Jon went straight to the place on the floor where he had left the small box that hid his magic rock. A surge of panic hit him when he saw that it wasn't where he had left it, but then he noticed that his room was slightly tidier than it was when he had left earlier, so he surmised that his mother must have been in there. Hoping she hadn't made any wishes, he made his way through his room, checking his dresser, then his bookshelf, then finally his nightstand for box. He was rewarded in his search, finally finding the box with the stone inside nestled on top of his pillow.
Sitting on his bed, Jon crossed his dainty feet underneath him and pulled the stone from it's resting place. It felt cold to his touch. That was one thing he had trouble getting used to when holding the stone, no matter how long he held it, it absorbed no heat from his hand. The only time it would warm at all would be when granting a wish.
The thought of making a wish sent a shiver of fear and excitement through him. He had seen what an ill-thought-out wish could do to his friend Karyn, and he didn't want that to happen to him. He reached over to his night-stand drawer and pulled out some nail polish to paint his toenails. He enjoyed thinking through a problem while he did his nails, and he wanted to make sure that when he made his next wish he wouldn't accidentally screw something up.
His mother's behavior had worried him earlier, but after giving it some thought he realized that having a mother with an admiration for men's footwear couldn't be a bad thing. How many times had his father wanted to stop in at the mall and try on some new pumps, only to start a fight with his mother over wasting money. "How many pairs of those things do you need?" she would bellow at him, the whole thing ending with a couple days of chill in the atmosphere.
Even Jon's relationship with Karyn had struggled when he would want to spend endless hours trying on and parading in new boots, shoes, heels, whatever the new fashion was. Sure, not all men had such a footwear passion, but his love of shoes made up for what other men might not have. He often wondered how so many guys just got by wearing 'sensible shoes', sneakers, boring footwear that made Jon cringe. Thank god he inherited his sense of style from his dad.
Realizing his mind had wandered, Jon put down the polish, blew on his toes and once again picked up the stone. He had made up his mind. Jon was going to fix things. Sure, it was a little weird for his mother to like men's shoes (a little scandalous, really), but he could see that it would solve a lot of relationship problems if it were more normal. He formed his wish and spoke.
"I wish that all the women in this town had the same attitude toward shoes that my mother has." The stone warmed in his hand, then cooled. He knew it had worked. He couldn't wait until his toenails dried so he could go out and see his wish at work.
