by Tom Hood.
As usual the mailbox was piled high with overdue bills and Kathy, as usual, was depressed at the thought of forking out all their hard earned money to pay for the common trappings of suburbia.
She and her husband Tom had moved to the small central California valley town of Salida to buy an affordable house. He had commuted to the bay area for about a year but was now working for a local newspaper repairing computers and other various electronic equipment. She was an artist, making and selling stained glass windows, lamps and mirrors to stores and at craft fairs.
As she carried the mail back to the house her twin children Kate and Seana ran up to her. Kate was crying and screaming Seana had hit her again. She pacified Kate by reprimanding Seana for what seemed like the hundredth time that day and decided to take a short break in the now growing back yard.
As she sat on a chair amongst the flowering plants with her coffee cup in hand she reflected where she was in life and where she could have been. Or perhaps more accurately, where it should have been.
Her life had been growing more and more depressing and humdrum about four years ago, when the twins came along. It had been difficult to achieve pregnancy but when it happened it happened in a big way and she realized she had not been prepared for the stresses and strains of motherhood. This, along with the pressures of her chosen career, were having a detrimental and harmful effect on her life. Her thoughts drifted to her ever growing feelings for a lover of seventeen years past. She loved her husband but he was not Don.
Don was, well, Don. It had been love at first sight but due to circumstances they were not to be. As it turned out he also bought a house near them and was a frequent visitor, pushing her thoughts even further in his direction.
If only she had married Don, she thought. Life would have been different. And better. Tom was a good provider and a faithful husband but something was not right about them. It was nothing she could pinpoint exactly but...
She finally pushed those thoughts from her mind and went back to her shop in the garage to work after settling yet another scrap between the twins.
So her life went, a day to day existence, each little changed from the next. That is, until one day he showed up.
Her first thought was he was another of the door-banging religious zealots who frequented the area or a slick salesman selling another of the useless products no one needed or even wanted.
He walked up to the open garage door and introduced himself. "My name is Paul Zoe."
Her first inclination was to tell him she was busy and had no time for him or his product, be it religion or anything else, when she stopped herself. His manner and appearance was quite unlike the usual people who frequented the neighborhood. He was impeccably groomed and carried an air of, what? She could not pinpoint exactly what it was. In his hand he carried a small box. He set the box on the edge of her workbench and started a conversation.
"You may tell me your name though I must warn you I already know it, Mrs. Hood. I also know how your life is going."
At this admission Kathy stopped working and her mind filled with questions. Who was this man? Where did he come from? How did he know how her life was? Why was he here?
He continued. "Our task in life is to enrich other peoples lives. I represent a client who specializes in this sort of thing. We do it in many ways. It is sometimes done with their knowledge, sometimes without. Some need to control their own destiny, others cannot."
Kathy was both disturbed and curious about what he had said. Part of her wanted to tell him she did not appreciate his crackpot ideas but another part of her compelled her to hear him out.
"In this box is another box, a very powerful device. On the top is a button. All you have to do is rearrange your life in your thoughts as you would have it be and it will be so. Gather your thoughts and push the button. Your life and destiny will be forever changed.
"But be forewarned. Be careful what you wish for."
She started to ask a few of the questions chafing at her when the phone rang. It was another in the long succession of calls from the bill collectors. Kathy turned around to better the reception on the phone and explained for what seemed the millionth time how the check was in the mail. When she turned around to face the stranger he was nowhere to be seen, the box still sitting on the workbench where he had left it.
Kathy grabbed the box from her workbench and ran out to catch him. She had decided she wanted nothing to do with him or his box but it was too late. He seemed to have vanished as quickly as he had come. As she set the box back down she thought about what he had said.
Change the future as well as the past he had said. All it took was a little faith and a push of a button. It all seemed so simple but was it? She didn't believe in magic or any of that foolishness but a nagging persistence lingered in the back of her mind.
At long last she pushed the box out of sight but not out of mind on a shelf below her workbench and went back to work. Her orders were due the next day and she could see another long night ahead of her scrambling to get it done. All this just to make ends barely meet. This was not how her life had been seen through her younger eyes of years past. She sighed and buckled down to work after settling yet another in a long line of seemingly endless fights between the twins.
Late that night she finished enough of her order to grab some much needed sleep but sleep was slow in coming. The rhythmic breathing of Tom next to her in the waterbed usually lulled her to sleep but this time it alluded her. She could not put the stranger and his box out of her mind and after what seemed like hours she drifted off into a disturbing sleep.
And so it went, her life drifting along as if in a raft on whitewater, unable to gain control and bouncing off the rocks, taking bruises as she went. Weeks passed and the box was lost to her thoughts, the bills stacking up, the twins continuing their scraps.
On one particularly bad day she was looking for just a few scraps of solder to finish the order when her hand brushed the box aside. Memories of what the stranger had said passed through her mind and she pulled it out. After a moments hesitation she grabbed a razor blade and carefully sliced through the tape holding it closed, cutting her hand in the process. She pulled the package open and peered in.
It was as he had described. The box inside the package was roughly 6 inches square with a button on the top. Push the button, he had said, and her life would be completely different. But he had also warned her to be careful what she wished for. Sometimes when fantasy meets the cold harsh truth of reality...
The phone rang. It was another bill collector asking for their money. At the same time the twins flared up yet again and as she reached to dispell the fight she burned her hand on her soldering iron.
That's it, she thought. I have had enough of this. She grabbed the box, her right hand poised over the button. There was a slight hesitation as she gathered her thoughts then slammed her palm onto the button.
* * *
It was a beautiful day in the parklike cemetery. A bag lady was sitting near a grave, gazing longingly at the headstone. Their life together had been like a dream, albeit a short one. Their marriage vows lasted only a few short years. They had had no children and her ambition to work and live died with Don.
At long last she got up and slowly walked down the path between the graves. How different her life could have been, she thought, had she married Tom.