The Nature of the Universe

A few hours later, Jon was sitting in his room, staring at the stone ponderously.
Suddenly, the door flew open: "I've got it!" Karyn declared as she burst into the room.
"Good god, Karyn! Don't you ever knock?"
"Sorry," she said dismissively. "But I've figured out what I think we should wish for!"
"Oh yeah, and what's that?"
"To understand everything!"
"What?" Jon demanded.
"Well, I was thinking about it at home just now, you know: what should I wish for? And I kept thinking of a bunch of material things, you know? And it occured to me that, if I can just wish up more stuff whenever I wanted to, all of it is pretty much worthless, right? And then I thought...maybe I should wish for some change in my life, but you know, I think my life is actually pretty good, and I don't want to mess with it. And I had this feeling that I wasn't seeing the big picture here...and it occured to me that that's it! That's what I wanted! To see the big picture!"
"You want...to understand...everything?" Jon repeated slowly.
"Yeah," replied Karyn excitedly. "Life...the universe...everything!"
"Forty-two." said Jon.
Karyn rolled her eyes. "I'm serious!" she said. "Call me a nutter but I think that at the end of the day, knowledge is really all that matters."
"God, you're a nerd," Jon chuckled.
"I know, right? Hand me the rock."
Jon tossed it to her. "Aren't you afraid...your head might blow up, or something like that?"
"I'll wish it doesn't."
"I dunno Karyn...I think you're meddling in forces you don't understand."
"You're right," she replied with a smile. "But I'm about to!"
She held the rock firmly in her left hand. "I wish," she began, "that without any deleterious effects upon myself...up to, and including my head exploding, I understood the nature of the universe, its purpose, and it's reason for existence."
The stone began to glow...