The next morning when I awoke, I recalled the odd dreams I'd been having about what Karyn and I might do with the stone.
A mansion filled with anything I'd ever need? And Karyn... changing me into so many diffrent things... like a cougar, a horse, and a... car?!
I didn't realise I had such an active imagination... and thinking about all the possibilities which were now presented to me was overwhelming. I could see that I was going to have to be careful with this stone, or bad things could happen.
After getting out of bed, I walked over to my dresser and picked up the box for the the stone. Opening it, I picked up the stone using my thumb and forefinger and held it up. The morning light streaming in through the window illminated it and it's metallic surface sparkled.
The sound of my bedroom door opening suddenly startled me, and I nearly dropped the stone. Quickly hiding the stone in my fist, I turned around. My mom peeked her head around the corner of the door frame.
"I was just checking to see if you were up hon... You told me yesterday that you had an early class this morning."
"I know mom... I wish you'd knock before coming in though, I must have asked you a hundred times not to just walk in on me like that... I could be changing!"
My face fell flat as soon as I realized what I'd said...
"I'm sorry... You're right... I'll make sure I knock in the future."
With that, she quietly closed the door, while I stood there thinking about what had just happened.
"Well that was lucky... Thank goodness that was a realtively harmless wish. I have to put more thought into what I say in the future, or I could hurt someone with this thing."
I looked at the stone in my open palm for a moment, and then placed it back into it's box so I could get ready for my class.
...
Walking across the campus to get to my first class, I noticed Karyn walking towards me. As she approched, Karyn looked excited.
"Hello Jon!" she said cheerfully "Did you think about what you're going to do with the stone last night?"
"Well actually Karyn..." I said, "I last night I was thinking about what we could do with it, and you wouldn't believe some of the crazy, and, ahem... interesting dreams I had about what you and I were going to do with it."
"You'll have to tell me about those...", she giggled.
"Perhaps later. Anyhow... this morning I accidentally made a wish while holding the stone that affected my mom without thinking about it first!"
"You did? What happened???"
"I turned her into an old goat!"
"You what?!", she yelled loudly.
"Shhh... quiet down." I said, laughing. "I was only kidding. But only about the old goat part. I did accidentally use a wish on her. I wished that she would knock before coming in, and the stone granted the wish. Usually she just brushes me off, and says that I don't have anything she hasn't seen before, but this time she seemed genuinely sorry, and promised she wouldn't do it again!"
"Well, I don't see why that's such a bad thing. That sounds like a useful wish to me!"
"True, but it really got me thinking about how we have to be really careful about what we say when we have this thing in our possesion."
"Jon... I have two big reminders from yesterday about what can happen with careless wishes. I don't need you to remind me. Speaking of which... I'd like to try using the stone to reverse these changes. Last night I thought of several ways that I might be able to undo what I did without contradicting my previous wishes. So where's the stone?"
"I have it right here..." I said, pulling the stone out of my pocket, and holding it in my outstretched palm. "But I..."
My sentance was cut short as Karyn suddenly reached out and snatched the stone from my hand.
"Karyn... I don't think..."
"Shh... quiet Jon... I can't go to class looking like this, now can I?"
"Well no but..."
"But nothing... shush now. Okay... I wish... that the changes to my body would only stay in effect for as long as I want them to."
As soon as she said that I was forced to look away from her, and when I was able to look back, she had returned to the way she looked normally.
"Hey... it worked! But Karyn... I really have to get going to my class now. We can play with the stone later."
"Aww... I wish you didn't have to go to that stupid class right now."
As soon as she said it, we both looked at eachother Karyn with her hand over her mouth, and waited for something to happen. When nothing happened immediately, we both relaxed a little, but as soon as we did, a loud fire alarm made us nearly jump out of our skins, and students began filing out of the buildings. We could hear one of the teachers giving orders to the students, and telling them that a bomb threat had just been phoned in, and that they would have to go home for the day. Karyn looked at me with a feeling of dread on her face. Karyn then lifted the stone in her hands again, looked at it, and said, "I wish the bomb threat was a fake."
We didn't notice a change, so we didn't know if the stone had really created a bomb in the first place or not, but better safe than sorry.
After returning home, and recovering from the shock of that close call, Karyn and I seriously considered what our next step should be.
"Jon... Didn't your grandfather say that the range of the stone was only several miles?" Karyn asked.
"Well, yes... but what are you getting at?" I said.
"Well... this stone is obviously very dangerous, but I don't want to stop using it right away any more than you do. I was thinking that maybe we could go out to a campsite which my father used to take me to. It's way out in the middle of nowhere, and out there, our wishes probably wouldn't affect anyone but us. That way, we wouldn't be putting anyone else at risk." Karyn said.
"I guess that that would be okay... as long as we're the only ones in danger, and we're both willing to accept the risk. But we should still be vary careful with what we wish for, and think things through first. If we just make wishes on an impulse, who knows what the end result will be. So, where's this campsite?"
