Richard van Direstag was sitting against the wall with his head in his hands. His wife, Rose, was next to him, trying to comfort him. Their son, Frank, was nearby thumbing through the guidebook that Samantha Twist left them.
"What do we do?" Rich said as he tried to process what he just saw and heard from Samantha Twist. "I mean...I can't believe what...what...that thing just asked us to do."
"It'll be all right, dear," Rose said softly while she sat next to him. "I'm sure we can think of something."
"Who knows?" Frank asked while thumbing through the book, "Maybe being a...what do they call it...were isn't so bad."
"What?" Rich asked as he looked up at his college-aged son. "What do you mean by that? How can you know? Is it worth giving up our own humanity?"
"Richard," Rose said in response, "I think what Frank is saying here is that we don't really understand what's going on here. And panicking isn't going to help our situation." She took a deep breath before continuing, "Look, this is quite a bit to process. Maybe we need to just calm down, get this out of our minds for now, and come back tomorrow fresh."
"Maybe you're right," Rich said softly as he ran a hand through his hair, "I'll admit to one thing. A part of me wants to pack up the van and get out of here."
"But what about the Mandatory Were Law?" Frank asked.
"What's the worst they can do to us? Fine us? Take our house?" Rich retorted. "Let them. At least I can keep my humanity."
"If that's what you want to do," Rose said, "I'll support you. But let's wait till tomorrow. And let's keep this a secret from Rachel and Robert. They don't need to know now."
"All right," Rich said. It was then that the noise of a moving van outside their home got their attention. "For now, we'll pretend that nothing's happened. Don't say anything about this to Rachel or Rob." The rest of the family got outside to help move things into the house. By the time Rob and Rachel got home, most of the things were unloaded from the van and into their respective places in the house.