“Come on, Dad! Can we check it out, please?” John’s rambunctious 10-year-old son Kevin begged, as John chuckled, “Sure son, we can.” Kevin and his little sister Amy cheered as they ran into the magic shop. “While you’re in there with the kids, Lisa, Jackie, and I are going the check out the clothing store across from here.” John’s wife informed him, as she kissed his cheek, “Alright, have fun. We’ll meet up with you girls.” He smiled and nodded as he watched his wife and oldest daughters go into the fashion outlet, leaving John with Kevin and Amy, and John’s oldest son, the angsty teenager Joe. “Dad, c’mon, do we really have to go in here?” He complained, causing John to sigh, “You can wait outside, but stay where I can see you, okay?” Joe snorted, undoubtedly cursing under his breath as he rolled his eyes, taking out his phone and sitting on a bench outside. John watched him, feeling frustrated at how moody his son was, until he felt tugging on his shirt, looking down to see his youngest daughter Amy, “Dad! Dad! Hurry up! There’s a cute plush bunny toy inside!” She said impatiently, pointing towards the large stuffed animal at the front desk, making him chuckle, “Alright, I’m coming kids.”, he said as he walked in with them.
The shop was small and dark, with magic props and practical joke items hanging on the walls, a fortune-telling machine sat in a corner, and there were stuffed animals and toys of various sizes sitting on kiosks near the center of the shop, which Amy immediately gravitated towards after she was finished gawking at the strawberry-colored rabbit plushie. Kevin, meanwhile, was busy sizing up the items on the racks, “Dad, do you think I could be a magician one day?” He excitedly asked him. “Sure sport, just keep practicing and you can do anything.” John encouraged, as Kevin played with a demonstrative magic wand, unscrewing the cap, causing spring-loaded plastic flowers to pop out, then setting it aside to look at more trick items on display. John sighed, he was a big, broad man, but was basically a teddy bear as far as his kids were concerned. He didn’t mind it though, he liked his family, but his oldest son and daughters were so distant from him these days, a small part of him hated seeing them grow up.
He looked at the magic props hanging on the racks, making sure to keep Kevin and Amy in sight at all times, and looking back occasionally at John who was still waiting impatiently outside. John remembered that, when he was a child, he used to love magic tricks, but nowadays as an adult, after learning it was all fake, only feigned an interest because Kevin liked them. His day job was being an office worker, a boring occupation he couldn’t deny paled in comparison to the glitz and glamour of a magician’s stage, but it paid the bills, especially the bills that came with a family of seven. Amy suddenly approached him, holding a princess doll, “Daddy! Can I get this?” She asked, holding it out to examine it. “Uhhh…” He looked at the price tag. The damn thing was nearly $30. “Sorry kiddo, not right now.” He said, returning the doll to her, as she pouted, “Awww, but she’s so cute!”
“We can get it later, right now try finding something that’s not as much, okay?” He replied, trying to avoid causing a tantrum. She huffed, but returned to the toy area while John sighed to himself. His job gave him enough money to afford these little trips to amuse his kids at least, but didn’t mean he could pay for every stuffed animal Amy wanted or every video game Kevin asked for. He did try to make his kids, and his wife, happy at least.
Although he too quickly found himself bored in the shop, not knowing what his kids saw in it all any longer. Kevin was now looking at a magician’s top hat, while Amy was busily scowering the racks for more plushies. He looked up and down the pegs on the walls, seeing gag items and more magical gear, before Kevin suddenly ran up to him, holding the hat, “Dad! I think I figured out a magic trick!” He announced, as John forced a grin, “Let’s see it.” Kevin smirked, dramatically waving his hand, as he reached into the silk hat and produced a plush rabbit. “Ta-da!” John nodded approvingly, “Nice work sport.” He said as he clapped, humoring his son. “Are you all done here?” Kevin shook his head, “Not yet, I’m still looking at stuff.” Kevin told him as he began to walk back, “Ooo, what’s that?” He pointed to a flyer near the check out counter. It had a QR Code on it, advertising an “Amazing One-Word Changing Magic App”, that didn’t look trustworthy. Kevin reached for his phone, before John stopped him, “Woah there, son, that doesn’t look safe.”
“But Dad, it says it’s free.” He noted, looking at the pamphlet. “Still, it’s probably not a good idea to check it out.”, which made Kevin huff, “Come on, Dad, please.” John sighed, scratching his chin, “Well… I’ll have to check it out first. In the meantime you go and look at the other magic stuff, okay?” Kevin looked down briefly, before shrugging and looking at the other props, as John fished out his cellphone. He didn’t trust it, but if his so wanted it that much, he guessed he could check and see if it was okay. With that, he cautiously scanned the QR code, and watched, uncertainly, as the app was installed on his phone, hoping it wasn’t a scam or any other kind of spyware.
When the app downloaded with no problems, he hesitantly clicked it open, popping up a camera-like application with a search bar at the bottom. Suddenly a set of instructions appeared on the dim screen, telling him how to use it.
“1*: This app uses location data to pull up anything within 50 feet”
“2*: Select a target and the app will generate a sentence describing that target”
“3*: You may edit one word in that sentence”
“4*: Reality will shift to reflect the changes”
“5*: You can control whether you, your target, or the world at large is aware of these changes.”
“What the… ‘Reality shifting’?” John muttered, suddenly curious as he held up his phone, cautiously scanning for items. He zoomed in on the pink rabbit toy nearby the counter, and suddenly saw a sentence generated on the app, “The pink plush rabbit is sitting beside the counter.” He raised an eyebrow, selecting ‘Plush’ and changing it to ‘Real’. Suddenly he felt the room spin a bit, holding his head. “You okay, Daddy?” He heard Amy, looking down to see her coming up to him, “Yeah, just got a bit dizzy. What do you need?” Amy was about to speak, then saw something on the counter, “Aww, what a cute bunny!” She squealed, as John turned his head, his eyes widening in surprise.
Where the rabbit plush toy had been, there was now a real-life rabbit, it’s fur dyed pink, in a little cage, eating pellets. He looked around, “Where did the plush rabbit go?” He asked, only for Amy to give him a puzzled expression, “What plush toy?”
“The one that was on the counter a second ago. You wanted it, remember?” She shook her head, “I didn’t see any other plushies, Daddy.” She happily walked up to the rabbit in the cage. “Yeah, you didn’t see the rabbit coming in, Dad?” Kevin said, walking up with her, “I said it’d be cool to have it as a pet.” He said, cheerfully waving his finger in front of the cage, watching the rabbit follow it. John couldn’t believe this, but looked down at his phone, “The two kids are happily watching the store’s pink pet rabbit.” He searched up, ‘Pink Plush Rabbit’ in the search bar, but it produced no results in his area. It seemed it had really disappeared, or perhaps had actually been turned into a real rabbit. “This can’t be real, can it?” John looked at it, “But if it is…”
“Hey, Dad!” He heard Joe, turning to see him, “Are you almost done?” Kevin stuck his tongue out at his older brother, “No way! There’s still lots more stuff I wanna look at!” Joe groaned, “Come on, Dad?” John was still grasping with the possibilities of the app in his hands, “Kids, please stop fighting. Uhh… Yeah, we might be in here a while longer.” He scratched his head, looking between his oldest son and his phone, trying to make sense of everything. Joe stomped his foot in frustration, before walking back to his bench. Kevin, meanwhile, went back to looking at magic props, while Amy was utterly absorbed in the pink rabbit. John was left looking at the apparently genuine reality-changing app, and was wondering exactly what he should do with it.