October 30, 2009

May all your wishes come true

If ever there were an example of the adage "Be careful what you wish for," The Monkey's Paw is it. It tells the tale of an artifact brought to England from India by a member of the British Army when his tour ended. Legend has it that its owner gets three wishes.

There's an artful bit of warning early in the story when the sergeant is asked how he came to acquire the thing.

"It had a spell put on it by an old fakir," said the sergeant-major, "a very holy man. He wanted to show that fate ruled people's lives, and that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow. He put a spell on it so that three separate men could each have three wishes from it."

His manner was so impressive that his hearers were conscious that their light laughter jarred somewhat.

"Well, why don't you have three, sir?" said Herbert White cleverly.

The soldier regarded him in the way that middle age is wont to regard presumptuous youth. "I have," he said quietly, and his blotchy face whitened.

"And did you really have the three wishes granted?" asked Mrs. White.

"I did," said the sergeant-major, and his glass tapped against his strong teeth.

"And has anybody else wished?" inquired the old lady.

"The first man had his three wishes, yes," was the reply. "I don't know what the first two were, but the third was for death. That's how I got the paw."

Posted by Linkmeister at October 30, 2009 11:56 AM | TrackBack
Comments

See what I mean? I got goose bumps just reading that selection!

Of course, maybe that's because I now know the ending, but still, it's scary!

Happy Halloween. May your evening be all treats and no tricks. :-)

Posted by: Illanoy Gal at October 31, 2009 10:44 AM

I want to say that that story has been made into a film (though I'm not sure) - but it's one of those bits of info that I've never hunted down because I just know that it's not going to be as any way creepy enough to equal the mental pictures I have. That's really the one story that brought home the horror of wishing the dead back to life.

Though I remember wishing that the husband had allowed his stupid wife to actually SEE the dead thing - I have a feeling that she berated him the rest of his life, but that if she'd gone out to hug the dead thing.... Or actually she might have just been that sick in the head to - ugh. Guess which character I really hated by the end.

Posted by: batgrl at November 3, 2009 02:33 PM