Karyn gave Jon a call before school the next day.
"Jon, do you remember my cousin, Meg?"
"Sure! She visited you a few years ago and we got together and played all kinds of games for nearly a week!"
"Well, she has to come to town to get her braces checked. Can you drive her home after school. We can talk about the rock on the drive back."
"Sure, no problem."
So, after school, Jon drove Karyn to a local orthodontist. Waiting outside was cousin Meg. Karyn unlocked the back door of the car, and Meg got in.
"Well, let's hear it," said Meg.
"Hear what?" asked Karyn as Jon pulled out onto the street.
"My braces. They have to stay on for another six months! And they're the most hideous things I've ever seen!"
"They don't look so bad to me," said Jon, looking at Meg in the rear-view mirror.
"They're awful! It's bad enough that I'm growing up gangly and gawky, with no boobs to speak of yet! Or I have hair that I cannot get the frizz out of! Everyone at the Academy makes jokes about me! I've even heard the teachers whispering behind my back!"
The conversation continued like this as Jon drove the car out into the country to the Ashcroft Academy for Young Ladies. Once, when Meg said she wished everything bad about her appearance were fixed, Jon nearly said "I wish it were, too." He stopped himself just in time. He didn't think Meg looked so bad. She just had low self-esteem issues to work out.
Finally, they arrived at the Academy, and Meg got out of the car. A couple of older girls in the navy blue blazers and white skirts that made up the school uniform saw her. One of them said "Look! It's Rover! And she still has her muzzle on!"
Meg looked at the ground and walked through the gates trying not to look as miserable as she felt.
"Jeez!" said Karyn! "What bitches! I wish my Aunt Pauline would let Meg go somewhere else where there aren't so many snobs!"
"They are nasty, aren't they. I wish that anyone who calls Meg a name would turn into whatever they called her!" Jon cried in pain as the rock in his back pocket suddenly burn. "Uh-oh."
"Jon, you don't mean you ... "
"Yeah."
"Take it back! Quick!"
"We can't! We can only add to it!"
"Well -- make the change temporary!"
"Okay. I wish that the change from the name-calling would only last for -- six hours!"
"Six hours!"
"Long enough for them to learn a lesson! And I wish that, when the person changes back, they won't remember what happened to them."
"Bewitched style changes, huh? I dunno. Meg is a dear, but I don't know if ... "
Suddenly, Karyn's voice changed, and she could only voice some grunts. Jon turned and saw a small doe sitting in the seat next to him, wearing Karyn's clothes.
"Uh, oh," said Jon again.
Meanwhile, in the Academy ...
