The main theme is be careful what you ask for, you might just get it.
The story is bout a family that gets a magical paw but by asking for 3 wished it ruins their life as they do not understand the paw is evil.
them is being used to tell all the people she showed her coin collection to. Instead of writing all of the names of the people she showed, she used the pronoun 'them' to acknowledge them all.
It’s actually Simple past because we are talking about the past !
