Imagine

As his grandfather had two generations earlier, the boy had used up his gifts, and before long, there was nothing but to wait.

The father was right, though the banker had his own way of proving him so. He waited almost six weeks past when the boy's recovery was complete. Then one morning bank security guards arrived at Edmond Sr's desk and asked him to pack his desk up. Something about misappropriating funds, that charges would not be pressed, but simply he would be dismissed without pay immediately. The charges were clearly trumped and yet the boy's father could do nothing but pack up his office. In some ways, he felt like there was at last, and at least, logic in his life again. This game he understood. And he also understood it was time to go home and pack up his belongings there as well. The banker announced to the family that sad as it were, he would have to end ties with Edmond's wife and son as well. He wished them well, and called them a cab.

There were no goodbye parties and no accusations either, it was simply over-almost as if it never even happened. The boy didn't say a single word as the cab pulled away from their celebrated-- if only temporary-- 5th Avenue address, and headed across the river. Just an hour away, but many worlds removed, they arrived at their old block. Though they returned with none of the riches they had promised, at least their time away was still in the range of "forgivable with explanation". They opened the door to their old apartment building, ready to ask that forgiveness, but as the door opened, clearly something was different. A smell of fresh fruit, fresh flowers, fresh... everything.

The boy's mother opened the door and inside the home that the boy and his cousins and relatives had all grown up, where all the rickety staircases and rat infested hallways once were-- was now the most beautiful home they could imagine. Not just any home, but the one they had just left, the one of the wealthy Banker and his wife. Obeying the boy's final wishes, the mansion on 5th avenue had magically transferred across a river, across a world, and it was now theirs. Endless hallways leading to endless and beautifully decorated bedrooms and bathrooms, kitchens with boundless amounts of the finest foods. Fully stocked bars and bathrooms overflowing with beauty supplies, closets full of thick cushy robes and shelves full of cashmere sweaters and fine linen pants.

Of course, clear cross the river, when the wealthy banker opened his door to find that it had been somehow transposed into the home of a city subsidized urban project, he had quite a different reaction. Not to mention, when he later received notice from SEC about some insider trading that he had been accused of, and that his guilt was described as all but a "fait compli", he was further confused.

And yet back home, the boy and his parents, surrounded by friends and cousins and the most beautiful house and the warmest home anyone there had ever seen, wandered happily and safely about, and thankfully too. The boy's mother, still in shock, looked at the boy, confused, "It came back?" But the boy shook his head and then hugged his mother, "It never left Momma."

The family lay down that night, all under one roof, and it was clear, regardless of time, the magic would always be with them.

The End