"About what?" asked Karyn.
"About Lola," replied Jon.
Lola approached, but Jon waved her away. "Please... I have to talk to Karyn in private," he said. "You'd better go on, okay?" Holding the stone, he whispered "I wish Lola wouldn't listen to me and Karyn talking right now, and wouldn't mind that I asked her not to listen."
After Lola disappeared into the distance, Karyn asked Jon "Did you tell her?"
"Tell her what? Look, Karyn, I used the stone. I wished for her, she wasn't here before."
"Really? You mean it wasn't the old totem pole in the forest?"
"Huh?" replied Jon. "What are you talking about? Karyn, please, tell me. Assume I don't know what happened, because I really don't."
"What? Okay... if you insist. Yesterday, we were trying to take a shortcut and got lost. You found this old artifact knocked on its side and mostly buried in the ground. You touched it, and this girl Lola materialized out of thin air. She was all over you, as if it was love at first sight, but she didn't remember anything except her name. When you asked the stone what the totem pole was, it told you that it was a magic device created hundreds of years ago, by a tribe that had had all its women taken in a war."
"What? You mean that there's a magic item that creates girlfriends from thin air?"
"You have a magic stone. Why can't there be something else magic?"
"Yeah, but magic items do big things, like shoot thunderbolts, or turn you invisible, or grant wishes... they don't make girlfriends. That's ridiculous."
"That's what I thought! I can't believe you've really accepted her as your girlfriend. I don't even want to know what you and her are doing every night together!"
"Karyn," said Jon, "don't get jealous. That isn't what happened."
"Of course it was, I was there."
"No, it isn't. I just wished for Lola. This morning. The only reason there's such a silly magic item as that is that the wishes make it seem like things were always that way, so there has to be some explanation for Lola."
"So she's a girlfriend you created this morning, instead of yesterday? That's the same thing. You still need to tell her that she doesn't remember anything because she doesn't exist."
"Well, she exists now. Let's get to school. I want to see her again. Though I can't help but wonder if anyone else is going to stumble onto that pole."
