"Wait," Zoe Madison began. "I have an older brother AND an older sister? Is the brother adopted, too?"
Since she'd found out about Jon and the wishing stone, Karyn had kept her wishes limited. Comfort with her body -- she now understood how she'd gotten those particular dimensions even if genetics should've done the job -- and a wardrobe to use for her AMAZING first date with Joseph had been her only real indulgences. But she knew she'd need an ally in finding Jon, and making sure that ally believed her was critical.
So it was that after a very careful wish, Zoe believed her enough to follow her to a certain tree and watch a certain color-changing demonstration, and then to believe that she had a missing brother. But more wishes may yet be needed.
Karyn nodded. "Yes, but he wasn't adopted. I wish Zoe remembered her older brother Jon," she said. A weak flash, weaker than she remembered from Jon's demonstration, and dawning memories played on Zoe's face. "Holy crap," she whispered. All of a sudden, she reached out and, touching the stone, said, "I wish my brother Jon was here right now."
Nothing happened.
"I tried that," Karyn said. "I think somehow the stone's magic is involved somehow."
"Ok, but," and then a pause. "He and Hitomi had the same birthday. Why don't I remember anything about them sharing birthday parties or even being together?"
Karyn nodded, shocked but putting suddenly rapt with thought. "I'm betting that without Jon, your Mom and Dad adopted her and then you guys came along," she said.
"Yeah," Zoe confirmed. "That makes sense. Mom and Dad used to tell us they'd thought they couldn't have kids until Mom was pregnant with me." Another pause. "So what do we do now?"
"We need to figure out how to use the stone to find Jon without doing so directly," Karyn said. The younger girl nodded. "This might take a while."
"Jon and I didn't get along well, but he's my brother. Let's do what we need to do."
"Have you sent the new baby pictures yet?" Zoe asked her sister. Having a big sister growing up had taken a lot of Zoe's hard edges off and she loved playing aunt. Maybe Mom some day, maybe soon, but she hadn't even heard the proposal yet and her art career was doing fine for now.
"Yeah, you should have a link," Hitomi's face and voice told her from the phone screen. Zoe remembered a time before FaceTime and the iPhone, but it was a crappy time and she was well rid of it. "How're you doing? You look tired."
I've been hunting my long lost brother you wouldn't know and pushing Eric to just drop on a knee and working 20 hour days and sleeping as a luxury, Zoe thought, but instead just said, "I'm fine. I have an appointment with a counselor to do stress reduction tomorrow. Andrea Stevens. Athena -- remember her? -- connected with me on Facebook and recommended her. Almost out of the blue, but I need it."
"Well, good," her older sister replied. "Take care of yourself, little sister. And let me know when Eric finally takes a hint!"
Zoe smiled. Some things never changed.
