[classic story but I felt like banging it out again as if PG Wodehouse had been reading too much Lovecraft.]
After dinner, we met in the salon to smoke illegally imported cigars and drink out of heated goblets, each boasting of our recent deeds in business and science. If the papers had ever got wind of our secret parties, we'd have been branded conspiring robber barons in the throws of permissible hedonism yet the doors remained closed to all but our selected elite.
"Gentlemen, please," he began. "I've summoned you all today to unveil something that will end all matters of wealth, fame and fortune one and for all."
"You're not proposing another collective of industrialists, are you? A healthy competition stimulates the economy, my good man." another laughed from his arm chair beside the fire place, feet propped up on an ottoman.
"Not tonight, my friend. Tonight I want to show you something that I've managed to acquire with not a little skillful negotiation. Something that will make even our wildest dreams a reality. If you please."
A large box under a drape was wheeled into the centre of the room as we gathered around, curious at whatever new invention he had managed to purchase, copy or steal. As he drew back the cloth, our eyes met with less than impressive sight. A simple chest with a single large black switch on the top.
"This, gentleman, will end all illusions of wealth and power with simple flick of a switch." The man beamed enthusiastically at the box.
"That's all well and good but what is it?"
"Why, obviously It's mechanized genie-in-a-lamp, a wish making machine!"
"What rot! A machine that grants wishes? You're having us on."
"I surely am not. This took the better part of a fortune to procure and I still haven't tested it for myself but I can assure you that this machine is the legitimate article for granting your wildest fantasies."
"Whatever do you mean, how did you come by this chest?"
"An interesting tale. I was overseas, dealing with some potential business with a prince of the Shahs about mining interests. I had spent the afternoon touring their street markets for any baubles for souvenirs when I was approached by a seedy looking man who told me he had the ultimate prize of interest but he had to get rid of it now. Naturally I found the idea of doing business with such a shady looking character repugnant but something about him piqued my interested and I followed him into his offices. That's where he explained that he had to unload this device immediately and gave me a demonstration of its power."
"Where did he get this contraption, man?"
"I am not sure but I did a little research of my own after I had left him with the device. I imagine it belonged to a secret society that began during the high period of Caliphates of Iran, when they were the centre for all the sciences in the world."
"That would make it over three hundred years old, sir. Stuff and nonsense, it's clearly a modern chest with a switch affixed to the top of it. How did you verify its authenticity? I hope you realize this makes it appear you were bamboozled by a common shyster."
"If you'll permit me to continue, sir? I took the article to the museum of antiquity to have it checked out. Inside were examples of devices, interconnected in the most ingenious of ways, whose purposes weren't entirely clear. Professors scoured the contraption, noting that most of the materials and levels of technology could very well possibly if not plausibly be dated to the time that this machine was alleged to be constructed. Mind you, I had no doubt of its effectiveness."
"What was the evidence that this machine works? I still believe this story is utter rot but you've got me curious to see how far you'll spin the yarn."
"I assure you that within the offices of the man I purchased this from, a veritable miracle happened. The man said is a clear loud voice 'I want a bird' and twisted the knob and instantly a bird appeared before him. Straight out of the thin air, it popped up in front of his face and flew away."
"Astounding! You're not having us on, old boy? A living bird appeared out of nowhere thanks to this box?"
"Indeed it did. Naturally I did not allow the scientists at the museum to attempt to use the box lest they coveted its functions but I did gain a little insight into who build the box."
"A mad arab genius from the dusty annals of history, no doubt?"
"The very same. Apparently he had included some working blue prints, written on a thin parchment and wrapped around one of the mechanisms in the device. He signed the papers Abdul Alhazred."
"Have you used the device yet for yourself? What will you ask for, fellow?"
"I haven't been so bold yet. I was waiting to include you, my esteemed peers and comrades, in the the inaugural request."
"Oh, thank you."
"Good fellow, good fellow"
"Astounding, what shall we wish for?"
"Well, I've have been pondering that very issue for a long time now. Needless to say that all of us have been fortunately blessed with our circumstances. We need not any more fame, power or wealth to our names and we're regarded as the most successful individuals in our affairs in the entire new world. So what does one who has everything wish for?"
"It's a tough question to swallow, perhaps another drink will get us digesting the issue."
"I put forward, gentleman, that when I bought this device, this mechanical merlin, that the only question left to us is 'are we happy?' Are we as a collective satisfied with our status remaining as it is and using this device for sheer entertainment or do we as men feel a need for something more?"
"What are you suggesting? Not too much, I've had quite a lot tonight."
"I am proposing that with a single wish, we end the motivation, the drive we've felt all our lives. The purpose that made us the men we are today by amassing such wealth and power over men. This need that we cannot seem to fill so we continue our business schemes and our power brokering. I want to wish for us all to have complete happiness."
"'Complete Happiness?' You mean to have this machine will grant us our hearts' most secret desire. Something so buried inside us that we might not even know it ourselves?"
"Exactly, gentleman. It's a question that will show us our true selves as well as ending any need for us to dally around with issues that affect the lives of so many lesser people."
"Wait, gentlemen, wait! What if nothing happens, what if this is the best that we can be? I couldn't face the fact that all I will ever be is in this room now. You said yourself that we all feel the need for more. Knowledge that this is the best we can be will so frustrating it will positively drive me insane."
"Yes, there is that danger, I agree. But we are men who have pulled ourselves up, carved our name into the walls of time so people generations from now will remember us. We shouldn't be afraid of the risks involved with something like this device. Nay, we should embrace them as the thrill of the hunt that has spurned us on so many years into the great men we are today."
"I agree, it adds a sense of adventure to the plot. In a moment, we will all have our hearts' desires made real. Nothing else matters now that we have the device in our possession. Make the wish, sir. You've delayed us long enough with your account. Make the wish."
"Gentlemen, to your good health and happiness for all eternity."
"Cheers!"
"Hear, Hear!"
"All for one and one for all and so on, chaps!"
"And here we go: Magic Box, I would like every man in this room granted his heart's most secret and darkest wish for truest and complete happiness."
"Oh, well played, well played."
And with that flick of the switch the wish was granted. I am sure it was nearly morning of the next day when they found us all laying on the ground around the magical box, cold grim masks of horror twisting our lifeless features. Our death masks after a lifetime of hard work and a moment of true happiness.
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