The Magical Wedge chapter 2

A Woman Holding a Heart

Mr. Johnson is now middle – aged. Over the past twenty – odd years, the town has changed dramatically. The farmland has been divided among the villagers, and the young men in the town have gone to big cities like New York or Los Angeles to work. Life has improved, but Mr. Johnson is still alone and has never remarried.

One evening, after dinner, Mr. Johnson watched TV for a while and then went to bed. He had just fallen asleep when he was awakened by a loud knock on the door. Wrapping himself in a robe, he asked, “Who is it? Why are you knocking on the door in the middle of the night?”

“I have an urgent matter, sir. I’ve heard that you’re the best carpenter in the area. I need you to do a carpentry job for me,” came a soft female voice from outside. Mr. Johnson’s heart softened. He opened the door and saw two women standing in the dark. One was a young woman in her twenties, supporting an older woman. When the young woman saw Mr. Johnson open the door, she quickly helped the older woman into the yard. “Sir, my mother is old and has heart problems. We hope you can make a wooden heart for her.”

Mr. Johnson was shocked. “I’m just a carpenter. You should go to a doctor if you need a heart replacement!”

“Please, sir. We’re far from home and have no other choice. Just make a wooden heart for her to use for now,” the young woman pleaded pitifully. The older woman remained silent, with her face hidden in the shadows, covering her chest with her hand and groaning. The groan sounded familiar to Mr. Johnson.

Mr. Johnson thought this was absurd. How could a wooden heart replace a real one? But he was soft – hearted and couldn’t resist the young woman’s pleading. Finally, he agreed. He took out his tools and retrieved the last piece of wood left from the puppet he made over twenty years ago. After working all night, he finally finished a wooden heart. Mr. Johnson’s skills were truly remarkable. This wooden heart was made up of one hundred small wooden strips, each as big as a fingernail and as thin as a melon seed, held together by eighty – one wooden wedges. The inside of the “heart” was hollow, allowing it to expand and contract like a real heart.

Mr. Johnson handed the wooden heart to the young woman. Her face lit up. She took the wooden heart and stuffed it into the older woman’s arms. In a blink of an eye, the wooden heart disappeared, and in the young woman’s hand was a still – slightly – beating, bloody heart. It was distorted, looking like a lump of meat that had been squeezed and twisted by a great force.