“I wish Karyn and I would be identical twins.”
“Oh shit. Then that means, Karyn is my brother? But that doesn’t make any sense, if she no longer is a she, and no longer has the same two parents, and isn’t even a male version of herself but genetically the same as me, and on top of that doesn’t remember things the way they were namely her original self because I didn’t do this wish in her presence, she’s simply no longer Karyn. That would just be too much difference to be the same person any more. Even if I have a new twin brother now, if Karyn has also disappeared, that means I’ve erased her from existence, I’ve killed her.”
Jon was trying to make sense out of it and was about to just wish for information from the stone, when to his surprise, Karyn walked into his room.
“Karyn! You’re alive!”
“Nice to see you too. Always nice for someone to be surprised that I’m still alive. Did you put a hit out on me?”
“No, I swear, I don’t want you dead!”
“Did you make a weird wish that went horribly horribly wrong?”
“Well. Possibly. I thought I did. Maybe it wasn’t granted because it didn’t make sense. Say, when did you get here anyway?”
“Here? I just walked through the door. I was in the kitchen before that.”
“No, I mean, in my house.”
“What are you talking about? Ever since we got home from school. I didn’t go anywhere in between. And what’s this my house stuff, it’s my house too.”
“Uh oh.” Jon said.
“What do you mean uh oh. This has something to do with the wish doesn’t it. Let me guess, something is changed and I’m not aware of it because my memories were altered and everything I know is wrong.”
“That’s possibly it. Tell me, are we brother and sister?”
“Um. What?”
“You and me. In your memories, are we brother and sister?”
“I’m going to say no to that one. Are we supposed to be? What did you wish for?”
“I wished we were identical twins. But obviously it wasn’t granted.”
Karyn gave Jon a strange, awkward glance. And then calmly said “follow me. And I want you to promise something right now.”
Jon followed her. “Promise what.”
“Promise you won’t freak the hell out.”
“I, I promise,” Jon said, hoping he would be keeping that promise.
Karyn entered the bathroom. Jon followed her in.
“Oh my god!!” Jon yelled. Two Karyns stood in the mirror. Jon looked down. And gave her own breasts a big confirming squeeze. “Oh my GOD oh holy shit!! I’m you!” Then Jon felt between her own legs and felt something unfamiliar and not at all what she had expected to be there. Or rather, something she would not have expected 5 seconds earlier, but after the big breasts, wasn’t all that unexpected. “I’m a girl?! How could I not notice? La la la laa, oh my god, my voice, I thought it was strange somehow but it never even registered somehow!”
“You promised you wouldn’t freak out.”
“I, well, you’re right. I’m calm, not freaking out, I swear. But, why are we in MY house if I became a member of your family. That still doesn’t make any sense.”
“Ok first of all, what were we before. At first I was thinking you just changed yourself from being my brother to my twin sister but now you say we live in different houses.”
“I was just your friend. Your male friend.”
“Are you sure? That doesn’t sound believable.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t have male friends. I hate men.”
“Oh.”
Sensing her sister was alienated by that, and feeling bad about her choice of words, Karyn felt the desire to amend that statement. It was a crazy thought, but then if this person was also in personality the sister she loved so much, she, or he, deserved to be treated kindly.
“I’m not trying to hurt you by saying that, and I don’t necessarily really hate them all, or that furiously, and maybe it’s possible in that other reality something happened that got us on good terms, and maybe some things that happened to me over here, didn’t happen over there, to make me think all that I do, I didn’t mean to hurt you by that. And if you really are the same person I thought I knew, my sister Josie, I definitely don’t want you to think I hate you. I know you’re in stress. Calm down and continue and just forget I said that, ok?” She kissed Jon’s, or rather now Josie’s forehead. With the help of endorphins resulting from that gesture, “Josie” calmed down some now.
“Ok, about the houses. We are two families living together. Is the house you think is my house at 910 Sherwood Drive?”
“Yes!”
“”In your memory, do you have a sister named Zoe?”
“Yes!”
“Ok, so you were originally a SON in the Madison family then, right?”
“That’s it exactly!”
“But we were separate families that never combined and adopted each other after Mr. Madison left, and then the wish granting rock came from I guess your grandfather, your original grandfather.”
“Yes, I mean no, I mean, you are correct.”
“Ok, so that’s what happened. It seems like this is the only way it could have granted your wish. I was not present for the wish so my memories were changed and I couldn’t have been changed into your twin brother because I would truly not have been the same person, the only way it could have granted it was to make you into my twin sister.”
“I see. But then, what should be done about it.”
“From my perspective Jos… uh, what is your real name?”
“Jon.”
“All right, Jon, you probably don’t want to hear it, but I don’t want you to find a way to make things like the way you know. In fact, from my perspective I just lost my beloved sister Josie and you may be kind of much the same person but not really.”
“So you want to erase my memories and reprogram my brain with hers,” Jon said sadly.
“No! I’m just going to wish her back, and then we’ll live on as triplets then. Everyone wins. Except you get stuck as a girl, but wishes can’t be undone so there’s no helping that part. Does that sound so bad?”
“Oh. No, that sounds nice. But what about my Karyn? You get your Josie back but I don’t get my Karyn?”
“Sigh. Quadruplets then.”
“Is that really ok with you though? I’m just a stranger, and a guy, in the body of your sister. You don’t know me, or like me. With your real sister back, I’m just a man you hate masquerading like a wolf in sheep’s clothes.”
“Well we can start on that friendship from here on then. You can be my first ‘guy’ friend. And no I don’t hate you. Forget I ever said that. You’re still a friend, if an alternate me had you as a friend. Besides, you’re not a guy any more. I’m totally not going to let you forget that, I will dress you up in girly clothes and all 4 of us in matching outfits all the time. Consider that my one condition.”
Jon didn’t really mind the idea. Being one of 4 identical quadruplet sisters looking like Karyn, one of which was the Karyn he knew, another an alternate universe female her whole life version of himself, and the last this mysterious bitter but easily softened alternate version of Karyn, seemed like it could be a lot of fun, actually.
