Five days later Jon's belly was bulging as much as it would and the big day was coming. Jon stared at the diapers and crib, the baby supplies his parents had bought, the baby clothes and everything else.
Jon's mother asked, "Do you have a name for the baby yet?"
"Yes, Mom. I was going to go with 'Jonnie' but I'm not sure anyone's really called that. I finally decided on 'Jana'. It didn't really take that long to pick the name but it felt like I was taking forever. Funny, the whole pregnancy is like that. It's only been nine days but I feel like I've experienced every kind of thing I would have if I had been pregnant for months. I wonder if the baby is going to grow up fast too. I may need to make a wish to keep the baby from getting too old...."
"You need wto what?"
"Uh, nothing, Mom."
"Anyway, Jon, you'll make a great mother."
"Maybe I will." He didn't think of it that way even though the past few days had left him feeling more maternal than any teenage boy should. He had found himself actually wanting to hold his own child in his hands. Breastfeeding it, regardless of how strange that would be. He'd given the child a name and everything was prepared in his room to take care of little Jana, even though he was secretly planning to use some wishes to make his life easier. Magic cleaning diapers anyone? He was going to have a daughter, his own daughter. The wish he had made on day 6 had told him that Jon was the father and the mother--the wish had made him pregnant as if it was like that. That could be dangerous because of gene problems but the wish had taken care of that--otherwise it wouldn't be the best pregnancy.
Jon imagined sending his daughter to school at age 5--though he might end up doing that in two months time if Jana got old as fast as she did when unborn. Would he have to get Mom and Dad to buy her clothes every day? He sighed. He was getting too used to being a woman who would become a mother.
When Jon's water broke, it was hardly a surprise. Being off by a day would be like being off by a month so it happened exactly when predicted. His parents drove him to the hospital and he was introduced to the doctor, told everything about how the birth would go. They didn't knock him out completely but the medication made him groggy and he was barely conscious when he gave birth. Soon, the doctor would hold up little Jana. His daughter would take her first breaths and cry, using her voice for the first time ever. A new life that was his very own....
Jon's head suddenly cleared. He was sitting at home, a guy. The crib and diapers and everything else were still there, but he recalled that the stone had made up an explanation for why they were in his room when he was a guy. There was no crying baby. He looked around the room. Nobody in the crib. He wasn't wearing a hospital gown. What had happened to his baby? Was Jana gone? Because the wish was only for a pregnancy? Jana was nine months old, a complete baby whether inside him or outside him. And now she was... nothing. That crib would never be used. There would never be any first day of school for Jana.
The only thing that kept Jon from breaking out in tears was the knowledge that he still had a wishing stone that might change this somehow.
