Karyn handed Jane the wishing rock. "I wish," said Jane, "that I knew what Karyn's wish just did."
"What is it, Mrs. Duncan?"
Then Jane shook her head. "This is terrible. Jonnie is Karyn's sister, and both the babies are inside Karyn."
"What?" said Karyn. She didn't feel pregnant, but it was less than a day, after all.
"Jonnie," explained Jane, "isn't a single mom because if the baby's in Karyn, she's not a mom at all. The same is true for me, except that not only am I not the baby's mom, I'm not Jonnie's mom either."
"This really is terrible," said Jonnie. "We have to wish our way out of this mess. But we can't reverse wishes. So the wish has to be 'I wish that we're still not single moms, but in a different way'. Let's see, how many different ways can we think of? We have to brainstorm something."
"Hmm," said Karyn. "You could wish that you were married. Then you wouldn't be single moms. You might want to name some guy if you don't trust the stone to pick for you. Mrs. Duncan, you could wish Mr. Duncan back to life, if the stone can do that anyway, but you'd still need someone to marry Jon."
"Being a girl is bad enough!" said Jonnie. "Let alone a married one. We could wish to be guys. Then we'd be single dads, not single moms. But then we'd also have to wish the babies to be born. Or combine it. Mom gets Dad brought to life, but I become a guy."
"Mrs. Duncan could still wish that the babies are someone else's," said Karyn. "It doesn't have to be me, it could be anyone. Maybe they're a dead aunt's babies. Maybe Jonnie's grandparents' babies, but they'd have to be older for that. But you still have to deal with not being a single mom for Jonnie. Maybe both of you and the babies are all sisters."
"Or," said Jonnie, "I could wish that me and Mom are lesbians, married to each other. Hey, don't look at me like that, Mom! I didn't really mean it!"
"Send the babies through time to a point in the future when you're married" said Karyn.
"I think that's reaching" said Jane. "You watch too much sci-fi."
"If that's reaching," said Karyn, "how about this? Jonnie has a fiance who she never met but who is engaged to marry her before the baby's born, and so before she becomes a mom."
"That's reaching even more" said Jane. "If you're going to say she doesn't count as a mom until the baby's born, just wish that the pregnancy is on hold until we marry someone."
"Or," said Jonnie, "just wish that single doesn't mean marital status and that me and Mom aren't single because we aren't alone--we have each other to confide in."
"I don't know if the stone can stretch words that way," said Karyn.
"The babies can be foster children?" said Jonnie.
"No" said Jane, "that might work for the babies, but I still couldn't be your mom unless we added something else."
It was amazing how many weird ideas they could come up with. But in the end, they decided how to do it. "I wish," said Jane, "that Karyn's last wish didn't come true in the way it did, and that instead the reason that me and Jonnie aren't single moms is that...."
