Karyn walked into the back room of the magic shop and saw Jon staring into his HD crystal ball. "Wait a minute," she said, looking into the crystal ball herself. "Isn't that the one that took the Gem of Understanding for a free trial?"
"Yeah."
"Why is he changing into a woman? I thought the gem only made mental changes."
"It did," Jon said. "But I decided to make things a little more interesting."
"Jon, I thought you said we weren't going to mess with the customers."
"No, I said we wouldn't do it a lot. Come on, Karyn. The gem was kind of lame the way it was. And you can't see mental changes."
"That's why you changed it? So you could have a better show? Change it back."
"I can't. I used the wishing stone. Can't reverse wishes, remember?"
"You didn't give yourself a way out?" Karyn asked.
"I guess I didn't think I needed to."
Karyn frowned, then left the room.
Rick Sr. looked around for the pink stone that he had absentmindedly put in his pocket, then later (before his son left for church) put back down on the table. It was gone. He thought that maybe it rolled off the coffee table after he had set it down, but it wasn't on the floor either.
He shrugged, not really thinking much more about it. He only wondered where it came from and who it belonged to. But right now, he had more important things to wonder about. Like, where was his wife?
