Mary, the mother to Mikey, Zoe and Jon, stepped into his bedroom. Her face wrinkled into a frown at the unchanged, masculine bedroom. It wouldn’t change until Joanna returned but the magic of the stone smoothed over any confusion.
She quickly tidied, grabbing empty plastic water bottles and a dry can of Red Bull and tossing it in her trash bag. She left, picked up garbage from Zoe and Mikey’s considerably cleaner bedroom and returned once the task was done. She picked up dirty clothes, tossing them in a hamper. Her hand froze as she unearthed a small, smooth stone. She picked it up and turned it over in her hand. It was flat, and had a strange tint that Mary had never seen in a stone before.
She had seen it before. She once saw it in her father’s study years before and several days prior when Jon had received it in the mail. She didn’t see anything particularly valuable about it besides it’s odd colour but Jon should know better. It wouldn’t be good for him to loose something so important to his grandfather.
She thought about Jon and recent weeks and her mind went blank. She blinked as a wave of magic passed over her. Her… daughter… Joanna. Cute little thing. Blessed in ways Mary wished she had been her age even if she showed a little to much. Mary could at least say her daughter was not yet a slut.
Still, she thought of the stories she had heard where some had actually called her a slut and Joanna had come crying home because she didn’t know what Biff hadn’t really broken up with Sarah.
She held the stone, “I wish those at Joanna’s school actually treated her how she wanted to be treated and didn’t call her those names or names like them out of spite. I wish the same for that friend of hers: Karyn.”
The stone flashed and Mary blinked her eyes, confused as she could have sworn the small flat stone in her hand had been warm. She ignored the errant thought and put the stone in her pocket. She would return it to her daughter when she got home and give her another lecture on keeping track of her stuff.
