The device sputtered. Zoe, still not thinking it did anything, let him pick it up. "It did something," he said, "but it's broken. Whatever it did, you won't be able to reverse it until I fix it or make another one, and who knows how long that's going to be?"
Zoe said, "Give me a break! You're talking crazy stuff here."
At this time Jon came walking down the hall, followed by someone else. Except something was off... He wasn't quite as tall and what? Jon was a girl. That was impossible. You couldn't just replace someone with a member of the opposite sex!"
Zoe said, "Jon?"
Then she saw who Jon was with. It was another girl, who also looked like Jon. Both of them had short hair and a T-shirt and jeans, which was like Jon as well. "Wait--that replaced Jon with identical twins? Girl identical twins?"
The man said, "That is how it works. Bu the way, don't get too hung up on the word 'replace'. Jon is a guy's name, I guess he was your brother? If he was your boyfriend that wouldn't be family after all. Anyway, it's not as if Jon is hidden in a jail cell and the machine recruited a completely different individual. It's more like changing reality so that instead of Jon you have... them."
"But how...?"
"It's a machine," he said, as if it explained it.
"Do they know that they replaced Jon?"
"I don't know."
"What are their names?"
"I don't know. Are they in your phone contacts?"
"I don't know either!" Zoe checked her phone and saw that their names seemed to be Jolene and Gina Gibson. "Okay, I see their names, but... All right. Jolene, Gina, what do you remember?"
