A girl is working at an upscale Italian restaurant waiting tables. It is her twentieth birthday. Business is slow due to the rainy autumn weather. The manager falls ill and goes to the hospital. He instructs the girl to bring the owner of the restaurant. Meal at 8 pm. He lives in the same building on the sixth floor. The girl agrees to do it.   At eight she brings the trolly with the food upstairs. She knocks on the door. There is no reply. Right before she is going to ring the bell, the door opens. A skinny old man appears. He owns the restaurant. He is dressed stylishly. She tells him she is bringing his dinner as the manager has fallen in. He says she may bring the food in if she wishes. She thinks his manner of speaking is weird.   She brings his meal inside and sets it up for him at a table. She asks him to place the food on the trolly in the hall when he is finished. He says he will do it if that is what she wishes. She again finds his manner of speaking to be obscure. She asks if he needs anything else. He says no. She goes to leave but he calls her. He asks for five minutes of her time. She does not mind as he is paying her regardless. He asks how old she is. She tells him that it is her twentieth birthday. He tells her happy birthday. This is the first time anyone has told her all day. He gives her a toast. In the toast, he hopes that she has a rich and fruitful life without any dark shadows. She is curious about why he brought up dark shadows.   She begins to feel a bit odd. He continues to reaffirm out loud that it is her twentieth birthday and that she brought him food. He feels that it is a special convergence but she disagrees. He says that he should give her a special present. She feels flustered. She declines his offer. He reiterates that this is an intangible gift. He explains that he can grant her any one wish. She is at a loss for words.   When she tells this story later, someone asks if she made a wish. She says that she did.   After telling the old man her wish, she asks if her wish is okay. He says it is okay but wonders if she would rather wish for something like riches, friends, or beauty. She says she does not as she does not know what life is about as-is.   He grants her wish. She leaves. An hour later she goes to retrieve the trolly. All the food had been eaten.   When telling this story later, she expresses that she never saw the owner again and quit after the new year. The manager returned healthily and continued delivering the owner his meals. She and the friend are sharing drinks. The friend asks if they can ask two questions about the incident. The first is if the wish came true and the second is if they regretted wishing for it. The girl responds by saying that it both has and has not come true and that time will tell. With respect to the second question, she describes her married life as a mother with substantial assets. She explains that what she is trying to say is that people will always be themselves no matter what they wish for. She asks the friend what they would have wished for. They cannot come up with anything. The girl says that this is because they already made their wish.   Somewhere in the darkness, an old man tells a lady that he can grant her a wish, but that she cannot take it back.