"Karyn, why would you do that! All of a sudden! And without even a time limit! The wishes are permanent, don't you remember that?!"
"What are you talking about Jon, you're acting as if the wish worked, but I'm still in my own body anyway, so no harm, no foul," said Karyn's original body. They, Karyn and Jon, in Jon's body, hadn't been preoccupied and turned away while Karyn's body stood back up and silently observed the peculiar spectacle of Jon claiming she was in his body and then chastising her for making the wish. Jon/Karyn looked in surprise at Karyn.
"But who's that in my body!" Jon's mouth said.
"Hello, I'm Karyn, this is not your body," the original Karyn said.
"Karyn, yo.. let me talk!" Jon said, exasperated. "Karyn, you didn't wish that your mind would STOP being in your own body, just that it would be in mine. So I guess it was like copying files versus moving files in a computer, it didn't get erased from the original hardware, just copied. In other words, you just apparently made a copy of your consciousness and uploaded it into my brain and there are two Karyns now, one in me and one still in you, but I'm only in one place, in my own body, which is occupied!"
"Oh. That's really weird," Karyn-in-Karyn said.
"You did this to me!" Jon said. "You've ruined my life, and I don't know if I can fix it!"
"Can I say something?" Karyn-in-Jon asked.
"What," said Jon.
"I can't tell who's talking now," Karyn-in-Karyn remarked.
"I'm Karyn talking. I just wanted to say, I'm sorry for making that wish on impulse, but that means I have no place to go back to. And now that we have had different experiences, me and her, we're not really the same person any more, and if you do find a way to fix this problem, that means, that means I'm going to die!"
The three were silent at that.
"I know what to do," Karyn-in-Karyn solemnly said.
"You do?" Jon or Karyn-in-Jon said. Even they weren't sure which one of them said it.
"It's only fair," Karyn-in-Karyn said. She was still holding the stone. "I wish Jon was in my body too."
"Karyn! Are you out of your mind!?" Jon said in shock.
"It makes sense to me, fair's fair, that's what I would have done" Karyn-in-Jon said.
"Of course that's what you would have done, you're her, and she just did it," said Jon. "But that doesn't mean it makes any sense!"
"I- I just wanted to say, I'm here now," Jon-in-Karyn said.
"Is that, is that the other me? I mean, the other Jon?" Jon-in-Jon asked.
"Yeah. Oh my god, that means I'm just a copy. I'm not a real person," Jon-in-Karyn said. "My memories are fake... I've never even been a man..."
"You're real," Karyn-in-Jon said. "You're just ANOTHER Jon."
"Who said that?" someone-in-Karyn asked.
"Karyn," answered Jon's body.
"This is pure havoc," Jon-in-Jon said.
"Yeah," agreed Jon-in-Karyn.
"But it's fun," said Karyn-in-Karyn.
"It's amazing," agreed Karyn-in-Jon.
"Oh god, what are we going to do, we can't live like this!" Jon-in-Jon said in panic.
"Relax, I've got that covered," said Karyn-in-Karyn, "I have a good solution I think."
"Karyn.... what are you going to do," asked Jon-in-Jon and Jon-in-Karyn together.
"I think I know," said Karyn-in-Jon.
"I wish that both the personalities in each body would merge together and remember both lives and then we'll both be both Jon and Karyn but of a single mind each."
"That's an awful idea!" both Jon's said together. And then the wish was granted.
"Actually," started KarynJon-in-Jon and KarynJon-in-Karyn together, "this isn't so bad, Jon was worrying about nothing," said the new Jon, who was of one mind and yet remembered two lives. They both realized this was better than it was before, with them separate. They now shared all each others' memories, their deepest thoughts and desires, their secrets. They were everything they were before, but just more, and there was no confusion.
"Yeah," said the new Karyn. "I'm both Karyn and Jon. But I'm one person. But it's not disorienting or crowded in here."
"As far as anyone else has to know, I'm just Jon, and I'm sure I can pull that off completely. I think I'm going to miss being a girl though."
"And I think I'll miss being a guy," said the new Karyn. "Let's..."
"occasionally transform our bodies to each other, but with a time limit? So we don't have to give up our other halves?" finished the new Jon.
"Just what I was thinking!" laughed the new Karyn.
They then walked right up to each other and shared a long, loving kiss.
"I can't believe that..." the new Karyn started,
"we didn't know that we each wanted to do that for so long," continued the new Jon.
"and were afraid the other wouldn't have wanted it," finished the new Karyn.
"It's weird kissing myself though." the new Jon said. "Or should I say the other me."
"Want to stop?" Karyn's body asked.
"What do you think?" Jon answered.
They hugged each other tightly and paused from the mouth contact after a few more seconds.
"On the one hand, I think it's weird that I'm kissing a boy, and one who happens to be myself, and it's gross and I'm not gay and it's not something I would ever ever do. But on the other hand, it's not weird at all. And that fact too is weird."
"Huh. I know what you mean. But it's not so weird for me kissing a girl. I guess that means it would have been less weird for Karyn to kiss a girl than for Jon to kiss a boy since we're each both."
"Don't we both know it, and we know why too," the new Karyn said.
And the funny thing was, at that, neither of them had a target to be annoyed with. If Jon had suggested Karyn was a closeted lesbian or bisexual to her face if they were still completely different people, that might have been taken as an insult and she might have slapped him in the face for it. But what was even the point now of trying to hide it, pretending it wasn't true, or being embarrassed by it? They were both Karyn and Jon. It would have been like two people being in a room, and one of them farting and trying to blame it on the other. Both people in the room would know.
"Maybe we should get another girl on the side for both of us," asked Karyn.
"One step at a time," the new Jon said. "Let's not jump straight in the deep end."
