The man, of course, disappeared and suddenly there was another male cheetah in the cage with the female cheetah that had been Tom. The stone was once again lying on the ground.
Jon's thoughts replayed the past hours of disaster he had experienced. First, it had all started with the wish that he could be whatever he wanted to be. And he and Karyn certainly didn't want to be mothers.
Wait a minute, he thought. He had wished he could always be what he wants to be. Wishes couldn't be reversed. That means that he could be whatever he wants to be despite any later wishes that seem to be permanent. They couldn't really be permanent--being permanent would reverse the first wish about being what he wants to be.
Jon concentrated on thinking "I want to be Jon again!" Nothing, unfortunately, happened.
Why didn't it work, he thought? Calm down, calm down... he needed to figure it out if he had a prayer of using it to escape the trap he was in.
Well, he had started this by becoming an eagle, but as an eagle he didn't want to be Jon any more. If he didn't want to be Jon, he wouldn't change back. So did he want to be Jon? Not just not be a leopard, but really be Jon?
Obviously he did want to be Jon. But how hard did he have to want it in order to change back into Jon? Could he want it enough?
He tried thinking really hard, thinking of Jon and of normal teenage and human things he could do only with hands and the power of speech. I want to be Jon and go to school and learn to drive a car and.... He tried as best he could to want something and suddenly lost his train of thought. He tried again and it didn't work. Every time he tried it he couldn't concentrate! He just couldn't want to be Jon hard enough, for some reason.
Some reason? No, nothing about the stone was "some reason". He must have been wrong before. The stone did have a way to make transformations permanent, after all. He can only transform back if he wants to. The second wish could make him not want to. That way it would be impossible to transform into something that reverses the second wish.
There was one last thing to try, though. If that was the explanation, not all transformations should fail. He still should be able to transform--if he can figure out what to transform into. What could he turn into that wouldn't reverse the newer wishes?
A minute later, Jon had turned into a woman--no doubt still in the process of becoming a mother, but there wasn't much that could be done about that at the moment. He looked over to the other cage, and Karyn was already back to herself.
Using a sneaker tied to a shoelace, Jon managed to throw the sneaker through the bars and use it to maneuver the stone close enough to pick up. "Got it!" he said. One wish later, he and Karyn were free.
"What did you do?" asked Karyn.
"I remembered the old wish about being what I want to be," replied Jon. "It's still in effect. But I could only be something that doesn't reverse the other wishes. The wish was about being a mother, and it seems like a human mother would satisfy it. And I didn't do anything to you. I think that because you wished to know what I'm feeling, if I change back, you change back. Now do you have any ideas about the guys in the cages?"
