"Jon," Karyn said to her left side at lunch at school.
"Yes?" Jon asked
"Are you sure there are no loopholes?"
"Of course, you were too specific."
"I wasn't THAT specific, I said 'I kind of wish we could stay like this forever.' Staying 'like this' isn't specific.
"I see what you're getting at. But there's nothing else that 'like this' could really refer to," Jon answered.
"Well, couldn't it just refer to being in the house together, or being in the same room at the same time?"
"If we were in the same room together but not occupying the same body, I'm afraid that would be enough different to say it was not 'like this'. Some interpretations are up to opinion, but that's just too far I think. We could try it, but I got an understanding of the nature of the wish when I asked for understanding and I'm telling you that it isn't going to work. Besides, would you want to be stuck in THAT ROOM for all eternity, unable to leave? Or stuck in THAT HOUSE for all eternity, unable to leave? Would that be better?"
"No, I guess it wouldn't."
"Is it really that bad? I can't believe how much I've come to like it in this short while. Because of it, we have become closer, not just literally but figuratively. I can't even believe we weren't boyfriend and girlfriend before, what were we missing out on all this time, WHY were we missing out on it, it's so OBVIOUS that's the way it should have been, I've never liked any girlfriend as I have you the whole time, how thickheaded was I! We might not have ever even discovered that if not for becoming like this." And then Jon whispered, because they were in an open cafeteria where anyone could listen. "And I really like doing intimate things with you sweetie, doing them as we are. I like when you play with our vag and I take the clit, which is more like what I'm used to, or vice versa, which is even more exciting to me since it's not at ALL like what I'm used to, but either way it feels to each of us like someone else is touching us in a sensitive place. I like how we always come together, how I know that when I'm getting close, you're getting close, so I know I'm making you feel good because I know how I'm feeling, and I like racing with you to see who can set us both off first and how we have no idea who won afterwards. I love how furiously intense it is, how many TIMES we can do it in a span of 5 minutes, and I love knowing that I'm doing the same thing to you, maybe it has something to do with having twice as many neurons firing around like mad, maybe it's just love, maybe it's partly just the difference between girls and guys, maybe it's all 3. I love how we only have one heart, and so when my heart beats fast, it's also yours beating fast because my heart is literally your heart. There's a metaphor in there I guess but regardless of that I think it's sexy as hell. I think about it whenever it pounds in my ears, that I'm listening to YOUR beautiful heart, and it's so hot I can hardly stand it. And I am so lucky I got to be stuck to you of all people. It would be so horrible if it had been anyone else, even someone else I get along with, like my mother. Do you feel differently about it?"
"No, I get it, and I can't deny I feel the same way, I just was checking on if there might be some way to undo it if it was possible. And I mean, no offense, but I'd like some privacy occasionally. Not that it isn't endearing, and I'm not really feeling smothered, but I have one arm, Jon. One arm and one leg, and you yourself said you were right-handed!"
"Yeah, there's that," Jon said, a bit pensive. "But I'm not sure I'd want to give up this either."
"Well if we found a solution, we could put a time limit on it when we wish for it, so the solution wouldn't need to be permanent either."
"I guess that's true. Wait a minute! I just realiz..." Jon then started making strange sounds.
"What's wrong, Jon!?" Jon pointed to her throat.
"Wait, are you choking?!" Karyn asked in surprise. Jon nodded. "Oh my god, what do I do?" Jon tried to cough it up. It was stuck. "Fortunately you're not going to suffocate, unless we're both choking at the same time. Let's go to the nurse's office. You shouldn't try to eat while talking."
15 minutes later, Jon was still choking and silent. "Wow, I guess us being like this may have officially saved your life at this point," Karyn said. "If that had happened normally, if you had been choking for this long you'd be long gone."
Jon was not amused by this being pointed out, even if it might be true. But she wasn't turning purple, because thanks to Karyn breathing for her, the blood flowing through her brain had plenty of oxygen in it.
"But you were excited to say something that related to this, so I guess maybe you wouldn't have choked on your food if not for this situation. You have learned to use your left hand a bit better these few days, can you write it out to me?"
