Karen sits next to Jon, her arms crossed, and her face in a scowl. Before them is an old all in one computer feverishly whirring and clicking as it tries to remember how to start up. Jon, in contrast to Karen, sits up straight with her hands in her lap, eagerly awaiting the end of the loading screen.
"Hey, Jon?"
"What's up Kare?"
Karen grunts her hesitation softly, the continues, "I just want you to be prepared."
"For?"
"For... For if this doesn't work, ok? I know you're pretty optimistic, but we don't know if that wish from the other reality worked in this one."
"Kare, I've told you before, it was on my computer in all the other realities already."
"Yeah, but you don't have a computer in this one!"
"Sure I do." Jon beams. "It's right here." She pats the old beast before them, prompting a rather concerning grinding sound before it returns to it's usual chorus of clicks and whirs. Jon laughs nervously while Karen just sighs.
Finally the loading screen changes and the desktop begins to appear before them. Jon whispers softly. "It's going to work..."
First loads a bland image of rolling green hills, then the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, and at last, the icons! Jon grasps the mouse and looks around the desktop... She clicks on the first unnamed file she sees and finds... a collection of cartoon images from yesteryear. She huffs, and opens another folder. This time she's greeted with photos from Karen's jr high graduation.
As Jons frustration grows, Karen only sighs with resignation. Every file on the screen is recognizable to her. There's no trace of a magical folder containing Jon's alternate lives. Still, she remains silent, letting her friend find out the truth for herself.
The air is heavy, and the room is silent, but for the ferocious clicking of the mouse. Jon opens the files once, then twice. The third time around, Karen speaks up.
"Hey," she utters softly. A hand goes to Jon's shoulder. "Jon, it's not there. The file isn't on the computer."
Jon grits her teeth. "It... has to be! It was here in all the other worlds!"
Karen shrugs. "You had a computer in all the other worlds." Her eyes turn up, and her words become measured. "If your wish affected all of your possible computers, but you didn't have a computer in this reality, then there's nothing for the wish to change." She shrugs. "It'd be like me wishing that my car turned red. I don't have a car, so the wish probably wouldn't happen."
Jon leans back and stares at the screen a while longer. "But, wouldn't it, like, put the file on my computer, now that I have a computer? I mean, this is MY computer. And I wished that MY computer would have the file."
Karen sighs, and offers that small concession. "Maybe it could have worked like that, but the file's not there, Jon..."
A wet sniffle is Jon's only response. "But, how am I going to turn back then?" Her voice becomes more choked as she speaks, and her eyes begin swell with tears.
Rather than responding with words, Karen wraps her friend in an embrace. Jon returns it, if gingerly, but her eyes remain locked on the screen.
