Jana, having heard the wish, could guess what was coming up. All she could do was go home. Sarah grinned at her on the way out--had she been spying on her? It was entirely possible, considering she had caused the whole thing.
When Jana drove to her new home, she had remembered the way back as readily as she had remembered how to find her workplace and do accounting. She turned on the TV and tried to ignore what had happened, but when she went to bed, her stomach had had a noticeable bulge.
In the morning, her alarm clock went off. Jana was sleeping on her back and her pregnancy was obvious. She made it to the bathroom and used the toilet, then went to get dressed... reality had changed, so she had the appropriate maternity clothes.
Jana struggled to get to work anyway and made it. Nobody noticed the pregnancy as unusual and she still felt like she had to work because that is what adults have to do. At around lunchtime, the room suddenly disappeared.
Reality was changing continuously--the rate was about a year per day and at this point, Jana was so pregnant that she wouldn't have been at work at all. She stumbled to her apartment's kitchen table to make a sandwich, and ate it. But after finishing lunch, the room disappeared again and she was in a hospital. She felt woozy and the doctors had covered her lower body and were doing something. A few contractions later, and she had given birth.
Jana didn't know exactly how long a baby would be kept in the hospital after birth, but figured that if the baby was there a day and reality was changing at a year per day, that's around four minutes. A few minutes later, Jana was at home with a baby feeding from her left breast. She had to feed it several times during the day and change its diapers, which she instinctively knew how to do. Something in her head told her not to go to work that day.
Three days later, Sarah appeared in her room. "Nice of you to let me in," said Sarah. "At least I think that's the reality the wish made to explain why I'm in your apartment. Aww, so that's my sister. She's cute at that age. I would guess she's around three years old. Little Jessica Sarah McMillan. Proud parents Jon and Jacob, except of course Dad thinks you're Jana."
"How do you know her name?" asked Jana.
"I wished it, of course. Although I don't know about the 'McMillan' part, since you don't seem to be married to Dad. That might change as reality changes to match her getting older. Right now everyone remembers you having had Jessica for three years, and I met her when she's 3 and I'm 17. But when she's 15, this meeting wouldn't have happened that way. Now I have to go. Ta ta."
Sarah next came to visit three days later, at Jessica's sixth birthday party. First the party was a day early, and ten minutes later she heard a girl mentioning "Jessica's birthday was yesterday." To Jana, things happened fast, but to everyone else, they didn't. Nobody remembered a ten minute birthday party, it was just 'now we're at the party' followed by 'now we're at the party, but the party is late', followed by 'I remember the party yesterday'. A sequence of moments.
The next day, Jessica went to school, and Jana to work. It was as if this was a perfectly routine thing. She went to school age 6, and came back age 7 and in a higher grade. She felt as though she had had her daughter for 7 real years, even though the speeded-up time scale could only fit a few actual incidents.
