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Article Excerpt
TOBY ALWAYS MAKES A WISH for Christmas. It almost always comes true. The only time it doesn't is when he wishes for too much, and even then he always gets at least a part of it.
The gift only seems to work at Christmastime. The rest of the year he can wish all he wants, but he has to work just as hard as everyone else to make anything happen. At Christmas, though, he only needs to make his wish, go to sleep on the night of the twenty-fourth, and by New Year's he gets what he asked for.
It has worked like that ever since he was a kid. The candy truck that crashed in the front yard; the house fire that didn't kill Bobby Dorton, the school bully, but did make his family move away; the exhibitionist who moved in next door when he was a little bit older--all were manifestations of Toby's peculiar gift.
None of his wishes are ever delivered in a package under the tree, but Toby has always thought it must be Santa Claus who grants them just the same. Who else could it be? Certainly not Jesus, unless the Son of God is going through a rebellious phase. Toby doesn't ask for anyone's death anymore, but he doesn't use his wishes on goody-goody stuff, either. He tried that a couple of times, and once had the great joy of watching Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin sign a peace treaty brokered by President Carter, but it had taken nine months to happen and it hadn't lasted. And the other time, when the Berlin Wall came down, hadn't exactly turned out rosy for the Russians, either.
He doesn't muck around with world politics anymore, but he doesn't waste his gift, either. He spends the entire year mulling over his next wish. He has notebooks full of possibilities, but he's always open to new ideas. In fact it has become a bit of an obsession. With only one wish a year, he wants to make the most of them.
Except this year he can't decide. He doesn't have everything a man could wish for, but he's comfortable. He has money, a nice house, a wife whom he loves and who loves him, popularity,...
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