Katie's transformed mother and father were in the bedroom, and Mikey was not in good condition. Zoe was here, and she had the stone... "Um, Zoe?" asked Katie.
"Yes?"
"My stone... Please. I think I have some ideas."
Zoe looked at Katie for a minute, thinking. "Oh, fine," she said. "Here you go," and handed the stone over. "I think you're still enough Jon to have some idea what you're doing."
Katie took the stone and said, after taking it, "What do you mean?"
"I saw how you were acting with Dad. Like you were turning into a kid for real."
"Oh, come on, I didn't have much choice," said Katie. "Let's go into the backyard."
"What for?" said Zoe.
"Well, I swapped sexes and ages, so I can't change each one. Right? Wrong. I can't wish for a new sex or age, but that doesn't mean I can't change them. Sex is hard, but age is easy. Just live through a lot of years."
"You can't..."
"I can! Hey, Mikey!" yelled Katie. "You might want to come..."
Mikey grimaced. "No, I'd rather stay here." She was frustrated, which nobody could really blame her for.
"Fine." Katie led Zoe out into the backyard and pointed to a large oak tree behind the house. "I wish that in five minutes from now, I'll travel nine years into the past and disappear into that tree. I wish that I'll be unconscious in there but age normally, stay healthy, and come out right after I get sent back. I wish that nobody discovers me during that time."
"You should have wished you don't get eaten by woodpeckers," said Zoe.
"I wouldn't be healthy then, would I?" replied Katie. Then Katie sat down by the tree, leaned against it, and closed her eyes. Zoe waited... and waited... and suddenly Katie disappeared. Then the tree cracked open, and the wood splintered, revealing a man-high cavity inside. In it was Katie... back to Jon's normal age and still holding the stone, but covered in just the tatters of clothes from nine years ago. Her hair was long and unkempt, and the inside of the tree was full of loose hair that had fallen out of her head in the past nine years. At least there weren't nine years of human wastes, but then Katie hadn't eaten anything in there. Katie stepped out, stretched her arms, and said "It worked! It's like I never left, almost."
"You ought to fix that," said Zoe, pointing to the huge fissure in the trunk of the tree.
"I ought to fix myself," said Katie. "You're leering at me, I can tell."
"I am not!"
"You're a teenage boy. I think you're leering at me."
"You're still my sister. People don't leer at their sisters."
"Really. Well, I wish that reality changes so I am 17 year old Katie, except that my family and Karyn know what really happened."
After this wish, the tree was suddenly just a normal tree again, and Katie, having existed normally, now was fully clothed. Her hair stayed shoulder-length but was now combed, and she looked every bit like the old Jon, except for the change in features and body needed to make her a girl. And the skirt and blouse, of course.
