Zoe pointed at the rock on her palm. "This."
"Uh ... what's the big deal with that?" asked Pamela.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, so I'll show you instead."
"Oh great, now you're a magician or something?"
"No, Pam. Magicians just do magic tricks. They fake magic. This is the real thing."
Pam sighed. "You're really nuts."
"I am? I'll tell you what I am, or rather, what I used to be - a boy."
"Why are you acting like this, Zoe?" Pamela didn't know whether to be annoyed or concerned. Was Zoe just being unfunny, or was Zoe really losing it?
"I'm not acting, Pamela. Watch this. Haven't you ever wished you were ... different?"
"Um ... no. And I don't see what that question has to do with the rock."
"You will. I wish you didn't need glasses."
"Ow!" cried Pamela. "Where'd my glasses go!? There's something in my eyes ... contacts! I knew they'd hurt! Gotta get them out! How'd they get in!?" Pamela removed the accused things. "You ... you did this?"
Zoe smiled. "Yup. Isn't that neat?"
"Sort of." Pamela's eyes still stung. "But how..."
"I told you - the rock." Zoe squeezed it. "I wish you didn't need contacts either."
The things vanished. Pamela could clearly see that. "It's like I'm still wearing glasses ... but I'm not," said Pamela. No frames. Perfect vision. Though the glasses kinda suited me."
"I wish you had your glasses back," said Zoe.
They materialized on Pamela's face. "Amazing ... wait ... why's everything all distorted now?"
"I don't know," replied Zoe.
Pamela took off the glasses. "I still don't need them." She looked at the rock with her new 20/20 vision. "What does that thing do, exactly?"
"As long as I hold it," explained Zoe, "and wish for something, that something happens."
"Except for my glasses," said Pamela.
"You did get them back."
"Yeah, but my vision ... wait, that's right, you first wished I didn't need glasses anymore, and you wished I had the glasses back ... which didn't mean I would necessarily have bad vision again. Give me the rock. I want to wish for my old vision back."
"Uh, no, this thing's dangerous." Zoe thought of what she had done to Fred Orr when she was still Mikey. Yuck, those boy days seemed so alien to her now. Pamela looked like a nice girl, but Zoe feared that Pamela might do something to her. "I wish you had your old vision back."
Pamela blinked. "Nothing. I still see ... well."
"Let's try another wish." Zoe squeezed the rock harder, hoping that would make a difference. "I wish you were white."
"Oh my god!" Pamela saw her reflection in Zoe's mirror. All the features that distinguished her from other Asians were still intact, but her generic Asian features had been replaced by Caucasian traits: wavy brown hair, blue eyes, pink skin with a smattering of freckles across an upturned nose, and a little extra height. Her face was familiar yet alien. "You know, I once uploaded my photo to a face transformation site, and it made me kinda look like this ... but ... wow! Now I want to see you as an Asian! Fair is fair!"
"Okay," said Zoe. "I wish I were Korean." She gasped. The stone had the same effect on her, but in reverse. Well, not quite. "Paem!" Unlike Pam, whose English was unaffected by the stone's magic, Zoe didn't sound the same "What's wrong?"
Pam was staring at her with big blue eyes. "You're speaking Korean!" Pam herself could barely speak it, but she did understand it when her parents spoke it. "Can you speak English?"
"Inggeullishwi? Ah, Yeongeo!"
"Yes, Yeongeo!"
"I wish I could speak English," said Zoe in Korean. "Ai ken spiku ingglishi nau."
"You still sound like a Korean," said Pam.
"Ai dontu andostendu. Pulliju spiku slowo."
Pam sighed. "This magic rock thing isn't working out, is it?"
"Wot?"
"Argh," grunted Pam. "Gimme the rock! Toreul jweora!"
"ANYOOOO!!" shouted Zoe. She was no match for Pam, who was now bigger.
Pam held the stone. "I wish Zoe could speak English the way she used to. Say something!"
"I'm sorry this isn't - like you said - working out. Can you give me the stone back."
"Not yet," answered Pam. "I wish I knew why the stone couldn't restore my vision."
She could hear an old man - Zoe's grandfather, though she didn't know that - speak inside her head:
"The words of a wish can be reinterpreted but not changed once the breath is over."
Pam gasped. "Do you realize what you've - what we've done? We've changed our races permanently! What are we going to do now!?"
Zoe trembled. "I ... I don't know."
A voice was audible from the hallway. "PAMELA!!"
"That's your mom," said Pam. "But why is she calling me?"
