Jon took two bites of his tuna sandwich and things froze around him again. The man had just made another wish--"I wish I had a lot of real money."
What do we do now, Karyn? he said in his mind.
Well, we could still give him pennies, since pennies are real money, but I don't want to twist too many wishes like this. If we do he'll be too careful when he makes the wishes we need to worry about.
Okay thought Jon. A briefcase of dollar bills then?
That sounds good. It's a lot of money, but not so much that he's going to be filthy rich from getting it.
They made the thought, and as things unfroze, they sensed that somewhere in a warehouse, a black briefcase magically appeared in front of someone. He opened it up and happily began counting the money, as the image faded out....
The next time the man made a wish on the stone was at 2 PM. Jon and Karyn were in class taking notes about the Spanish-American war. When suddenly things appeared to freeze up. This time the crook he was walking into a meeting. A meeting of criminals? Jon didn't know. It could be a meeting of criminals, or there could just be one criminal trying to use the stone on a group of honest businessmen. And... wait a minute! That other man in the crowd was Mr. Miller, the head football coach of Jon's school! What was going on there?
And then Jon and Karyn heard the wish itself. "I wish that everyone else in this room would obey all orders I give them, even after they leave the room."
Karyn, are you there?
Just as you wished she thought in reply.
How are we going to get out of this one? I wish I knew the right way to twist his wish.
Jon thought he could heat Karyn laughing in his mind. Too bad that doesn't work. But I have an idea. Karyn sent a mental image to Jon.
Oh, that's rich he thought back. And together they made it happen.
Off in a warehouse, where there formerly stood a symbol of bribery and corruption whose name Jon and Karyn didn't even know, was now a one year old baby girl. She couldn't yet speak, so she couldn't give orders, so it was true that all orders she gave were obeyed. The stone just fell on the floor in front of her.
That worked pretty well, thought Jon, as he continued taking notes--almost slipping in the middle of a sentence when his hand unfroze. It was probably the end for a while.
Except, of course, it wasn't. Fifteen minutes later the world froze around Jon again, and he suddenly knew the circumstances of another wish. The people had all heard the criminal make a wish and saw him become a baby girl, and finally several of them had mustered the courage to try the stone themselves. The first criminal's earlier wish had kept anyone from taking the stone, but not from using it, so they could use it just by touching it right where it fell.
"Fine, you try it first" said one of the crowd. "I'm scared of that thing anyway. What are you going to wish for?"
And in their minds Jon and Karyn saw a wish. Mr. Miller touched the stone and said "I think I'm going to try some smaller things, to keep it safe. I wish to have a thousand dollars in my pocket. And I wish that my back fence were fixed."
That wasn't too bad. They could just give him what he asked for. And so they did.
But then came another wish that Jon and Karyn had no choice but to twist. "And I wish that at school...."
