That afternoon Jon and Karyn met at his place. They headed up to his room where Jon pulled out the stone and laid it on the bed in between the two of them. The two of them sat staring at it in silence, neither sure of what to do next. Finally Karyn couldn't take it anymore.
"Do you think this thing is too big for the two of us? I mean, look what happened to me? At any moment one of us could say something stupid and destroy the world as we know it," she said.
Jon looked down at the stone then back at Karyn. "My grandfather wouldn't have sent it to me if he didn't think I could handle it," he said. "We just need to be careful in how we use it."
"Sure, but how?"
"Well, for starters, if we work a loophole into all of our wishes, like a time limit or a safe word to end its effects, then we don't have to worry about ill effects. Also, if we only make wishes from your place or mine we can limit the possibility of losing the stone or someone overhearing a wish."
Karyn nodded. "That makes sense. But what should we do with it?"
Jon picked up the stone and looked down at it. "I've been thinking about it. I've always wanted to see the world from someone else's perspective and I think there's a way we can try it if you're game."
"I'm intrigued. Sure, wish away," she said. "As long as it isn't permanent."
Jon nodded. "I wish that tomorrow beginning at 8 am and ending at midnight we would swap roles with the first person who says hello to us other than each other. I wish for as long as the swap is in effect we would live our lives as if that had always been our role with no knowledge of our prior life but still remember each other as we were before the change. Also, I wish that for as long as the effects are in place we will still be the same friends we've always been. Finally, I wish that at midnight when we return to our normal lives we will find ourselves physically in the location where the person who took over our role is and vice versa for the person whose role we took."
"Wow, Jon, that was pretty well thought out," Karyn said.
"I've been thinking about it all day. I figured if I set it to start at 8 we would be both be already school so it would limit the swap to people at school. Beyond that, I liked the idea of the swaps being random. Now we just have to wait for tomorrow."
