Jon clenched the stone a little tighter as he thought out the best way to word his wishes so that he could achieve his desired results without making any permanent changes. In Dark City, the Strangers created a world that was plagued by a serial killer who made strange, spiral shaped cuts into the bodies of his victims. They had planted evidence indicating that Rufus Sewell's character was the one responsible for these killings due to the anguish he felt over his wife's infidelity. The experiment was to implant the actual memories of these killings into Rufus's character and see if he chose to continue killing or if he would take a different path. This didn't happen, though, as the memories were never successfully implanted.
That was what Jon wanted to do, create a world where everyone expects him to think and act a certain way but make it so that he has no way to know how to fulfill their expectations. In other words, he would not have any memories of the new reality created by the wish or of the old reality that existed prior to the wish. As long as he could remember neither reality then he wouldn't have the luxury of making educated guesses about people's expectations. He would be a complete and total blank slate. To further prevent himself from falling into familiar patterns, though, Jon planned on changing himself into another person, one so completely different from who he currently was that there wasn't a chance he might accidentally fall back into his old life.
Once he had his wishes worked out, Jon opened the hand clenching the stone and looked down at it in his palm. "I wish," he said, "that beginning when I wake tomorrow morning and lasting through the next two weeks my body will be transformed into that of an extremely attractive 17 year old girl. I also wish that for the duration that I am transformed, the world will know me as Whitney Cummings, the daughter of Alan and Sara Cummings, my neighbors from across the street. The Cummings were a few years older than his parents but had never had any children of their own. Jon figured if he was going to do this he might as well give these two wonderful people a chance to experience the joys of parenthood.
"Furthermore," Jon went on, "I wish that Whitney went to the same school as me and was a member of the extremely popular group led by Sarah McMillan. I wish that Whitney was a cheerleader and dating Steve Farber. I wish that Sarah and Karyn Black had been very good friends up until a couple of years ago when Whitney had gone out for cheerleading. I wish that the two of them had tried to remain friends but had drifted apart and now rarely speak or even see each other outside of school. I wish that Whitney had never directly taken part in Sarah's hazing of Karyn over the years but that she hadn't really done anything to stop it either."
Jon swallowed hard after he'd finished all his wishes about Karyn. He wanted to see how having a past close relationship with someone might turn out in the experiment he was planning. Now that he had laid the social environment for his experiment out, though, it was time for him to get down to the nitty gritty. He clenched the stone again. "Now, I wish that for the two weeks that I am to be Whitney Cummings that I have complete and total amnesia and am unable to remember anything about the current reality or the reality that Whitney will exist in. I wish that for as long as I am Whitney I will have no knowledge of ever having been male. I wish that the cause of my amnesia was an accident during cheerleading practice and that tomorrow was my first day back because Whitney's parents were following a doctor's advice that getting back to a familiar routine would help her memory start to return. I wish that I would have vague memories of this accident and the few days that have passed since it occurred but no memories of Whitney's life prior to the accident or my life whatsoever. I wish that for the period that I am Whitney no one will remember anything about Jon Madison. I also wish that once the two weeks are up that I will physically become Jon Madison again with all the memories of reality as it exists now including all the wishes I have just made or will make before falling asleep tonight. I wish that when I become Jon again memories of him and his place in reality will replace all memories of Whitney for everyone but me and Karyn. I wish that at that time Karyn will become aware that it was me that had been Whitney as well and not be upset or angry about anything that happened for the two weeks I was Whitney."
There were just a few more things that Jon had to do. "I wish that in fifteen minutes the wishing stone in my hand will disappear into some kind of empty pocket dimension that no one but me will have access to. I wish that I would not know how to access this dimension until my two weeks as Whitney were up. Finally, I wish that as soon as the stone disappears that I will fall fast asleep and not wake up until 6 AM tomorrow."
As far as Jon could tell that would cover everything. He felt a little apprehensive about how far this might go but he was excited as well. He sat back and watched the last bit of Dark City. He timed his wishes quite well so that as soon as the credits started to roll the stone started to glow brightly in his hand then disappeared. Jon smiled and fell instantly into a deep sleep.
