"You go home," said Jon. "I bet your parents are wondering what you're doing. It's pretty late, you know."
"You have a magic stone," said Karyn. "You can stay up as long as you want."
Jon laughed. "Of course. You're right. Do you want me to wish you can stay out as long as you want? I don't have to change history. I can just say they didn't notice it and decided it was their fault so they wouldn't punish you."
"No, no, I was just saying," replied Karyn. "I'll see you around."
Jon shimmered and suddenly, both him and his "sister" were standing there. Julie had returned to wearing the clothes that she had had on the plane trip. She walked over to the correct closet and her eyes were drawn to the Macy's bag. She gave the bag to Karyn and said "Okay, Karyn. I'll see you around too."
Julie walked Karyn to the door. Julie's parents seemed briefly happy that she and Karyn weren't arguing, but they didn't pay attention for long. What arguments their teenage daughter got into was hardly a subject that they dwelled on, even though it seemed like a big thing from the daughter's perspective.
"Bye, Karyn."
"Bye, Julie. We'll see each other at school."
After Karyn left she returned to her room. As Jon, of course, she had had plenty of time to look around the new room while she was on the plane as Julie. It was bigger than before, and the room was divided into two sections with two closets. She and Jon obviously had had some arrangement, with Jon's things on one side and hers on another. All that wasn't separated was the beds. They only had one TV and one computer, which they apparently had to share. The computer was in the middle of a narrow table that served as a desk and was long enough for both of them to sit down on at the same time. n They each had dressers which didn't match and their own posters and other decorations.
"Well, I guess I'm here to stay," she said.
"Yeah," replied Jon. "It's all weird. We're not you any more, we're us."
"Karyn said 'bye, Julie'. At least she remembers to call me that. It took me a second to react."
"We have to do it... Julie," said Jon.
"All right, Jon."
"It's like I really have a sister."
"Except your sister knows everything you do. But we have to be careful. I know there's a wish so that nobody notices strange things in here but we won't always be in here. Let's pretend we really are Jon and Julie for a while."
"Okay. Julie, how was your trip?"
"Oh, I don't know. It was okay. I got really tired on the flight back home. Did you miss me?"
"Of course not. I mean sure I did, Julie, but it's not as if we were completely out of touch."
"You should have called Karyn, though. You know, I could have brought her her clothes back if you just told me where they were."
"Jon, it's fine. Karyn forgives me. We kissed and made up. Well, without the kissing."
"Julie would never say that. At least it wouldn't make any sense. Not many people have sisters who tease their brother about lesbian kisses."
Julie nodded. "I suppose. Here we go again. Jon, it's fine. Karyn forgives me. It's all better now. You know, I don't even remember why I was keeping her stuff anyway. Anyway, let's change the subject. Did I miss anything at school?"
"Sure you did, Julie. It's one day. It's too bad they had to cancel all flights on Sunday or you wouldn't have had to miss anything. And by the way, the strangest thing happened to me. You know, Grandpa died?"
"Yeah, you texted me about that."
"Something seemed strange about it. I just can't shake the feeling that he's still alive. At least given what I got from him. I got this box as an inheritance, containing... Oh, never mind."
"Tell me, Jon! I want to hear about it! What was it? Money? A million dollars of rare coins? A genie that grants wishes and then completely ruins them?"
"If only you knew, Julie."
She lowered her voice to a whisper. "Of course I know."
"But Julie shouldn't," whispered Jon back. He raised his voice to normal. "Really, it's nothing. You know, I wonder if you're going to get something, Julie."
Julie thought and then it occurred to her. If history had been changed so that Julie "had existed", maybe she was going to get something. Or had even gotten it already, delivered with the wish stone. Of course, it was unlikely that the stone could make a second wish stone, but maybe there was some cool inheritance of hers lying around. "That's a good question," she whispered. "But I don't remember finding strange things when I was on the plane... Ooh, these pronouns are getting hard. You didn't find anything when I was on the plane. Anyway, there's no rush. And we really ought to be going to bed soon."
Shortly afterwards, they did go to bed. Julie made Jon close his eyes when she took off her outer garments and went to bed in her underwear, not because Jon wouldn't remember it after they merged, but because that just had to be what Julie would do. Anyway, tomorrow would be another day.
