The man frowned. "How rude," he said. He'd move on to another house where his invention would be appreciated. But he wouldn't forget the rude girl.He made a note of the name and address on the mailbox.
He tried a few more houses with no one answering before he moved onto another block. It took another few houses before he got an answer. It was a young Japanese girl wearing a rather plain dress.
"Yes?" She said, with a heavy accent.
The man at the door smiled. "You are Japanese, yes?" He said, in that tongue. She nodded. "I'm going door-to-door to demonstrate my newest invention. Would you like to see it?"
Yuki Meshida looked nervous. What if her father disapproved? She stood there as the man took a small device out of his briefcase.
"You won't ever find anything else quite like this," the man said, still smiling.
"What is it?" She asked, curious despite herself.
"Well, I'm glad you asked. It's a family manipulator."
"A what?" She didn't know what that was.
"A family manipulator," the man repeated.
"You're probably wondering what that is," the man said. "With this device, you can create your own perfect family. I'm sure there are people that you know that would make the perfect mother, the perfect sister, and so forth. With this device, you can make them members of your family."
"But...I love my family," she protested. She did...she just...
"But you wish they were different?"
She thought about that. Father wouldn't even let her wear clothes like the other kids wore. And her mother was wonderful and smart, but Father... "Just...we moved here from Japan, and we don't fit in." she admittedly.
"I think I can help with that, young lady..." He pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket, then punched a bunch of buttons on the machine, and finally, he pulled a lever on the side of the device.
Smiling, he said, "Welcome to your new family."
There was a bright flash of light, then the man was gone. Yuki frowned at the strangeness of it. She yawned. Even though she'd been up for a bit, she suddenly felt tired. Maybe she should catch some sleep.
