As Jake walked out to the mall parking lot to his car, he tried on the ring, just to see how it looked on his hand. "Oh, man. Bree is gonna love this," he said, grinning.
But when he tried to pull the ring off his finger, it wouldn't come loose. He pulled and pulled, but it just wouldn't budge. "What the hell is wrong with this thing?"
He figured that if he could get himself some soap or something, he could slip it off. But he'd have to get home to do that.
"Damn it. Why did I have to try that thing on?" he muttered to himself, as he unlocked his car.
But unknown to him, getting off the ring was not his biggest problem at the moment, because somewhere nearby, someone was going to make a wish. And if Jake would have indulged the owner of the magic shop just a little longer, he would have known that any wish, made by the person closest to him when he put the ring on, would come true! And the only way that Jake could get the ring off was for the "wisher" to make a wish for it to happen, or for Jake to get as far away from the "wisher" as possible (the distance needed is far, but not determinable). If there was ever anything good about this particular ring, though, it was that only one person could make wishes. Oh, and people's memories don't change to fit the new reality, unless specified so.
Back at the magic shop, Jon gazed into the HD crystal ball and smiled at Jake's predicament. "You should've listened to me, my foolish friend."
