"I wish that when we tell people about magic, they won't try to do what people normally do when learning about something really rare and valuable, like try to steal it, have scientists study it, or report it on the news. Whew."
"Is something wrong?" asked Karyn.
"No, it's fine. It was having to make that wish in one breath. The babies aren't helping..." Jon glanced towards his stomach. "But it would be hard to say that much without taking a breath anyway..."
"I still don't get it," said Karyn. "Okay, so people will believe there's magic. And they won't put us in the freak show for it. And if you tell your Mom, she won't try to kill Sarah for it. That doesn't help us."
"It doesn't..." said Jon. Suddenly the one year old Jon was holding began to cry. Jon didn't know much about taking care of babies, but fortunately he was able to guess what was wrong, and brought Jessie up to his breast, where she began to suck out the milk. "This feels weird," he muttered. "Anyway... it doesn't help us, not directly, but there is something I can do now. I may even be able to pull it off without wishes. We'll see." Jon yelled out "Hey, doctor!"
The doctor was filling out a form and not really listening to them, but Jon's yell caught his attention and he came over to them.
"That girl who the guards just caught. Did the police get her?"
"What? I don't know. I doubt it."
"Call the police. Please? She's the one who gave us these babies. I was a guy, until she used magic on me."
The doctor's face contorted into a frown, clearly unable to accept any of it--until Jon mentioned the word "magic". At this point, of course, his expression changed. "Really? You were a guy? Your friend too?"
"No, Karyn's really a girl. My name's Jon Donaldson."
The doctor wrote something down and then picked up a phone and punched in some numbers. "Hi, that blonde girl who the guards found... Is she gone? Oh, good. Seems she made these patients pregnant. Can you...."
Sarah couldn't remember just how she had gotten magic to use on Jon and Karyn, or how she had lost it. It must have been some kind of memory wipe, she thought. But still, she had done it, and it would keep them out of her hair for quite some time. She got into her car and drove down the parking deck ramp. She gave her ticket to the attendant... who looked at it.
"Hey, is something wrong?" asked Sarah. "I was here less than a half hour. It should be fine."
"Could you wait here a moment, please? You need to pull aside."
Sarah pulled aside and sat back in her car for five more minutes. Then a security guard approached. She rolled down the window and the guard, looking wary, said "There's no need for that. The police will be here shortly."
The police? Why were they after her, of all people? It must be Jon. And his blonde friend. They did something, used their magic somehow to get her in trouble. Sarah considered driving out of there anyway, but she could only go home, and if the police were after here and this wasn't just some guard with something stuck up his ass, they could easily find out where she lived.
The police car arrived, sirens blazing, and pulled up. The officers got out and began ordering Sarah around. "Show me your license... Get out of the car... Then they handcuffed her and took her away."
"What's the matter, officer?" she asked.
"Aggravated assault and battery. You just turned a boy into a girl and made him and someone else pregnant. Against their will."
Sarah's mind raced. They knew about it? "But that's just magic. I didn't even touch them." Which was a lie, but the police didn't know that.
"Maam, I don't care if you touched them or not. I admit it's an unusual way to commit a crime, but it's still a crime. You're not allowed to do just what you want to someone else's body. I believe it's called 'grievous bodily harm'."
"Feh, they're fine."
"Tell that to a judge."
