The Magic Pillows

A dashing newlywed couple in Haddonfield gets a set of 'magic pillows' which illuminates a strange dream.

An eerie American newlywed tale inspired loosely by The Gift of the Magi. 

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A newlywed couple moves into a Haddonfield (NJ/USA) suburban area and decides to build a home-environment conducive to modern American stable life, seeking something more 'magical' and sane than what's ordinary.

The couple is an Algerian-American (Amlan) and an Irish-American (Shelbye) who both studied at Dartmouth before beginning work with Interpol in Northern Ireland before moving to NJ/USA to retire in Haddonfield with their impressive pension. They got married and Amlan decided Haddonfield would be perfect for his new goal in life --- to write the great American novel!

SHELBYE: I stand by my husband Amlan, a brilliant writer; and we're building this Haddonfield charmer together now!

The two get a very nice set of furniture from IKEA and Ethan Allen and then Amlan purchases a rather handsome Aiwa glassy silver stereo-set and enjoy playing Irish/Algerian folk music-CDs on it. This is turning out to be a rather prototypical American residence for the late-30s aged Ivy League couple who may as well be in a stereo-magazine home-furnishings/styles ad.

SHELBYE: I got us this great incense for our Haddonfield home, and I also put up a quaint incense-folk print on our wall!

Incense is quite soothing for a newlywed couple in NJ/USA, and it seems to foster a nice creative environment for Amlan to work on his novel in peace/sanity, which he's doing thanks to the atmospherics of the home Shelbye's made rather delicious/comfy/aromatic!

However, this tale isn't about the incense or the stereo or even the Haddonfield location of the couple. No, it's actually about this 'magical' set of bright-yellow-and-light-blue sewn pillow-set that Shelbye got for their living room sofa. This set of 'magic pillows' seems to bring new charm/life to the room and to the entire home shared now by Amlan/Shelbye. However, these 'magic pillows' aren't ordinary --- in fact, they induce in the newlyweds a set of lucid dream-sleep imagery about floating in the clouds as wealthy folk.

About a year later, a strange salesman named Ralphie knocks on the door of their Haddonfield home and insists on selling them Berskhires timeshare real-estate. While selling the timeshare property, Ralphie notes the wondrous 'feature' of the blue-and-yellow 'magic pillows' in the Haddonfield home and insists on buying them from Amlan/Shelbye for his own home. When they refuse, he has to be ushered out of the house and persists on knocking until they call the police and have him escorted away!

AMLAN: Ralphie is an American psycho, and I dunno why he wouldn't think those were our pillows!
SHELBYE: There's something in those blue-and-yellow pillows, Amlan my dear, that may make folks...dance.

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"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)

Reviews

[TamsinDaya]

This story is quite interesting. I'd love to know a bit more about what the pillows could do, why the salesman wanted them and even more about the salesman himself.

Have you thought about expanding on this?