"I wish it was December right now," Jon said, holding the stone. It shined brightly, causing both Jon and Santa to look away. When they uncovered their eyes, they saw that it was snowing outside, something that it wouldn't do in April. At least, not normally. There's always a chance of a freak weather event. But anyway ...
"Jon! What have you done?" Santa asked, becoming distressed.
"What? All I did was wish for it to be December. Now you can tell me where my grandfather is."
"Jon, I made these stones. I know what they can do and what they can't do," Santa explained. "The stone you have has a limited range."
Jon looked down at the stone in his hand, remembering that his grandfather said something about that in his letter. That it only had a range of a couple miles, or something. "Then ... it's only December here, in town?"
"Jon, you may have just ripped a hole in the space-time continuum. Luckily, I'm here to fix it. Time and me are old friends."
"What are you talking about?" Jon asked.
The room shook, as if there was an earthquake.
"What was that?"
"It's already starting," Santa said. "Your town is out of sync with the rest of the world by eight months. Ever heard of the Bermuda Triangle?"
"Yeah?"
"Same thing. Only there it's only a few seconds out of sync. That's not enough to upset the continuum." Santa looked straight at Jon. "This is worse. Much worse." He looked down at the stone in Jon's hand. "I should have never created those blasted things."
"So, then. What are you going to do?" Jon asked.
Another quake hit. This one was bigger than the last, causing some of Jon's stuff to fall off his shelves.
"The solution is simple. I ..."
