, and one of the lower cupboard s doors was partly open. Nita s dad looked into it. What s the matter with you, fella Uh-oh, said Spot s voice, much smaller still. Come on, Nita s dad said, let s have a look at you. He reached down into the bottom of the cupboard, in among the unpolished silver and the big serving plates, and brought out the little laptop computer. It had been undergoing some changes recently, what Dairine referred to as an upgrade. In this case, upgrading seemed to involve getting smaller and cooler looking, so that a computer that had once been fairly big and heavy was now not much bigger than a large paperback book in a dark silvery case. Spot, however, had equipment that no other laptop had, as far as Nita knew not just sentience but (at least sometimes) legs. These all ten of them, silvery and with two ball-and-socket joints each now popped out and wiggled and rowed and made helpless circles in the air while Nita s dad held Spot up, blowing a little dislodged cupboard dust off the top of him. Some of that stuff in there needs to be polished, her dad said. It s all brown. Never mind. You got a problem, big guy It was surprising how much expression a closed computer case could seem to have, at least as far as Spot was concerned. He managed to look not only nervous but embarrassed. Not me, Spot said. Well, who then Uh-oh, Spot said again. Nita could immediately think of one reason why Spot might not want to go into detail. She was reluctant to say anything: It wasn t her style to go out of her way to get her little sister into trouble. Besides, since when does she need my help for that All right, Nita s father said, sounding resigned. What s Dairine done now Despite her best intentions, Nita had to grin, though she turned away a little so that it wouldn t be too obvious. Come on, buddy, Nita s father said. You know we re on her side. Give. Spot s little legs revolved faster and faster in their ball-and-socket joints, as if he were trying to rev up to takeoff speed. Spot, her dad said, come on, it s all right. Don t get all With a pop! and a little implosion of air that made the dining room window curtains swing inward, Spot vanished. Nita s dad looked at his empty hands, then looked over at Nita and dusted his palms. Now where d he go Nita shook her head. No idea. I haven t seen him do that before. Usually I don t see him coming or going, either, Nita said. But he can do that kind of stuff if he wants to. He s got a lot of the manual in him; wizardry is his operating system, and Spot can probably use it for function calls I ve never even thought about. She went into the kitchen and got her backpack off the counter, bringing it into the dining room and dropping it on the table. He and Dairine aren t usually far apart for long, though. When she comes back, he will, too. Did she have a late day today Nita s dad said. Choir practice, I think, Nita said. No, wait, that was yesterday. She should be home any minute. Nita s dad nodded. Any coffee left from this morning I threw it out when I left for school, Nita said. You know what it tastes like when you leave it all day. I just made you some fresh. Thanks. Her dad headed into the kitchen. As he did, the front doorbell rang. It s probably the newspaper guy, Nita s dad said. He collects around now. Get that, will you, honey Sure, Daddy. Nita went to the front door and opened it. Instead of the Newsday guy, Nita found Tom Swale standing there a tall man in his mid-thirties, dark-haired, good-looking, and one of the Senior Wizards for the New York metropolitan area. He was bundled up in a bright red ski parka and dripping slightly from the rain. Hi, Nita. I saw the car in the driveway. Is your dad around Uh, yeah, come on in. You need money, Nita said her dad from the kitchen. Not for Tom, Daddy, Nita said. He s free. She led Tom into the dining room and took his coat as he slipped out of it, hanging it over the back of one of the chairs. Her dad looked around the kitchen door, slightly surprised. Harry, Tom said, I m sorry to turn up unannounced like this. Is Dairine around Uh, not at the moment. Nita s dad suddenly looked a little pale and Nita wondered whether her dad was thinking back to the last time the local Senior Wizard had turned up on their doorstep asking for Dairine. It s whatever Dairine s done, isn t it Tom s rueful expression suggested that he understood what was going through Nita s dad s head. Well, yes. I wouldn t say it was on the scale of previous transgressions. But there s something she needs to take some correction on. At that, Nita s dad looked somewhat relieved. A daily occurrence, he said, if not hourly. Tom, come on in, have a cup of something, and tell me about it. Thanks. They headed past Nita into the kitchen. By the way, you any good with vanishing computers Nita s dad said. Please. I have enough trouble with them when they re visible, Tom said, giving Nita a wink in passing. Nita took this as a signal that she was meant to be elsewhere, so she went into the living room, picked up the extension phone, and dialed. When Kit picked up the phone this time, the noise in the background was more muted. Talked to the TV, huh Nita said. At length, Kit said. It seems to have worked for the moment. Yeah, Nita said, I had to sweet-talk the fridge a little myself just now. You re getting good at that, Kit said. Used to be you had more trouble with machines. Nita shrugged. Experience she said. Maybe I m changing specialties. Or maybe yours is rubbing off. Look, don t ask me. She lowered her voice. I was going to say that if the