Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. "Who's there?" Jon asked, then opened the door. Standing out in the hall was his mom. And she looked a little grim.
"Jon, we've been chosen."
"Chosen? Chosen for what?" he asked.
"For the Life Lessons. What did you think I was talking about?"
Life Lessons? What was that? Jon had a feeling that this had something to do with that wish he just made. But what exactly did his wish do?
"So ..." Jon said.
"We need to meet up with our designated family. Come downstairs. I want to tell our whole family what's going to be happening." She sighed. "I really didn't want this to happen. But at least we're getting paid for it." Then she walked downstairs.
Jon turned around and reached for the stone, then made a wish to find out what this Life Lessons thing was. In a flash (literally), he knew. It was some sort of local government program to help citizens cope with one another through understanding and empathy. The people running the program chose families that were socially at odds with one another. The program promoted unity over chaos. Apparently some city official claimed that it would reduce crime, or something. One family would teach another family to be just like them. Over time, it was believed that this would cause the families to be friends and would create a positive influence on society in general.
Anyway, the Gibson family (Jon's family) was chosen to be the "student" family. That's why his mom seemed so grim. For the next few weeks, or even months, his family would be trained by the "teacher" family that was picked for them. Jon briefly wondered who that family was, but then moved on to his next wish. He tried to wish that this Life Lessons thing wasn't happening. But the stone wouldn't grant his wish. Apparently, that was considered to be a contradicting wish, even though he didn't specifically wish for the Life Lessons program to exist in the first place. He also tried to wish that he and his family weren't participants, but that didn't work either. Every wish he tried that had something to do with getting out of the Life Lessons program didn't work. It seemed that he had no choice but to follow through on whatever was going to happen next.
He put the stone back in its hiding place under his bed, then headed downstairs.
