The four girls piled into Sarah’s car, Zoe in the passenger seat, and Karyn and Dawn in the back. The older DeVries sister watched the young girl next to her as she briefly struggled with her seatblet.
The words she had just spoken in Zoe’s bedroom came back to her: ”I wish that, after any day in which the person once known as Jon Gibson learned a lesson about being a little sister, that they would increase in age one year.”
It was slow and incremental, so they could correct the wish as needed. It complied with the spirit of Zoe’s original wish, so it wasn’t like trying to turn the blue branch red. And it had a built-in failsafe: once Dawn was older than Zoe, she wouldn’t be able to learn about being a little sister and so the wish would be rendered moot.
And hopefully by then they could figure out how to bring Jon back.
And what better way to start learning about what it’s like to be a little sister than a trip to the mall with your big sister?
Dawn finally clicked her seatbelt shut and started jiggling her legs in excitement, her feet not quite reaching the floor of the car.
“I’ve never hung out with Zoe without Mom before,” Dawn whispered to her outfit twin.
Karyn smiled. There would be plenty of opportunity to learn about being a little sister today.
