Diego, Maria, and Ty sat at the dining room table. "I'm angry with you," Diego said. "For turning Lisa into that... whatever it was... app! You weren't supposed to see or talk to her for a week. You agreed!"
"And I didn't," Ty said. "I swear! I kept my word! She did that to herself! I didn't know!"
"Let's wait for Lisa and June to come down," said Maria, "and then discuss it. We can't assign blame, if there is any, before we know what happened."
"You're right, of course," Diego said, and sat quietly, but Ty could see that he was still angry.
It was only a few minutes before Lisa came down, followed by June. As they sat, Lisa said, "Mom, Dad, I'm sorry about this. I didn't mean to hurt you. I was very angry about not being allowed to see Ty."
Maria asked, "So you turned yourself into to a phone app? That was your own decision? Ty didn't do that? Why?"
Lisa said, "I tried a few other things, to try to take my mind off Ty, like transforming into an animal, but nothing worked. I was just still angry. Then I remembered that the mental changes in being an app let me only think about what I'm told to think about, and that as an app I can't be angry or bored. It seemed like the ideal solution, so I did it."
"So you've done this before?" Diego asked. "Ty didn't talk to you or do this transformation to you after our talk?"
"Yes, Dad," Lisa said. "I've done it before. Ty and I didn't talk after you sent him home, and he didn't do this to me. I mean, he did this transformation to me the very first time, after asking my permission, but since then I've been able to do it myself."
"I don't know what to say," Diego said. He looked to Ty. "I'm sorry I accused you of breaking your word, when you hadn't. But I don't like this development. My daughter turning herself into... things... that we can't even recognize as her. I want you to take away her power to do that."
Ty started to reply, but Lisa beat him to it. "No, Dad, please! Don't make Ty do that. This was my fault, not his! In my anger, I was careless."
Diego looked at her. "Lisa, this is just too dangerous. It's bad enough that one of you has apparently unlimited power, but I can't have you just suddenly turning yourself into a mosquito or bacterium or something, with your mother and I not even knowing."
June said, "This isn't really my business, but before you have Ty take away her transformation abilities, would you mind if we talk this through some more?"
Diego said, "June, you have much more experience with this than I do. You're right, we should discuss it more. I don't promise to follow your recommendations, but I definitely would like to hear them."
June said, "I was involved, after the fact, the first time Ty transformed Lisa into a phone app. So I do have a little specific experience with this. Lisa was unharmed then, and she is now, but things were less clear then. Once Ty transformed her back to human form, I thought that was the end of it."
"As did I," Ty said.
"But why did you even do that in the first place?" Maria asked.
"It was an experiment," Ty said. "And we both agreed that it would only be for a limited time, and then I would transform her back. I wanted to see what it would be like for her to be an app, and to have direct access to the Internet."
"It sounded intriguing," Lisa said, "and Ty set up the transformation to make sure I'd enjoy it. I agreed to do it for an hour. While in app form, Ty had me do research on Peru, and write a report on it. I was able to do that very quickly in my app form, and got a lot of pleasure from it."
"OK," said Diego, "I suppose I can see that. But why did you do that transformation tonight?"
"I told you," Lisa said. "I was angry over not being allowed to see Ty. I didn't find any other way to work out my anger, but I knew that as an app, I wouldn't be concerned with it. I'd be happy. Or at least, not unhappy."
"But what did you think would happen when we couldn't find you?" Maria asked.
"Well, I didn't think that far ahead," said Lisa. "I suppose I expected to be back to human before you called me."
"And when w're you planning to transform yourself back?" Diego asked.
Lisa looked down. "I didn't plan for a reverse transformation," she said quietly.
"So just whenever you decided?" Maria asked.
"Um, no," Lisa said. "In that state, I wouldn't make any decisions unasked."
"So, you were just going to stay that way forever?" Diego asked.
"I guess so," Lisa said, barely audibly. "I hadn't thought it out. I'm so sorry!"
"This all confirms my opinion that Ty should take away her transformation abilities."
"No, please!" Lisa said. "I won't do anything like that again!"
June said, "Ty, you and Lisa already had a contingency plan. Would you describe it, please? And then maybe we can figure out why it didn't work."
"When Lisa told me that she wanted to be an app again, to do her homework, I was surprised," Ty said. "I was specifically worried about keeping her from being stuck as an app, so we did several things differently, and June even helped me verify it.
"First, we checked that if Lisa had specific work in mind that she would perform as an app, that upon transformation she would start doing that work, rather than waiting for me, or anyone, to give her instructions.
"Second, we made sure that her work plan included transforming herself back when done.
"Third, we made sure that she could, while as an app in her phone, receive and send text messages and phone calls, as if taking them normally.
"Fourth, we made sure that she could sense external events, like a knock on her door, and transform herself back to deal with them."
"That seems well-considered," said Diego. "Why didn't it work?"
"It did all work," June said. "We tried all of it, and it worked fine."
"Well, maybe it worked fine THEN. But why didn't it work NOW?" Diego asked.
"That's my fault," Lisa said quietly. "I'm sorry. I won't do it again."
"Do what again?" Diego asked. "What did you do?"
Lisa looked up at Diego. "I'm sorry. In my anger, I didn't use any of those precautions. I wanted to stop thinking about the anger, so I just did the transformation to app form with no planning. Well, a tiny amount of planning. I intended to do my homework, which I did. But no plan for after that. No plan for dealing with texts or phone calls. No plan for listening for a knock at the door. None of it. Ty and June had made it possible for me to temporarily become an app safely, but in my anger, I ignored that.
"Pleae don't make Ty take my transformation ability away. I promise that I won't use it carelessly like that again." Lisa pleaded.
Diego said, "I'm still very concerned. Maria, what do you think?"
Maria sat and considered for a moment. She turned to June. "If you had to make this decision for one of your children, what would you do?"
"That's a hard question," June said. "I see points for and against. I think I'd not have Ty take away her transformation abilities yet. I think Lisa will abide by her promise not to be so careless with her transformation ability in the future. And Ty will help, if anything goes wrong, won't you, Ty?"
"Yes, of course!" Ty said. "You all know that I'd never want anything bad to happen to Lisa, whether by her own mistake, or mine, or anything else! I will always do everything in my power to help her!"
June said to Maria, "So I don't think I'd insist on her transformation ability being taken away."
Maria said, "I think I agree. I want to look at one side point, though. Lisa, you said you used your app form to do your homework. Isn't that cheating?"
Ty started to answer, but Maria stopped him. "I want to hear Lisa's answer. If you disagree, or want to add anything, you can talk after she's done."