In the morning, Joy's cell phone rang. It was very early--she had just gotten out of bed a minute before and was staring at a closet containing a lot of women's clothing that would fit someone whose body was still mostly Jon. She picked it up and saw that it was from Alan.
"Hello?" said Joy.
"Hi, Joy," said Alan. "We have a problem. Remember last night?"
"Ugh, it's hard not to."
"You should have made the potion wear off in a minute, not overnight."
"But I couldn't bring myself to do that immediately. It was a miracle that I could do it at all. What happened?"
"When we were finished having sex we were still under the love spell's influence. I was still under the love spell's influence. So I had this idea that I would make us stay together forever. I wished that you'd bear my children, and you would marry me and we would raise them."
"What? How could you?"
"I wanted to continue being in love with you and I figured that in order for that wish to happen we would have to fall in love. I couldn't do anything more direct since it would contradict your wish."
"Well, Alan," said Joy, "I'm really a guy..."
"... but I'm sure that what we did was enough to get you pregnant anyway."
"Maybe if you have children someday, and I hold them in my arms, that counts as 'bearing'. If I lift them above my head it's also 'raising'."
"If the stone lets you do it that way."
Joy picked the stone up off her dresser and said "I wish I know if it does."
"Let me guess," said Alan over the phone. "It's too much of a stretch even for the stone."
"Right," said Joy. "Besides, that doesn't help with the marriage. I guess I'm not surprised that something like this happened, and I can't really blame you, but what can we do about it? The best I can think of is to do what you thought you wanted. Instead of assuming that the wish will lead to us falling in love, I can just wish that we're in love instantly. It'd be weird to do it but it won't be so weird after I make the wish and we feel differently. I'm not going to do that, of course."
"What are you going to do?"
"Wait. I'm sure something will come up. Thanks for warning me, anyway."
