"Karyn," said Jo. "We have to talk."
"Is this about all those things you obviously are dying to tell me but which are just getting me confused?"
"Yes, it is. Here you suddenly turned into an adult and you're talking like an adult and I don't understand it."
"Look, here's the deal, Karyn. We were friends and the same age. Mike ended up deaging me and making me a girl. In the process of fixing the wishes, Grandpa made me 18 without changing reality. That's why you still remember me as being 7."
"So you're really 18?"
"No, I'm really 21, but I never got a chance to live that as an adult, and 18 is easier for starting college. And Mike was 8, then 16 after getting my age, and 21 now, until he got sent down to 5."
"My head is spinning. You mean he was 16 five years ago when he made that wish and he knew what he was doing? I thought he was just randomly crying at the stone and it understood him. I mean it's from Peru. They don't speak English there. If it understands English, it probably understands everything, even baby talk."
"All our heads are spinning," said Jo.
"Right," said Jack. "Like a second ago. I said Mikey's back to his real age. His real age is 8 if you count when he made the wish, or 13 if you add the time since then. It's not 5. But I suppose it's 5 now."
"Karyn, do you want me to fix your memory?"
She nodded.
"How should I do it?"
"I... Just do what you think is best, Jo. If we were really friends, and your family certainly thinks we are, I have to trust you."
"All right. Do you trust me, Grandpa?" she asked.
"I willed it to you to begin with, Jon. That means I thought you were the best person for it." He held out the stone for Jo and she took it, it finally having returned to her after all this time.
"Thanks, Grandpa. I wish that Karyn remembers everything that actually happened to her up to now. I wish this includes the original reality and the five years she experienced in the new one. I wish that she remembers enough of any changed past that she can act normally, but she doesn't think of it as real."
Karyn collapsed into Jo's arms and began sobbing. "Jon... It was terrible. One bratty kid caused us all this trouble. And it's still not all fixed."
"I'm not finished," she said. "You know, it would be an odd coincidence if Sharon and you ended up having the same genes. Millions to one against... but it would be possible. I wish that in fact that happened, without you not being able to transform again."
Jack grinned. "I see you're learning, Jon. If you hadn't added the part about transforming again she'd have been back but she'd have been stuck that way."
Karyn searched in her purse for a mirror... she didn't have either a purse or mirror with her, but she diid now. She was indeed back, or at least the blonde with big breasts version, without freckles.
Meanwhile, Jo explained, "You know, Grandpa, Karyn wasn't my only friend. I need to fix some more memories. But Karyn was the only one I was close enough to to tell about the stone. Besides, by now anyone I knew would be out of college and probably off somewhere. Still, I'm going to have to do something about other people later. Fred too. And Dad, I hope it works out."
"Thanks," said Gary.
"I really do. Because, Dad... you and Mom breaking up 10 years ago wasn't a wish. Mikey just pushed it back to 17 years ago, and then we pushed it forward to 4 years ago. But the rest... it was real. Giving her flowers won't help for that... but maybe giving her fifteen years of life will. Grandpa, do I need to fix any memories to handle that?"
"No," said Jack. "I arranged it already. She knows what happened, but she won't panic."
"Now, there's one person I need to fix... Myself. Does anyone have any ideas that don't have shapeshifters or transporter accidents in them?"
"Oh, look," said Karyn, "there's your boyfriend." She pointed down the hall.
Jo looked in horror and Karyn sayd "Psych. Reality still thinks you're 7. You can't have a boyfriend.
"Very funny," said Jo. "But I really need to know what to do."
"I'd go for the transporter accident," said Karyn. "Or a magic potion."
"Potion is better," said Gary. "Magic already exists, so you won't end up with a whole city where transporters are real."
"Okay. I wish I'm a girl because I'm a guy who drank a magic potion, which will wear off in five seconds."
A minute later, of course, nothing happened.
___*
(Author's note: The reason it didn't work is extremely tricky, so tricky that I'm not going to bother working it into a story. Basically, because of a bad wish, Jon can no longer change his own reality--to anything, not just to having drank a potion. If he changes his reality and ends up 7 in the changed reality, that would reverse the wish that he is 18. If he changes reality and ends up 18 in the changed reality, that would reverse the wish that he became 18 without changing reality.
If he changes his reality without affecting himself, that's okay (as long as it doesn't make people remember him as 18), but that's useless to become male.
He can also change himself in ways that don't affect reality. And he can make changes to parts of reality that happen after now, since he is already 18 during those stretches of time and would not be changing* them to 18.
There are ways around this. The simplest is to wait until he is 19, at which point the wish that he is 18 has been already reversed naturally.)
