"Jon... you've got... you've got...."
"I know, Karyn! A vagina... I can see! We've got to do something about it!"
"We can't, Jon. It's irreversible, it works just like the wishes."
"Nothing's irreversible, Karyn. Let me think...."
Karyn waited, but Jon couldn't think of anything. They ended up destroying the wand and shorts and wishing that Jon had clothes on again--when he realized to his embarassment that the wish had gave him, not only jeans, but women's panties.
Until, the sun setting, and Jon despairing to go home, he finally said "I have it!"
"Really?" asked Karyn. "Tell me!"
"It's easy. We wished up a wand that can undo the stone, but it doesn't undo itself. Why not wish up a, um, magic sex-change gun? The wand can undo the stone, so the gun can undo the wand, right?"
"And what if that one goes wrong?"
"Wish up another gun that undoes the first gun. In fact..." Jon got the stone out again. "I wish I had a magic sex-change gun that can reverse the wand or stone. I also wish that each time the gun is used, it changes into another gun that looks just like it, but can reverse all the previous guns. Finally I wish only me and Karyn can see the beam from the gun." In Jon's hands materialized what looked like a green water pistol.
"I see," said Karyn. "That way you don't have to keep wishing for an extra object that can reverse the other ones. It turns into something that can reverse the other ones anyway."
"Right. The whole thing about turning into another one just like it is a technicality to make it work. Basically, it's a gun that can reverse itself."
Jon looked more closely at the gun. The "water pistol" had several dials on front, and a switch. The first dial read "male/female". The second was labelled 'beam' and had two settings: "narrow/wide". The third was labelled 'alter reality?' and could be set to "yes/no". There was a small lens at the front for easy aiming. It seemed to work far better than would be expected from a real water pistol.
"It looks pretty simple," said Jon. He set it to "male", "narrow", and "no" and fired it at his crotch. A narrow, electric-blue, beam shot out and hit him between the legs.
His hips seemed to quiver and a bulge began to appear in his jeans. Jon turned away from Karyn to look down in his pants. "It worked!" he exclaimed. Not only was he male again, but the magic had changed the panties to normal boys' underpants.
Then Jon fiddled with the dials. "No!" yelled Karyn.
"I'm just trying to see how this works." Jon fired at himself before Karyn could stop him. A much wider beam came out, this time covering his whole body. Suddenly he was a girl, wearing a skirt. "What?" said Jon. "That didn't do anything."
"It didn't... Uh-oh." Karyn snatched the gun from his hand. It was set to "female", "wide", and "yes". Of course he'd think it didn't do anything, he changed reality so he thought he was always a girl. She sighed, set it to "male", "wide", and "yes," and aimed it at Jon. Soon he was back to normal and didn't even remember anything being wrong, until Karyn explained it.
They experimented some more, both on themselves and on some birds, and once (very carefully) on a group of hikers. It seemed that the gun worked exactly like Jon had planned. It could even work on several targets at once if they chose "wide" and the target was more than a few feet away. There was one difference, though: Jon and Karyn always remembered the old reality unless they themselves were the ones getting shot. Jon guessed it might be because they were both heard the words of the wish.
"Well, that wasn't too bad," said Jon. "I was really scared, there, when I became a girl."
"But now nothing's wrong," said Karyn. "And you have a magic item that's safe, not like that wand."
"Yeah, I do. What should we do with it?"
