***WARNING TO OTHER READERS!!! SPOILER ALERT. I WILL BE DISCUSSING PLOT POINTS***
First of all, Dave, let me say
AMAZING story. Not sure what I was expecting, but what I got was a thought-provoking borderline-horror story with elements of Sci Fi mixed in.
Stanley feels like a real person with real regrets and fears, but that isn't what I am going to talk about. What really got me was the machine. He called it a Retron, but I internally think of it as a "genie box" because it makes what you type true, but... Possibly not always what you intended, like a classical Djinn. I'll get to that in a minute. For now, let's call it the machine.
Now, it appears to me how the machine functions is that it either alters the timeline you are in to make your wish true, or, more likely, it transports you to a universe where your wish is true. I say more likely this because the actions performed by people are different, not the physical world itself, which brings multiverse theory into play and suggests insertion into a different universe rather than alteration of reality, directly. Either way the effect is the same: the past is altered for you and everyone around you.
Stanley's first wish was a disaster, at least it seems so to me. "I do not have a hangover," was so simple. However, and this is where I believe "horror" came into play, the machine didn't just alleviate his hangover. I believe it eliminated it from the timeline altogether... With consequences.
Like his other wishes that we KNOW will alter the past, Stanley quickly experienced a clarifying of reality following his wish. His hangover is gone... But he also never mentions it again, leading me to conclude it
never happened in the first place. My conclusion is Stanley didn't have a hangover because he never drank himself into a stupor. He had no reason to; his night was uneventful. He was never assaulted in the parking lot (something else he never mentions again after his handover cure, despite its relevancy) by Brian Downing and never berated by his wife. Downing didn't go to the ballpark that night to settle the score with the old man. He went to Amanda herself. Whatever exactly happened, readers will never know. I expect the difference was Amanda or, possibly, one of her children fought back, amplifying Brian's rage and inciting increased violence (Stanley never fought back and, to a man like Downing, was not worth continuing the fight for). The end result of these changes was: no hangover for Stanley (and also a triple homicide).
Yes. I posit that Stanley's wish "caused" the death of Owen's family. In the end, Brian Downing was actually the one responsible, but Stanley’s wish bumped him into a universe where Downing murdered his family rather than setting Stanley on the path to Hangoverville. I'm just happy Stanley was never aware of his "Monkey's Paw"-like wish.
Stanley’s second wish, however... He is more careful and detailed with that one, with better results. He deleted his marriage to Alicia. The result, he was NEVER married to her. She became just a nurse at the clinic that he knew. I presume she became more pleasant as well. After all her bitterness had come from expectations of an easy life quashed by reality. She had never taken that job at the clinic, which she clearly had resented and had directed her anger at Stanley. Now, those feelings may very well be gone. She is fending for herself instead of wallowing in self-loathing. Note: There is no “evidence” in the story that makes me feel Alicia’s life ended up happier. That is mostly wishful thinking on my part along with me trying to reason part of the ripple of the Third Wish (more on that later).
Now, I will bring up a question and attempt to answer it: Why did the second wish not result in a twist? My answer for that is the machine is not malicious - merely efficient. It gives you your wish in totality while changing nothing about the physical world directly and probably with as few “alterations” made as possible. The wishes being granted are not magic; they are the result of a shift into a possible universe in which your wish is true. As a result of the first wish, Brian chose to go to Amanda instead. Only one change was made –one choice was altered - that rippled into catastrophe. The second wish could have been fulfilled by Stanley having murdered Alicia years ago or Alicia having left him, but both of those "twists" go against what choices those characters WOULD make. The only place where the path could be plausibly diverted at the beginning, before the two were settled in their “programming” (as Stanley calls it). Unfortunately for Bennett, attacking his own family was a choice that Brian Downing absolutely
would make and it was the most likely alternate to attacking Stanley that still fulfilled the wish of “no hangover.”
As a direct result of the second wish, Owen confesses that the only thing that had held him back from rekindling his relationship with Stanley was his obligation to his children following his wife's tragic death. I think this conversation would never have come up had Stanley been married to Alicia. With Alicia Fielding in the picture, there were too many obstacles between the men. With her never in the picture to begin with, just one. And with this knowledge, Stanley made his final - and most specific - wish.
Stanley wishes for himself to be living with Owen who amicably divorced his wife. This wish is the most specific of all and probably altered more than one choice in the “original” timeline. The result of this is: Well.. a happy ending. Owen and Stanley are married. Cait and Bennett (and, presumably, Amanda) are still alive and living happily with Owen and Lee. Victoria is still alive and actually friends with Owen and Stanley! She’s even re-married! What happened?
My guess here is Owen and Stanley getting married changed everything for everyone. Amanda allowed her father and his husband to raise her kids, giving them a better environment. This choice knocked Brian Downing out of Bennett’s life. It’s possible Downing isn’t permitted to be around Bennett by Owen and Stanley and its equally possible that Downing simply doesn’t want to be around two homosexual men just to see his son. However, I think it is most likely that Downing doesn’t even know he is the father. Amanda, not requiring the potential economic support a father is supposed to provide, probably never told him. Whatever the actual reason, Downing is not in their lives and their lives have improved.
The other BIG change is Victoria being alive. I am just going to take a guess and say that she had died of something preventable that never got noticed by Owen due to his own lack of attraction to Victoria AND his busy schedule managing a supermarket. Her new husband, however noticed something was amiss and got her treatment (possibly involving a particular nurse mentioned in Wish Two at the clinic).
In the end, all three parameters are fulfilled:
There is no hangover
Alicia is not Stanley Fielding’s Wife
Stanley is living with Owen, who amicably divorced his wife and rekindled his love
I just wish I could know for sure if my little theories and analyses were correct, but…
Perhaps I should be careful for what I wish for! *cue annoyed groans*