Jon got a pencil and paper out of their backpack and shakily wrote out her idea. "Wish that we can each feel and use the whole body."
Karyn paused for a moment. And then it hit her like a lightbulb over her head. "That's a GREAT idea! But first we might wish you aren't choking." The nurse said she can't be sure that she won't make it worse and they were going to be taken to the hospital for an x-ray and possibly surgery to take it out. But the two of them weren't going to go THAT far, they had a much easier solution at home. At one of their homes. As part of the weirdness of the way they squared it away with their two families, they had two residences. And neither of their families found it remotely strange that they'd spend a night at one or the other, it seemed perfectly reasonable that they had more than 2 parents. Some of the mental effects the stone could have on people were strange and scary.
It took a lot of convincing to talk them in NOT sending them via ambulance to the nearest hospital, but they got out of school early and headed home. They had to make up a lie about a home remedy (a home remedy for choking? Were there are two headed people in their family that it was developed for?) and it wasn't at all convincing, but they got out of it. A quick wish later, the obstruction was unblocked, and they were ready to try the experiment.
"Ok, Karyn, we don't really know if this is going to have some weird and horrifying side-effects, so let's set the time limit to 10 minutes. Does that sound good?"
"Yeah," Karyn answered.
"Ok, I wish that in one minute, and for the next 10 minutes after that, each of us would be able to voluntarily control and feel our whole body, not just half, and we would be able to relax and submit and let the other control the whole thing naturally, so we can take turns, and this should be acceptable since we will still be together 'like this', just not EXACTLY like we were in that earlier wish," Jon explained.
"Does it make a difference if you explain your reason to the stone and try to make your case? I don't think it refuses to undo wishes for some reason you can argue against," Karyn asked.
"It can't hurt. Ok, it should be in about 20 seconds now. I don't know when the minute started though, at the beginning or the end of that sentence. Ah! The beginning."
"OH MY GOD!!!!" two mouths said together. "I CAN SEE FROM BOTH HEADS!"
"I ah, sta, oh, uh, you fi, you first, stop speaking with both mouths! No, let me talk, hey, no wait I um..." both heads said in confusion.
Jon managed to get a few coherent words in end to end, "Karyn, you go first, I'm going to relax now ok?"
"Testing," the left said, "testing," the right head said, "1" with left "2" with right "3" with left. "Oh my god this is amazing." Karyn said.
"Yeah, no kidding, I can feel myself talking, from both mouths, even though I'm not the one making myself say it," Jon remarked.
"Yeah, that IS weird. Maybe next time we try it with everything but each others' heads, so we each have mutual control over everything but our own heads?" Karyn suggested.
"That's an idea. Actually, I think it would be better if we could turn it on and off, between the 3 states, each of us having the WHOLE body, everything but each others' heads like you said, and you and me on the left and right. Actually make that 4 states, so I can be on the right sometimes."
"Oh, that's a good idea. Hey Jon, just for fun, let's try fighting each other. I'm going to try to walk, and you try to stand still."
"Ok," Jon said from her right head.
They immediately fell over facefirst. They barely managed to catch themselves with their hands before smacking the ground right on their pretty faces.
"Aah! Let's not try that again," Jon asked with the right head. Just that was a fun change for her. "One of us needs to be completely relaxed and not twitch a muscle while the other is controlling it if we're like this, otherwise, I think we'll trip over ourselves."
"Yeah. Hey Jon..."
"Yeah?"
"I wonder what kissing is like now?"
They wasted no time in finding out.
"Wow, that's so..." Karyn said.
"Boring!" Jon finished.
"Yeah, it's just like kissing myself. I mean, it's weird that I can see myself, my two heads, with 4 eyes, but both sets are still me, and it's kind of like, I don't know, kissing my own arm. It's only fun if you're kissing someone else."
The rest of the 10 minutes passed unremarkably. At the end, even though they each only had half a body, they found themselves considerably MORE coordinated than they were when they each had control over the whole thing.
