Meanwhile, Jon/Amanda had finished looking through the closet when a cell phone, apparently hers, rang. She picked it up. It was a female voice. "It's Sabrina...I know you said to only call your cell phone in an emergency...but it is...I mean...I really need to talk to you?"
It sounded like Sabrina Johnson. Before the wish, she was one of Zoe's friends, despite the fact that like Stephanie, she was two years older. Every time Jon had met Sabrina, she had been hurling profanity and anger. But the voice on the phone sounded agitated more than angry, and Jon couldn't let a call for help go unanswered.
"What's wrong, Sabrina?" She said, her voice growing softer, and more concerned.
"My dad showed up..." She said. "He was screaming, probably drunk...Is he going to do this for the rest of my life?"
Amanda tried to think about what she knew of Sabrina....accepting it might be totally different now. She had to resort to what she might say to anyone. "As much as you might want to, you can't choose who your father is, Sabrina..."
"Yes, I can," Sabrina said. "You are the one who got me out of there and into foster care. I'm not his daughter anymore...I have real parents now...and I'm....happy," she said. "But...he keeps showing up and reminding me ..."
Amanda sighed. Sabrina was definitely not a foster kid. She had not thought the wish would spread so far. Had Amanda existing meant she'd been somewhere to change the course of Sabrina's life? The way Zoe seemingly changed the course of Kyla's? "There are some things we can't change, Sabrina, even though we wish we could." And boy did she wish she could. "But...you don't have to let your father have this power over you. I know it sounds silly...but if you want to distance yourself from him, just imagine he's a stranger. If you see him, try to imagine how you'd see him if he was a stranger. And what you'd do." She hoped the Amanda Sabrina was expecting didn't have better advice. And Jon/Amanda wasn't particularly sure what her relationship with Sabrina was.
She could hear Sabrina breathing into the phone, but what she said may have helped, because her breathing slowed a bit. Finally, Sabrina spoke. "Can I stop by tomorrow?"
"Of course," Amanda told her. It was starting to feel rather natural, like so many things, helping the teen.
"Thanks." Another long pause. "Mrs. Madison..."
"Yes?"
"I..just...." another pause. "Thank you. For everything."
Amanda paused. "You're welcome."
The phone went dead, leaving Amanda sitting there.
On the other end, Sabrina hung up the phone, and wiped her eyes and went to fix her makeup. This Sabrina's hair wasn't pink, and she had no visible tattoos. Just talking to Mrs. Madison had made her feel better. She knew that the woman couldn't wave a magic wand and make her dad disappear, even though she'd been the one to get Sabrina away from her dad int he first place. At first, Sabrina hadn't wanted to go. She hadn't known any other life. But, being taken to live with foster parents who were nice to her...she'd realized she never wanted to go back. The day they had told her they wanted to adopt her, and be her parents for good had been the happiest day she could think of
She wasn't even Sabrina Johnson anymore. She'd taken her new family's name...
