Snowdog1967 t1_jcb70bf wrote
The old man shuffled over to the counter with a cloth wrapped around something in his hand. When he placed the cloth on the counter, he slowly unwrapped it, careful not to touch the item inside. It was a brass skeleton key, approximately 5 inches long with a Skull at one end, and a very ornate key head at the other. It looked like it was generating its own light, but it was the end of a long day, so I can't trust my memory in some ways.
"This... This is what you came here for." The old man whispered.
"No. I don't think it is. I thought you were the last owner of the Monkey's paw. That is what I need. I can make the wishes and not screw it up." I was desperate, and he knew it, even if I didn't at the time.
"The Paw, everyone wants the paw, everyone thinks they can outsmart the paw. You cannot. I could not, and look at me, I'm OLD, and allegedly wise." He coughed for a moment and I thought he was actually going to die in front of me before continuing after spitting out a glob of lung butter the size of a dollar coin. "This is the Wishmaker's KEY!", he stopped like I should know what that meant. He continued, "Nobody appreciates a good intro. Look, this will provide you with the best way to get what you want. 3 wishes, but they are, opportunities, not gifts, so you have to work for them once the wish is made."
"I've HAD opportunities, everything I touch just turns to shit! I need the Paw!" I paced in front of the counter, barely able to keep from staring at the key.
"The Paw is no good. Besides..." He looked away, "I used it to create this, it is no more"
"What? How is that possible?"
"I bought the Paw for a single penny. It must be sold for less. I used the last of it's magic to create this. " He motioned at the key. "I will sell you the key for 100 Dollars. You can sell it for..."
"Yeah, I know, $99.99, I get it. Okay, I'll buy it." I handed him a hundred dollar bill.
"Take your merchandise."
The moment my fingers touched the key, I was standing on the sidewalk in front of the store I had just been inside. However, this building was burned out. I wasn't sure how this happened, but I knew I wanted to leave, to get home and make my wish.
---------------
​
"I wish my family's business was thriving and had never failed." Similar to the paw, the key had markings and one of them disappeared as I felt a shock through my arm. I was suddenly imbued with knowledge of how to revive my family business. But that was it. "Well shit, I still have to do the work? That sucks." I decided to get in bed and start in the morning....
Little did I know...
Snowdog1967 t1_jcbmn9c wrote
<Part 2>
My brain was racing the entire night. I'm not sure if I slept more than a few minutes, but I jumped out of bed a few minutes before the alarm went off and I wasn't even upset about it. With new focus, I quickly showered and got ready to go to work. I grabbed my laptop that I normally never brought and ran down to the bus to take it to work instead of driving. Once on the bus, I opened the computer and started typing up a business plan. I dashed through it, and started working on financials, something I left up to my mother usually, and realized that we were leaving money on the table in several places. I pulled examples over to the business plan and finished up right at the stop in front of our business. There were several of our employees on the bus with me and they watched with fascination as I powered through the work I was doing.
"Hi Mom, Dad, we need to talk about this place." I said as I went up to their offices. We overlooked the factory floor in a very traditional arrangement.
"What now son? Are you quitting again to find yourself?" My father used air quotes around the last bit. He had heard numerous excuses from me over the years, and I totally deserved the remark.
"No Dad, I FOUND something. And I think it will turn this business around. Take a look. Come to the conference room. Get the line managers up here too. They can tell the others." I didn't even wait for an answer and walked into our conference room with a huge projector hanging from the ceiling. Today, it warmed up right away instead of the 5 to 10 minutes it usually took. I started projecting from my laptop and began my speil.
15 minutes into my presentation, my father, who had been transfixed the entire time held up his hand. "Where did you come up with all of this?"
"Last night. I couldn't sleep" I responded. I wasn't going to tell them about the Wishmaker's Key yet. Them knowing the source could actually make this backfire hard.
"uh huh..." he nodded. "And, you say we can do this now, and give our workers raises and better benefits?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, it's kind of imperative that we start there with the other changes too. Those changes drive the efficiencies. It was on slide 5."
A line manager raised his hand, "If this kicks off like this in the spreadsheet, you guys are going to get rich."
"No, we ALL will get rich, because of the profit sharing platform. Again, Before we weren't in the same boat. I am putting us all in the same boat we will all build together, and this will work." I couldn't believe I was able to form the the presentation and then give it to all of these people. Because, I was a fuck up. Or, I had been.
Within 6 weeks, the business was going gangbusters, and I was able find resolution to the problems of a growing business. And, I had 2 wishes left.
​
What next?
USPO-222 t1_jcbtzny wrote
What next? Why love of course. Then might as well go for the final bit of the wish-trifecta and ask for immortality.
MegaM0nkey t1_jcd6r20 wrote
Now the question is, how would such a device grant immortality? Would it hand over the secrets to make one immortal? Send you on a accident that would make you such? Make you famous enough to live on forever through your work should immortality be impossible?
xxDubbz OP t1_jcdgtq0 wrote
It would probably create a scientific breakthrough somewhere, and you'll be given an opportunity as a test subject for an experiment for some type of drug or something that prevents aging.
Keep in mind it's also able to grant supernatural/magical things, but it will do so in the closest way to reality.
ChevroletSparkSS t1_jcdnfc1 wrote
So if someone were to wish for say, something ridiculous as a catgirl girlfriend, the key would lead the current owner to meeting one and the 2 somehow hitting it off?
Gee, wouldn't that be terrible /s
LostFireHorse t1_jcdua1n wrote
Catherine walks into our protagonists office and with a smile introduces herself.
"Hi, I'm Cat. I'm new here," she says...
Fuck it, close enough :)
ChevroletSparkSS t1_jcdv56l wrote
Catherine also has between 2 and 7 cats and has cat ear headphones for when she streams on Twitch on the weekends.
Either that or the beanie she always wears to work is hiding the fact she actually has cat ears.
xxDubbz OP t1_jcdo18x wrote
I mean, you'd have to find a way to hit it off since it doesn't outright grant it but yeah pretty much
ChevroletSparkSS t1_jcdouqq wrote
It would still generate the opportunity is what I meant, I should have clarified, my bad. It just opens to door to what you want, whether the door is an actual door or something less concrete than that, and you just have to pull the other half of the weight.
Might be a bit but I might have a story based on this in a moment.
Zorro5040 t1_jcfk1yz wrote
You meet a girl that acts like a cat and pees on your stuff. If your into that stuff of course.
SignuptodY t1_jcd9hq6 wrote
Nah, the third wish is to undo the first 2.
drsoftware t1_jccog0y wrote
Expand the business, sell or get rich, repeat until you can solve bigger problems, then ask the key for help solving them.... Eventually sell key to a likeminded trusted person and save the people and planet.
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