... except that when, around them, all effects created by the wishing stone vanished as if they'd never been... one last thing had to change. The effects of the reality editor itself. There never had been a reality editor any more, so all the things it did had been undone. Which meant that its erasure of the stone was undone too.
The whirlwind of color around Sarah and Jon swirled around them, then stopped, then started again. The effects of erasing the stone could never settle; erasing the stone would erase the gun, which unerased the stone, which unerased the gun, which erased the stone again. Sarah looked at the gun in her hand and said "What the fuck?"
Jon watched dizzily and finally realized that the stone had vanished, then reappeared. He prepared to make a wish, but hesitated, just because he didn't know what was going on. Which was fortunate for him, because the stone disappeared again. And so did the gun.
Sarah, not injured but almost as panicked as Jon, fired the gun again. It missed Jon and hit the ground, where there was suddenly a foot deep hole. The stone and gun reappeared as Jon thought to himself "Got to get well, got to get well..." The wish was on the tip of his tongue, but before he could say a word, the stone and gun disappeared again, and the whirl of color had started up yet another time.
Sarah yelled at Jon, "Explain yourself!" but Jon, barely able to stand up, was concentrating on waiting for the stone. As soon as the stone reappeared he said as rapidly as he could, "IWishI'mWell". He felt much better. No blood, no pain in his legs, he was now standing up... and he got to his feet just in time for the stone to vanish again.
"Sarah," he said, "that gun is very dangerous, but it's not used to kill people. It's something completely different...." But how could he explain it, let alone explain it safely?
