"It grants wishes?" Zoe asked, scarcely believing the words as they came out her mouth.
"Yep," Jon said in confirmation.
"And he just gave it you?"
"Yep." Jon repeated his positive in exactly the same tone.
The two of them had escaped the field and were walking along the narrow road, heading in the direction of town.
The air became silent for a few seconds and Jon expected her to start screaming about how unfair life was. How it was clear who the favoured grandchild actually was. Much to his surprise that didn't happen.
"Why aren't you rich Bro?" Zoe asked, she interrupted herself with another thought,"...or dating a pop star? ...or living in a huge mansion?" She was getting more excited as she thought of the possibilities.
"You aren't mad?"
"What? What do you mean?"
"That Grandpa gave me the stone," Jon explained.
"Oh yeah of course but I get pissed off with a lot of stuff where you are concerned. Hardly worth mentioning at this point. Besides it's pretty amazing."
"And you think if you treat me nicely, I'll let you use it," Jon said cynically.
"Of course," Zoe said with a big smile. "You do actually seem smarter, I can usually pull the wool over your eyes without you noticing."
Jon raised his eyebrows slightly in response before turning to look at the tree covered ground on the far side of the road. He turned back to Zoe, "Try not to take this the wrong way but I really don't want you using the rock."
Zoe opened her mouth to protest.
Jon raised his hand. "Wait, before you fly off the handle. You need to know more."
"Like what?"
"When I first got the rock. I imagined performing all those crazy wishes like you suggested. Power, fame, money, all of it. I started having doubts though. If Grandpa had the rock in his possession why hadn't he used it the same way. Something didn't feel right."
"So you decided not to use it?" Zoe asked sounding uncertain about where he was going with this.
"Hell no! It was too good an opportunity to miss. So I struck upon the idea of creating a powerful device of my own design, created by a very carefully worded wish. I then wouldn't be controlled by the vagaries of whatever the rock's magic felt like imposing on me. A buffer of sorts between me and the raw wishing power of the stone." He paused briefly. "Understand?"
"Hm..., not entirely," Zoe said honestly.
"It turns out my instincts were correct. I've discovered since that continued uncontrolled use of the stone is causing damage throughout the multiverse. It is breaking realities in both powerful and mundane ways."
"It does?" Zoe asked, her expression one of disbelief. "Surely, we'd notice."
"I felt the same way." Jon noted how similar Zoe's thinking progressed along the same lines as his own. He hated to admit it, even to himself, for all her outlandish behaviour, in many ways they were very alike. "It is usually too subtle to affect human perception but there are some continuity issues that even I have begun to notice." His first thought was the problem with his family name.
"Okay, thanks for keeping it vague bro."
"Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you," Jon said before sighing, "What is your name?"
"Zoe," Zoe said.
"Your surname?"
Zoe scrunched her face up and the strange question. "Madison, obviously."
"Gibson?" Jon asked.
"Yeah," Zoe said without missing a beat.
"But you actually just said 'Madison'."
"Yeah, Madison."
"So who is Zoe Gibson?" Jon asked. He remembered the similar conversation he had with his other, wiser self, that seemed like an eternity ago.
Zoe came to a sudden stop. "Me," she said quietly as reality stretched out and contracted around her simultaneously like an arty cinematic camera shot.
"Come on, we have a long way to go." Jon ignored her and continued to walk on.
Zoe ran a few steps to catch him. "That is so screwed up. How can I have two names?"
"I don't have all the answers, Zoe." He peered off to the side of the road.
"What else is messed up like that though?"
"A few other things. According to Grandpa's letter the wish range of the stone is only supposed to be a few miles. Other versions of it I have encountered can work over longer distances. Granted, most of those were realities created by the ARD, so possibly they don't count."
"What the hell is an ARD?"
"Another item created in a parallel universe from the one where I created the DTH. That version of me created the Alternate Reality Device, it looks like a wristwatch and creates custom universes."
"And your handheld can't do that?"
"Nope, I can normally only explore or extend existing branches. Also most universes created by the stone." He pointed at the DTH screen." Those are the red lines. I can visit those. Realities that a device like the ARD generates, require scanning first. I guess that is another inconsistancy to add to the list."
"Right." Zoe didn't fully understand. "And how long have you been using the DTH?"
"Difficult to say, from my perspective probably a few weeks."
Zoe scrunched her face up. "There seems to be a lot of lore for something you've only been doing for such a short time."
"I guess there is," Jon said while studying some nearby bushes. "Don't get me started on how chaotic the passage of time has gotten," he said sounding a bit distracted.
"What are you searching for?" Zoe asked as Jon continued to focus on the side of the road.
"Oh sorry, a stream or brook, running water."
Zoe looked further out into the distance. "If this is near home, there aren't any streams that I remember."
"There are likely some, probably all been culverted by the time our house was built."
"Are you thirsty?" Zoe asked.
"No, I was thinking you'll need to wipe off that silly Goth make up of yours if we are going to at least look semi-normal for this time period." He pointed at her dress. "Your clothes are a bit ostentatious but people will hopefully think you are in mourning or something."
"I am trying not to feel insulted," Zoe said while folding her arms. "I suppose you are an expert at going undercover too."
"Well actually, on a recent adventure..."
