Jon slowly sank to the floor, tears welling up, as Mikey continued to bawl her eyes out, falling out of her chair and nearly cracking her head before catching herself and landing less than gracefully on the linoleum. It had really happened, Jon realized. Only two days after receiving the stone, careless wishing and failure to take obvious precautions in protecting it had left her stuck in a difficult situation from which there was no escape. This was her now: six inches tall and female. Sure, she could fly, but she'd give that up in a heartbeat just to be a guy again. She'd managed to get through the day alright by keeping herself focused on changing back after school, but facing the rest of her life as this? She didn't know what to think, or even what she did think. The shock was still fresh, and all she could feel was a numb emptiness and a growing realization that her life had just been turned upside-down, permanently.
Mikey, if anything, felt even worse. She had managed to destroy her one chance for returning to normal, and she hadn't even known she was doing it. And on top of that, she'd managed get Jon stuck in the process. She'd always gotten along pretty well with her older brother, but now? She wouldn't blame Jon for hating her after what happened. And what was going to happen to her? She knew her mom was sincere about not treating her like a freak, but would everybody else really be so open-minded? And she couldn't wear pants, but she wasn't going to wear skirts, either, so she'd have to go through life naked like she was now; how would people react to that?
As the two now-sisters tried to face the prospect of being this way for the rest of their lives, their mother came in. Mrs. Madison took one look at her children and joined them on the floor, wrapping one arm around Mikey and clutching Jon to her chest with the other. "It's all right, kids," she said. "You'll get through this. I promise."
