Jon fumbled through his clothes and belongings hoping to find the thing that really mattered right now. With each passing second without finding it he panicked. What would he do if it wasn't there? How would he get it back? Would he have to track down a member of the Madison family? What if it had never been found by his grandfather in the first place?
He sweated bullets as he prayed that it would be there. Finally he caught sight, and pulled it from the drawer. He felt tears welling in his eyes. He hadn't expected to be in a situation where the stone could feasibly go missing, just like he hadn't expected the alteration to his family history. As long as he had the stone he could fix all of this at the end of everything.
"I wish I knew how I got the stone in the current version of reality." Jon had to know how he still had the stone. He was given information regarding his grandfather. He was happy to discover it was the same man he knew, though he learned some of the history regarding his grandfather's fascination with his new wife's culture. Evidently he still had the adventurous spirit Jon knew him for, and had taken an opportunity to be part of an expedition that had still resulted in the discovery of the stone.
It was only because his grandfather's adventurous spirit had been so strong, and the trip to South America had still come across his desk that Jon had the stone. He knew it was sheer dumb luck, but he couldn't rely on that anymore.
"I wish that I would still have ownership of the stone no matter what changes occur as a result of the family swapping wish I made." Jon felt the stone heat up momentarily. He sighed, feeling like he could collapse after that ordeal. He had really needed some hope, and finally getting some left him happy but exhausted.
He thought about wishing his phone back. About trying to fix some of the changes that had happened because of him. He hadn't touched the stone since that morning, and he'd seen and learned so much about the lives affected by his wish. Zoe was a fat mom, Samantha was a pregnant teen, Athena was slutty fat trailer trash, and those were just some of the people he knew of. He wasn't sure what had happened to Karyn. Was she still a middle aged single mom and lunch lady? What of the girls he had become friends with the day before like Angela, Carly and Aisha?
He looked at the stone, ad decided against using it. He had resolved to face what he had done, and that meant seeing things through no matter how ugly they got. The stone had already twisted his original wish, ill-conceived as it initially was. Trying to fix things could lead to compounding problems.
The only thing he considered was wishing someone else knew what was happening. Jon wouldn't admit it out loud, but a part of him wanted someone to blame him. Someone to curse him and be angry for what he had done to them and all these other girls. He wanted Karyn to be mad, or Zoe's biting tongue. Everyone went about their lives as if they were normal, and to them they were. Jon had begun to feel lonely on his own, and the phantom whisper of the stone told him it didn't have to be that way.But wishing someone else to remember would force them to be an outsider to this reality like he was. It was just another selfish wish to attempt assuaging his own guilt.
"Jon, are you ready to head to the Brewer;s? It's starting to get late, and Zoe wants you to meet with her and her daughters." Stephanie said from his doorway.
"Yeah, I'm ready." He slipped the stone into his pants pocket. Now it was time to come face to face with what he had made his little sister.
