"I wish Mom would forget about the stone for the weekend." The stone flashed, and CJ was grateful (again) that she was no longer Jon -- Jon had been terrified to touch the stone because of an earlier wish, but CJ was someone altogether different.
Catherine-Jane trusted her mom implicitly, but that didn't mean she wouldn't make a well-intentioned wish that went awry. Better safe than sorry, CJ thought, walking to her bedroom to finish packing.
Linda came home about thirty minutes later (she'd left early to avoid traffic so CJ would be ready in time) still floating on cloud nine. She noticed an odd, iridescent stone on the counter, and decided CJ must have picked it up, probably as a paperweight. CJ was still a kid, after all. Putting it out of the way, she called up to Catherine-Jane to see if she was ready.
After Mrs. Cohen had picked up CJ and the other girls and headed off -- Linda had made sure CJ had her emergency cell packed, much to her daughter's chagrin, in front of the other Scouts -- Linda took a deep breath and asked out loud, "What am I going to do with myself for a weekend?" She and CJ kept up on the chores, she made it a point never to bring work home, there were no new books to read that interested her, TV was generally smutty garbage these days, internet browsing bored her, and the only new movie out that she wanted to see was the one she'd be seeing with Mark in a week.
As she was toying with the idea of using those Learning French CDs she'd bought back when she was thirty the first time (though to her mind, that had been when she was twenty-three), and considering trying to read something like War and Peace (bought at the same time), the phone rang.
"Hello, Linda? It's Mark -- Mark Stevenson," he added hastily, and Linda smiled to herself, thinking how cute that was. "CJ and her friends couldn't stop talking about their camping trip today, and so I thought maybe you and I could catch that movie tonight?"
Linda Madison's entire face lit up. "Sounds like a plan," she said with a smile. "Give me an hour and a half?"
After a couple of minutes of earnest, infatuated-teenagers chitchat, they said their goodbyes. Linda began to run for the shower when there was a knock at the door.
