Magic-A-Life

It was a bright, sunny day when up the road a large blue suit case floated and then, coming to rest upon a doormat, outside the door of a little redbrick house, opened up all by itself then, up out of the suitcase, popped a man dressed like a wizard in robes of bright blue covered in yellow stars with a long white beard and carrying a magic wand in one hand with which he knocked three times upon the door.

 

The door opened and a woman answered it.

 

“Good day madam”, said the man in wizards robes, bowing, “I represent the magic-a-life company; the company that gives you the life you always dreamed of. Is your life dull and repetitive? Do you ever wish it was more exciting? Well the magic-a-life company is here to help. For one day only, the magic-a-life company is offering you a unique opportunity to try our product absolutely free with no strings attached. All you have to do is pick from among our exciting range of lives and the magic-a-life company will do the rest, whizzing you off by magic to the glamorous lifestyle or exotic location of your choice”.

 

“No thank you”, said the woman, shaking her head, “I have the life I want, being a housewife and mother and I’m quite happy with it”.

 

The salesman seemed quite surprised,

 

“But wouldn’t you rather be a spacewoman or a prize winning scientist or a football player or run a big company?”, he asked.

 

“No”, said the woman, “This is the only life I want, being at home and looking after my kids. It may not suit everyone but it suits me fine”.

 

The salesman started to despair,

 

“Please, Madam”, he said, “Won’t you at least try some of our amazing lives; it’s absolutely free. If you don’t like any of them you don’t have to buy anything but once you’ve seen some of the fabulous lives we have to offer, I’m sure you’ll change your mind”.

 

“Well”, said the woman, thinking for a moment, “Okay, if it won’t take too long”.

 

“Don’t worry about that madam”, said the salesman, waving his wand, “With the help of my magic wand here, I can stop time; turn it back to front; speed it up; do anything I want, so the magic-a-life’s free demonstration can all be done in the blink of an eye”.

 

And then, suddenly, before the woman knew what had happened, she was no longer standing in her door way but sitting at the desk of a large office; dressed in a suit and tie.

 

“Where am I she asked?”, looking round about, surprised.

 

“A better question madam, would be who are you”, said the Salesman, “You are the dynamic head of a large company with hundreds of thousands of employees and spend all day making important decisions and doing big business deals that make billions of dollars”.

 

“Oh?”, said the woman, looking troubled, “Oh, I don’t think I would want that kind of responsibility, making deals and decisions that would affect the lives of all those people. There would be so much pressure on me. At the moment I only have to worry about two people, my two children and that’s hard enough”.

 

“No problem, madam”, said the Salesman, “We have lots of lives to choose from”.

 

Then the Salesman waved his wand again and, suddenly, the woman realised they were not in an office anymore but in a laboratory full of racks of test tubes and Bunsen burners and bubbling beakers full of strange brightly coloured liquid and that she had magically changed from her business suit into a long white lab coat.

 

“Am I a scientist?”, asked the woman.

 

“That is correct madam”, said the Salesman, “And not just any scientist but a highly respected one; winner of the coveted Nobble prize for Chemistry”.

 

“Oh but I don’t like Chemistry”, said the woman, yawning, “I was hopeless at science when I was at school. I always thought it was very boring”.

 

The salesman sighed,

 

“Not to worry, madam”, he said, waving his wand again, “We have other lives you can look at. Perhaps you might like this one better”.

 

Suddenly, looking round about her, the woman saw that she was standing on a stage in front of a microphone and a crowd of hundreds of cheering people all waiting to hear her sing.

 

“Oh no”, she said, turning to the salesman and panicking, “I couldn’t do this. I’m much too shy and I can’t sing for toffee”.

 

“But you’re a big music star”, said the Salesman, “You’ve got dozens of gold records and you live in a large mansion and have thousands of devoted fans”.

 

“But I don’t want those things”, said the woman, now looking very unhappy, “Please, I was happy with the life I had before. Please, take me back”.

 

The salesmen groaned, disappointedly,

 

“Very well, Madam”, he said, waving his wand, “As you wish”.

 

Now, relieved, the woman looked round about her and saw that she was back home, standing on her doorstep just as before.

 

“Are you quite sure you wouldn’t like to try just one more life, madam?”, asked the Salesman, “Perhaps an athlete or an explorer or a doctor in a hospital?”.

 

“Yes”, she said, “I’m quite sure. If I had wanted one of those other lives, I probably would have chosen it for myself but, no, this is the life for me. The life in which I feel happiest”.

 

So then, bowing and doffing his pointy, star covered wizards hat, the salesman tapped his wand against his suit case three times and the case opened by itself and he was just about to get into it and leave when the woman said,

“You’ve done so much for me, today. Why don’t you come in and have a cup of tea?”.

 

The Salesman smiled,

 

“Thank you”, he said, “I don’t mind if I do”.

 

So then the woman took the Salesman inside and, sitting down in her living room, he relaxed and had a lovely cup of tea.

 

“Perhaps a quiet life isn’t so bad after all”, he said.

 

But then the woman’s little son and daughter came running into the room, screaming and shouting and giggling excitedly.

 

“Oh no”, said the woman, chuckling, “Quiet is one thing my life is most certainly not”.