Jon made his wish and realized the explanation in the new reality. The younger Karyn was really a clone.
It was a strange explanation, but it was at least an explanation, and nobody would say 'two Karyns, how can that be?' Jon made some wishes to get rid of the surveillance camera in his room and keep Eric and Keith from touching or using the stone again, and then told them to return to normal. All three decided to go back home--Jon and Karyn had to get the younger Karyn up to date on what had happened in the past year or two....
Meanwhile, Eric and Keith were finally able to get up.
"Well, that sucks," said Keith.
"Easy come, easy go," said Eric.
Keith was examining the new piece of equipment. "Eric?" he asked.
"Yeah?" said Eric.
"You know all those sci-fi shows where they assume that because a scientist knows one branch of science, they know every branch of science in existence?"
"Yeah," said Eric. "I hate it when they do that."
"Maybe the stone watched those shows. This is a cloning machine. I wonder if we can use it."
"But we're not biologists. How can we use something like that?"
"'We' made all sorts of notes," explained Keith. "Look, all you need to do is put in some cells from these cell banks, insert one of those memory disks, press the button, and in a few days you have a clone. Put a few minor suggestions in their head by speaking into this speaker, and then wake them up. We don't need to be biologists. It's easy!"
"What if something goes wrong, like we clone one person, but use a memory disk from another person? Or if we clone someone at age 10 but use memory disks from them as an adult? Or we use cells from two people at the same time?"
"I think it'll still work if you do that."
"And the clone's an exact copy?"
"It lets you change the age, if you want. And the sex. Sex depends on a whole chromosome, so it's easier to change than anything else. And there's one other thing."
"Hm?" asked Eric.
Keith pointed to a stack of papers. "The whole project has been going for years, and we already have permission slips from a whole lot of people, especially the students."
"You mean, we could clone someone, and when we're done we can just send the clone home and we won't have people coming after us with pitchforks and torches? They'll just say 'oh, that's how the clone came out' and they won't mind us doing the experiment at all?"
"Well," answered Keith, "most of them. Jon and Karyn would mind. The stone didn't give them new memories. But any new Jon or Karyn we clone would remember the project, and wouldn't mind."
"Well, who cares about whether Jon and Karyn mind anyway? Let's try it!"
