Ty shook his head anxiously from side to side, pacing around inside the confines of his room. Had he actually caused his brother's physical development to reverse itself? Was that even possible? If he'd done it, how had it happened? And... if he hadn't done it, what had?
Feeling nauseous, he sat down on the edge of his bed and put his hands over his face. Breathe, he told himself. Breathe deep. In and out, calm yourself down. After a minute or two, Ty found himself feeling far less anxious, but did not yet stand up. His thoughts raced quickly but were heading towards conclusions he wasn't sure he liked.
The first was that he was dreaming or hallucinating, but Ty had always known when he was dreaming before. And as for hallucinations, well... it was possible, but it didn't seem likely. He might have imagined his foster brother's changes, but he didn't see how he could have misheard his foster mother. "Late start," she'd said. "Late start," like Dustin's history had been rewritten.
And that was the second thought Ty didn't like. If he had retroactively altered his foster brother's development, what else could he do? Turn anything into anything else?
Turn anybody into anything else?
Ty was making himself nervous again. He wasn't at all sure he wanted to think of any person having that kind of power, being able to change around anything any way they liked. He hadn't even done anything, and Dustin had suddenly lost out on puberty. He'd only...
He'd wished. And not just thought the wish, there was something else there too. Ty prodded at the memory. Yes - he'd thought the wish, but there had been a distinct sensation that came along with it, like something flowing through him for a split second, and then stopped.
Ty stared at the tan-colored wall across from him, and slowly parted his lips. "White. I wish the walls in my room were white."
The walls continued to be tan.
Ty frowned, and tried again. This time, however, he willed the wish, no longer just saying the words. "I wish the walls in my room were white!"
The feeling of something moving through him, some deep and fundamental connection suddenly forming between him and the world around him filled his body and then departed as swiftly as it had come. Ty shivered all over, more from the departure of the feeling than its sudden coming. It had felt so... well, there wasn't any other word for it than right.
And, of course, the walls were white. Ty had felt that happening, knew that not only had the walls changed, but that he had changed them. His second wish had done something else, too: It had washed away all his doubts concering his newfound power. While he still didn't know the limits of his abilities, Ty did know beyond any doubt that he was the one who was forming, shaping, and using the power to alter the world he lived in.
He hoped fervently he was responsible enough to use it.