"Should we do the permanent version now?" Karyn asked. "You know, with your 4-state version?"
"Let's actually test the 4-state version with a time limit first to make sure it works the way we hope it would before doing that."
"Good idea," Karyn agreed.
They tested it out and it worked about as they had hoped, but they eventually refined the idea. The way it worked now, was that first they could internally communicate mentally. Telepathy if you want to call it that. It was extremely useful in facilitating decisions they would make together. Then, with focused and deliberate concentration, they could each enable or disable any fraction of their combined body they wanted. It took deliberate effort, so they wouldn't turn any part on or off by accident. So say Karyn wanted to be on the right and Jon on the left, they could agree to this internally mentally, and set that up. Or they could switch sides, with Jon having only the right side enabled for her and Karyn with only the left side. Suppose Karyn wanted to have control of everything but the left head, and Jon everything but the right head. Or even to for one of them to disable the entire body and let the other control the whole thing and individually be a single two-headed girl. This too they could do. And they could do feeling separately from control, so they could turn on feeling for part of the body, but not control over the muscles, so they could make the other blink for instance but not see out each others' eyes. But there was absolutely not to be anything in place that would allow one of them to shut the other out of control or sense of any part of the body. That could be bad later, if ever one of them was mad with the other, if in some unforeseeable future, their relationship with each other wasn't as rosy as it was today, so that no one would be able to be trapped at the others' mercy and stuck indefinitely with no control or sense. Hopefully that situation would never arise though. Hopefully they would stay in love forever. But better to safeguard against the possibility of a state of living hell, in case it should come to that. With the plan all worked out in detail, they made the finalization of their wish.
"Karyn, I'm going to try shutting off my control and sense of the whole body and let you have the whole thing for a while," Jon mentally communicated to her.
"Wow, really?" she thought back. "That's pretty scary, where will you be if you have no sense over the whole body. Won't you be blind, deaf, touchless, tasteless, smellless, with no senses whatsoever?"
"I'll still be able to communicate with you mentally. I'll let you know how it goes."
They tried it.
"Wow, you really did it," Karyn thought. She knew it was true, since they could mentally communicate more than just simple words, but ideas, feelings and other thoughts, so she knew Jon was seeing nothing, hearing nothing. Maybe they shouldn't have given themselves no limits in that ability, they could conceivably merge their minds and eventually become one person one day.
"But I'm still right here, love," Jon thought.
Karyn walked around, trying out the body. "Wow, I'm almost back to the way I was before all this like this. Except I have two heads now. Which is a pretty big difference. And you still exist as a voice in my head. But I certainly feel like more of a complete person now. In fact, you could say I'm MORE than 100% of a person now. 2 heads are better than 1, they say, after all." Karyn cautiously did a cartwheel. "Wow, that's kind of weird with 2 heads, but I can do it. What do you think, Jon," Karyn thought to Jon.
Karyn heard nothing back from Jon.
"Jon?" Karyn thought at Jon. "Oh my god, Jon? Speak to me!"
Jon remained silent.
"No! NO! JOHN! No, don't be gone forever, no!"
"Wait, what now?" Jon thought to her. "I kind of zoned out there for a moment."
Karyn started crying from 4 eyes. "You stupid jerk, I thought you were dead. Stupid! Please don't scare me like that!"
"Oh, I'm sorry love, I just got lost in thought. I'm afraid you're stuck with me forever."
"Good," Karyn smiled, tears rolling down 4 cheeks. "I don't want to have it any other way."
The next day, they went on with their lives as usual. But this time Jon was the right side and Karyn was the left. They decided that half and half that way was the way they liked it the most after all, and simply liked having the other options if they should choose to use them, a moment here or there, to let one or the other write since they were both right-handed, or to type with both hands, and then back to one on the left, and one on the right. That was the most fun, and most of all, that was the way that was the most exciting.
Maybe they could find a way to share what they experienced with the world. Or those who had someone they wanted to live that way with. It was something they were all missing out on, and they truly didn't know what they were missing.
