The Wishing Coin: A Modern Fairy Tale (7 page)

During my lunch break I took a walk along West 54th Street and purposefully passed the place where I had seen the stranger for the first time. I found him selling coins again. When he saw me, he greeted me with the words:

“So that’s what happened, ha? I knew the things would end up bad. You people, always want everything but when you actually get it, you start regretting it. Isn’t this a paradox? I’ll quote Oscar Wilde: ‘There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.’”

“Is it because I touched the coin with my right hand? Is that why some bad things started happening?”

“Touching it with your right hand has nothing to do with your growing desire for power and control. You got carried away in your pursuit of gaining control over everything and everyone. Touching the coin with your right hand is not fatal; it just makes the wish fulfillment more painful, the way it was with Jackie. Roscoe’s friends also disappeared because you wished for it. All things considered, Julia, you can’t complain from the universe – you get exactly what you want. The question, however, is what do you really need? And is it good for the others around you?”

“Julia? How do you know my name? How have you found out about Jackie and Roscoe’s friends? Have you been following me?” I asked him, dumbfounded.

He laughed.

“Who are you?” I asked him the question that had been gnawing at me from the very first time I had seen him.

“Who am I? I’m a poor vendor. I sell magic coins on West 54th Street.”

“What do you mean, you sell them? Are you some kind of a magician… or God? And how can this coin fulfill wishes in the first place?”

“Julia, I don’t know if I’ll disappoint you, but I’m not God. It’s pointless for you to rack your brains about such questions. The only thing that matters is what you learned from this whole experience.”

I remained silent and stared more carefully at the stranger. What did he mean?

“You got this coin to learn something. Are you aware of it now?”

I took a breath before I could answer:

“Well, I realized I should be careful what I wish for. I began with harmless wishes such as being the host of my own show but every new wish that was fulfilled made me greedier and I wanted more and more. But I realized that it’s not right to meddle with people’s fates and model them the way I need them to be. The change must be undertaken by their own wishes.”

“I’m glad you’ve arrived at this conclusion on your own.”

“So what will happen to me now?”

“There are two options in front of you: one of them is taking the consequences as they are and going on from the point you’ve reached. The other one is to lose everything and start all over again. In both cases, the coin will be taken away from you. What do you choose?”

“The coin will be taken away? What do you mean?”

The stranger smiled widely.

“You look for logic in everything. Let the things follow their natural course and the changes happen when they have to.” He paused. “I’m repeating my question: which of the two options do you choose, Julia?”

I half-closed my eyes. If I chose the first one, I would spend my whole life with the thought of having changed Jackie, having turned one cheater into a star, and having caused the disappearance of his friends. I wasn’t able to bear such a fate. The alternative was to be alone again and to go back to being a reporter in GMU.

“Julia, your decision?”

“Isn’t there a third option?”

The stranger shook his head and I sighed.

I was surprised by how determined I sounded when I pronounced:

“I’m going back to the start.”

The stranger nodded in agreement.

“Okay, your wish will be fulfilled.”

Suddenly, everything disappeared and I was surrounded by darkness.

I didn’t even have time to consider what was happening.

Chapter 8

The shrill ring of the alarm set on my cell phone woke me up. God, why did I always choose loud and aggressive waking-up ring tones? I got up and reached out toward the phone to make it stop. The display said it was seven o’clock. I put on my bathrobe and went to the living room. That morning’s issue of The New York Times was lying on the small table. I picked it up and, to my surprise, I saw the date was September 30th, 2014. The day I had bought the coin was September 29th! Everything was starting all over again, just as the stranger had told me it would. However, just to make sure, I decided to call Emily. The newspaper could have been an older copy left on the table by mistake.

I dialed her number and after a while I heard a male voice:

“Hello, who’s there?” I could hear the baritone timbre clearly from the other side of the line.

“Is Emily there?”

“Um… just a moment. Em, it’s for you.” I heard people moving around and then Emily’s subdued voice asking who it was.

“Hello?”

“Em?”

“Oh, Julia, is that you?” She recognized me immediately. “What’s going on, what’s happened?” Why are you calling me so early?”

“I’m sorry for troubling you, I just wanted to make sure… Could you tell me what day is today?”

“September 30th. And how are you? Susan went too far yesterday; you’re all right, aren’t you?”

“Yesterday… Susan…” I repeated, trying to recall the events.

“I always tell her to be more tactful and considerate but apparently these two notions are incomprehensible to her. Anyway, you know she has only good intentions even though she has a big mouth.”

I smiled. I remembered the previous evening when we were at The Dead Poet. Susan had mentioned that Lewis was going out with The Screw’s new host – “my favorite,” Jennifer Bailey.

“Are you all right?” Emily sounded really concerned.

“Yes, yes, I’m fine. See you, Em,” I hung up. So everything was really starting all over again? In less than half an hour I went out dressed for work.

At the office everything was back to what it had been before. I didn’t have my own show and my desk was back in the old place in the common hall. In my inbox there were about twenty emails – all pitches for future TV stories.

No matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find a GChat message from Roscoe Ritch. I stopped by Starbucks for lunch. I felt free from the burden of the magic coin. No wishes and magic. I ordered a sandwich and waited for the barista to heat it for me. In the meantime I saw Lewis and Jenny at an adjacent table. I could have guessed that the universe would arrange that I confronted those two.

“Hey, Lewis, how are you?” I turned to him.

