Jon woke up when he heard the intruder creeping through his room. It was a good thing he had closed the door--the door was still a little creaky, and he had woken up.
If what Jon had to defend himself was a gun, he'd never have reached for it. But the stone... that could be used to disable an intruder nonviolently. He quickly leaped from his bed, hoping to make a wish, but to his horror he heard the intruder making a wish about 14th century dresses. She must have gone directly for the stone, and he knew who it had to be. Then Jon's pajamas seemed to fall around his feet, but he realized they had just turned into a 14th century dress.
Jon turned on the light and said "Grandma!"
"Yes, Jon?" said the gray-haired woman. "I just needed to make one last wish."
"I don't believe you," said Jon.
"What? How dare you...."
"I don't believe you because, first of all, if Grandpa didn't will the rock to you, there must have been a reason why, and second, any wish that you really wanted to make is something you could have made when Grandpa was still alive, just by asking him."
"Oh, he kept that stone to himself. He never let me use it. He thought I couldn't handle it. So I couldn't make the wishes I wanted until now."
"Aha!" said Jon. "I thought as much. Grandma, I think he was right. He didn't trust you with it. I know all about being disrespectful but you broke into my room, after all."
"I didn't break in! I asked my daughter!"
"What did you tell Mom? That you were going to borrow a magic rock? You must have at least lied to her."
"I didn't lie to her. I just said I wanted to borrow something."
"Whatever. I can see why Grandpa never let you use the stone. Your wish is a disaster. For one thing, can you imagine all the firemen wearing dresses into fires?"
"Why would they do that?"
"Because they can't wear anything except dresses and corsets. No suits. Also no diapers for babies, no aprons in the kitchen, no spacesuits on astronauts. I bet we can't even wear underwear, let alone jewelry or watches."
"You don't know that, son. The stone could be smarter about the wish than you think."
"Grandson. Maybe I don't know it but neither do you. If it didn't do things to scuba divers and people like that, that's just pure luck. But you know what your biggest mistake is?"
"You are being a very rude grandson and I have no reason to listen to you. Maybe you don't even deserve the stone."
"Grandma, I'll tell you. The stone has a range. So now everyone in this city wears corsets and dresses. Everyone else in the world sees that a city of people has turned into crossdressers and forgotten they were anything else. I expect the government to decide it's mind control and send in troops any day. And now we have to figure out how to fix that."
