Zoe looked at the thing that the man was holding. "What is it?" she asked, yawning.
"Well, I'm glad you asked. It's a family manipulator."
"A what?" Zoe was still half-asleep. Maybe she heard the man wrong.
"A family manipulator," the man repeated.
Nope, she heard right. But what the hell was that?
"You're probably wondering what that is," the man said.
"Actually ..."
"Let me explain," the man said, cutting her off. "With this device, you can create your own perfect family."
"That's ridiculous. You can't do something like that with ... with a machine," Zoe said.
"Oh, but you can. With this machine." He paused, seeing that she still didn't believe him. "Humor me. Who would make your family perfect?"
"If I could do whatever I wanted without my mom getting on my case, I guess. And...well, my little brother is a bit of a pain, and my big brother is always getting in my way..."
The man punched a bunch of buttons on the machine as Zoe talked, then when she was done, he pulled a lever on the side of the device.
Smiling, he said "Welcome to your new life."
"Huh?" Zoe asked. There was a bright flash of light, then the man was gone. "Weird," she muttered, then closed the door and headed back to the bathroom. When she was done, she went back to bed, putting the strange man and his device behind her. She just wanted some sleep.
