"Well, I was Karyn. If I transform into someone else, there has to be a new reality with someone else there and Karyn not there, right?"
"No, Mom... did I just call you Mom?"
"You'd better get used to it, 'Sarah'. I wished you'd have enough of Sarah's memories to pose as her... so you'll call me Mom sometimes. But you won't be comfortable with it."
"What-ever. If Karyn becomes someone else, there's a new reality with no Karyn, but why is there no Karyn? Is it because Karyn never existed? Or did Karyn just die? I mean, when this started, we ended up with a reality where Jon--me!--was dead."
"I wish I knew the answer to Sarah's question." The stone flashed and the two had to look away.
"Does the stone know you mean me when you say Sarah?"
"Yes, it did, Sarah. I have the answer. It isn't just Jon who died in an accident. We both did. So there's no Karyn or Jon because we're both dead."
"Why not wish us back to life?"
"Sarah, my dear, think about it. We're now Vanessa and Sarah. We aren't really dead. If you bring Karyn and Jon back it would be creating duplicates. It's just as if we were Karyn and Jon and we wished for there to be a second Karyn and Jon--except that with us this way it's harder to notice."
"But Mom... if we bring them back our families would stop being sad over our accident," said Sarah. "And Dad..."
"What?"
"Dad, my new one. Sarah's Dad. If we're not going to affect people more than we have to, he should stay married to the old Vanessa, since that's really his wife. The same for Fred really being her son."
"I see your point. We need to do some more wishing. Let's think this over first."
