A Marriage Fable

By J Cafesin

Are you married? Ever wish your husband was... better?

A modern twist on A Christmas Carol, A MARRIAGE FABLE is a novella, another tall tale of the powerful genie, Finnegus Boggs, and his lessons on love that inspires Andrew Wyman, a typical modern-day husband on the eve of his 25th wedding anniversary, to become a better husband, father, and man.

“A Marriage Fable does for Valentine's Day what A Christmas Carol did for Christmas Day. A Must Read romantic fantasy!”
– BJ Fera, Goodreads

• Language: English
• Publisher: J Cafesin
• Release date: Nov 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781732543126

J Cafesin

“Writing fiction is intoxicating. Fully engaging. Hot. Sexual. Physical. Mental. Spatial. Virtually touching real as I enter the scene, and I’m a million miles from solitude.” J. Cafesin is a novelist of taut, edgy, modern fiction, filled with complex, compelling characters so real they’ll linger long after the read.

Book preview

A Marriage Fable

Tales of Finnegus Boggs, Lessons from a Marid Djinn

Andrew and Mary

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A Short Love Story

by J. Cafesin

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Entropy Press

November 2022

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A MARRIAGE FABLE, Tales of Finnegus Boggs, Lessons from a Marid Djinn—Andrew and Mary is a work of fiction. All of the names, characters, places, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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A MARRIAGE FABLE

Tales of Finnegus Boggs, Lessons from a Marid Djinn

Andrew and Mary

Copyright© 2022 J. Cafesin

All rights reserved.

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No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission to republish excerpts for promotional purposes, email:

Entropy Press, San Francisco, CA

[e-mail]

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

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ISBN-13: 978-1-7325431-2-6 (Entropy Press)

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1. Romance—Fiction. 2. Romantic Suspense—Fiction. 3. Fantasy—Folklore

4. Christmas Carol—Fantasy. 5. Fairy Tale—Short Story.

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Printed in the U.S.A.

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Cover design by TargetMediaMarketing.com

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Author Website: www.jcafesin.com

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A MARRIAGE FABLE is the first fairy tale in the short story collection

Fractured Fairy Tales of the Twilight Zone, Volume Two

CONTENTS

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Prologue

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Dars I

The First of Three Visits

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Dars II

The Second of Three Visits

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Dars III

The Third of Three Visits

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Epilogue

The Lessons Learned Well

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PREFACE

I HAVE endeavored in this little fable to conjure a magical idea, meant to engender hope in readers, in each other, our partners, and ourselves. May this tall tale spark the notion that true love is our highest attainment, and attainable for all of us.

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A Marriage Fable

Tales of Finnegus Boggs—Lessons from a Marid Djinn

Mary and Andrew

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Prologue

It was the worst of times for Mary Wyman. Each morning when she awoke she lay in bed contemplating the point of getting out of it. There was no promise to the day forward. Only more of the same deep, unrelenting sadness that clung to her, oozing from her pores, thick and milky like pus.

Sun streamed through the picture window and should have cheered her, she told herself. Of course, it didn't. Another sunny day in L.A. had no uniqueness. It made no difference it was mid-winter, Valentine's Day only two days hence. Mary knew Drew would do nothing to mark the day. Another Hallmark holiday, he'd espoused. He'd likely do little for their upcoming anniversary. Buy her the same perfume he did every year, and that was about it. Almost 20 years married, raising their two children, paying the bills, doing the laundry, the shopping, keeping the house sparkling clean, him and the kids well fed, and her contributions were not, and would never be recognized as such by her husband.

There was no need to get up for work anymore. She'd been laid off from her teaching position at the elementary school both her kids had attended when it closed for low enrollment last year. Most of their neighbors had moved on to better housing, pristine neighborhoods flush with parks, golf courses, and better schools. She and Drew were among the last original residents remaining in their development of single-story Craftsmans.

A loud, high pitched whistle from a truck passing on the freeway at the end of their block momentarily grated. She recalled how the traffic noise used to wake Adam when he was a baby, and how angry Drew would get over being woken in the middle of the night.

I supposed I should be grateful for the noise, she'd told Dr. Boggs at her last session. With the kids at school all day, and Andrew gone early every morning, without the traffic noise the house would be dead quiet. Too quiet.

"And what happens when it's quiet, Mary?

I think.

And what do you think about?

How much I hate my life.

Her body flushed with heat. She sighed heavily and threw back the blanket. She should be encouraged, she told herself. Andrew had insisted on seeing Dr. Boggs with her today. Only this one session, of course, since therapists were all wack jobs to him. Maybe Dr. Boggs could enlighten her husband about her sadness since he didn't seem to care how she felt lately, or ever really.

Dr. Boggs was not a therapist. He was a psychiatrist, and in their last session had suggested Mary take Valium to help her with her overwhelming anxiety. Perhaps if you can create some moments of calm, clear thinking, you will be able to identify what specifically is not working in your life, and eliminate the issues causing you the greatest stress.

Mary longed for a moment's peace, just one minute that she didn't feel like nothing. What felt like a lifetime ago, she'd imagined she could be an artist. She'd loved drawing as a kid. Studied art in college where she learned to paint. She'd landed a few shows at galleries in the Melrose District, but a decade out of college and she'd yet to become the toast of the L.A. art scene. 'It's more likely for women over 30 to get hit by lightning than marry,' was common wisdom, and at 33 this reality plagued her. The longing to create a family of her own was far greater than pursuing personal glory. Most men in the art world were either alcoholics, drug addicts, or homosexual.

Mary was an aging nobody, going nowhere, hardly able to pay her bills when she took the admin job at the law firm in Westwood. She'd met Andrew at the coffee kiosk in the building. It took him six months to ask her out, and a year of dating before he proposed. At 35, Mary felt beholden to him for saving her from the life of a spinster. She supposed she should still feel grateful for gifting her children to cherish, but 20 years later, waiting in Dr. Boggs office for Andrew to show up, all she felt for him was contempt.

He said he'd be here, Mary told Dr.