"Never mind her," muttered Zoe, "I have to get to school myself." Mikey's classes started at 8, while the classes at the high school started late, at 9. It was already 8:30 and Zoe had to leave this very instant.
She picked up her things and left her room, but was stopped by Jon's voice. "Hey, Zoe?"
"Yeah?"
"Have you seen a small rock, about so big?" He made a gesture with his hands, indicating a small object, about the size of the one she had taken from Mikey.
Zoe thought over the idea of telling Jon. It was probably his rock, after all. She didn't want to be a thief, but the thing was so useful. She could always wish up a couple of things when she has time, and only give it back later. He wouldn't miss it if she just had it for a few more hours.
Jon frowned. "Okay, Zoe. I can see you're thinking it over. That has to mean you have it. Hand it over."
"I just want to use it to, er, to fix the problem."
"What problem?"
"Our brother Mikey."
"What brother Mikey?
"That's the problem."
"You're just messing with me."
"I am not! We have a brother. He took your stone and messed up his wishes. As a result he's now Mimi Grant, a teacher, his real teacher Julie Grant's twin sister."
"I never heard of any Mimi or Julie Grant. Come on, give me the rock, please. I have to go."
"You've never heard of--wait! You have no idea. The magic rock would wipe everyone's memory. She's an elementary school teacher, not a high school teacher. She teaches Mikey, he's nine years old. You'd only have heard of the teachers there when Mikey comes home and talks about them. And you no longer remember Mikey talking about anything. We really do need to fix this."
"How old is this Mimi?"
"What difference does that make? But I'd guess 22."
"Okay, so you want me to take this 22 year old woman, make it so that her own sister doesn't know her, make her lose her high school education and maybe college too, and send her to elementary school as a kid, who can come live here not knowing what girls are."
"Well, yeah, but you have the emphasis all wrong. For one thing it's all fake. Julie isn't really her sister. She didn't really go to high school. She's supposed to be a kid."
"But it doesn't matter," said Jon. "Even if she only got all of her life by magic we can't just take it away. It's, well, wrong. Maybe I can see it more clearly because I don't think of it as 'returning things to normal'. Anyway, we can discuss it later, we both have to get to school. Come on, Zoe, the stone..."
Zoe took out the stone. "I'm going to regret this," she said. "Fine. I'll give you your rock back, but I wish you'll let me have some things that I want for myself." The rock flashed and Jon took it.
"I guess I have to," he said. A new wardrobe, a pile of CDs, several thousand dollars, and a new car later, Jon wished them both to school. "A kid brother," he thought. "It would be interesting to know what that was like, but even if it's true, we can't just do things like that...."
