"I wish John wasn't hurt and Mom had to work late today!" Mikey blurted out. He breathed a sigh of relief as two things happened simultaneously, John stopped bawling and their mother's car disappeared from the driveway. Turning from the window he chuckled at the scared look John was giving him.
John picked herself up off the floor and took a deep breath. Mikey had wished he was as smart as her, so she prayed that meant there was some way she could now reason with him, "Mikey, please, I know we don't always get along, but this is crazy. How could you do this to me?"
"Shit happens, li'l sis," Mikey shrugged, "Things are probably better this way anyhow. If you were responsible enough to use the stone you wouldn't have been careless enough to let me get hold of it."
"Mikey, please, I can't stay like this!" John pleaded, tears threatening in her big, blue eyes.
"Sure you can - - and you will," Mikey pocketed the stone, "Just don't ever try to get it from me again or I'll make you wish you hadn't."
With that Mikey went back to the living room and restarted his video game. Not knowing what else to do John ran upstairs to her room to survey the damage. It was about what she expected. The color of the walls and the furniture and the contents of her dresser and closet had all changed dramatically, but they were nothing out of the ordinary for an eight year old girl. Judging by some homework she found on her desk her name was Joanna now, but a folded up note of the kind girls often passed around at school indicated her friends called her Joanie or even just Jo. Depressed and ashamed that she had lost the stone and everything else that mattered to her she lay on her bed and cried for a bit.
There was a knock on the door downstairs. John sat up and wiped her eyes, wondering who it could be. She made it to the bottom of the stairs by the time Mikey had managed to peel away from his video game to answer the door. She gasped in shock when she saw Karyn.
Mikey seemed confused too, "Uh, hey, Karyn - - what are you doing here?"
Karyn made a bemused face, "What do you mean, what am I doing here? You said your mom was working late today. I thought you wanted me to come over and help watch your little sister?"
"Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot," Mikey waved her into the living room and shut the door, "It's been kind of a weird day for me."
"I bet," Karyn laughed, "That stone is pretty incredible."
"The st-stone?" Mikey stuttered, "I, uh, yeah, I can't believe I told you."
"Why wouldn't you?" Karyn plopped onto the couch and grabbed the spare game control, "If you can't trust your best friend who can you trust? Just don't let me make any more dumb wishes. These boobs and this hair are taking some getting used to. Can you believe my whole family is blonde now?"
"Really? Wow," Mikey sat down next to her and it irritated John to notice how close they were sitting to one another. Mikey at sixteen was a heavily muscled monster compared to John's old self and Karyn obviously didn't mind that they were close enough that their thighs were brushing against one another.
"So where's Joanie?" Karyn asked as she quickly tapped the buttons, getting into the game.
"Upstairs I guess. She's being a little brat today," Mikey considered for a moment, "Her imagination is way out of control. That or she saw me use the stone or something, because she has been pestering me and saying she should be the older one. She even tried to snatch it from me."
"God, Mike, you have to be more careful," Karyn smiled at something that happened on the screen, "Maybe you should just make her forget the stone or something. Can you imagine what an eight year old would do with power like that?"
"It's okay. I already thought about it and I'll probably just wish she can't touch it or use it or something like that," Mikey's eyes flicked over to the stairs and saw John standing there, clutching the railing, "I don't want to start messing with her mind if I don't have to."
John felt sick to her stomach. She had to think of something and soon or she would never be able to get the stone back and - - hopefully, with some creative wishing on her part - - get back to normal.
