy. Finally after seven years of preparation, it was ready for the major test. It meant to be executed by its inventor, who wanted to avoid possible failures to affect anyone else; he was well known for his unusual ability to feel empathy.

The date was agreed and confirmed through the questionnaire, which was send to every single house in the town, even to the old man, who lived so far that no one ever seen him, except the salesman son, who once get lost for two years and within his extraordinary adventures he claimed seeing an old man as he was rewriting one particular book, which he liked more than any other, on the pieces of rocks, which he than wanted to build his house from, in the new location with the view on the sea front.

The questionnaire was sent to anyone who was ten years and more, as it was believed that children at this age were mature enough to be able not only to witness, but also to take the moral responsibility for the importance of historical events. There were taught about it in the only one school existing in town, which was constructed on the anniversary of an inexact date when the town was built. There were taught by a teacher, who was brought from abroad as the educational system was still quite unknown there and no one really knew how it supposed to be executed in appropriate way.

When it came to the exact date of the experiment, the unusual excitement could be noticed in the town. Women were gossiping on the streets more than usual and it was even said that the old man, who was never seen before was about to appear at the ceremony. Mothers seemed to be more impatient with their children and in general it was louder and more nervous. Lady from the flower shop instead of going to her own house and making breakfast for her own family, confused houses and she spent the whole morning in her neighbors place, shouting on the children who didn’t belong to her and preparing the meal in the pots, which somehow didn’t seem familiar. She only noticed the misunderstanding when the husband, who also wasn’t her husband, after coming from the morning walk grabbed from the back and gave her a juicy kiss on her lips. There wouldn’t be anything unusual about that, if not the fact that her real husband disappeared some years ago with the traveling circus, which shortly appeared in the town, as he suddenly discovered within himself the hidden desire for revolutionizing his stable life with the possibility of becoming acrobat.

Exactly in the middle of the day every single house was empty, all people were crowding and squeezing in the town square, in the front of the platform, which was especially built on this occasion. On the selected hour the inventor appeared on the stage. After few hours of introduction, followed by another few hours of all the details of how the object was invented and physically made, it came to the conceptual part of the project. It was getting dark already when the inventor asked the crowd, what is that they are dreaming about, do they have any wishes that could be easily generalized and apply to every single person in the town. The pieces of paper were given to everyone and they all were asked to write three wishes on them. The night already fallen when the papers were collected. It took another few hours for the wishes to be read and made into categories. The crowd was as large as it was at the beginning, no one left, and they were all patiently waiting for what was going to happen.

The next day came and after a discussion between quickly organized members of committee, the decisions were made, which wishes should be developed. The object was standing there on the pedestal ready to use. The inventor took it to his hand and asked everyone to move backwards, to keep a safe distance, according to the safe and health instructions. The first wish was to be pronounced. They all heard it clear and loud: “I wish every single person who is present here to live wealthy life”. And so it happened, the town reconstructed within their eyes. The clothing changed and people simply couldn’t believe their eyes. They all looked at each other with astonishment. As they were cheering and celebrating, suddenly someone appeared in the crowd. They have never seen him before but they new who he was. It was the old man. He wasn’t looking like them. He was wearing old and dirty clothes. Suddenly inventor understood what had happened. The old man was late for the ceremony; he wasn’t there when the wish was pronounced. As the inventor had unusual ability to feel empathy, he immediately pronounced the second wish; “I wish the old man to be as wealthy as every other person standing here”. The wish was fulfilled. However the crowd didn’t seem to be satisfied with what have happened. They thought this wish was unnecessary and it was wasted, followed by the instinct given by the nature, they decided to locked up the scientist and take the object away from him as they were worried he would waist the last wish. The locked the old man too as they didn’t know him at all and they didn’t know what he was capable of.

The inventor seemed to be very troubled with the way things turned. After hours of a loud debate- mainly with himself, as the old man was totally confused with what have happened, he decided to take some steps to solved the situation. He asked a child, who was playing near the prison if it could bring him the object, but to be careful and stay unnoticed. As a reward he promised to give him a trained rat. The child tempted by the promise brought the object to inventor, and as he finally had a chance to make the third wish, he said loud; “I wish this story never happened”, and as he said it the pages became blank…