Jon smiled. "It's me," she--for she was now a 'she'--said.
Jon didn't know what Karyn would think. She knew--she hoped--that her whole situation would being everyone as much happiness as possible. Surely Karyn would accept that this person--this girl--housed the mind of her childhood friend.
"I was so worried!" Karyn sobbed a bit and gave Jon as big a hug as she could. "I thought you were dead!"
"I thought I was dead too," replied Jon. "Maybe I am. Jon is dead. And not everyone would agree that I'm alive right now. This may be hard to believe but I'm really a robot. After the accident I was found by a wonderful scientist, who backed up my brain and restored it onto her experimental robot."
Karyn stared dumbfounded.
"Do you believe me?" asked Jon.
"Oh, Jon, how silly," she replied. "That's so... so impossible. So impossible that the only way it could have happened was a wish. Of course I believe you, I know what wishes do. I wanted to get the stone myself, to help you. You wouldn't believe how hard I tried to push the issue... Get access to your body, find the stone in your pocket so I could wish you back to life. But I couldn't."
"I had it in my room," explained Jon. "Hidden away where my porn stash was. It's probably still there. But I'm not going to use it. I want to be this way."
"But Jon, you're a girl!"
"So are you!"
"But you didn't start as a girl. It's not what you are... is it? Unless you have some... desires that you've been keeping to yourself all these years."
"I wished for something to happen that brings happiness. Now I'm a girl robot. I'm not going to unwish it. I'm going with the flow. It really is a good thing. This body is perfect. A marvel of nanotechnology. I can't really age or get damaged. I can do anything a person can, even get pregnant, but I don't have to. In a few years I may learn to really control it, change shape, even become male again."
"Jon, no," said Karyn. "I don't know if being a robot gives you super thinking skills, but if it does you're not using them. Obviously if you wished for happiness it didn't just zap you like giving you a happiness drug. It put you in a situation where you could live your life happy. You still have to do everything that you have to do live your life. And the stone is part of your life. Maybe this situation brings you happiness because it's a good situation to use the stone in."
"Fine, I'll use it if I really have to. Right now, I don't."
"And what's this about getting pregnant? You're a robot. Right?"
"It's a nanotechnology thing. My body can assemble other robots based on a genetic input."
"Well, your old body has genes. Use those and make a male body. Then download your brain into it."
"It'll start out as a baby. It'll grow faster than a normal baby but there's still a limit. And if I 'download' my brain, it'll be making a copy. I'll still be a girl myself. But if you want I'll suggest it to Anne."
"Anne?"
"My body's creator, but I guess she's mine." She pointed to her head. "That's all circuits and other things I can't begin to describe in there. Jon's brain is still dead in his body in the middle of a coffin. Anne read it and backed it up. Copied it onto this body. She's still got the backup in a closet somewhere. You could say Jon really is dead. I'm a robot Anne created. She's my mother, in a way."
"You're confusing me."
"I confuse myself. But thanks for being here, Karyn... it was easy to talk to you about it. The hard part's going to come next. I still have family. I meaning Jon. They have to know it's me. And they're not going to believe me as easily as you."
"Do you need some help?" asked Karyn. "Telling your family, I mean? Not using the stone, just telling them. Maybe they'll listen with a friend there. I can't tell them about the stone, but maybe I can say something. Say I know it's you or that I heard of this Anne person."
"Thanks. I can use all the help I can get now," replied Jon. "I just have to get up the nerve to tell everyone. Making them think I'm dead is a pretty big thing to do to your family even without being a robot. I hope they'll forgive me."
