Restoration

It is time for another fairy tale or elf tale as it were.

Once upon a time, just before the time when  elfin magic got all tangled up in American politics, there was an old couple who got a wish from an elf named Larkin Fife. Like all elf wishes it had horrible consequences and they found themselves living in the back of their van on the wrong side of town, the side of town where people live whose wishes or dreams have failed them  . On a very cold day the old man decided   they had lived that way long enough. So they moved to the front of the van and drove to Madison. There they went to live with their son  Oscar.

The son was happy to have his mother and father come and stay. He was divorced and a very bad housekeeper and his mother soon put the house in order. There was more than enough room except on week ends when Oscars children, who lived with  an ex-wife came and stayed with him. Even then it was only slightly crowded.

The old man, who had been a lawyer, before he retired went every day to the big law library at the University. There he visited a little alcove that not even the librarian knew existed. It contained all the books the University had collected on Elfen law. It contained every case where a human had sued an elf because of a wish gone bad. There were one hundred and fifty  two cases. The cases that interested our old man were the one’s that humans won. There were fifty one of those.  and the entire transcript of every case as presented in Elf Court was included. Only one case was of real value to o our old man. In all the others the winners had received one or two new wishes but there was no way that our old man wanted anything to do with another wish. No ! He wanted Restoration. Everything had to be put back as it was before the wish as if the wish never happened. Elves hate to do Restoration. It’s like admitting there is some flaw in their magic. They would rather give you three new wishes.

One could of course take the new wish and wish everything back the way  it was. But this is not the same as Restoration. Indeed the new wish carries the same risk as any wish and comes from different magic