“Uh oh,” Sarah said. “Really, Jon, don't you think that's enough? You won, ok? You stopped me from ever being able to use the stone, and I wasn't going to show the videos to anyone else but you stopped me from even thinking of doing it...”
Jon stopped and thought about it. Did Sarah really deserve to be punished more than this? The video on her cellphone could already be a major issue for her. If she can’t see and hear what others see and hear it might even be playing a video in the active window to other people and making sound that could draw their attention. And maybe she really did mean what she did as a prank she wouldn’t exploit too badly. Maybe she wasn’t even planning on stealing the stone and instead was going to just be in on it with Jon and Karyn. Maybe this could be the start of a friendship and Jon was on the precipice of ruining it by overreacting. And just the possibility of healing the animosity between Sarah and Karyn especially seemed very enticing.
“All right. I shouldn’t go overboard. But I need to do some other things. First, I wish that everyone remembered me as I was, the original Jon before Sarah turned me into a girl. I don’t really want people remembering me being like this all my life. The stone does that by the way.”
“Oh. But then if everyone remembers you as boy-Jon, they’re not going to believe you’re him.”
“Ah but though you permanently changed my body, that doesn’t need to be what people see and hear. Well, I won’t want people to see an illusion of me all the time, to hide the real me forever. Or maybe I will? No. I wish, for a magic necklace and 2 magic wristbands, such that if I’m wearing any of them, everyone else will see and hear and even feel my original body as I would be if Sarah hadn’t changed my body.”
“Oh shit!” Sarah said, as the 3 artifacts appeared on Jon, and to all appearances Jon changed back to normal.
“I guess that means it’s working,” Jon said.
“I’m glad I didn’t totally fuck up your life,” Sarah said.
“I’m still going to be peeing sitting down. And I’m still going to be permanently aroused unless I have sex with a man and a woman at the same time! And how much time will that buy me? One sexual thought and I’ll be back in this state again.”
“Is that so bad?”
“No. I guess it’s pretty minor, and maybe kind of fun. Just this secret that only I know and a secret I can easily keep from anyone I want to. I guess it might cause some problems like will I know if the original me would have had a boner? I mean I guess I’m stuck with one almost all the time but that’s not what others will see. But I wouldn’t want to be walking around oblivious to everyone else seeing me with one. But as for forgiving you, I want to hear Karyn’s advice.”
“Oh no. She’ll want to burn me at the stake.”
“Hearing her advice isn’t the same as taking it. I still want to hear what she says.”
So Jon called her up.
“Hi Karyn,” Jon said in her new female voice, feeling very anxious that Karyn would really hear his old voice. But she did. “I have a situation... Yes, with the stone.... yes and no... I mean yes there was a wish gone wrong but I’m not the one who wished for something stupid... Sarah McMillan... she came over asking to study and well... Karyn come on, I was just trying to be polite and she’s probably not as bad as you think... oh...”
Jon looked at Sarah. Sarah couldn’t make out what Karyn was saying on the phone, but it was probably bad.
“Hold on for a moment Karyn,” Jon said, holding the phone away from his, or rather her, face. “Sarah, did you or did you not stuff Karyn into a trash can?”
Sarah hesitated.
“Don’t make me force you to be unable to lie Sarah, because I'll do it if you force me to. Ever see that Jim Carrey movie Liar Liar? Do you want that to be you?”
“All right, I did that, but first she called me a whore in front of all the girls in the locker room!”
Jon sighed. “Karyn could you just come over here?” she said back into the phone. “No I will not teleport you into my room, it’s too dangerous, what if there are unintended side effects like you get stuck in my room forever by wishing you would be here, or you arrive naked, or something else happens that I’m not even thinking of. You live a quarter of a mile away, you can run here in 2 minutes. All right, see you.”
Jon started floating in the direction of the door of her room, before realizing she was doing that. “It’s also going to take some getting used to, having powers.”
“Don’t kill anyone accidentally,” Sarah said fearfully, “like me.”
“Sarah don’t worry, I’m not that out of touch with control over it. And I’m hoping all 3 of us can be on friendly terms at the end of this.”
They went downstairs and waited for Karyn.
