”Okay....” Jo let out a deep breath as she studied the wishing stone that sat in front of her. ”I need to be careful...” Jo told herself as she sat cross-legged on the treehouse floor. Sitting in the treehouse from her childhood with a magical stone in front of her made Jo feel like a little kid again. ”The stone could make my imagination a reality...” Jo’s mind slipped back to childhood memories of her and Zoe sitting on the floor of the treehouse telling each other stories of magic and adventure. ”But not now... Now I need to fix things...” Jo thought as she reached forward and picked the stone up from the floor. Jo’s eyes darted to the blood running down her forearm, and then back to the wishing stone. ”I can worry about my cuts and bruises later.” She told herself as she tried to ignore the various injuries that she had sustained during her sprint through the underbrush.
”Okay Jo, you can do this.” Jo told herself as she tried to steady her shaking hand. ”The plan will work... You thought this through on the ride back... Just do it before Sarah realizes that the stone is gone.” Jo took another deep breath and let out a calming sigh. “Okay here we go.” Jo held the stone up in front of her face. “I wish that a fine point pen filled with black ink is sitting on the floor in front of me.” Jo’s eyes dart from the stone to the pen that now sat on the floor in front of her. “Okay good...” Jo picked the pen up and clicked it a couple times. Seeing a small ball of plastic on the tip, Jo picked it off and flicked it onto the treehouse floor.
Jo's focus returned to the wishing stone. “I wish that a 8 inch by 10 inch 100 page leather bound notebook was sitting on the floor in front of me. I wish that the pages of the notebook were college ruled, numbered, and that each line was numbered sequentially.” Jo’s eyes darted over to the fancy looking notebook that now sat on the floor in front of her. “Step number one, done!” Jo said picking the notebook up and leafing through the pages. At the top corner of each page was a page number and on the left hand side of each line was a line number. “This is perfect!” Jo flipped to page 5. “The line numbers are all sequential so I can reference a page and line number...” Jo flipped to the back of the notebook. “Three thousand lines should be plenty...” Jo flipped back to page 5. “Hm... What should I call this section...” Jo tapped her chin while thinking of a good header. “How about triggers?” Jo hesitated and then wrote Triggers on the header of the page.
“Now what’s a silly phrase I would never say?..” Jo tapped her chin and then began writing on line 150. “There that should work.” Jo reread what she wrote. ”The queen has once again forgotten her underwear in the castle.” Jo closed her eyes briefly and tried to think of any situation where she might utter the odd phrase. “That should work.” Jo picked up the wishing stone. “Let’s get this over with before Sarah comes hunting me down.” Jo cleared her throat and ran through the wish one more time in her head. “Okay... I wish that Sarah will forget about the existence of the stone, any wishes that she has made, and any previous realities that she remembers, until she hears me utter the phrase written on page 5 line 150 of the notebook in front of me; at which time her memories and knowledge will be restored....... Umm... The End.” Jo let out a big sigh and focused in on the notebook. “I hope that worked...” Jo said replaying the rambling run on sentence of a wish in her head. ”There’s really no way to test if it worked either... I guess I could go track Sarah down, but maybe it’s better if I just avoid her the rest of my life...”
Sitting the notebook back down, Jo focused in on the wishing stone. ”I guess now I need to fix myself...” Jo closed her eyes and thought about the various loopholes she had come up with during her bike ride home. ”I could change the definition of linger... But that seems too dangerous... And I don’t want to make myself unattracted to women...” Jo briefly pictured the smiling face of her former girlfriend Piper. ”Which means I’m going to try lawyering Sarah’s wish to death...” Jo cringed at the thought of trying to subvert Sarah’s wish via loopholes. “Ugh...” Jo sighed and began to run the wish over and over in her head.
After a few minutes of thinking and a couple last minutes tweaks to the wish Jo was ready. “Sarah’s wish only said I would gain the women’s attributes. It never said anything about keeping, so this is going to work.” Jo told herself as she picked up the notebook and flipped to page 10. On the top of the page she wrote wishes. “I really should have thought the notebook organization out better...” Jo shook her head and began to write. An error in the first line forced Jo to draw a solid line through everything she had written and start over on the next line. “I’ve gotten the same trait multiple times, so this is going to work.” Jo said picking the wishing stone back up. “Here goes nothing. I wish that the statement written in the notebook in front of me on page 10 line 301 through 311 was true.” Jo looked down at the notebook in front of her and shrugged. “I hope that worked.” She said as she read the statement.
When Jo’s lingering eyes trigger Sarah’s previous wish, the attribute that Jo will be receiving will be announced in Jo’s consciousness prior to Jo receiving the attribute. The acquisition of the attribute will begin 1 minute after the announcement of said attribute in Jo’s consciousness. After the announcement, Jo will have 24 hours to decide whether to keep attribute or revert back to her previous attribute and reality prior to the acquisition of the attribute from Sarah’s wish. To revert back, Jo only needs to state her desire to not keep the trait in her consciousness. Reversion will not occur until the completion of Sarah’s wish, which in turn prevents reversion from interfering with the completion of Sarah’s wish.
“Alright... Sarah should be neutralized and I should have enough control over Sarah’s wish that I could use it to my advantage if I wanted to...” Jo closed the notebook and laid back on the floor. ”What’s next?” Jo asked as she stared at the ceiling of the tree house. ”I need to wish my wallet, phone, and keys back... I should wish for a list of Sarah’s wishes so I can fully understand what changes to this reality are her fault... I need to test my power... Maybe I need to create a log of my wishes?.. Or maybe a log of my traits?... STOP!” Jo’s internal monologue yelled as an odd calmness descended upon her body. “I did it...” Jo whispered. “I DID IT!” Jo mumbled as the tears in her eyes began to blur her vision. “I DID IT!” Jo proudly stated before bursting into tears.
It had taken Jo almost two full days to escape the state fair and make it back to Lake Point, and now as Jo lay on the floor of her childhood treehouse crying tears of joy she began to feel like she had made it to the end of her journey. She had made it back home and stolen back her grandfather’s wishing stone back......
