Fiddling With Fate ✓

Seven

Early the next morning, the housemaid bumped through the door with her little cleaning cart and saw James still sleeping.

Oh well, she thought to herself, he didn’t put out a “Do not disturb” sign, so I suppose it’s alright if I go ahead and clean up a bit, as long as I do it quietly. Then she went about her business.

That was until it came time to dust the lamps. She was doing exactly that until she noticed that it was odd that James hadn’t woken up yet. Have I really been that quiet? she wondered silently. At that moment, though, she realized that he seemed to have an odd look to him. In fact, he looked a little bit pale. Maybe he was having a nightmare?

In that case, the housemaid decided she should probably wake him up, at least to tell him that she was cleaning his room. She shook his shoulder gently, and when he didn’t wake up, she shook it a little more, and whispered, “James? Wake up…”

And still he didn’t wake up. She took his hand, but when she did, she felt that it was deathly cold! She gasped as she realized that this man in front of her was dead.

🐒🐒🐒

Half an hour later, the medic on the ship had confirmed that James had died in his sleep, but everyone was puzzled as to how he had passed at such a young age of thirty-seven. Speaking of “everyone,” cabin 3B was absolutely packed with other passengers that wanted to see what all the ruckus was about. Among the crowd were a surprised Iris, the jittery housemaid, and a young Sergeant-Major by the name of Morris.

This man was the first to notice the letter on the desk, along with the disgusting monkey’s paw. As soon as almost everyone had left, Morris crept around James’s bed and got to the nightstand, then inconspicuously took both off the table.

Upon reading the note, he saw that it was about the monkey’s paw, the shriveled thing in his other hand. It warned about certain “powers” that the monkey’s paw had to “change fate” and told about the three wishes. It also cautioned the reader to use the wishes wisely and carefully.

The Sergeant-Major found that funny. He chuckled slightly to himself in disbelief and said under his breath, “Yeah, that guy must’ve either had a couple screws loose or amazing creativity to come up with that. Maybe it was a little of both.”

Later, Sergeant-Major Morris looked down at the monkey’s paw clutched tightly in his hands as he sat on the soft couch in cabin 5B. He felt the gentle rocking of the ship while his mind played hopscotch between his thoughts. The shriveled, ugly thing in his hands had long, curved fingernails and was dry and wrinkly. He thought about how he had gotten it from the dead man and the warning note that came with it.

“I wonder what you can do,” Morris whispered to the paw. Well, there’s no harm in trying, is there?

And with that, the Sergeant-Major stood up and made his very first wish...

THE END
or is it?