"Karyn," said Sarah, gently. "You're overlooking the obvious."
"Obvious?"
"She was raped. You undid that. Jon vanished. What do you think? He must have been the result of that rape. He sounds like a guy you shouldn't worry about anyway..."
"No, Sarah. That can't be it. What about you? If that's why it would explain Jon but it wouldn't explain all the other things. Like you. Why are you here instead of on the cheerleading team? What about Grandpa?"
"I don't understand this. It's your... magic thingie."
But Karyn couldn't completely deny it. It was certainly possible for erasing Jon to change a lot of other things... maybe Jon wasn't somewhere when Karyn met him, and Sarah happened to be there instead, and they became friends, or something like that. Maybe she had a different influence on Sarah and she never became a cheerleader.
"I... I guess you could be right," said Karyn. "But people aren't responsible for where they come from. There's nothing wrong with Jon. Besides, it doesn't mean Jon came from the rape. What if she, uh, met some guy at a support group or a clinic or something, and without the rape she never went there? Or changed schools and met a guy at the new school? What if Jon still exists but his family just lives somewhere else? Oh no, that's even worse. If his family lives far away now, he might not exist at all! He isn't here because I changed history but the place where he's at in the new history is outside the wish range..."
"Whoa! If you want him back, why don't you just use your magic to being him back?"
"Yeah, I should. Whether the rape has anything to do with it or not, I never wished he'd go away, so I can wish him back. I wish that Jon was back as someone else who's enough like the old Jon that I can tell that it's a version of the same person, and we're still close friends." She knew that wishes couldn't be reversed; regardless of Jon's connection to it, he'd be back without restoring a rape.
Nobody materialized out of thin air; but then, chances were low that Jon would be in the same place in the schoolyard. She looked around for him, and....
