"And I wish that Jon was wearing appropriate clothes!"
And of course, Jon was now clothed, and still a girl, but now fifteen years old.
"Karyn!" she said, warding off the feeble blows from the little girl who was really Jon's mother. "Oh, thank you very much! I'm not going to go near another pony for the rest of my life...."
"Wait!" said Karyn. "I'm not finished! We've got to get rid of this other junk." She glanced at a cake and cut herself a piece. "Though I could use a snack."
"Give me my Sarah back!" yelled the little girl.
"Sorry, Mom" said Jon.
"I wish that this place is really a part of a children's theme park and that Jon's home is just as it was before, only three blocks away from here. And I wish that Jon, his mother, and me were all there."
Poof.
"I wish for Jon and Jon's mother to be their normal ages from before they were affected by any wishes," said Karyn. "And I wish that Jon's mother is down in the living room and doesn't remember anything about the rock or wishes or being a five year old today and thinks everything is normal."
The girl, who was growing older, suddenly got a glazed look on her face. She turned and exited through the door, then closed it. Jon and Karyn could hear her walking down the stairs.
"Anything else, Jon?" asked Karyn, and then she took a bite out of her cake.
"Mom made a wish that whenever I say who I am I have to say I'm a girl and my name is Sarah. I can't tell anyone that I'm Sarah or that I'm a girl... I mean...."
"Okay," said Karyn. "I wish that Jon could call himself Jon again. How do you feel?"
Jon tried to get the words out. "My name is Sarah! I'm a girl!" Then he yelled, "ARGH!"
Karyn handed the rock to Jon. "You try it."
Jon gave it back, replying "That won't work. I'm going to have to say 'Jon' when I make the wish, right...."
"Hey, wait a minute, you said it now!"
"Oh, maybe it wore off. Let me try... My name is Sarah... No, I can't say it. I can say it as a word, but I can't say it as my name. Mom wished I'd always call myself Sarah... I don't think we can reverse that one."
"We've got to be able to think of something. Otherwise we can't change you back to a boy... you don't want to go around as a boy saying his name is Sarah."
"I wonder what this means for school?" said Jon. "We already have a Sarah."
"So? Two people can have the same name."
"But knowing Sarah, having the same name has to mean something. Maybe she decided on a whim to be nicer with someone with the same name. Maybe she gets especially bitchy at me because she doesn't like someone having her name. Who knows?"
"Oh, I think you worry too much, Jon."
"If you were turned into a five year old by a bad wish you'd worry a lot too, Karyn."
"Yeah..."
They didn't make any more wishes that night. Karyn said goodbye, threw out her cake plate, and left. Then Jon heard her running back up the stairs. She opened the door and entered.
"Jon" said Karyn...
"I hate to say it" said Jon, "but you may as well get used to calling me Sarah until we can fix this."
"Okay. Sarah, it's your mother. She's not her own age. She's a teenager."
"Really?" said Sarah (Jon). "That doesn't sound good." He looked at the stone in his hand and said "I wish we knew why that happened."
And the answer... Sarah's (Jon's) mother had wished that Sarah would be there as a 5 year old girl now. The 'now' had let Karyn re-age Sarah without contradicting the earlier wish---since Sarah was indeed there as a 5 year old at that point in time. It would even have let Sarah be changed to a boy again, though the name problem was preventing that. But later, Sarah had wished that her mother would be younger than her. And that wish didn't have an easy loophole.
Which meant that Sarah's mother could only age until she was a little less than Sarah's age.
Sarah's teenage mother came running up the stairs only a moment later--apparently she had seen Karyn run and followed her out of curiosity. Sarah looked at her and said "Mom?", though with the way the wish changed reality, she doubted she'd know she's her mother.
She replied "Mom? Where? Sarah, what's that expression on your face. It's as if you didn't recognize me. You know that I'm...."
