A BEAUTIFUL LIFE

I walked in through the front door and almost tripped over the old trunk sitting on the floor. Apparently, my wife had done some shopping today.

"Watch out where you're going, old man," my wife Mary called from the kitchen doorway.

Grumbling under my breath, I lowered myself into my favorite chair in front of the fireplace, "a man shouldn't have to be looking out for traps in his own house."

"If I were setting a trap, you would be well and truly caught before you even knew what was going on," Mary replied tartly.

I coughed to disguise my laugh, one of the things that I loved most about Mary was her feistiness. We'd been married for a little over fifty years now, and I'd give anything for at least another fifty with her. I was 21, and she was 19 when we first met all those years ago at a church dance. And I thought that she was the most beautiful girl that I'd ever laid eyes on with her quick wit, happy smile, and sparkling blue eyes. Back then, I was a cocky young man and completely full of myself, but it didn't take Mary five minutes to put me in my place.

"Try and get yourself warmed up before supper," Mary said and handed me a steaming hot cup of coffee.

"Sounds good," I replied, warming my cold hands on the hot cup. "What's for supper?"

"Homemade chicken noodle soup just like my grandma used to make and a loaf of fresh-baked bread."

"I prefer my grandma's chicken noodle soup; the flavor is so much richer."

Mary gave me an exasperated look, "well, then next time, you can make the soup."

I gave a laugh poorly disguised as a cough and tried to look innocent as Mary shook her finger at me.

"I'm up to your tricks, old man, and I'm in too good of a mood to let you push my buttons today."

I laughed out loud this time, glancing at the old trunk sitting in the middle of the floor. Mary loved going to the thrift store and discovering old treasures, and this was obviously her latest find.

"So what's with this old thing?" I asked, indicating the trunk.

"It's an old trunk that I got from the thrift store today. It's locked, so I don't know what's inside, but I got it for only $20."

"$20," I grunted, looking at the lock. " It looks like an antique and is probably worth more than that any day of the week. Let me get my toolbox and see if I can open it up. who knows, maybe we'll find a lost treasure inside."

"There's probably nothing inside, but it would still make a nice place to store my quilts," Mary replied as she watched me fiddle with the lock.

"Well, here goes," I said as the lock released, and I pushed open the lid to survey the contents.

"Let's see if there's anything under this blanket," Mary pushed back a big red fluffy blanket to reveal a brown paper bag and a little black book.

I opened up the paper bag to reveal several stacks of 100 dollar bills.

"Oh, my word," Mary gasped.

I counted out the cash to find exactly twenty thousand dollars, "we will have to find out where this came from," I said firmly and put the bag back inside the trunk.

"I know," Mary answered wistfully. "But it sure would come in handy for us. Social security and medicare just don't go that far."

" Maybe this book will tell us who the owners are," I said and picked up the little black book. After opening it, I saw that there was only one sentence inside.

"THE MONEY AND ONE WISH BELONGS TO WHOEVER FINDS THIS!"

"Shouldn't there be a genie's lamp inside?" Mary asked.

"I don't know," I replied. "Maybe he upgraded to a book."

"Oh, this is fun!" Mary exclaimed. " I would wish for -"

"Shh!" I said with a grin, "something like a wish needs to be very thoughtfully considered."

"Ok," Mary laughed. "Let's use the rest of the evening to think about our wishes, and then we can tell each other our wishes before bed."

I know that it's silly, but the thought of having one wish was so much fun as we spent the rest of the night thinking about what we would like most. I believe that most people would probably wish to be rich, and the thought did cross my mind as well, but I still think that you should be very careful with something as important as a wish. Otherwise, it could rebound on you, say you wish for a million dollars only to find that the money is stolen, and you end up spending the rest of your life in prison.

"Could you get that please?" I asked when the phone in the kitchen rang right before bedtime.

"It's probably just a telemarketer; they always try to get in one last call for the day." Mary complained and picked up the receiver only to hear, " we've been trying to reach you about your car's warranty."

She slammed down the receiver and muttered, " I would so love to give them a piece of my mind." Before adding, "sometimes I wish that we lived in a simpler time without all of this annoying technology!"

"It's too late now," I laughed. "Your wish has been made."

She shrugged, "as wishes go, it's not that bad."

"It's actually a pretty good wish," I said and gave her a goodnight kiss. "I'd like to sleep on mine and let you know in the morning."

***

The next morning I yawned and stretched in bed with my eyes still closed. I'd slept particularly well last night and had woken for a change without my usual aches and pains that come with age. I slid out of bed and decided to put on a pot of coffee before Mary awoke. Typically she awoke before me, but today I felt too good to just lay around in bed.

The house was just starting to fill with the aroma of fresh coffee when I heard Mary's voice from the bedroom.

"Walter, what is happening? Am I dreaming?"

I walked back into the bedroom with a huge smile on my face when I saw her sitting there looking adorably confused.

Mary gasped when she saw me standing there, "Walter, you're young again."

She jumped out of bed and crossed the room to touch my face, "You look just like you did the day that we married. All of your wrinkles are gone, and your hair is black instead of gray. This can't be real; I must still be asleep."

"It's real," I replied. "Both our wishes have come true. You wished for a simpler time, and I wished for us to have another fifty years together."

She shook her head doubtfully, "fairytales aren't real, Walter. It's just a dream."

"Come and see," I said and pulled her over to the mirror where we could see younger versions of ourselves.

"It's been so long since we've looked like this," Mary marveled. "But I still can't believe that it's real."

Looking around the house, we noticed that all the modern furniture had been replaced with vintage versions, and the calendar on the wall read May 1, 1895.

"May 1st," I mused. "That's rather odd; it was November 15th in our time."

Mary laughed at me, "with everything that's happened, that's what you think is odd?"

"It seems a little strange that the time of year would change," I remarked and dumped the bag of cash out onto the table. "Look at this, Mary, even the dates on the money have changed."

She picked up a stack of bills and examined it thoughtfully; twenty thousand dollars will go a long way in the 1800s. We should be able to live a good life. That's not to say that we didn't have already have a good one, but you know what I mean."

"Of course, "I replied. "We all have things that we would like to redo.

Mary opened the front door and stepped out onto the porch. "Oh Walter, come and see the car!" She exclaimed as an old vehicle that looked more like a buggy than a car made its way down the road in front of our house. "I really think that I'm going to like this time."

I nodded, "it's just modern enough for us to live comfortably without all of the annoyances of modern technology."

"If this is just a dream, I will be so disappointed to wake up," she breathed.