Andy shares a bag of fortune cookies. While printed fortunes are seldom taken seriously… what if one really did foretell the future? Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, Andy calls this story "The Tale of the Misfortune Cookie."
From family restaurant the Emerald Garden, David asks if he might take Saturday off to attend a friend’s party. Saturday is the busiest night of the week - his father says no. David wishes the restaurant would fail. He takes a delivery from Eddy, and shares his ambition to go to art school.
David’s sister Theresa confides a "high honours" report card. She thanks David for his help, and presents him with a metal badge, in the image of an angel. On David’s bed, he and Theresa play cards. In the open doorway appears Grandfather Lee. He presents David with an ornate chest, as his own grandfather did to him at David’s age. With thanks, David makes to open it - but his Grandfather stops him. He commends David’s artistic ambitions, but warns him not to lose focus on the present.
That night, a weary David removes his apron, enters his bedroom, and beneath a desk lamp, works on a sketch. Unable to stay his curiosity, he opens the chest. Inside, six compartments each hold a golden fortune cookie.
Next day, in the yard behind the restaurant, he runs into Theresa, and shows her his find: these trinkets will fetch a handsome price. Theresa urges him not to sell the family heirloom. In a struggle over the chest, they drop it, spilling the cookies. Called to an errand, Therese tells David not to move.
As David picks up the golden cookies, he finds one to have cracked in two. Inside is a slip of paper on which is printed Chinese script: "Watch to find existence through imperfect existence." With a sudden gust of wind, the light of the sun is blocked by an eclipse.
At the restaurant’s front door, David finds a happily chattering cue. Bemused, David hurries round to the back of the restaurant. Through the busy kitchen, he sneaks into the packed foyer. From a table, David hears his father’s voice. With friends and staff, his parents pose for a newspaper photo.
Into the foyer slumps Theresa, in studded leather and purple hair. From her mother, she sullenly demands money. Request denied, Theresa angrily storms off.
Outside, she placates a stressed Eddy with an offer of easy cash. Confronted by David, she denies knowledge of having a brother.Totally oblivious to ever having had a son, David’s father drags him to the back door, explains Grandfather Lee to be long dead, and threatens to call the police if David returns.
David opens it. Out leaps a black-armoured Chinese warrior, who, in a combative stance, bars David’s way. Round the front of the restaurant, David's chauffeur, bears a stack of comics, and announces an autograph session in one hour. David looks at the comics, and recognises his own character, R Man.
David runs round the back, and up to Theresa’s bedroom. As she packs a bag, he realises her intent to sell the golden Fortune Cookies - her and Eddy's only chance of freedom. In bursts the black-armoured warrior. David runs.
Outside, on a motorbike, Eddy and Theresa ride off. By David’s side appears the black-armoured warrior - he's here to protect David from the life he hates. In his pocket, David finds the angel broach given to him by Theresa. He confronts the warrior, and demands his old life back. The warrior falls back against the wall. David lifts the warrior’s helmet - and finds, beneath it, his own face.
Another sudden eclipse plunges the scene into darkness. When daylight returns, David finds the warrior to have vanished. On the ground is Grandfather Lee’s chest, with the lock unbroken.
He runs into the restaurant’s quiet foyer. As his mother waits a table, an overjoyed David kisses her hello. He enthuses at all around him, and sniffs the plate of a non-too-amused patron. David then rapturously greets his somewhat taken aback father.
As Theresa inspects the commotion, David hugs her in relief. He then remembers one last thing - where's Gramps? A beaming Grandfather Lee pats David on the shoulder, and they both look down at the ornamental chest.
Andy then reveals his own Fortune: "Many do not hear your song - but it is beautiful."
This episode provides examples of:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: In the alternative circumstances arranged by the fortune cookie, Theresa clings to a decidedly disreputable version of Eddy.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: While David laments the demands of the struggling restaurant, an alternative reality in which his prosperity strains family relations shows him how precious his life really is.
- Big Brother Instinct: Played with. In the alternate reality, David finds himself at a crossroads between staying in this reality and going back to his original one. Now in this new reality, he's well-off as a famous artist, and his parents are like-so with their successful restaurant. So why does he want things back to normal? Because in this alternate reality, he's not related to his family. And without David's brotherly guidance, Theresa has become a bad girl going out with Eddy and on bad terms with her successful yet neglectful parents.
- Cool Old Guy: Grandfather Lee, with his knowledge of the magical chest, fondly steers David to the path of wisdom.
- Enemy Without: The black-armoured warrior, when unmasked, is a double of David.
- Family Business: The Emerald Garden restaurant is staffed by each family member.
- Forbidden Fruit: Grandfather Lee warns David that the chest is to be admired for what it is, not what it might hold within.
- Implacable Man: From no discernible source, the black-armoured warrior indefatigably pursues David.
- It's a Wonderful Plot: The fortune cookie arranges an alternate reality in which David was never born to the Lees, and the consequences thereof.
- Morality Chain: In the grand scheme of things, David's influence in her life is what makes Theresa the kind and respectable young lady she is. Without him in her life, she's just a bad girl who only cares about herself and being with her boyfriend Eddy, on top of having a dysfunctional relationship with her parents.
- The Resenter: In the alternate reality, Theresa resents her parents' focus on the wildly prosperous restaurant, to the point where they've neglected her as a daughter.
- Weird Weather: When David reads the fortune, there follows a sudden gust of wind and a solar eclipse.