noise is still too much for you over there, maybe you want to find an excuse to come over here for a while. It may not be any quieter, but it s gonna be more interesting. Why What s happening I don t know, but Nita heard something then: a voice, higher than hers, younger than hers, coming up the driveway and singing, more or less to the tune of the chorus of My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, Two weeks! Two weeks! I get two weeks off now, hurray, hurray Oh, boy, Nita said. Here it comes! The back door opened. Two weeks! Two Uh. There was a soft bang! as something materialized in the kitchen without being too careful about air displacement. Uh-oh, Spot s voice said, sounding panic-stricken. Both of you stay right where you are, Nita s dad said. Nita choked down her laughter. Can t miss this, gotta go! she whispered, and hung up. Dealing with Unforeseen Circumstances CAREFULLY, INTENDING TO SEEM neither too sneaky nor too enthusiastic about it, Nita made her way into the dining room and sat down very quietly at the end of the dining room table, where she could just see into the kitchen. Her dad and Tom were leaning against the kitchen counter, coffee cups in hand, looking at a suddenly very subdued Dairine. I ll give you three guesses, Tom said, why I m here. Dairine leaned against the opposite counter and brushed her red bangs out of her eyes in a way that was meant to look casual, but to Nita s practiced eye, the act was failing miserably. Dairine was freaked. And Spot knows, too, I ll bet, Tom said, which is why he s so skittish all of a sudden. Dairine, you know that as a responsible wizard you have an obligation to tell the people who re still helping you manage your life about what s going on with you…and when you re intending to embark on some course of action that is going to affect them. Uh, yeah, well, I was about to In some cases that information should really reach your family before you embark on the course of action, wouldn t you say Assuming that you want to stay in a good relationship with the Powers That Be. Which right now seems increasingly unlikely. Nita saw Dairine go so pale that her freckles looked about four shades darker than usual. Tom put out his hand, and as if from the empty air, his wizard s manual fell into it. It was a manual larger than Nita s, nearly the size of a phone book but as one of the supervisory wizards for this part of the East Coast, he had a lot more people, places, and things to look after in the course of his practice than Nita did. Let me read you my copy of a message that doubtless will have reached you via Spot not too long ago, Tom said, looking over his manual at Dairine as he opened the book and paged through it. And which is doubtless why poor Spot is having a crisis of the nerves. To: D. Callahan, T Swale, C. Romeo: We confirm availability for two of your species in the sponsored noninterventional excursus program at this time. However, your applicant supervisee-wizard s proposal for an excursus is rejected for the following reasons: Durational impropriety. Evasion of local issues. Attempt to circumvent local dirigent authority… Tom paused, looking down the page with an expression of annoyed bemusement. Actually, he said, despite the fact that the Powers That Be have listed about twelve other reasons here, those three are probably sufficient for the moment. Okay, Tom, Nita s dad said. For the wizardly challenged among us, this means… Dairine, Tom said, taking another drink of his coffee with his free hand, has signed herself and Nita up for a cultural outreach program. What Nita thought, her eyes going wide. She pushed herself very quietly back out of sight of the kitchen, flushing hot in one instant and cold in the next. Then, ever so carefully, she leaned forward again to see what her dad s expression looked like. He had raised his eyebrows, that was all. Well, that doesn t sound so bad… Probably not, until you consider that it would have involved them spending ten to fourteen days halfway across the galaxy, Tom said. Or sometimes somewhere further off…though these young-practitioner exchanges usually stay within a radius of a hundred thousand light-years, for administrative reasons. Nita watched her dad s expression shift from bemused to slightly concerned. You mean, he said, this is like a student-exchange program here on Earth. There are similarities, Tom said. But the similarities also mean that while Dairine and Nita were gone, you would have had other wizards staying here with you. Dairine s father slowly turned his head and trained a look on Dairine that was so blank it was scary. I was going to tell you, Daddy, Dairine said in a much smaller voice than previously. It was just that You were going to tell me, huh Nita s father said, in a flat, unrevealing voice that matched his expression. Not ask me Nita swallowed. I just thought if I got everything arranged, Dairine said, in a smaller voice yet, got it all set up, then I could talk to you and we could Dairine s dad looked at her severely. What he said. You were thinking you d just present this thing to me as a fait accompli Bad move. Daddy, we ve all been Dairine stopped. Some time off would have been really Uh-huh, Nita s dad said, absolutely without inflection. Out of his view, Nita covered her face with her hands. Did Nita know anything about this No. Now Dairine was starting to sound a little sullen. It was going to be a surprise. The message confirms that, Tom said. It wasn t Nita who was being sanctioned, Harry. Nita s dad s expression broke enough for him to