Ty asked, "Let me explain by asking about your trip. Where did you go?"
Dutin, June, and Mark looked puzzled. "Nowhere," said June, just as Mark had told Ty when they'd headed out the door.
"You must have gone _somewhere_," Ty said.
June replied, "Yes, of course, but it was just a vacation road trip. We drove, but not to anywhere specific. When we got halfway, we turned around. I'm sorry you weren't invited. We'll make it up to you."
Ty asked, "Doesn't that seem a bit odd, going on a road trip with no specific destination? How did you know when you had reached halfway?"
His family still seemed puzzled. Mark asked, "What are you getting at?"
"Think back to past road trips. Where did you go on those?"
"Nowh...", Mark started, and abruptly stopped. "Wait, we went to San Diego last year."
"And Mount Rushmore the year before,' June added.
Dustin said, "And Yellowstone before that,"
""Do you remember any other road trip to nowhere?" Ty asked.
All three seemed to be having trouble with the question. "N... no..." said June. She was starting to look scared.
"Something does seem wrong about it,", Mark said, "when I try to think about it."
"Me too," added Dustin. "But it seemed to make sense at the time..."
Ty had another question. "How far in advance do you plan a family road trip?"
"Months in advance. Almost a year for the Yellowstone trip," said Mark.
Ty continued, "And how far ahead did you plan this latest trip?"
"Ummm..." Mark had a difficult time even thinking about it. "None?"
June turned to Mark. "Maybe about five minutes? We did talk about it briefly."
"And we usually take a trip during a school break," Dustin suddenly realized. "This is weird!"
They all looked at Ty, clearly having a hard time grasping what had occurred. "Ty, what did you do?" June asked, but in a soft voice, not the angry, demanding way she might usually have asked such a question.
"Yes, I caused this, and you have every right to be angry with me about it," Ty answered somewhat sheepishly. "In my defense, I'll say that, just like changing Dustin, I still didn't realize I was changing anything. Or anyone."
"OK, son," said Mark, "We won't be mad. But what exactly did you _do_?"
"It was right after I changed Dustin, and he tried to tell you," Ty started. "I couldn't believe that my thoughts caused Dustin to change. I thought I must be dreaming. But I was not looking forward to another crappy birthday, and I wished that you all would just leave me alone for the day. I made a few other wishes, only about myself." Ty paused, unsure how just how much to explain. "And my girlfriend. I really didn't expect anything out of the ordinary. But only a few minutes later, you started leaving. I'm so sorry!"
Ty'# family sat in stunned silence. After a moment, June looked toward Mark, who nodded. She looked back to Ty. "Ty, honey, we're not mad about that. You didn't mean to do it, and you didn't hurt us. And we deserve some punishment for never having made your birthdays special for you. As we've discussed, we'll try to be better, OK? Ty nodded. "But please don't do that kind of thing to us again."
"Oh, Mom, I won't!" Ty promised.
Mark asked, "I think I know the answer, but just to confirm, have you made any other changes to us, or used your powers to manipulate us in any other way?'
"No, Dad," Ty said. "Once I realized what I'd done, I immediately started feeling bad about it. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't angry, and my wish to be let alone was honest, but I never would have done anything like that if I'd known what it would do to you. Even my girlfriend made me promise to apologize, and fix what I'd done." He couldn't bring himself to explain the other option he'd considered.
"Ty, thank you for being honest," June said. "We forgive you. And it sounds like your girlfriend, ..."
"Lisa," Ty said
"We haven't met Lisa yet, but it sounds like she has a lot of integrity too," Mark said.
June asked, "You mentioned a wish about Lisa. You didn't hurt her, did you?"
Ty looked down. "I did something kinda like your 'vacation', but even worse. I shouldn't have done it."
"What did you do? Have you told her? Fixed things and apologized?" June asked him.
"I'd like to keep the details just between Lisa and me," Ty said. "They're knd of personal." At this point Dustin snickered. Ty glared at Dustin.
June turned to Dustin, "Hey now, try to be nice to your brother!"
"Yes, Mom," Dustin said, "Sorry, Ty."
June looked back to Ty. "And..."
"Yes, I told her," Ty said, "and undid the wish, and apologized. She was angry about it, and rightly so, but we've reconciled. She wax very understanding when I explained that at the time, I didn't believe my wishes did anything, and that I'd never knowingly hurt her."
"Good," said June. "It sounds like she's a nice girl, and we'd like to meet her." June looked to Mark.
"Ty, why don't you invite her to our house for dinner tomorrow night," Mark suggested.
"Really? That would be great! Thank you!" Ty was excited.
"OK, now that that's settled," Mark said, "We still have to discuss some of the changes we need to make going forward."
Ty was surprised that he felt very anxious about this. When he'd imagined calling this family meeting, he expected the "changes" part would just be telling them how it was going to be. No discussion, no give-and-take. But now he realized that was a bad plan. He still was worried about how his family would treat him in the future, but instead of worrying about being treated badly, now he was worried about them being in fear of what he could do to them, if they pissed him off. Being honest with himself, he was quite afraid of that, too. He had no idea what the limits of his powers were, or what he might be capable of in a fit of rage. "I've really got to keep a lid on my emotions, if things start getting tense. I'd better come up with a plan, just in case."
Ty decided to stall a bit. And he wanted to talk to Lisa..
"Would it be OK if we took a break for 15 minutes, before we start into that," Ty asked. "I'd like to tell Lisa she's invited to dinner tomoorow."
"Yes, let's take a break. Let's make it a half hour. You go ahead and call Lisa," Mark said, and June nodded in agreement.