I sat on the wall, holding the box and waiting for Karyn to show up. I reflexively smoothed out my skirt for the tenth time. I had been holding onto the box all day, afraid to let it out of my sight. I had been keeping it in my purse, thankful that the school allowed guys to take them into class. I knew that it was unlikely that it would get stolen if I had left it in my locker. Finally, Karyn showed up.
"Hey, there, Jon," she said. "How was your break? I'm still tired. There's only so much skiing you can do." Karyn lived next door to me. She and I had been friends as long as we could remember. She was wearing her usual jeans and t-shirt. Her kept her red hair cut short and her shoes perpetually looked scuffed up, even when they were brand new.
"I guess," I said.
"What's wrong, Jonny boy?" Karyn asked. "Having a bad period?" In fact, I had been having a bad period. My menstural period was usually pretty bad, and the cramps made me irratible. But that wasn't what was worrying me. It was the box that mattered.
"No, I'm fine," I said. "I just have something else to show you, but not here. I want it to be private."
"Sure thing," Karyn said. I slid off the wall, stopping to adjust my skirt quick. We went out behind school. "So what's this all about, Jon."
"My grandfather died last weekend," I said.
"That's horrible," said Karyn. "What happened? He always seemed pretty healthy. Didn't he just go on an expidition?"
"Heart attack," I said.
"You don't seem to upset," Karyn said.
"I'm not sure he's dead," I said.
"Why do you say that?" asked Karyn. "They must have had a body."
"I'm not sure it was him," I said.
"Then what makes you think that the coroner and stuff made that big of a mistake?" Karyn asked.
"This," I said, pulling the box out of my purse. The box was a few inches square on each side and was decorated with Chinese characters. "I got this from my grandfather in the mail just before we were told that he had died. Go ahead, open it."
Karyn opened it up and pulled out a stylized animal. "What's this?" she asked.
"Its a Fu Dog," I answered. "They're for good luck or something like that. My grandfather could have told you more. Now that he's gone, I wish that I had studied this stuff more."
"There's a note," Karyn said. "Can I read it?"
"Go ahead," I said.
Dear Jon,
If you're reading this, it means that I've passed on. I know that you'll miss me, but just look at this as my next big adventure.
I want you to have this as part of your inheritance. I acquired this Fu Dog many years ago when I was doing archeological research in China. This Fu Dog may not look like much, but it has great power. It can grant wishes. Simply hold the dog in your hand and begin your wish with the words 'I wish.' Once the wish is made, it will be as if it had always been true. Only people who have heard the wish will remember the way things had been before.
But be careful with this power. Wishes, once made, cannot be reversed. They can be modified or reinterpreted, so with difficulty, it may be possible to return reality to the way it was before. But be careful, for as I found out myself, poorly thought out attempts to change reality back may be worse than the original changes. Use this power well.
Grandpa
"So, what," said Karyn. "Your grandfather may or may not have faked his own death and given you a wish granting dog statue?"
"That's what I think," I said.
"So you could make anything change, and people who didn't hear the wish would think that it had always been that way," said Karyn.
"As far as I can tell, yes," I said. "Check this out." We walked over to the school. "I wish the school was painted blue." The paint job changed from battleship grey to sky blue. Karyn was impressed.
"So no one but us will know that the paint changed," Karyn said. "They'll always think that it was blue."
"Yes," I said.
"So you could do anything you wanted. Even something like, say, have girls give birth to babies instead of guys and people would accept it as normal?" asked Karyn, incredulous.
"You think I haven't already considered doing something like that?" I asked. Irrationally, I got upset. I could always blame my period (I told you it was bad), but it was more than that. My grandfather had 'died.' Karyn was my best friend and she had just seen the Fu Dog work, and she was still questioning it. "Girls have it so easy. They get the fun job, getting boys pregnant and nursing the babies. They don't have to deal with everything in between. They don't have to deal with cramps. They don't have to deal with pregnancy, childbirth and doing most of the parenting. And then girls act like they're better than guys because of what they have between their legs. If it weren't for the irreversible part, I might have done it."
"All right, all right," said Karyn. "Don't get your g-string in a knot."
"All right, I'm sorry," I said, calming down. Karyn was right. I was overreacting.
"So, can I make a wish?" asked Karyn.
"Maybe," I said. "I was thinking that we could make a few small wishes, just to test it out and have a little fun. Nothing that could hurt anyone. Like Grandpa wrote, wishes are irreversible, and even if we figure out a way to get things back to normal, it may make things worse for us."
Karyn sat, thinking about what she wanted to do. Suddenly, one of the other students exited the school and got into a car. It was Sarah McMillian, head cheerleader and school bitch. She had long, blonde hair and DD cup breasts. Despite the fact that she was a total jerk who treated others like dirt, she always had a gaggle of boys drooling after her cleavage. She had pretended to like Pete, my best male friend, just long enough to knock him up and ditch him. He couldn't even play sports now, so that he wouldn't hurt the baby.
"God," said Karyn. "Why do guys have to go drooling after Sarah, just because she's got big tits and an even bigger cock? I wish I was as impressive in those departments as she is. Maybe boys would notice me more then." Suddenly, the Fu Dog, still in Karyn's hand, flashed. We realized that, intentional or not, Karyn had made a wish and the Fu Dog had granted it.
The most noticible change was her bustline, which went from an unimpressive B-cup to a massive DD-cup. Her shirt, not designed to accommodate such a large bustline, strained to contain them. Her bra failed the stress test entirely, snapping apart in the back. Karyn also grabbed her crotch. I had no clue what her penis looked like before (though I would have been most interested, the only penises I had ever seen were in porn), much less what it looked like now, but I presumed that it had grown.
Karyn walked around somewhat awkwardly, getting used to her new package. "Great," she said, handing me back the stone. "Now that my bras don't fit and my womanhood is standing at attention, I suppose that I should be grateful that I didn't make things worse. And I can't reverse this, correct? I can only 'modifiy' it back to the way it was before? How are we supposed to do that?"
"Got me," I said. "At least everyone will think you've always been this way. Maybe if we sleep on it, we can come up with something." Thankfully, Karyn agreed to go home rather than try and fix it right there. I hoped that we could come up with something.
