"Now who is that?" I asked as I went to the door. For some reason I decided not to call out and ask who was
there, which I normally did. Instead I gazed through the peephole. I was shocked to see Adam standing
outside. I thought as fast as I could. I wished silently that Adam would not be able to hear either me or
Rachel for the time being. I turned back to Rachel and said, "It's Adam." Before she could say anything I
explained, "I made a wish he can't hear us. What do you want to do?"
Rachel looked worried. "How does he look?" she asked.
I looked back through the peephole and tried to ascertain his disposition. I said to Rachel, "He looks a
little beat up. And a little sad."
"The cops had to subdue him," she said.
Adam knocked on the door again. "Joe, are you home?" he called through the door.
"Shit, what do you want to do?" I asked Rachel.
She took a deep breath. "You think the ring can protect us if we'll need it?" she asked. I nodded. "Then
let him in." Just as I was about to open the door, Rachel said, "The bruises!"
"You're right," I said. "I wish that Rachel's bruises would return, but in appearance only so that they do
not cause any physical pain." The ring did its work and Rachel looked as beat up as she did when she knocked
on my door yesterday.
"I don't feel anything, are they there?" she asked. I nodded. "OK, let's do this."
I wished that Adam could hear us now. I opened the door slowly, and only slightly, so that he couldn't look
into the apartment from his vantage point. "What can I do for you, Adam?" I asked.
"I'm looking for Rachel," he said. "I know I'm gonna get in more trouble, but I need to talk to her. Is she
here?"
"Yea, she's here," I answered. I tried to act tough and said, "Why should I let you in?"
His expression soured. But it turned to one of hurt rather than one of anger. "Come on, man," he said.
"I...I need to talk to her. I'm not going to do anything."
I sighed at him. "I'm going to hold you to that," I said. I opened the door and allowed him to enter.
He walked in just a few steps and caught sight of Rachel glaring at him from the couch. "Oh..." he said. He
looked genuinely stunned at her appearance. He covered his eyes with his hands. "What the hell did I do?" he
whispered.
We both heard him, however. Rachel got off the couch and slowly walked towards him. "You beat the shit out
of me, you asshole," she said. I had never heard Rachel speak with such hatred in her voice. Since she
didn't want to take any kind of overt revenge against him, I wondered if she was genuinely angry or not.
"Don't you want to admire your work?" she asked.
Adam uncovered his face and looked right at her. "Of course I don't!" he protested. "You think I'm proud of
what I did?"
"Yes," she said. "Because it took two policemen to pull you off me."
Adam winced at her words. It was as if every word she hurled at him was an arrow dipped in poison. He looked
back at me and asked, "Can you leave us alone?"
"Absolutely not!" Rachel said. "This is Joe's apartment, he gets to be where he wants to be."
I tried to broker the peace and said, "Why don't we all go sit in the kitchen?" I led them to the kitchen
where I had a table around which we could all sit. I made sure to sit in between them so I could at least
block a direct path to Rachel if Adam tried anything.
Once we were situated Rachel looked at Adam and said, "I swore out a restraining order. I could have you
arrested again," she said. It could have been taken for a taunt if not for the fact that her face was dead
serious and cold.
"I know that," he said. "It's a chance I have to take."
"Well say what you want," she replied.
Adam took a deep breath. "Rachel, I just don't know what came over me," he began. "I really don't. I'm not
gonna try and make excuses either. There just is no excuse for what I did. I'm a lot of things, but I never
thought I was someone who'd...who would do what I did." Neither of us said anything. Adam continued, "I
guess I've got problems I didn't know about. No matter what happens, I've gotta take care of them. So what I
really came to say was I'll stay away from you. I'll have to accept you don't wanna be with me. I don't
expect you to believe me, but I am sorry. If you can, try to remember whatever good things we had. If you
wanna hate me, I'll have to accept it." He stood up from the table. He looked at me and said, "Thanks for
letting me in, Joe." He looked at Rachel again. She stared ahead and did not look at him. "Bye, babe," he
said. "I'll just show myself out," he said to me.
With that, he walked out of the kitchen and then out of the apartment. I waited a few seconds and then went
to the door myself. I looked out of the peephole to see if he was still there. He was not. I quietly opened
the door and peeked my head into the hallway. It was empty. I closed the door and called to Rachel, "He's
gone."
She stood up from the kitchen table and walked back to me. "Good," she said. "Can you get rid of these
bruises again?" she asked. I complied and wished them away. "What did you think?" she asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know him well enough," I said. "But he seemed pretty sincere. Like you
said, you could just call the police and have him arrested again. He had to know that." But then a thought
entered my head. "And yet..." I started but my voice trailed off into silence.
"What?" Rachel asked confusedly.
"I was thinking back to when I wished for world peace," I explained. "I worded it so that no person would
ever consider violence as a reasonable means of action against another person. And I made that wish just
before you came over here, so it was after he did it."
"What are you saying?" she asked.
"That my wish might have made him remorseful," I said. "He might never had said anything if I never made that
wish. Or he might have tried to do something else."
Rachel looked devastated. "So what should I do?" she asked as she threw up her hands. "Have him arrested
again?"
I thought for a minute. "How about this?" I asked. "I don't know if this will work, but we'll try. I wish
that Rachel would know if Adam was truly sincere in everything he just said and whether or not it was just a
byproduct of my world peace wish."
I looked at Rachel and was horrified to see her head convulse slightly as her eyeballs twitched and fluttered.
After a few seconds her eyes went wide and she let out a deep breath. She stumbled forward and I caught her
to make sure she did not fall. "Oh, God," she said as she gasped for air. "I don't think we should do that
again."
"Did it work though?" I asked.
She straightened herself and stood up straight. She thought for a second. "Yes," she said slowly. "Yes, it
did work. He was sincere. It wasn't the wish at all."
"Do you know why he did it?" I asked.
Again she thought for a few seconds. "No, not really," she said. "I assume he snapped. You only wished for
me to know if he was affected by your wish, not why he did it. And before you ask, no, I don't want to know
why. It's not important anymore. He was sincere, so...it's time to move on."
"OK, then," I said. "Before we were interrupted, you said you had an idea. What was it?"