At lunch, Jon got to the lunch line a little before Jonnie, and ended up waiting for her once he got out.
"Glad to see you survived," he said. She hugged him like she hadn't seen him in days. They walked over to an empty table and sat down.
"Wow," she said. "Today has been... well, strange. Nobody that we know, knows me. I even had to say 'let's be friends' to Karyn. You and me are the same as far as you and me go... but not as far as anyone else is concerned."
It hasn't been as bad for me," said Jon, "but still. I had people asking me about you and stuff... and Joseph wanted to borrow the cloning machine."
"I hope you didn't let him," said Jonnie.
"Of course not. I told him he'd have to get write down what he wanted and get his parents' approval." Spotting Karyn at the front of the line, he waved, catching Karyn's eye. After she got her card scanned she came over to where the other two were and sat down.
"Hi, Karyn!" said Jonnie.
"Hi, Jon. Both of you. Jon and Jonnie. We're finally together, all three of us. You've been up to a lot, Jon."
"Yes, I have," replied Jon. "I think I'd better tell you right now. I wished for that cloning machine. I didn't inherit it from Grandpa, but since I made it with the stone, which I did inherit, that's almost the same thing."
"Really?" replied Karyn. "I could swear you told me it was delivered to you. But what ever made you wish for something like that?"
"It was my fantasy!" said Jon. "I wanted to make a clone, and I figured this was a fantasy I could live with."
Karyn turned to Jonnie and said "Are you sure you're okay with it?"
Jonnie got up and stepped over to Jon. She reached for Jon's hand and motioned for him to stand up. Then moving close, she brought her lips to his and began a passionate kiss. After enough liplock to require several deep breaths, she broke away, a wide grin on both her face and Jon's. "We're okay with it!" she said. "It's been great, having two of me who can do this."
Jonnie sat down, while Karyn reluctantly said "Fine. But you don't know how strange you look doing that. I can see Jonnie's a girl by her face, but the similarity's still very close. You ought to wear some makeup, Jonnie."
"I'm still me inside," she said. "I don't wear makeup."
"What if you absolutely have to do it sometime?"
"Then I'll do it. Sometimes we have to do things we don't really like because it's expected. But this isn't one of those times."
"You look like a dyke. Especially with the hair."
"I still like girls," said Jonnie. Which makes me a dyke for everyone except Jon. And except that I don't hang around other dykes. I know, I know, that doesn't mean anything...."
"Yeah," said Jon. "But if you want to try doing that, go ahead. Like we said, the big difference between us is how other people react to us. If that means someone becomes your friend and not mine, I can't stop you and I don't want to try. Anyway, I've been meaning to ask you. Joseph said he wanted to use the machine. What do we do?"
"I think your idea was good. He's not going to get permission from his parents."
"That's helps with him, Jonnie, but he's not the only one. Mike might want to use it, Zoe might want to use it... Mom and Dad. Anyone, really. It's going to be hard saying 'no' to everyone. And then, what if someone from the government tries to take it from us?"
"Mind if I make a suggestion?" said Karyn.
"Of course we don't mind," said Jonnie.
"That's what the magic stone's for," said Karyn. "I can see how you don't want to constantly use it to the point where you forget how to live without it, but this is just the time when you do need to use it. Wish that nobody will ever try to take the machine by force, or threaten you to get it, or arrest you."
"Well, we did sort of do that. We wished nobody would find it strange that we have a machine, but we need to do a little more. Nobody finds it strange that people have gold, but they still might try to steal it. And the cloning machine is more valuable than all the gold there is, unless I wish that there's a couple more of them, and we don't want to do that."
"Just be careful," said Karyn. "I don't want my best friend in two jails at once."
