"I wish Mother would let me baby sit for Mrs. Robertson and I wish that I better than the last baby sitter Mrs. Robertson had."
Having made the wish, Jon put the magic stone in his secret place, removing the 'dirty magazines' that were there. 'I don't know why I bought these, I am not interested in reading them.' The magazines ended up buried in the recycle bin before Jon returned to his room and cleaned it up. 'I have been too busy of late to clean up. Mother must be upset with me.'
When Jane returned home she was a bit surprised to see that Jon was home and the house wasn't a mess.
"Did you eat at the mall?" Jane asked her son.
"No. I wasn't very hungry, so I fixed myself a small tuna salad. I saved some for you, it is in the refrigerator." Jon said, coming into the kitchen to help his mother put up the groceries she had bought.
Jane was a bit shocked. Jon would help, but normally only after a long, drawn-out request from her. Now he was doing it without her even to have to ask. And he made a tuna salad that not only tasted good, but he hadn't destroyed the kitchen doing so.
"Mother." Jon began as he picked up his mother's dirty dishes to take into the kitchen, "I met Mrs. Robertson at the mall. You know her, she is the young mother down the street with five children. Her baby sitter had just quit and she asked me if I would be willing to baby sit for her. I told her that I would like to do it, but that I needed to get your okay first."
Jane barely was able to keep her mouth from falling open in shock. Her first thought was that Jon had been kidnapped by aliens and this was some sort of 'pod' person. She paused rather than answering right off.
'Jon obviously wants to do this. He seems to be willing to help more around the house.' She thought. She also remembered some of the books she had read about raising teenage boys. They had said that the parents needed to be supportive of their boys attempts to find a job.
"Okay." Jane said slowly. "We will try it for a week, but you need to keep up your grades and do your chores around the house. Deal?"
"Thanks Mother." Jon said, throwing his arms around his mother to give her a hug. "You won't be sorry, you will be proud of me."
Once again, Jane wondered if aliens hadn't kidnapped her son and replaced him with a 'pod' person.
