"I wish we're at home," said Jon. They disappeared and reappeared in Jon's room.
"Are you okay?" asked Jon's mother. She looked at the baby, worried. "Jon, are you going to be okay? There's no way you can take care of a baby. Or whatever that is."
"Yes there is, Mom," replied Jon. "It's all magic, remember? Only instead of a wishing well or a wishing ring, I have a wishing daughter. Diapers get wished clean in a second, and if she vomits anywhere it won't stay. I don't lose any sleep from waking up in the middle of the night to take care of her. If she gets badly sick or hurt, I wish it away. I'll be fine."
She thought about it but couldn't think of any response, and finally said "All right, Jon, but please be careful."
"You're not fine," said Karyn.
"No, I'm not," replied Jon, sitting down. "I don't want to be a girl."
"If you bind your breasts you'll be fine," said Karyn. "You don't have girl curves. You're still you. Besides, how can you feed the baby without breasts?"
"Wish she's older? Wish for a self-renewing bottle? Anyway the other thing is this is all too weird. This isn't a baby, it's a magic item. But I gave birth to her, and she has my eyes and nose, and the way she looks at me I know she's depending on me as her mother. Petra doesn't know she was a plastic bag the other day." The baby stirred in Jon's arms and he said "There, there, Petra. Mommy's here. Then he tickled her a bit.
Karyn giggled. "You just..."
"I know what I just did," said Jon. "What else am I going to say to her?"
"Yes, but you're bonding. With your magic item."
"Like I said, instead of a wishing ring I have a wishing daughter. If my magic device looks like a daughter and it acts like a daughter, then I have to treat it like a daughter."
"Nobody gets emotionally involved with their magic items."
"I said it's weird. Whenever I think of her in one way, as a thing or as a baby, the other one's always in the back of my mind. I can't say it's only a thing I inherited because it looks and acts just like a real baby. But I can never completely forget that a few days ago I wasn't pregnant, I just had a harness in a box with a note warning me it turns into a baby--and I'm a guy, anyway."
"You just started," said Karyn. "You haven't had enough time to even decide how to act."
"Maybe the hormones from the pregnancy are affecting me."
"Pregnancy hormones don't take over your mind."
"No, but it's a combination of things. Hormones, bonding, me being a nice guy to someone I gave birth to. And if I am acting like a mother, I'm not going to fight it. If I did I'd have to get rid of the baby, and I can't very well get rid of a wishing anything." Jon lowered his voice. "I think we're disturbing Petra. She wants to sleep. We've both had a hard day today...." Jon whispered a wish, and a crib appeared in the room. He gently lay his wishing daughter in it to rest.
