Karyn's response was to poke Jon in the ribs with her elbow.
He cleared his throat and said, "Uh, Mom, I've got something I need to talk to you about."
She didn't look up from the spell book. Distractedly, she said, "Uh, sure, honey..."
"It's something involving magic," Jon explained.
Zoe and Athena's heads snapped up to stare at Jon. Jane looked up more slowly, and her first reaction was, "Oh, my goodness, Karyn, what did you do to your hair?"
"What?" Karyn felt her hair, but it was still the familiar short length that had been restored minutes ago.
"And your boobs," blurted Zoe. "In that sweater, they should be sticking out --"
"Zoe!" hissed Jane.
"So you remember me as being blonde and, uh, voluptuous?" asked the confused Karyn.
"Well, yes," said Jane. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I think that color and style looks good on you. But when you came in five minutes ago, I could have sworn --"
"Something involving magic!" interrupted Athena. She excitedly pointed to Karyn. "She must have the other artifact!"
"Other artifact?" Karyn questioned disbelievingly.
"Must mean this," said Jon. He held up the nondescript gray stone between a thumb and forefinger.
"So your problem is that you accidentally made Karyn's boobs smaller?" questioned Zoe.
"No!" Jon exclaimed. "Well -- it's a long story. But what's this about this being 'the other artifact'? Where's the other other artifact?"
Jane groaned and put a hand to her face. "Wake me up when you four have this all figured out and can tell me what's going on here." She brought her legs up and plopped her body down, sprawled across the sofa, eyes closed.
