Jon grabbed for the paper. His mother didn't let go, and he ended up tearing off a large strip with some words on it.
He looked at the strip, but nothing happened. Tearing the paper had made it useless. So he had saved everyone (or at least his mother) from another transformation.
Jon was about to ask his mother to make a wish on the rock when she put the rock in her pocket. "Mom!" he said, but she just walked away. Then she stopped and looked back. Jon was guessing she was making sure Jon left Mikey's room. Maybe she was upset at something else and had a short temper; maybe she just found Jon's behavior strange and was trying to give him time to cool down; but whatever it was, she wasn't going to try the stone right now.
"Now look what you did, Mikey!" said Jon, backing off and standing outside Mikey's door as Zoe got out of his way.
Mikey grinned. "Everything seems fine. Did you hear what Mom said? Daughter. You're a daughter. And you're going to stay one. I made sure of it. Now stay out of my room, sister! You know, Jon's a funny name for a girl. I wonder how many people even know you're a girl."
"I'm not anyone's sister," said Jon. "I'm still me, whatever you've done to my genitals. Now change me back!"
"I will not!" said Mikey. "I wished I can't. So I can't and you can't make me do it. I can't."
"Change me back, or..."
"Don't threaten me. I still have this pad. I can make any wish I want by writing it down and looking at it myself. Why do you think Mom thinks of you as a girl, even though the note says everyone would remember the old reality? I just made a second wish, so they don't. It's new reality all over the place!"
"Make another second wish and change me back."
"That would have been possible a few minutes ago, before I wished I can't. C-A-N-T, Jon. Now leave me alone."
Fuming, Jon walked away. He was already thinking of ways to get back at Mikey. The best he could think of was to find another note that Mikey had made and somehow use it against him, but that was unlikely and could be dangerous. Or to wait until later and try to get the stone back.
"What do we do?" asked Zoe. "I feel like something from a porn movie, with this between my legs."
"Take good care of it," said Jon. "Don't do anything with it that I wouldn't do. I'll have to think of something. Steal the stone, steal the pad... You knew about the stone, do you know about anything else Grandpa had? I know I'm asking a little late, but did he will you anything?"
"Nothing we can use," said Zoe. "A note saying to wait until I'm 18... maybe I'll get something then. But I'll have been a boy for four years."
"I'm hoping nobody will notice the difference," said Jon. "It's not as if you show people your genitals every day."
Jon returned to his room. He quickly looked around for more notes. He could threaten Mikey with one by forcing it in his face... but would that work? He'd have to see the note himself and then he'd be compelled to read it. At any rate he couldn't find any. He'd have to wait.
Jon opened his pants and looked down at the strange parts. They were real, and they were his until he could get his brother to send them back... somehow. He felt a tinge of pleasure as he touched the right spot but withdrew his hand. He couldn't think of them as his. They were his sister's. He was just borrowing them, even though they felt like part of his body, and fit as though they belonged.
Could he really hide them until he could fix it? And what did it mean for reality to change, anyway? Dozens of ideas went through his head. If reality changed, he might not be able to hide it, because in this reality, people might have found out years ago. Jon could have even told them.
And what other things would be different? A thought came to him and he looked around for pictures of himself with Zoe's boyfriend. He found pictures of himself with people he didn't remember having pictures taken with, but Zoe's boyfriend wasn't among them. Then it occurred to him that if he had been a girl and had a boyfriend, it would be one his own age. But nothing was immediately obvious.
Though the boy band poster on the wall didn't look promising.
