"I wish," said Jon, "that Karyn and I had a safe ten minutes of extra time to talk and make wishes, and a display of time left."
Things froze around him, the doors half open, Zoe partly visible and frozen in mid-air. In the air were glowing numbers, that read "10:00". As Jon watched, it counted down to 9:59, 9:58....
"What did you do that for?" asked Karyn.
"I needed time to think. You know, it's funny, now that I think about it, wishing for some extra time is one of the most obvious ways to not have to make wishes in a hurry, but we never use it."
"It won't always help," said Karyn. "We weren't under any time pressure when I made the wish that started this whole thing..."
"But I think it'll help now," said Jon. "First of all, the reality changes..."
He sat down on the bed. "Lemme think."
A few minutes later, Jon began making his wishes. "I wish that the only explanation for this extra time wish is that it just magically happened for no reason. In fact, I wish that any future wish that's more like using a superpower than changing how things are, has an explanation like that. I also wish that when we come out of the extra time wish, nobody else notices anything strange. Let's see, what else do we need to fix?"
"The clothes wish?" replied Karyn. "I wished that I'd get rid of my clothes. Wait a minute. Now that I have some time to figure it out, I see. I said 'These clothes'. You can still wish for some other clothes."
"Karyn, you're a genius. I wish that Karyn's wish to get rid of 'these clothes' got rid of only the particular clothes Karyn had on at the time, and we still have other clothes."
Finally, it worked. Clothes for Jon and Karyn materialized, and the two got dressed.
Jon picked up the stone again. "Now the crime part. I wish," he said, "that I'm not a thief, but we had enough money for this room because Mom got a package deal on rooms, so as soon as we came, we got the room without anyone paying any more."
Jon looked at the glowing numbers in the air. They read 1:22.
"There's still more," said Karyn. "The whole family thing. What's going on? That 'accident'. I don't think they meant the shower, unless your Dad was at school and nobody saw him. That strange voice that was like your Dad--did your parents switch bodies somehow? Your aunts with the same names as Simpsons characters, who are they? Just lesbians, or was there some kind of transformation? And what kind of reunion is this anyway?"
Jon looked at the numbers. "Karyn, there's no more time. I wish, er, that I can ask questions about things I'm already supposed to know, without anyone thinking it's weird..."
And Jon looked away, as wishes go, and looked back, and then saw the clock go from 0:01 to 0:00 and vanish. Suddenly, Zoe and everyone behind her started to move again, and Zoe finished opening the doors without even noticing that Jon and Karyn were now clothed.
But while some wishes were solved, Jon still had to deal with his new extended family, and this reunion, whatever it was. Hoping to find out what was going on, he asked, "..."
