"Oh my God! Stop the cab!" Karyn ordered the driver before they got very far down the street.
"Forget something?" The stocky gray-haired cabbie looked back over one sloping shoulder as he eased on the breaks.
"Yes! We left Peter and Mindy at the house!" Karyn gave Jon a pleading look, "In all the craziness I forgot I was supposed to be watching them!"
"Karyn," Jonni said in as patient a voice as she could manage, "I am having contractions here! They are thirteen years old for God's sake! They can watch themselves."
"Jon, I can't! I promised your mom I would look out for them until all this was over," Karyn's lip trembled briefly, "Please don't hate me, but I have to go back."
"They might not even know you, Karyn!" Jonni shot back before her breath got caught up in her chest and there was this incredibly powerful flexing sensation that rippled through her belly. She waited and after only a second it passed. Short and not too painful, not yet. That was a good sign, Jonni hoped. "We wished that you and Liam weren't together, you probably aren't even part of their lives."
"Of course they know me!" Karyn was getting impatient, "We are still friends, I still remember going to your house a thousand times or more. You just wished Liam and I didn't have a romantic or sexual relationship was all."
"Ladies," The cabbie interrupted as politely as he could, especially considering he could barely follow any of this crazy ass chick talk, "The meter is still running either way, but I'd prefer it your friend here didn't have her kid in the back of my cab. I have to clean this thing at the end of every shift."
"Jon, I'm sorry!" Karyn kissed her cheek and then opened the door on her side of the cab.
"Karynnn, don't!" Jonni hated the whining note in her voice, but she was scared, she needed someone to help her through this.
"Jonni, I know, just put your big girl panties on and tough it out! Your folks we be there waiting for you!" Karyn's last words were for the cabbie, "Get her to Farson Memorial hospital fast and, please, help her inside."
"No problem, missy," the cabbie waited only a split second after Karyn slammed the door to zip off down Holyoak Drive.
"No, go back!" Jonni pounded on the window, "I'll just have my baby at home!"
"Sorry, lady," the cabbie shook his head, "You know I can't do that."
"Oh God," losing sight of Karyn with distance, Jonni cranked back around to face front, trying to relax, leaning back in the seat, cradling her baby bump.
"Hang on, little miss," the cabbie's eyes briefly met hers in the rearview mirror, "Be there soon."
Stifling a little wordless sob of misery, Jonni nodded her appreciation to the driver, who returned his attention to the road, just skating through the end of a yellow light. The mother to be reflected her situation was awkward in more ways than the obvious ones.
The stone could be a great help to her right now, but the cabbie would hear her wishes. She couldn't risk revealing the power of the stone while she was in such a vulnerable condition. However, one she got to the hospital there would be a brief behive of activity around her, Jonni was remembering the birth of Peter and Mindy. Eventually, she would be left to settle in and wait for her contractions to pick up pace. She would get a chance to use the stone then, but by then she might be in too much pain to think straight. I wonder if they'll give me drugs for the pain? Jonni could feel another contraction coming on about like the first one, maybe a second or two longer. Jonni had a sudden brief flash of herself laying sideways on the backseat, legs spread, while the cabbie held up her baby with cord still attached.
That decided it. Somehow it seemed as if events and scenarios always swirled around the stone. Adventures. Misadventures. Mistakes. Fantasies. Nightmares. Jonni realized the events themselves were not really good or evil just as the stone itself was not really good or evil. All the stone did was made the seemingly impossible reality in the blink of an eye. If the stone could do that with a focused, well articulated wish it seemed likely, just passively by its very nature, it also manipulated probability, making the random and unlikely commonplace. Car crashes, traffic jams, DeMorrell's men carjacking the cab, too many crazy things could happen between now and getting to the emergency room.
Jonni slipped her hand into the pocket of her long coat, hastily donned on the way out the door to protect her from the wintry breeze, and grasped the stone. She would have to word this very carefully.
"This is my first baby, you know," Jonni began as if striking up conversation with the cabbie because she was alone and nervous, "I'm a little scared. I wish I could just have a textbook normal, healthy delivery at Farson Memorial with no complications for me or the baby. I wish Karyn would find an emergency babysitter and meet me at the hospital as soon as she can. I wish - - "
"If wishes was wings frogs wouldn't bump their ass on the ground when they hopped," the driver chuckled, "You look like a strong young lady. Kinda remind me of my second wife back in the day. I think you'll do okay."
"- - you would concentrate on the road," Jonni finished sweetly and the driver did.
The young woman sighed, deciding that was probably enough wishes for now. She didn't think the cabbie was a bad guy, he seemed nice, but as long as he was around she couldn't wish for anything really dramatic. Dad was back to normal. Karyn was back to normal or almost, still being blonde and buxom. Mindy's name was fixed. Jonni had the stone once more and the amulet seemed to work well, having returned her to the original, more modestly proportioned girl-next-door form of DeMorrell's first wish on her. She was still pregnant, unfortunately, but it looked like she wouldn't be much longer. Between the stone and the amulet Jonni hoped she was prepared for any eventuality that might arise. She might be back to her life as Jon before she knew it!
Abruptly, Jonni hissed in minor distress. The next contraction was definitely stronger and longer than before. Before she was back amongst the male sex Jonni was afraid she would be getting the total female experience, including motherhood. An involuntarily noise, part grunt, part whimper, part gasp, escaped her lips. In response the driver stepped down a little harder on the gas.
