Jon grabbed his brother's arm and led him upstairs to his room.
"What are you going to show me?" the younger brother asked.
"It's a secret," Jon smiled as he opened the door to his room. "Close the door behind us, I don't want Zoe or Mom finding out about this."
As soon as they were safely sealed in Jon's bedroom, Mikey blurted out, "Is it your collection of porno?"
"No it's not that. How'd you know about porno?" Jon asked.
"Jon! I'm thirteen, of course I've seen... some porno mags," Mikey replied, trying to imply as much imagined experience as he could. This was, in part, true. Mikey's friends had bragged to him about finding a dirty magazine and looked at the pictures of naked ladies. They'd told him all about it, so of course now Mikey considered himself an expert on the subject, by proxy. He knew they contained pictures of naked women, and he knew he needed to see them. He didn't know what he was meant to do once he'd seen them, but he felt confident the answers would present themselves at the appropriate time. "So do you have any... porno?"
"Yeah sure, I keep it in a shoebox under my bed and you're welcome to it," Jon replied briskly, "but that's not what I wanted to show you."
"Then what?" asked Mikey, as he knelt down to peer under Jon's bed.
"This," Jon passed him a small rock.
"A stone?"
"Not just any stone Mikey," Jon said. "It's a magic rock that grants wishes! Grandpa left it to me, but I want you to have it."
"Wishes?" Mikey gasped. "Wow, really?"
"Yeah, it's no joke! You hold it and make a wish and it comes true. Just be careful with it though, there are rules-"
"Jon! Come on," their mother's voice called up from downstairs. "or you'll be late for school!"
"Dammit, I gotta go," Jon huffed. He handed Mikey the letter he'd received with the wishing rock. This is the letter grandpa wrote me, it has all the instructions there. Please read the whole letter before you go using it, okay?"
"Yeah, sure." Mikey took the piece of paper from his older brother without listening.
"I'll see you later buddy," Jon smiled and patted his little brother on the head, "and have fun!"
And so Jon left Mikey alone in his room with the magic rock and set of instructions. Mikey rolled the stone over in his hand in awe and muttered, "So you grant wishes, eh?"
Mikey waited for the sound of the front door slamming shut to be sure his family had left and he was alone in a quiet house. Then Mikey immediately...
