After a moment of silence, Karyn started to speak. "You heard the wish last night, didn't you?"
Zoe replied "What do you mean by 'wish'?"
"I mean, you remember that Jon exists, right?"
"It's a bit freaky that Mom didn't seem to. Is this some sort of occult..." she trailed off. Mid-sentence, Zoe realized that if Karyn, Mom and Jon were playing some sort of trick on her... She would have to kill them. She started "If this is a..." but she was cut off by Karyn starting to respond.
"It was actually. It sounds weird, but it's true. Last night... well let me start at the beginning."
Karyn looked at the ground as she started to speak. Her voice was dispirited and monotonous. Zoe wasn't sure this was a joke anymore.
"Yesterday, Jon told me that he had inherited a stone from your dead grandfather - one that grants wishes."
"That grants wishes?" Zoe said, sounding unconvinced.
"I didn't believe it at first, but then he showed me that it worked. I was really excited, but I messed up and made a stupid mistake," she said. "NEVER say the words "I wish" when you have a wishing stone around." She looked up at the wall behind Zoe and sounded angry for a second before reverting to her previous colorless demeanor and returning her gaze to the floor.
"What was the stupid mistake?" Zoe asked. She had the impression that it was big.
"I look different than I did before today. That's all I'm going to say," she added after Zoe looked at her quizzically.
"Ah" Zoe wasn't completely sure what Karyn was talking about. She tried to remember how Karyn looked the last time she saw her, which was some time last month. Zoe couldn't think of anything particularly different from what her normal image of Karyn was. She had the same straight, long, blonde hair that she always had, and Zoe was sure that her face wasn't any different than it used to be.
"That brings me to an important point. People who don't hear the wish believe that it's always been the way that the wish makes it. I'm guessing that you overheard us talking last night when Jon made the wish."
"You guys were loud and woke me up, but I couldn't make out what you said."
"But Jon messed up too. It's hard to not accidentally drop 'I wish' in a conversation. Last night, said that he told me that 'you would be part of my family so that you could stay here overnight normally'."
By now, Zoe was convinced. No one could take a joke this far. "What does that have to do with him disappearing?"
"Well, apparently, instead of having Jon, his parents adopted me - I guess that was the only way of making it make sense without changing my genetics. I couldn't sleep last night, so I thought it through," she added.
"Weird."
"But then there's two problems that can't be fixed. First, the wishing stone can't undo wishes, only adjust them, and secondly..." She paused. Karyn was still looking at the floor.
"Secondly?"
Zoe saw a tear drip onto the floor. Karyn covered her eyes with her hands.
"The stone's gone. It disappeared with Jon."
"What?"
"He's dead. He's not coming back." Karyn's voice whimpered.
