Trying to change the subject, Jon said "So the stone has a three mile range? Just like mine?"
"I don't know about yours, but yes."
"Tabitha, well, what I'm afraid of... It's, you see... I just wished that something interesting would happen. And my neighbors, the Russos, were suddenly gone and you were moving in. From LA. Do you see the problem?"
"No..."
Tabitha suddenly jiggled and Jon winced. She didn't notice and Jon was able to keep explaining. "My stone has the same range as yours. LA is out of the range. I have to ask it if you really exist. I don't remember the Russos leaving."
"Maybe your wish changed it so they moved to some other place in 3 miles. Or maybe they just really did move and you never noticed it."
"How did my wish make you move here, though?"
"Uh, maybe I was going to move to another place in the radius and it just redirected me?"
"I wished for something interesting. Maybe you were coming here anyway and the only interesting thing that happened was meeting you, but even then.... It's a little unlikely that someone moves in next door with a stone, right after I wished for something interesting, unless the wish made it happen."
Her face was troubled--at least when Jon tried concentrating on it and ignoring the huge mounds--and she got a rock out of her jeans pockets. "I wish..." she said.
