Windward Review Vol. 20 (2022): Beginnings and Endings

move. The display of it was wanting but
easily fixed with the purchase of a glass,
bell-shaped dome on a wooden platform.
The dedicated tongs also had received a
stand of their own in the same stroke.
Many months later and on her
many idle days, Antimony contemplated
the monkey paw. It became an exercise in
pondering her unsatisfactory life. Of all
the things she needed, of all the things
she wanted, and of all the things she had
to change. There were only five fingers
and she supposed that this was why
wishes often reached for broad effects—
to make the most of them. Perhaps the
consequences that followed were less the
result of malice and more attributed to a
lack of power to cleanly fulfill a wish. It
was clearly not comparable to something
like Djinni who often possessed the
power and scope but could intentionally
twist wishes towards their own desires.
If it were the genuine article,
Antimony figured it would have done
something by now. It’s how the stories
went anyhow. Her life circumstances
were no worse than before, no convoluted
circumstances compelled her to wish
them different, and she certainly wasn’t
squandering anything on easily fixable
inconveniences when the backlash could
be so disproportionately dire.
The malcontent toward life and
its daily grind returned to the forefront
of her mind. No matter how many new
skills attempted, vision boards made,
visualizations mediated, gratitude
journals filled, social circles joined, or
new experiences rendered, she felt that
nothing moved forward. Not even the
move to an entirely new location with a
new job afforded her any significant or
fulfilling change. It merely resumed as
another environment with all the old
trappings. Perhaps all her efforts were
too halfhearted or the discipline of her
endeavors too wanting, Antimony didn’t
possess much of a drive to keep pace with
modern life, and that she acknowledged
of herself.
As ridiculous as it was, she began to
seriously consider the monkey paw more
and more as her weariness festered over
the months. Antimony felt exhausted in
her efforts at self-improvement and her
bank account was all the weakened for
them.
Wealth. That she could certainly
use. Money could not outright buy
happiness, but it was the great facilitator
and the tremendous remover of
limitations and obstacles. Antimony had
no need for the excess of the super rich
to sit upon and growth for the sole sake
of growth. It would be worth enough
to simply liberate herself from the
dependence on the daily grind to provide.
Sufficient wealth would give her more
freedom to invest in her hobbies and
wants. Greater than that, it would enable
her to throw money at all the artists,
artisans, self-starters, independents,
and general creatives she admired and
appreciated without any compromise to
her own circumstances. After all, they
had the courageous passion to pursue
their own avenues and deserved to have
their financial concerns alleviated in full
favor of bringing more to the world as
well as flourishing as individuals. Yes,
wealth would certainly set her free.
She stood over the monkey paw but
did not remove it from its glass display
until she fully and carefully considered
her wish. The best approach was not
to reach too far and also to localize the
imagined consequences to herself. It was
through a restrained selfishness that she
could help herself before helping others.
With an odd gravitas, she removed the
monkey paw, grasped it with bare hands,
and wished in all its stipulations. None
of its fingers so much as twitched, and
Antimony hastily set it back down before
she had any errant thoughts. In the dead
quiet of her home, she felt nothing but
29 Windward Review Volume 20