"I wished you were my daughter." Jon's mother confessed, her voice shaking. "I didn't know it would do this..."
"Mom, this isn't funny!" Jen exclaimed. But she saw the look on her mother's face. Her mother was about to break down and cry. Jen knew right away that her mother was not playing some sort of sick joke. But she didn't want to believe it.
"No!" screamed Jen. "You're saying I used to be a boy?!"
Her mother nodded, and broke down, sobbing.
Jen broke down, too. This was just too much for her to take. She had many happy and not-so happy memories of her life. She remembered all the fun she had had as a little girl, the friends she had made, her search for the right boyfriend. But now she knew all of those were lies. Her whole history was a lie, all created by that wishing stone her grandfather had bequeathed to her. She liked being a girl, but even liking being a girl was a lie. Up until ten minutes ago, she had been a boy named Jon, even though she couldn't remember it.
Karyn stared at her friend, not knowing what to do or say. She knew Jen well enough to know just what she was thinking. She couldn't blame Jen one bit. The very idea that a wishing stone could re-write reality -- could re-write people -- in this fashion was terrifying. One couldn't take anything for granted anymore. The sky might not have always been blue. And Karyn herself might not always have been Karyn.
Karyn didn't remember Jon. She remembered Jen and all the good times they had spent together, all the 'girl talk'. Hoping to find a good boyfriend for Jen. But those memories were lies. Karyn couldn't remember anything about Jon, but she knew now that this was not the 'original' reality. Her memories were no longer trustworthy.
And the more Karyn thought about this, the angrier she got.
She turned on Jon's mother. "How COULD YOU? We TOLD you wishes couldn't be undone, yet you made a stupid wish anyway! Didn't the rock TELL you that those who don't hear the wishes don't remember how things used to be before the wish?! Your son is gone, probably for good! And all because you wouldn't listen!"
Jon's mother continued crying, as the enormity of it all hit her. She hadn't meant to remove Jon from reality and replace him with a girl named Jen. It was only meant as a joke. But the joke had backfired. She had taken her son for granted, and had thrown him away in a fit of carelessness.
Jen and Karyn both noticed at the same time that Jon's mother still had the stone. And they noticed that Jon's mother was beginning to mouth the words "I wish..."
