Now it was time to come face to face with what he had made his little sister.
"Little" no longer described Zoe in any sense. Zoe was now at least twice Jon's age and at almost six hundred pounds nearly four times his weight. Was she his height now? Hard to tell from what he saw on Palimpsest.
Which was now in the possession of another obese woman he created. Assuming Athena hadn't given his phone to someone else.
I can always get another phone, thought Jon. It's not like Athena or anyone else can see the app. It's gonna take a lot of babysitting and tutoring to afford a replacement, though. Assuming the Kims and Brewers will still want me in the future. I could be like this forever. Or I could be changed tomorrow afternoon or at some other 3:47 as a side effect. I could become a jock. Too busy practicing for games to earn money. Or a dropout. Or ... I'll deal with it when the time comes. And it will, because the wish can't be changed.
Jon rubbed his hand over his pants pocket, making sure he still had the stone. He couldn't fully rule out using it to alleviate really bad effects of his wish. What had happened so far was horrible, but things could still be way worse. Zoe seemed happy to be Mr. Brewer's living inflatable animal. Karyn loved her two daughters. Athena ... okay, Jon couldn't see anything remotely good about what happened to her.
Jon looked at his mother sitting next to him in their car on the way to the Brewers' house. Was Stephanie better or worse off now? He had stolen her youth and ha d no, but otherwise her life seemed pretty good. Better than when she was a Sanders for the past day. Being a single teen mom was not fun - as Samantha Sanders now knew the hard way. Then again, it wasn't as if being a Goth as a teenager would have doomed Stephanie Wright to a horrible adulthood. Would Stephanie ever get a chance to be the adult she was originally meant to be? Or would she be his mother forever? If the Nguyens remained this way for the rest of their lives, Stephanie could be his mother longer than Linda had been! Zoe would probably die before he would. She wasn't just older; she was huger. Jon had been horrified to see Zoe Monaghan on Tuesday, bloated, bespectacled, and writing in a notebook in a school hallway. That Zoe was tiny compared to Zoe Brewer. Jon wondered if Zoe would ever experience being normally sized again.
Stephanie had gone up in age, but her build hadn't changed. She was still as slim as she had been before the wish.
"I hope you didn't mind me going home to go to the bathroom instead of driving straight to the Brewers," said Stephanie.
"Not at all," said Jon. He couldn't explain why he didn't mind. How he appreciated the opportunity to find his room and verify that he still had the stone that his grandfather - now her father! - had given him.
"Do you miss Grandpa?" asked Jon.
"Every day," replied Stephanie, who had no idea who Dan Madison was until this afternoon. "I wish he could see you now, setting a good example for the Kim girls and soon to tutor the Brewer girls. You're a scholar like he was."
I am? Jon asked himself. At least he still had his Future of Gaming poster and his gaming console. He hadn't become a total testing machine in this reality. Stephanie allowed him some degree of pleasure.
"You're a good mom," said Jon.
"Thank you. What makes you say that?" asked Stephanie.
"Going from one family ... the Kims ... to another ... it's making me appreciate mine. Grandpa. You. Mikey." He wished he could include his sisters, but he didn't know them. And he didn't know the Mikey of this reality. Maybe they didn't get along. But in any case he was grateful Mikey was still related to him. Not a stranger like Linda and Zoe.
Stephanie parked in front of the Brewer house. Jon got out of the car first, walked straight to the front door, and pressed the doorbell. Stephanie was proud of her son taking the initiative instead of having her take the lead as she had with the Kims according to her memory.
Marie Brewer opened the door. "I - we've been waiting for you!" She was disappointed to see no sign of recognition from Jon. "It's me, Marie. We're in homeroom together!" He saw her every day. How could he be so oblivious to her?
"Hi, Marie." Jon was relieved that she had identifed herself and that she had an easy name. It never occurred to him that it was also his grandmother's name. Jon had never seen his grandmother as a teenager. If he had, he might have seen a strong resemblance between her and her Brewerized self.
He only said my name because he heard me say it, thought Marie. I'm gonna make sure he remembers me. Even if I have to - ugh - study. She gestured toward two huge girls parked on a couch in front of a TV. "These are my sisters Betty and Chrissy."
Marie's siblings muttered a weak "hi."
It was getting late. Betty was tired and wasn't interested in Jon at all.
Chrissy was disappointed to see that Jon "Gwen" was Asian. Not her type. She felt a bit guilty about her first impression. Was she racist? It didn't bother her that Marie was into Jon for whatever reason. Chrissy would be fine with an Oriental brother-in-law ... assuming Jon ever got that far with Marie. Jon might not have the "food thing" like their dad. That, not race, would be the real obstacle for a relationship.
Was Chrissy thinking way ahead or what? Jon had just arrived. She didn't even know him. Who knows, maybe Marie's infatuation would wear off and it'd be Chrissy who'd become Jon's girlfriend. Or, of all people, Betty. The road to romance was often never straightforward.
Tiffany would be a major roadblock for any of the Brewers. She kept texting Jon in vain from her bedroom - which had been his until this afternoon. She even called him once. No answer. This wasn't like him. Had something happened to him? She had to know. She left her room to tell her parents her plan to walk to Jon's place and check on him. Who were they, and how did their family come to live in his house?
