The two struggled. They were equally matched. Karyn wasn't really that much of a fighter, but neither was the transformed Jon, who was exactly like Karyn. They threw punches equally poorly. "Stop fighting!" said the real Karyn. "If you wish for the wrong thing before you change to Jon, something bad could.... OOF!" The fake Karyn smacked the real one with her bookbag. The real Karyn then retaliated by pulling the fake one's hair--made much easier by the hair being so long. The fake yelled and Karyn, seeing the fake clutching her head in pain, began to run away with the stone.
But the fake was only pretending. As soon as Karyn faced away, the fake tripped her and grabbed the stone, then ran out the door into the street, while the real Karyn chased her.
"I wish", said the fake, "that I'll never be changed into Jon, bodyswapped into Jon, given Jon's personality, or become Jon in any other way and that I'll be myself, Karyn, forever!"
The real Karyn stopped, shocked.
Karyn/Jon said "Why aren't you coming after me, Jon?"
Karyn shook her head. "It's too late. If you don't believe me, wish that you knew why I said what I said."
Karyn/Jon didn't think that wish could hurt. "I wish I knew why all this was happening." And suddenly she knew.
"B--but" said Karyn/Jon. "I'm not Jon! I mean I was, but I don't remember Jon's life, I feel deep in my heart that I'm you... I remember meeting Jon, growing up in my own house with my own family... not Jon's house and Jon's family. Jon's someone else. My name is Karyn!"
"Give me that stone" said Karyn.
"What are you going to do with it?"
"I'm going to wish", said Karyn, "that I turn into Jon until we can fix this. If you're me there's no room for two of us here."
"Wait! I don't want you to sacrifice yourself. It would be like sacrificing myself."
"I have to do it, Jon, I owe it to you..."
"It wouldn't make any difference." She tightened her grip on the stone again and said "I wish that the other Karyn here would never transform into Jon or become Jon in any way."
Just then Sarah walked by. "So what was all that yelling about?" she said. "Oh, it's just Karyn and Karen." And then she left, laughing.
Mystified, both Karyns began to say "How could she---" and stopped. Then they started again. "Of course--" said both girls. They looked at each other for signs that the other was going to speak first, and finally the new one said, "Everyone thinks we were always this way. We each remember being one Karyn, but Sarah thinks there are two of us."
"We must have different names then" said the original Karyn.
They simultaneously reached into their pockets for their student IDs and compared them. The original was named Karyn and the new one Karen... Same sound, different spelling.
"When I said I wanted to be Karyn forever" said the new Karen, "I wasn't thinking about the spelling... and it's not as if we write down the wishes with a spelling, so the stone did its work and made me be Karen with an 'e' and you with a 'y'."
"Yeah. But now what?"
"Glad to see you're home, Karyn" said Karyn's mother. "You and Karen almost had to eat dinner cold."
Karyn looked at Karen. "How could she talk like that? What if she was talking to the wrong one?"
"No, no," said Karen. "the names sound exactly the same so it doesn't matter who Mom says it to. It can't be wrong."
They ate dinner and went up to their room. And it was definitely their room. Both Kary/ens remembered exactly how the room looked. But now it was bigger--not quite twice as large, but there were two separate twin beds. One television, one trash can, one desk, but with two chairs, one on the side. One larger closet and one more filled dresser with twice as many clothes as the original, some of them in pairs--of course, Karyn and Karen wore exactly the same sizes. A couple of blouses and a pair of shirts even had the names "Karen" and "Karyn" printed on them, apparently so other people could tell them apart.
They looked at their old family pictures and they were full of scenes with two Kary/ens standing next to each other, pulling each other's hair as kids, hugging each other, blowing out the candles on their birthday cake at the same time...."
"I'm going to turn on the TV" said Karen. "I set it to tape 'General Hospital.'"
"You didn't," said Karyn. "I did."
"But I did!" said Karen. "I mean, we both did..." They both giggled. "I don't know what to do. We really need to talk to Jon about this."
"You are Jon. Even if you're me" replied Karyn.
"I'm not Jon in any way that matters," said Karen. "I'm just as much me as you are!"
"I know, sister...." replied Karyn.
"Yeah, I did sort of want a sister at times" said Karen.
"No, I did!" They giggled again.
"But seriously" said Karen, "we need to figure out what to do with this stone. Never mind us. What else should we do?"
