Karyn thought back to every sci-fi time travel movie she had seen. If Jon changed one event in the past, if the present didn't change immediately, it meant that it would take time for the past to catch up to the present. "I wish," she said, "that I would be aware if something changes in the present because of what Jon did." The stone granted that one too. "At least I won't forget what I'm trying to do."
Karyn nodded appreciatively, and looked back down at the stone, trying to think what her next wish should be. The last couple of wishes were steps in the right direction, yes, but she still hadn't solved her main problem (getting Jon back), and honestly Karyn didn't think they would be all too helpful as tools to solve her main problem. What she really needed was to figure out was what the stone would and would not allow, but simply testing that by wishing a bunch of things all at once was too risky, obviously, given that-
CHANGE.
Karyn blinked. The Present had been changed already? It wasn't anything of importance, she thought: just the removal of a little memorial text from the 1986 Yearbook. Karyn wondered if that was in response to anything Jon had done, but then, with just the base wish he had, she guessed they wouldn't need to-
CHANGE.
It happened again? That was a few memories of Linda's, this time; most of her memories of April 29, 1986, were gone. In their place was a recollection of how Jenny Pierce had almost been struck by a car, but thank God, it missed her; though it did scare her into a fainting spell. Karyn wondered...
CHANGE.
An obituary for Jenny Pierce blinked out of existence. Karyn was certain now: Jon wasn't responsible for that one in any way other than to have originally made the wish for something interesting. With the way she worded her wish, she guessed that would've counted, but still...
CHANGE.
In a landfill somewhere, a few hotel receipts for Jenny's parents' vacation had disappeared. The changes were coming like clockwork, Karyn saw. The next would be in 3, 2, 1...
CHANGE.
"Manslaughter" had just disappeared from Raymond Roche's criminal record. Slowly, Karyn was starting to get it.
CHANGE.
The school now actually had an academic and attendance record for Jenny Pierce after April 29, 1986. The stone was going to keep doing this, piece by piece and detail by detail, until... until...
CHANGE.
Jenny Pierce's tombstone had just vanished. It wasn't going to stop until she was brought back from the dead completely, Karyn realized, with an aged Jon in her body.
CHANGE.
All memories Linda had of mourning Jenny were gone. Karyn felt stupid, now; what had she been thinking? Jon wasn't doing things simultaneously with herself in the present! Everything he was going to do in the more than 20 years between then and now, had already been done!
CHANGE.
Jenny's movie ticket to Back to the Future 2 appeared in a landfill. The only determinant of how quickly these changes were going to happen must have come from the stone itself, Karyn realized; in a way, it didn't matter what Jon did or did not try to do in 1986, because all of it would be overshadowed by the hugely important fact that someone had been brought back to life, and was probably going to live several more decades of life afterward.
CHANGE.
This one threw Karyn for a loop: Raymond Roche's death certificate had just disappeared. Two people were coming back to life!?
CHANGE.
And there went several prison records related to Raymond Roche. That might have explained it; he must've died in prison after the manslaughter conviction.
CHANGE.
The transcripts of Raymond's legal proceedings had just changed. Karyn sighed; it was sinking in just how hugely the world was going to be affected by this wish, and how unstoppably the changes were marching forward. Jon might not even be born when the wish was done, and it was only a matter of time until the stone changed that! Everything about the old world was just living on borrowed time!
CHANGE.
The news coverage of Raymond's trial had just changed, too. Despite everything, part of Karyn still wished "Jenny" had been resurrected already; maybe then she could go talk to him and ask him directly what had happened in the intervening decades.
CHANGE.
Linda had a sudden recollection of Jenny's supposed visions of the future back in '86. And also, the bell rang, snapping Karyn out of her ponderings and prompting her to start running in her classroom's general direction. She'd have to continue pondering the fate of the world in class now, lest she get counted tardy.
CHANGE.
Karyn almost tripped over herself as she ran. That one was a change to the journals authored by Jon's grandpa, changing the narrative about his expedition to South America...
