Jon was reminded of something he saw in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Elmer Fudd and Bugs sleeping until the future. 1950... 1960... 1970... 1980... 1990... 2000.
Of course, the year 2000 was still in the 20th Century. The 21st didn't start until 2001. But from what Jon had seen in that headline, the year was even farther than 2000--he had somehow been transported to a year near the start of the 21st Century.
Then he realized: The newspaper was the New York Times. And the front page was in color. At least it was still a newspaper. Speculation was that someday in the future newspapers would cease to exist because everyone would have their newspapers on their computers. You never saw anyone on Star Trek reading a newspaper, after all.
There was suddenly a ringing sound from his pocket. An object in it, bigger than a keychain, vibrated uncontrollably. Jon took the object out and saw that it resembled nothing more than a communicator. He flipped the lid open and said "Jon to... uhh..." This caused it to go quiet. A tiny color television screen no bigger than an inch by two inches showed what looked like Karyn's phone number, except that it didn't start with two letters, it started with the corresponding numbers.
The remaining sound coming from it was quite low and Jon put it up to his ear, hoping that there wouldn't be a sudden blast of loud sound.
"Hello? Jon?"
"Karyn?" said Jon.
"Hi, Jon! Sorry to bother you, I just need to know how long we have for that math assignment."
"I don't think I can answer that. I, uh, made a wish with the stone and I think I have to clear it up first."
"All right, I'll see you tonight, then. Bye! Oh, and I finally finished with that manga so you can have it back."
"That what? Oh, never mind."
Jon considered what had happened. It was now the future. It was as if it he had been in the future all along--obviously Karyn was still her correct age (he hoped--at least she still had math homework), and he hadn't just aged rapidly or mysteriously disappeared years ago. He may have to make some more wishes if he didn't want to cause trouble with relatives who lived outside the range of the stone... unless the reason for the delay and the whole weird special effect thing was so that it could fix that somehow. Which wasn't good, actually, because it might mean he couldn't get back.
Jon took a peek into Mikey's room. The comic books that had strewn the floor were mysteriously missing. Could it be that in this future world 10 year olds no longer read comic books? But the TV was too big, and too flat.
Jon returned to his own room to find another excessively big TV. Or at least it looked like a TV, but the picture was too wide and upon close observation there was no dial. Instead there was a rectangular device which, he hoped, was the controls for the TV--at least it had the same brand name printed on it. He pressed the "ON" and the TV turned on without warming up. There were some more devices which were connected by wires to a box beneath the TV. On top of his desk was yet another TV, this one smaller and with a device resembling the keys of a typewriter in front of it. He wondered what all these weird things were and hoped he wouldn't have to use his magic stone just to figure out how to live in the future....
