Zoe had followed Jon and Karyn, and stood outside the closed door, trying to listen to their discussion. She knew that something was very strange about Jon's behavior. He was acting as if his own mortality had just stared him in the face.
She listened closely, trying to make out their conversation despite it being muffled by the closed door. She could only make out bits and pieces. Something about a stone, a wish for a laptop, and the galaxy. And then something about something "the stone told me". The stone told Jon? That didn't make any sense to Zoe.
And then she heard crying. Karyn and Jon were both crying. Whatever Jon had told Karyn had to be the worst news possible. Was Jon sick? Had some doctor given him a grim diagnosis?
It would explain Jon's behavior at breakfast, but Zoe sensed there was something else going on. Where did wishes, a stone, and the galaxy fit into this?
Zoe felt she had to try to listen more closely. She needed to know what Jon wasn't telling her.
She placed her ear closer to the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor, so she could more clearly hear the conversation. After a while, she heard Karyn speak.
"So, now what do we do? Who do we tell about this?"
"I don't know." Zoe heard Jon say. "I wanted you to be the first to know. I was hoping maybe you'd have some ideas. Maybe you'd think of something I missed."
There was a pause before Karyn spoke again. "The stone ... a hundred years ago, it used to have a range of over a thousand miles. But now it's somewhere around 90 miles? How did that happen?"
"I don't know." Jon said. "I suppose we could ask the stone."
And then Zoe heard Jon say "I wish we knew just what kind of wishes were used that caused the stone to use up so much magical energy its limit is down to 90 miles."
And then, new knowledge began flowing through Zoe's mind. The stone Jon was speaking of was a magic wishing stone, much like the wishing artifacts Zoe's friend Athena DeVries had read about and told Zoe about. The stone was capable of granting just about any wish, but it had a limited range and couldn't affect anything outside of that range. Over the last hundred years, the stone's range had decreased from over a thousand miles to 90 miles due to certain wishes requiring the use of a great amount of magical energy to pull off. These were wishes that affected huge areas, many involving undoing the effects of disasters both natural and man-made as if the catastrophes had never happened.
And there had been some people who had been amazingly careless or gone crazy with the stone, creating all sorts of chaos which had to be mitigated by later wishes. After realizing how much the stone's range had decreased, the previous owner of the stone before Jon's grandfather decided to return it to South America to recharge at one of the few magical areas that would restore its energy. That was over six decades ago, and now Jon had the wishing stone.
As Zoe took in this new information that Jon had unintentionally shared with her, she heard Jon and Karyn speaking again.
"But even if it still had a range of over a thousand miles, that still wouldn't be enough to save the Earth." Karyn said. "And it'd take two hundred years to get it to a point where its range encompassed the entire Earth?"
"Not enough time." Zoe heard Jon say. "I don't know what we're going to do. We're going to have to tell other people at some point. But will it do any good?"
Save the Earth? From what? Zoe was so wrapped up in trying to hear and understand what was going on that she stumbled and hit the door. Shit!, she thought. Now they know I'm here!
Jon and Karyn turned to the door at the sudden noise. Jon opened the door to reveal Zoe on the other side, slowly standing up.
"Okay, Zoe. How long have you been listening to us?" Jon said calmly.
"Long enough to know you've got a magical wishing stone." Zoe said. "And that you want to use it to save the Earth from something but there's this range limitation in the way."
"So, you heard me making that wish?" Jon said.
"Yeah." Zoe replied. "I learned all sorts of things about the stone. But it sounds like there's this big disaster that's too big for the stone to handle. So what is it? Climate change? A giant meteor?"
"Worse." Jon said. "I think it's best that I just show you."
Jon grabbed the stone and said "I wish Zoe knew everything I'd discussed with Karyn about the stone, and everything I've learned since I wished for the laptop with the star map."
And in the next instant, Zoe knew. She knew of Jon's meeting with Karyn about the wishing stone, about the blue branch that could not be turned any non-blue colors because it would contradict a previous wish, and Karyn's accidental wish. And she knew about what Jon had discovered with the star map, the death bubble that was consuming the universe, and Jon's failed attempts to stop or mitigate the disaster.
And in the face of all this knowledge, she laughed. She laughed a long, loud, bitter laugh.
Jon and Karyn stared in surprise as Zoe laughed. "We're screwed! We're totally screwed!"
"So some alien race billions of light years away invented a doomsday weapon, and were stupid enough to set it off? So much for life on other planets being smarter than us! Now the whole universe is totally, totally, f--cked!" She laughed again.
"This isn't funny!" Karyn exclaimed, horrified at how Zoe could react this way.
Zoe calmed down just a little. "But it is, in a way. It's almost hilarious how nothing Jon tried worked. How the deck is so thoroughly stacked against us. You either laugh or you cry."
"Seriously, you tried everything. Even if you could wish up faster than light spaceships or move the Earth somehow, you'd only be borrowing a few more years. The whole universe is going to go. What are you going to do, move to another universe?"
Jon and Karyn exchanged meaningful glances with each other as ideas came to them. Zoe noted this.
"Wait. I don't need any magical abilities to guess what you're thinking." Zoe said. "If you're really serious about wanting to save everybody, you'd better think twice before wishing up a portal to some random other universe. You never know what might happen. Of course we've got nothing to lose anyway, but if you REALLY want to do this right, I think you'd better talk to Athena."
"Athena? Your friend?" Jon asked.
"Athena actually studies magical items." Zoe said. "She's read about all sorts of magical items, and knows a lot about how to use them. If anyone can help you do this and do this right, she can."
"You really think Athena can help us?" Karyn asked.
"It's worth a try." Zoe said. "Maybe you can talk to her sometime after school."
At those last words, Jon and Karyn winced. As strange as it was under these circumstances, they realized they had best get going or they would be late for school. The three of them, after all, were still the only ones who knew about the disaster that awaited them in four years. Everyone else was going about their day as normal.
And so Jon and Karyn, and Zoe, got their things together and headed for the door.
