After their lips broke apart they embraced and cuddled on the bed for a long while enjoying the feeling of being with one another. After a while Jon stirred to get up.
"I want to explore a little bit more of this world." Jon smiled at her.
"Well then, let me be your guide." She gave him a peck on the cheek as she sat up and straightened her clothes. "And for the small fee of another wish..."
"I think we should wait for Karyn to be present before we start wishing again." Jon put his stone away in his pocket. "Besides. I have family members I haven't met yet."
"Hmm." Kate tilted her head as she made her way to the door. "Which sister and mother do you remember?"
"Oh." Jon stopped. "I guess I have more than one sister and mother now." Jon chuckled to himself. "That's so strange."
Kate looked at him as if he were strange, but kept her warm smile. She loved him, even if he didn't belong yet. She then gave him a look as if she was waiting for him.
"Oh, right. Zoe is my little sister and Linda is my mom." Jon smiled.
"Well, you have six mothers now. Jessica, Martha, Stella, Emma, Sofia, and Linda are your mother's names. Your birth mother is the only one you call 'mom' so that won't change." Kate held the door open to Jon. "And Zoe has three other sisters. Cloe, Stacie and Cathy."
"They all sound similar." Jon frowned. It was going to make things confusing.
"There's usually a common thread to naming a litter."
"Litter?" Jon giggled. He had never heard of a human birth being referred to as a litter. Kate just rolled her eyes.
"Girls are born into litters and boys are single birth." She said it as if this was something that was widely known and Jon should get used to hearing. "Some things you don't know are going to come as common sense from pre-school and others are going to be more culture oriented." Kate was thinking of how best to explain things. Jon was funny to her as everything she was saying to him was.
"Right." Jon realized that his wish made it normal to refer to women as litters of girls or litters of women. He found it odd, but this was the new normal. It was something he was just going to have to get used to. "Are all my sisters goth?" Jon wondered aloud.
"Most girls try to differentiate between them, not liking the matching-set clothes parents like to buy for them. That's the whole reason Zoe is goth, to separate herself from her sisters." Kate spoke from experience. "It's why Karyn is such a tomboy and doesn't like wearing dresses anymore. Heck, before you asked us out nearly two years ago, she hadn't worn one in five years."
It seems that the more eccentrically styled people in Jon's life were explained away in this fashion. But the reverse had to be true too, right? Jon was imagining a Tattooed and heavily pierced punk-rock Sarah McMillan with a smile. That would be something to see.
"Don't get any strange ideas." Kate pinched Jon's ass.
"And how would you know if I did or not?" Jon defensively feigned ignorance.
"I've known you far more intimately and longer than you have me, remember?" Kate gave a self-satisfied smile.
"That's cheating." Jon slumped in mock-pout.
"You can wish the memories you would have had later. You wanted to wait for Karyn, remember?" Katie grabbed his hand and brought him down stairs to the living room, where three of Jon's moms were.
"Hello Mrs. Madisons." Katie greeted them with a smile and a wave.
"There she is." One of Jon's moms stood up and faced the two of them and to their surprise Karyn popped up from the couch and smiled at seeing Jon and Katie.
"Have fun you three." Another one of Jon's mothers called out to them from the couch.
They waved as they left. As soon as the door closed Karyn smiled at the two of them.
"What were you two doing while I had to sit there stuck in a long conversation with Jon's chatty mothers again?" Karyn was smiling at Jon and Katie. Her voice let them know that she wasn't really accusing them of anything that she wouldn't have or hadn't done before.
