"Oh, God," Karen thought as she stroked the shaggy tuft of hair that had sprung from beneath the cuff of her pants leg, "this is too strange."
Karen looked down and noticed her nervous caressing of the newly sprouted thick hair and withdrew her hand self consciously. "What the hell am I doing?" she thought, confused and afraid, already late coming home as the sun dipped below the horizon.
Unconsciously rubbing the wishing stone in her other hand, Karen thought aloud, "I just wish this would make sense."
Karyn didn't notice her wish, and it wasn't until she got home that the effects became apparent.
As soon as she walked in the door, her mother was upon her. Within seconds she found herself in a smothering, tearful embrace.
"Oh God honey, I'm so sorry," she wailed.
It took Karyn a moment to overcome her shock and wrap her arms around her mom. "Mom?" she asked, concerned. "Mom, what's wrong?"
Her mother took her head off of Karyn's shoulder and looked up, her lip quivering.
"We just got the doctor's report," she said pointing to an opened manila envelope on the coffee table.
"What?"
"When we went in for those tests about your... problem. You remember."
Suddenly Karyn understood, and paled. "Mom, can I just take them upstairs to read them? I want to be alone. Please?"
"Oh... sure honey." she replied, giving her another squeeze before walking to the table to pick up the envelope.
Karyn immediately went to her room to read the report, hands shaking.
