"She doesn't recognize me!" said the boy. "But I know it's Mommy."
"That's because she's like you were from before you wished to be my sister, and at that time she didn't know about you, so she doesn't."
"I don't understand! I wanna real Mommy."
"Well, I don't know the right thing to say." Maybe, thought Jon, some reverse psychology would work again.
"Really?"
"Really. I don't know the right thing to say to bring back Mommy. I thought I did, but I don't."
"You must! Someone gotta know!"
"I'm sorry, but I don't."
"Do too!"
"I don't."
The boy said "Yes, you do!" and shoved the stone into Jon's hands. "Now do it!"
"All right" said Jon, "but no guarantees." He didn't make a wish immediately, but tried to think over what had happened. His mom had wished to be a teenager, and then Jon's sister, and then a boy. But he thought the stone couldn't reverse wishes. Wait, now he knew. She had wished to be his sister so she could torment him. Once she had tormented him, the wish would be true and even changing again would not make the wish false. And she had wished to become a boy so she could play ball. The same thing would happen--now that she had played some ball, the wish was over and she could change again.
Which meant there was no problem wishing her back. "I wish Mom was a woman and an adult, like the Mom I remember."
The boy reached for the stone, but missed it, stumbling as he changed. He got older, older, grew breasts... and the teenage girl Mom got older too.
Soon there were two Moms around. Jon had forgotten about that, but that wasn't the biggest problem. One Mom was just as he remembered, and the other, the boy, was now a teenage girl again.
"I wish I knew what I wished wrong."
The answer came to him. The sister and boy wishes had been made for a single purpose, and when that purpose was completed, the wish was over. But the wish to become teenage wasn't like that. She had wished to become teenage to avoid adult problems. "Avoiding problems" wasn't something you could just finish with. Which means that there was no way to change her back from teenage.
The second Mom was a duplicate of the first one. But the duplicate had been created as teenage, the duplicate wasn't under the influence of a make-me-teenage wish, so she could be aged without reversing anything.
So Jon had two Moms, one teenage and stuck that way, and one adult. Sigh. Now what could he do?
