"The Wedding Present" is a short story by Neil Gaiman. It is collected in the introduction of Smoke and Mirrors as an example of a story he wrote as a wedding present but never sent.
Belinda and Gordon have recently gotten married. They find a wedding present: a one-sheet description of their marriage. As the years pass, however, the description changes: to describe a marriage where Belinda and Gordon grow apart and start to despise each other. Belinda doesn't know who could have changed it, and Gordon wonders if someone in the family has a bad sense of humor.
Tropes for this short story include:
- Ambiguous Ending: While Belinda burns the wedding present, it's unclear if it will activate the Alternate Timeline mentioned in the present itself. It could simply be that she and her kids will no longer be protected by the present and suffer bad luck.
- Ambiguous Situation: If the wedding present is actually a gift or a curse. It shows Belinda and Gordon a timeline where their marriage broke down, to the point where they loathe each other. While Belinda and Gordon feel lucky that their life is good, Belinda starts worrying about the present. What's more, Gordon still dies, implying that the magic, if there was any, ran out.
- Alternate Timeline: The timeline described in the wedding present is bleak: Belinda develops bad nerve damage from a bad dog bite and starts drinking heavily, Gordon has an affair with his boss and gets fired as a result, Belinda miscarries their second child, and their daughter becomes a thief.
- Butterfly of Doom: The Alternate Timeline is deemed to start at the moment where a dog attacks Belinda, according to the wedding present. It mauls her cheek badly and leaves a scar, as well as nerve damage. Gordon in that timeline can't bear to look her in the eye after, and starts having an affair with his boss. Belinda thinks that the scar on her cheek will bloom and activate the timeline after she burns the wedding present.
- Despair Event Horizon: The real Belinda crosses it after Gordon dies. She ponders bitterly that in the Alternate Timeline he is still alive, but they hate each other. Belinda wonders if it's worse to love someone and lose them, or to fall out of love and have that someone still in your life.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Alternate Belinda develops a drinking problem to deal with the nerve damage from her scar. She suspects Gordon of cheating on her and is eventually proven right.
- Hollywood Heart Attack: Subverted. Gordon simply collapses one day at work and never wakes up. They find out that he had a preexisting heart condition that no doctors had found.
- Mind Screw: Belinda floats the notion that the charmed life that she and Gordon have isn't real, and they are actually living the bad life in the Alternate Timeline. Gordon points out that if that were true, he also wouldn't be real as the perfect husband. Then he dies, and it's not confirmed one way or the other.
- Riddle for the Ages: Belinda and Gordon never find out who sent them the one-page description of the wedding present. They don't know if it's a sick joke, or someone trying to protect them from a worse life.
