“Creative, I’ll give you that,” he said. “Cold, but clever. Very well.”

            He yanked off my necklace, and mumbled some incantation while worrying it through his fingers. I looked at the paraphernalia cluttering his walls, and understood what it was. I was one of many who had been granted a wish. A word.

            In a flash I was somewhere else, watching a scene unfold though my spot in the unspecified dimension which I occupied. My mother- and father-in-law, many moons ago, two young adults slamming into each other on a busy sidewalk. They gathered up their spilled belongings, then stood and looked deep into each other’s eyes. After a few minutes of benign chit chat, he asked his questi...

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