John decided to reverse what he did to Jacob Middleton and the other husband. There was no reverse option on the device, but theoretically, all he needed to do was do the opposite of what he did to turn both of them into a gay married couple.
He pointed the Reality Tuner in their direction, making sure it would include both of them, then moved the reality adjuster in the other direction. He was relatively sure that this would bring back Laura Middleton and the other wife.
As it turned out, John was wrong.
Yes, the two men lost their effeminate look and behavior, and moving the adjuster even more, they seemed to turn back from gay to straight, but their wives never reappeared. And from their conversation, it appeared that they were both bachelors and had never been married. It seemed that the device didn't work exactly the way he planned.
After some thought, John realized what was happening. When he turned the two men into a gay married couple, that created a new reality, one that was definitely different than the previous one. When he tried to reverse what he did, he created another new reality. All he did was adjust the second reality so that it would become a third reality. Since the wives weren't present in the second reality, they obviously wouldn't show up in the third reality. It was like John could only manipulate the variables that were present. This was a lot more complicated than he imagined it would be.
"Hey, it's John, right?" asked Jacob Middleton, in John's direction.
"Yeah," he answered.
"Come on over here. Have a beer," the party's host said. "After all, we're celebrating."
Yeah, but what were they celebrating this time? He had a feeling that this wasn't a charity dinner anymore.
