Fortunately, nothing seemed to happen.
"What a stupid wish," Jon said. "I need to be more careful with this rock."
It wasn't until the next morning that he noticed that the day's date on his calendar had a large red circle drawn around it. What did that mean? A test today? If so, he was in big trouble, because he hadn't studied, and didn't even know what subject it might be in.
Maybe the wishing rock would help with that. He pulled it out of its drawer and wished to know why today's date was circled on the calendar.
"It's the day the experiment begins," he heard in his head.
What experiment was that? He was about to make another wish to find out when a jaunty tune began playing from a loudspeaker hidden somewhere in his room. As soon as he heard it, he found himself standing at attention, still in his underwear, and dropping the rock on the bed. The involuntary movement was unsettling, but he couldn't seem to stop himself.
From the mirror hanging on the back of his door, he saw a glazed look come over his eyes.
The music abruptly ceased. He tried to lunge for the rock, hoping that he might at least be able to determine what was going on, but his movement was still restricted.
"Greetings." The calm, female voice was coming over the loudspeaker. It went on: "As you know, a month ago, your town was sold to FemCorp. We paid off your debts, kept the main industries from moving to Mexico, and reopened all the schools. In exchange, it was agreed that FemCorp could use the town's population to conduct certain sociological experiments. To facilitate that process, we began using subliminal messaging to ensure that, when the time came, the people of this town would fulfill their part of this agreement."
What the hell is she talking about? Jon thought, trying to force his hands to move. When he'd wished for something interesting to happen, he certainly hadn't meant this.
"Well," the voice continued. "Today is the the day we begin! You must be so excited -- especially the men. Hopefully, with your help, we will be able to answer some of the deepest, most probing questions in sociology and other areas of research.
"As you also know --" Here the voice became less cheery and more serious -- "if anyone attempts to leave town without express, written permission of FemCorp, he or she will be indefinitely detained, as well as liable for certain legal penalties. We will also be monitoring all outgoing email and the Internet, should you try to contact anyone from the outside. Please do not attempt to do so, as this might contaminate our results."
Holy crap. FemCorp was serious. In the real world, Jon knew, it would be difficult for one company to have so much control without running afoul of the law. However, the stone had created this reality. He had to do something to stop this experiment before things got even worse.
But he was still frozen in place, his panic growing as the FemCorp spokesperson explained exactly what the experiment would entail.
