"It's just," said Nick, "that I keep finding myself doing something. I want to stop... well, I don't really want to stop, but I really shouldn't be just casually doing it either. Maybe I should use my power for good."
"I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about," said Ryan. "Maybe if you tell me what it is."
"I don't know if that's a good idea," replied Nick. "Just, uh, can you give me a suggestion without knowing what it is? Come on."
Ryan thought. "It's hard to say," she said. "If it was something like instantly understanding people I'd say you could try to understand yourself instead. If it was the power to fly...."
Nick suddenly got an idea. "Thanks, Ryan!" he said.
Ryan smiled. "Maybe someday you can explain this all to me."
"No, really," said Nick.
Nick thought. Using the power on yourself... He couldn't use the power on himself. But could there be a way around this?
After all, any change in reality he makes is likely to affect himself in some way. If he makes Ryan his friend, he might now have Ryan's number on his cell phone. The cell phone is just a machine, but maybe if he picked the right change he could have something that affected himself as a side effect, even though he couldn't directly change himself.
He thought. If changed reality so that Patricia was his mother, could he change his age? No, he concluded. There are other ways for that to happen that don't change him much--for instance, Patricia could get older instead of him getting younger. But then he got an idea. There was something that might work...
