THE ULTIMATE WISH

Episode #495 · Written by E. M. Hull · Narrated by Scott Miller

Lola Pimmons has spent years enduring quiet cruelty, watching other people enjoy lives that seem permanently out of reach. When she is offered a single wish, the promise feels less like a miracle and more like a reckoning. Every option presented to her carries a hidden mechanism, one that turns desire into obligation and hope into threat.

The story unfolds as a series of confrontations, each revealing how tightly Lola’s wants are bound to damage. Love without tenderness, beauty earned through pain, marriage achieved through ruin—none of them arrive cleanly. With each rejected option, the pressure intensifies, and the idea of a perfect solution begins to dominate her thinking.

What drives the tension is not the supernatural bargain itself, but Lola’s refusal to accept limits. As the deadline approaches, she becomes fixated on the idea that there must be a wish that solves everything at once. That belief, more than greed or anger, pushes her toward a choice she does not fully understand.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

E. M. Hull was the pen name of Edna Mayne Hull, born May 1, 1905, in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. She was married to and worked closely with A. E. van Vogt during the early 1940s, coauthoring Rebirth: Earth (1942), also published as The Flight That Failed, and later a novel with van VogtThe Winged Man (1966). During the same period, Hull published a small but concentrated group of short science fiction stories, including “The Ultimate Wish,” “The Wishes We Make,” and “The Patient,” all appearing in 1943. These stories focus on the mechanics of desire, limitation, and consequence, often structured around supernatural or speculative bargains that expose the boundaries of human wanting.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to The Ultimate Wish by E. M. Hull — a dark vintage science fiction short stowhere a single wish exposes the danger of wanting everything at once.

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