"... I had a list of wishes that I needed to fix."
A piece of paper appeared in front of him. Since he was standing up, it was taped to a pole. He looked it over and took it down."
"Okay, now I wish I knew how to fix these wishes in a way that the stone lets me do."
A second piece of paper appeared, which Jon glanced over and read off.
"I wish that you're only 'called Ethel' because Sarah has been calling you that, not because that's your name. I wish that you're participating in an experiment at Eric and Keith's lab, and that you weigh five hundred pounds because you're in a room with four times normal gravity."
Ethel, or Karyn, vanished.
"I wish that Karyn dropped out of school in the ninth grade because she moved, and immediately entered a school at her new city." That one didn't create any change at all, since Karyn had moved around that time anyway. "I wish she worked as a lunchlady as extra credit four years ago in middle school for two days as part of a home economics class."
A half hour later, almost at the end of lunch, Karyn returned. She was sweating and still huffing and puffing, but looked normal. "Whew..." she said. "I could have died in that gravity chamber..."
"But it worked," said Jon, grinning.
"Anyway, I got some good money for participating. Want me to buy you lunch? You'll have to wish that lunch hour lasts longer, though."
