Karyn added to what Jon had already written "Karyn is a girl... but remembers both versions of her whole life, as a guy and a girl."
Memories flooded into Karyn's mind.
"This stone, and this pencil, are just so scary," she said. "I didn't want to believe it, but now I know it must be true. I was a boy. I can see now, the version with me being a girl doesn't make any sense when compared to the version with me being a guy. Why would we be best friends and never once have any romantic interest in each other if I was a girl and you were a boy. I should have shown interest in you, and you in me. No, the way it actually happened was that we were best bros. I remember us catching frogs in the creek. I remember when we looked at playboys together that time. Of course that's the real version of events."
"Uh, Karyn," Jon starts.
"But it's just so SAD! Jon, I don't want to forget this other life! I don't want to throw it all away! I know that none of it is real, but it's so real to me!" she cried real tears. "Jon, please, let me keep my memories of being a girl when I go back, we have to do something to keep this other life of mine preserved, keep this paper safe or make it so it stays true even if it's erased or destroyed!"
Jon now was ambivalent about whether to tell her. It was supposed to be a harmless little joke.
Karyn took a swipe for the stone and said "I wish that everything that has been written with this pencil so far would be made permanent! Wait a minute, that means I'm going to stay as a girl! Oh no! I just wanted to remember this alternate life!"
"Uh, Karyn," Jon tried to say again. Man was it hard to interrupt a girl when she started talking, they never let you get a word in edgewise, he thought.
"Maybe it's better this way, I don't even know if I want to go back!" she cried, her tears resuming.
"Karyn..." Jon said.
But she swooped down and embraced him and kissed him hard. "Well if I'm going to be this way forever, I'm going to rectify the missing part. Let's be girlfriend and boyfriend. I guess this must be weird for you. Maybe too weird. Maybe you're even grossed out, your best friend, a guy, suddenly turning into a girl and deciding to... but it's ok Jon, I get it, I remember it that way too, and I'm still me! I'm fine with it, I wasn't gay before but now that I think about it I'm finding myself able to see you as attractive, and not minding having you as my boyfriend, and being your girlfriend. I just hope you can accept it. Please accept it Jon! Please let me be your girlfriend! We can still do guy stuff together, we can still look at playboys, we can still go catch frogs at the creek, I still get it, I'm still your guy friend, I'm just both, I'm still your guy friend Kar... yn. Jon, Karyn's a girl name. Why was I... named... Jon I was a girl to begin with wasn't I."
"I'm sorry," Jon said. "It was only supposed to be a harmless joke I would have let you in on in a moment, but then you, on your own, kind of took things out of control."
"What, but then. Then I. But that means that I... ARGH!" she yelled in frustration.
"Do you still want to be boyfriend and girlfriend?" Jon asked.
"I, I don't know. I'm so confused."
"Let's not mess with this pencil any more," Jon said, exasperated.
"Could we, use it one time?" she asked.
"For what?" Jon was apprehensive about the answer.
"I'd really like to give you the memories of my other life too."
Jon thought. "Yeah, that doesn't sound too bad. That might be nice. It's certainly to bring us closer together, that's for sure."
Karyn wrote, "I wish Jon had memories of the other life I had with him, where I was a boy," and then wished on the stone for it to be made permanent as well.
They both were silent in awe of the situation for a moment.
"Want to go spit off the overpass at the cars on the interstate?" Karyn asked.
"Sure thing, best bro!" Jon answered back. To be fair though, they had done that in both versions of their shared history. They were kind of best bros either way.
