Gary was looking somewhat better now that he had had a night's sleep and gotten a chance to wash and change clothes. As he was eating breakfast with Jack, he got a call on his phone. It was from the cab company and he considered ignoring it--Jack had explained that his real life outside the wish zone still existed--but force of habit from the other life led him to take the call.
Astonished at what he heard, he accepted the assignment, hung up, and explained to Jack, "A teenage girl who is near Jon's house and whose name is Jo called a cab. To come here. I think that's suspiciously convenient, don't you?"
"It is," said Jack. "On the other hand, it could be that when Jon got your text message, that made him suspicious of something else as well, something related to this building, even though I don't know what. Besides, I think I have an idea, but to get it to work, Jon needs to be there to hear everything."
Ronjay was out. Jo didn't know that Ronjay had any reason to be missing, but decided that either she had to wait for a random man to come along, or to go to the old boarded-up Pinkerton house, even if she had to cover her eyes as long as she could.
The cab arrived at the taco stand almost a half hour early. Jo watched it approach and placed her hands over her eyes. It stopped, the door opened twice, and she heard two people exit. "Jon?" said a voice that was familiar, but which she hadn't heard in years.
"Dad?" she said.
"I'm here too," said Jack. "You do realize you called a cab and your dad here rides a cab, and you asked for it to go to a house that I happened to know about?"
"We won't say 'you've changed'," added Gary. "I won't insult your intelligence."
"Wait a minute," said Jo. "You'd better go away until I can get this over with. You're not related to me at the moment!"
Someone bumped Jo from behind and her hand slipped. She saw in front of herself her long-lost dad, and then her grandfather, sipping a cup of soda. "Watch out," yelled her dad. "Mike followed you!"
She heard Mike's laugh, and turned to face him, but felt compelled to turn back in the other direction. Jo found herself stepping forward into Gary's arms to kiss him in a very non-fatherly, somewhat disgusting, way. At least, she thought, she wouldn't have to worry about this experience making her enjoy kissing guys.
A few minutes later, Jo came up for air, and said "Damn you, Mike, you planned this. You must have found out Dad was coming and wished for this scenario."
Mike said "Nothing you can do about it. Now Dad, Grandpa, you'd better leave."
Gary let go of Jo and angrily marched towards Mike. Mike took out his stone and said "I wouldn't come any closer if I were you. I'm a lot stronger than you and I could always use this stone. And don't think you can use magic on me; I'm protected from that."
"I wasn't thinking of using magic on you," said Jack. He plunged his hand into the soda cup, took out an ice cube that was more of an ice oval, and said "I wish that Gary is 27 years old."
The cube melted. Grey hairs on Gary's head turned black. Age spots vanished from his skin.
... and Mike shrunk down to the size of a five year old. No, he didn't just shrink in size. He was a five year old. The stone had done his job in adjusting reality; a 27 year old man just could not have a 21 year old son.
Gary punched Mike hard in the stomach. Questions of child abuse were irrelevant; that child was holding a weapon more dangerous than a gun. Mike fell back, onto the ground, barely avoiding hitting his head on the pavement. The stone went flying and Jack quickly picked it up. Mike looked at Jo, who seemed to have been unaffected.
"You wanted to know where Zoe was," said Jack, who had gotten that conversation from the cell phone. "She's 18. She's at college, too far away for her to turn into a newborn. And since you seem to be surprised that Jon hasn't changed, think of it--that wish wouldn't affect him. He's not related to Gary at the moment!"
