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Im looking for a summary of "Middle Woman" by Orson Scott Card.?

i need a summary or an actual version of this short storyr


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

It can be found in his collections of short stories such as Maps in a Mirror. This was republished under a different name (The Changed Man). It's a great collection of stories!

Middle Woman is only 3 pages, btw.

"Ah-Cheu was a woman of the great kingdom of Ch'in, a land of hills and valleys, a land of great wealth and dire poverty. But Ah-Cheu was a middle person, neither rich nor poor, neither old nor young, and her husband's farm was half in the valley and half on the hill."

She meets a dragon who gives her three wishes:
"It is more amusing,"said the dragon, "to watch human beings destroy themselves than to overpower them quickly."

With the first wish for her husbands farm to always provide enough for her family the dragon eats the family (now they wouldn't need much would they?) The second wish was for things to go back to how they were before she left the house that day. After that whenever she faced hardships she would over-come them herself and not use the final wish. Years later when she's old and withered the dragon appears and tells her that if she dies while the dragon still owes her a wish, he too will die.

"Then I wish a wish, dragon. I wish that all the rest of your life should be nothing but happiness for you and everyone you meet."