"Because you seemed to."
"What?" replied Jon.
"You did! You said your uniform seemed pretty. That sounded like you wanted to be a girl."
"No I don't!" exclaimed Jon. "I just said that... I don't know why. Wait. I think it was something I said. I wanted to have clothes so I wouldn't be embarrassed. So when that wish gave me waitress clothes I wasn't embarrassed--I felt as if I should be wearing them."
"Do you feel that way now?" asked Karyn.
"No," replied Jon. "As soon as I changed clothes I started to feel embarrassed by the idea of girl clothes again."
"Then I almost...."
"It's okay, Karyn. There's no way I'd become a girl for good just because you asked me to. If I did it would mean there's something more than just you saying it. And I think I know how to fix all of this anyway."
"You do?"
"Sure," answered Jon. "Look. If you tell the stone to do something, you can't contradict it. You can only reinterpret. But all the accidents I've had with the stone are when I mean something one way but the stone interprets it wrong. You know what that means?"
"What does it mean?" wondered Karyn.
"It means," said Jon, "that you can always fix that kind of accident! The stone interprets the wish wrong--but you can reinterpret. I wish that all wishes Karyn and I made today happened the way we meant them instead of the way the stone chose."
Jon had to look away from the stone--the standard sensation of a wish being granted. Which meant he was looking directly out the door of his room. And he saw the lower level of the house shimmer.
Jon and Karyn went downstairs. Everything seemed fine. There was an omelette and orange juice on the table. It was all lukewarm, as if it had been left out since the morning--when he had wished there was something to eat in the house. Jon was a normal boy, who was not wearing a wig or breasts because normal boys don't.
The only difference is that Jon's legs were shaved and he still knew quite a bit about waitressing. Karyn had directly wished for those.
"I wish," said Jon, "that my legs were shaved... last year as part of a dare, but the hair has grown back by now." Jon rolled up his jeans and looked at his legs in satisfaction. "It's all fixed! Except I know more than I need to know about clearing tables and dealing with customers who don't give tips... but I think I can handle that." (Author's note: the last few chapters weren't consistent about whether Jon had jeans or a skirt.)
Then Jon did a double take. "Wait a minute! There is one wish."
"I hope it's not a bad one," said Karyn.
"I don't know," said Jon. "It's not that bad. I wished I didn't have to go to school today."
"But it's Saturday!"
"Not before I made the wish," replied Jon. "It was Monday and I wished it to be Saturday by accident. I bet that it didn't get fixed, because I only wished for today's wishes to get fixed, and I didn't make that wish today."
"Well, it doesn't matter. That seems like a pretty safe wish," said Karyn.
Jon threw out the omelet and juice and wished up some burgers and fries for himself and Karyn. But as they sat down to eat, Karyn noticed something lying on the side. "Look at this!" she said.
"That? That's just the Sunday newspaper. The early edition comes out late Saturday."
"But look at this headline! And this article!" She nearly pushed the newspaper into his hands.
Jon read it.
THE TOWN THAT TIME FORGOT
"It was a situation that seemed impossible. What has happened in Pleasantville this week? In Pleasantville, it is Saturday. Citizens were completely convinced that nothing unusual had happened until contact with the outside world made it clear that for everything from radio stations to out-of-town jobs, it was Monday. It's as if the entire city has lost five days, a phenomenon that scientists at West State U. have described as 'not even explainable by mass hysteria'. The phenomenon covers an area of approximately 60 miles in radius, centered as shown in the following map...."
The circle on the map, of course, was centered right on top of Jon's house.
"The range!" exclaimed Jon. "I only changed it from Monday to Saturday within the range of the stone! I have to fix it!"
"I don't know," said Karyn. "If you fix it then everyone outside the town will wonder how the town changed back. It could even make it worse."
Then Jon heard something drive up to the house. Looking out the kitchen window, he saw a van labelled with the logo of Channel 56 Action News. A reporter was getting out and walking up to the door.
"Agh!" yelled Jon. "Let me ask the stone to... no, I can't do that. The reporter could be broadcasting outside the stone's range. If I wish for anything, everyone watching from the news station would know what changed. What can we do?"
