As Susan made her way to the master bedroom, it struck her how easy it had been to get her daughter to agree to go to the gym with her. Normally Sarah had other plans, or at least gave her own opinion of how things should go. Today she'd been downright pliable. Maybe she genuinely wanted to go to the gym with her mom that day?
Susan opened the door to her walk-in closet with a sigh. She should know better than that. Sarah was a teenager, and today was just an exception. She'd be back to her contrarian ways soon enough. But wouldn't it be nice?
"I just wish she was genuinely excited to spend time doing activities with me," Susan said as she pulled workout clothes off of hangers.
Now, Susan had no reason to know that she was, in that moment, the owner of the wish chain and was owed a single wish for herself. And she did not know that the girl she had just spoken to was not, in fact, her daughter. If she had known both of these facts, she may have worded her wish more carefully, or possibly not expressed it at all. But she knew neither fact, and so the "she" that Susan had been thinking about was the girl she had just spoken to, rather than her real daughter.
And in a room farther down the hallway, Jon was just placing Sarah McMillan's gym back, now packed, on the bed when she felt her autonomy returning once again. A shiver went up her spine, followed by a vibrating feeling deep in her gut. She looked at the gym bag and smiled. Despite herself, it was a genuine smile. She visualized what was about to happen in her head, herself and Susan McMillan running on treadmills together, doing yoga together, refilling water bottles together.
How lucky was she that she was about to do all of these things with Susan McMillan?
Lucky. Was that the right word? Had she felt lucky a few minutes ago? She wasn't sure. But she felt lucky now. Yes, there was something screwy going on with the wishing stone that she needed to figure out, but priority number-one was spending time with Susan McMillan. That's what was going to make Jon happy. She could figure everything else out after.
