There was just one more thing Karyn needed to do. "I wish I knew if the range limit on this stone will cause problems with taking time back 36 hours". The answer was 'no'--the stone had created a space-time ripple that moved independently of the stone itself and could affect things outside the range. So it had worked. Now all that Karyn had to do was live those 1 1/2 days through again while making sure things were different.
Karyn giggled at the thought of being able to freak out Jon by predicting what's going to happen. She made one wish: "I wish that I had perfect memory of what happened the first time around tomorrow. And now, I wish that Jon had this stone back and didn't even notice it missing."
The stone disappeared and she lay down in her bed again. It would be nice to get some real rest even after that awful nightmare... which thankfully, had been reduced to only a nightmare.
The next day, Karyn dressed in the same old slacks and green jumper. At the end of the day came time to meet Jon again.
She spotted Jon sitting on the wall just where she had expected and said, "Hey, Jon-boy! How's it going? Good break?"
Jon grinned sheepishly. "Was okay. You?"
Karyn shrugged. "You know, same-old, same-old. There's only so many snowy mountain peaks you can gaze at in wonder in a lifetime. I might have to give the old spring break tradition a miss next year and just hang out with you. Save you from couch potato-dom."
Jon grinned. "That'd be nice. Save...." His voice trailed off into a silent, but wide open, mouth.
Karyn pretended she hadn't noticed that. "Anything of interest to report while I was away? Grandfather die and leave you an inheritance?"
Jon blinked. "Karyn, there's no possible way you could have known that. Did you gain psychic powers?"
"Oh, you know I don't believe in that stuff" she replied. Psychic powers are as impossible as magical wishes. I'm as open minded as the next girl, but that is just plain silly."
"It is a magical wish" said Jon. "I don't know how you guessed it, but..."
"But you're going to show me, because you're going to wish the bark on that branch was blue."
"Yes I am! Stop reading my mind. Karyn... this is serious."
"I wish the bark on that branch was blue" said Jon. It immediately turned a bright blue.
"Better watch it" said Karyn, "or Sarah will walk by and see it. You might want to make it dark blue or something so it's harder to see."
"That does it" said Jon. "You are psychic.... I wish that that branch was dark blue."
"You should see your face!" said Karyn. "It was like you'd just sucked on a lemon. It's so funny! I'm not psychic, Jon. You showed me the rock, things got badly messed up, and I wished time back by 36 hours. This is all deja vu for me."
"Really? How badly messed up?" wondered Jon.
"Badly. If you want to know, just ask the rock."
"I wish" said Jon, "that I knew what happened that Karyn's talking about." He paused and said "Ow, that's painful just thinking about it. I guess I'd better do something about it."
"You need to figure out what to do about Sarah?"
"Well, first, Fred Orr--Mikey doesn't deserve to be picked on. Maybe I can come up with a better solution than just making them girls. And then, Sarah, his sister."
"Say," wondered Karyn, "why do they have different last names if they're brother and sister?"
"Oh" said Jon. Their parents are divorced. Fred used his mother's last name but Sarah, who was older, was using her father's name for so long that she decided to keep it. Anyway we've got to do something about Sarah. We won't let her get the stone so easily, but what if something unexpected happens? I could wish she won't be able to touch the stone, but maybe we should just take care of the whole Sarah problem by...."