frown at Dairine. Well, it didn t sound like Nita s style. But for your part, consider yourself lucky that I don t ground you. I, however, don t have that much leeway, Tom said. The message the Powers That Be dropped on my head, after this one, requires me to restrict you to Sol System for the next two weeks, as a corrective. So consider it done. Aww, Tom! Tom snapped his manual closed and tossed it into the air. It vanished. Next time, Tom said, think it through. Nita s dad gave Dairine that terrible level look again. Dairine, I think you should go take some private time to consider what you ve been up to, he said. Forget leaving the solar system: For the time being, I don t want you to leave the house. By any means, so no doing transport spells in your room, young lady. In fact, I don t think I want to lay eyes on you again till Nita and I get back from doing the shopping. So go on now. I really am sorry, Dairine said, very, very low. Nita listened to the words, judging the tone critically, and gave Dairine about a six on a scale of ten for penitence. As Dairine hurried through the dining room past her, Nita kept her face carefully straight, but the glance that Dairine threw at her, knowing their dad couldn t see it, made Nita revise the score about half a point upward. Dairine was angry, but also genuinely sorry. Dairine vanished through the living room and up the stairs to her bedroom. And since you ve been sitting there taking all this in… Tom said through the kitchen doorway. Nita blushed. Tom gave Nita a look that wasn t half as severe as it might have been. She really didn t give you any idea that she was up to this Nita s dad said, coming into the dining room. Nita shook her head as Tom and her dad sat down at the table with her. It was news to me, Nita said. She doesn t tell me everything she does, not by a long shot. And I can t always guess. Which may be a good thing, since if I d known about this, I d have Reamed her out, Nita was about to say, and then she stopped, because she didn t know if it was strictly true. She looked over at Tom. I ve seen the section in the manual about this exchange thing, Nita said, but when I read it, it never occurred to me that you could just sign yourself up for one. I thought someone had to nominate you. Oh, not always, Tom said. You can sign up for it yourself, if you have the spare time and think the circumstances warrant it. Which plainly Dairine did, Nita s dad said. Harry, Tom said, I think all we have here is a case of Dairine doing what she usually does: pushing the envelope. Testing. It s not that unusual for an early-latency wizard. You come into your power in a big way, then it drops off in a big way, and afterward you re likely to spend a while plunging around trying to redefine yourself as more than a wonder child. There s always the fear, Was that all I had Was the way I was when I started out as good as I m ever going to get It takes a while to put that to bed. Nita s dad sighed, leaned back in his chair and drank some coffee, then made a face: It had gone cold. This hasn t made trouble for you, has it If it has, I m sorry. Tom shook his head. It s nothing major, he said. Not compared with some of the sanctioning I have to deal with. The adult wizards are worse than the kids, in some ways: As you get older, there s an unfortunate tendency to start to lose the innate hunger for rules that you have when you re young. Some of us start trying to bend them in ways that aren t always innocuous… Nita s dad abruptly burst out laughing. Whoa, you lost me. Kids have an innate hunger for rules Tom looked wry. Played hopscotch lately he said. One toe over that chalk line and you are dead. But let me extend the metaphor more toward adult experience, because one of the places where the rule-hunger does persist is sports. You re a soccer fan, Harry; I see you up at the high school refereeing on weekends. About this weird and complex regulation called the offside rule I can explain that, Nita s dad said. And what s more, you ll enjoy explaining it, Tom said. Possibly as much as you enjoy enforcing it on the would-be violators. Nita s dad opened his mouth and then shut it again, grinning. You might be able to convince me about this eventually, he said. Tom just smiled. Anyway, this isn t anything that I don t deal with more remotely, twenty or thirty times a week. It just happens that we live around the corner, so I have an excuse to exert my influence personally…and to drink your coffee, which is better than Carl s: He thinks any coffee that doesn t eat the pot is a waste. Tom sighed and leaned back in his chair. As far as this particular problem goes, it s no big deal. Since we ve had the energy authorized for an excursus, I need to think about what to do with it. But that s the least of my worries at the moment. He ran one hand through his hair as he spoke. Nita looked at it in slight shock; she saw something she d never noticed before. All of a sudden there was some silver showing there, above the ears, and sprinkled in salt-and-pepper fashion through the rest of Tom s hair. When did that start Is he okay Interesting times Nita s dad said. Tom nodded. Interesting times. The world isn t quite what it used to be, lately… Most of us have noticed, Nita s dad said. Come on, let me give you another cup of that; we ll stick it in the microwave. I can t believe how fast this stuff seems to get cold. More milk Her dad and Tom went back into the kitchen. Nita got up and headed upstairs. Her sister was sitting at her desk, her arms folded, her head down on them. Nita sto