Jon was a little bit disturbed by the number of times he saw the consequences of bad wishes. In the past week, he'd already had to wish away the breasts the football team had been given, bring back to life a father one kid had wished dead (Jon made him dead tired instead), bring back spinach when he stared at an empty shelf that had seemingly been always there, and undo the wish that made Sarah McMillan queen of the school (now she was playing a queen in a school play).
Jon pocketed his stone and prepared for his date. He waited at the movie theater, but Amanda never showed up.
Worried, Jon knew that Amanda had never stood him up before. Could something have happened? Even if it was just as mundane as being grounded? Were her parents worried that Jon, who was 17, would try to sneak the 15 year old Amanda into an R-rated movie? It was only PG-13.
Jon sat down and called Amanda on his cell phone.
She picked up the quickly. "Hello?" she said.
"It's me, Jon... Amanda, where are you? Did something happen? Did everyone decide to give you a second birthday party on your real birthday instead of just doing it on Sunday?"
"What? Jon? Oh, of course, Jon. I remember you now." She definitely seemed to be trying too hard to say that--as if she didn't remember Jon at all.
"Our date... we were going to see Superman Forever."
"Our... date?" said the girl.
"Look, if you had a problem, let me use the stone to get you over here, okay?"
"Stone? Go ahead... Er... Jon, please, could you explain the stone to me again?"
"I wish Amanda was here."
The girl appeared from thin air. She looked around herself, as if not believing what she saw. "Wh--- what? Do you have some kind of super-powers? Did you use the wishing well to...?"
Jon tried to comfort Amanda, who seemed very uncomfortable at his touch. "Amanda, I've used the stone to teleport you lots of times! But somehow you've forgotten..." But then he suddenly saw exactly what was wrong. After all, he had wished he'd know the wish when he saw the result. And he just had seen it.
"I haven't..." sobbed Amanda. "It's the birthday wishes...."
"What? Maybe I can use the stone to help... Look, I know about the wishes."
"Do you?" yelled Amanda. "You don't understand. It was my birthday. I was six years old. I wished every day would be like it. The next day, I was seven. Then eight, nine... and every day it was as if it was always like that. I don't know you, Jon. You're not my boyfriend. We never met. I wasn't even anything near your age last week. All I could do was try to make birthday wishes again and again. I could never figure out a way to stop them, so I get older by a year every day. In two more days I'll be 17, and in a couple of months I'll be dead....
"I know you, Amanda," said Jon. "You don't sound like a 6 year old and you certainly don't have the body of one... but I know the wish, too. I have to believe you. I wished I would know wishes when I see them."
"It was your birthday too?"
"No, Amanda," said Jon. "I started the whole thing. My grandfather left me a magic wishing stone. I can make wishes any time I want. I wished up the idea of birthday wishes. The only people I told were Karyn and you... but I never really told you, did I? I haven't been going out with you for the last year. You didn't even know about the date because we never really were going to have one. It's all a lie..."
"Please, Jon. If you can really make wishes, can you do something to help me? Whether you're my boyfriend or not, you should do it because you caused the problem."
"Okay, Amanda," said Jon. "Let me think."