He was visibly startled.

“Julia! What a surprise! How are you?” He put his sunglasses on the table and turned to take a better look at me. “It’s been a while since we last saw each other. How’s it going?”

I smiled at “a while”.

“Yeah, that’s true. Jennifer, congratulations for The Screw!”

She smiled more forcedly than honestly.

“How’s Jackie?”

Lewis was surprised by my question.

“Well, fine. Yeah… you know her.” He took a sip from his coffee. “Now would you excuse us, we’re having…”

“Oh, sure, I’m not going to interrupt you anymore.” I started reading the magazine I had taken with me from the office. In a few minutes my sandwich was served and I ate it with pleasure. I had never imagined I would be so happy to see my ex together with Jennifer.

When I came back to AEC’s office, I saw that Mike Greenberg had been calling me. I had to have failed to hear my phone while I had been walking. Mike had also called me on the day that Roscoe Ritch sent me the link to his video, but I had rejected the call. I had been too busy and I had other plans with Lewis. With my ex taken from me, however, it was time to try my luck somewhere else. Mike and I agreed to meet after work. I suggested The Dead Poet. He accepted with no further questions.

We met at the arranged hour. The place wasn’t full yet and we found free seats by the bar.

“I’m glad to see you. How are you?” Mike greeted me while unbuttoning his coat. “How are you stories going?”

“Well, today I was talking to a woman from Alaska who saved a polar bear from some sort of a contagious infection, and I also came across a four-year kid from Washington who can already read and count. I don’t know which story to include, perhaps both….”

“I really like your stories and I daresay I know someone who changed their life dramatically.”

“Really? What did they do?” I took a sip from the beer I had ordered.

“I have to tell you his story in more detail. For a long time he was working as an executive manager in Apple. He worked eighteen hours a day and finally gave up and saved himself from burning out. Now he’s a shareholder and makes a million per year.”

“I don’t see anything unusual here.”

“He founded a charity organization in Asia which is called ‘Share a Dream.’ He spends half a year in India, Thailand and then Cambodia. His organization feeds millions of people in the Third World.”

“Yes, that will make a story. But how come he changed himself so radically? You don’t often see people on such a high professional level change like this. There must be some reason.”

“Well…” Mike remained silent for a while and lowered his eyes. “He suffered a heart attack when he was 47 and that made him reconsider his whole life.”

“How do you know so much about this guy? What’s your relationship with him?”

“Well, here’s the thing – he’s my own father.”

I almost choked on a mouthful of beer.

“What? Your father?” For a moment, I thought Mike was joking. “Didn’t you tell me that in the beginning Damien and you were just two poor young students who counted only on your scholarships from New York University?”

“Yes, that’s still true.” He smiled at me. I had the feeling he was enjoying how ignorant I was. “Before the attack, my father used to be the most tight-fisted man on the planet.”

“He can’t have been more tight-fisted than Jackie,” I murmured.

“Sorry? Did you say anything?”

“Oh, nothing. Yes, that thing about your father sounds quite interesting, if it’s true, of course.”

“Do you think I would have lied to you about such a thing?”

“I don’t know,” I stared at him thoughtfully. “When can I meet him?”

Epilogue

Eventually I shot the story about Mike’s father. To my surprise, it turned out to be successful. Carter praised me and said they’d been planning to launch a new show in the spring and had been considering me as a host. I started dating Mike. I was thankful to that stranger because the magic coin had taught me how to be happy. Sometimes when I walk down West 54th Street, I see him selling coins. Every time he greets me with a wave of his hand. Once I stopped in front of him.

“How are the sales going? Are people buying?”

“As usual. Why are you asking? Are you looking for a coin to fulfill all your wishes again?” He winked at me.

“Well, it turned out I don’t need such a coin anymore. I am doing much better on my own.” I hesitated before I could ask, “There’s one thing, though, that’s still not clear to me – why did you sell me such a powerful object in the first place?”

“One gets as much as they can bear.”

“Can you please stop talking in riddles? I need a straight answer.”

“Okay, let me ask you this way: Are you happy now?”

“Yes.”

“Do you own a wishing coin?”

“No.”

“Well, that’s your answer. You don’t need a magic coin; you are the magic coin if you only start taking things humbly and peacefully and enjoying everything your fate offers you.”

“What are these coins you’re selling?” A customer stopped and came closer to the table.

“Coins which fulfill wishes. The young lady will confirm.” The stranger smiled and nodded to me.

“It’s true. The coins are priceless.”

The man snorted and asked to take a closer look at a white one.

After a few minutes I said goodbye to the vendor and walked down the street. I threw a last look at him. He was enthusiastically explaining something to the man. I had never felt happier. I turned away once again to meet his gaze but there was no sight of him. Had I been hallucinating? I stopped a policeman walking nearby and asked him hurriedly:

“Excuse me, three intersections from here, by the clothes shop, there was a stranger selling magic coins. Where is he? I can’t see him.”

“Sorry? A coin seller?” He smiled sympathetically. “I don’t know what you were looking at, but no one has ever sold anything, especially magic coins, around here.”

I looked at the space in front of me and the words of the vendor echoed in my mind: “You are the magic coin.”

Excerpt from Back To The Viper:

Chapter 1

Ashley Greendale gave the customer his change and was just about to sit down on her chair again and finish an advice article for new mothers when the door of the Starbucks opened and in came Peggy.