"Fair enough. We just want to follow up and if possible learn what exactly you taught it, and if you made a deal with it. The ability to somewhat predict a genie is something the Spirit Association really likes to have, so we know what to do if there are any incidents or emergencies involving it."

“I showed it the basic operation of a laptop and web browser and told it some basic advice about internet research before it lost interest. It said it would remember me but nothing more deal-like than that occurred.”

"Yes, that's not out of form for a genie. But it spoke to you first about the computer? It initiated the conversation? Hmm... Well, that's all we really wanted to know. Thank you for calling in about it! Do you have any questions?"

“Not particularly, unless catching a genie's interest qualifies me for non-public information on the subject or something. Oh, I remember what it got interested in first — I was carrying a loaner laptop I checked out from the library and it was surprised that I had something that wasn't a book.”

"We do maintain a list of charitable wish requests if you earn a genie's favor enough for it to offer one and don't particularly know what to do with it." He sounds like he doesn't think she'll be interested but is vaguely hopeful.

“I'll keep that in mind. Do you have another number or address you would prefer to be contacted by in case of that or any sort of followup?”

"This is the public number, you should just call this again. We have a general email address and an office in downtown Urbana too." He gives the email when she is ready to note it down.

She will use her handy voice recorder to capture what he says in lieu of bothering with paper. “Thanks!”

(She could probably look up that information herself, but you never quite know and It's worth acknowledging people being polite and helpful as best they can.)

"And thanks for calling in to tell us about this. More information is better when it comes to genies."

And life goes back to normal. The ACM has decided that the usual presentation at Engineering Open House should be augmented by a very simple 'coding challenge' suitable for older grade-schoolers and middle-schoolers. Terry volunteers for a time slot manning the booth, too.

Kaitlyn volunteers to help with the problem design. She would like to make sure that the problem — and how it is explained — are actually suitable for the target audience.

"So the current leading ideas are a robot game - write instructions in a stupidly simple play language we make to make a virtual robot pick up dots or something - and an RC car obstacle course with an actual RC car that you pre-program commands for."

“—Thaaaat's not going to work, unless we're talking about an RC car plus a lot of sensors to make it go exactly as far and in the direction it's supposed to every time. Real world physics is not easy to program against. Let's stick to the virtual robot. What are we going to do to make it more interesting than entering the correct sequence of forward-left-right instructions?”

"I think the idea is to show them how to use loops and if statements and how much less tedious that is."

“But it has to be still quick and not so complex that they get stuck in understanding how to design an algorithm. Hm.

“First thing that comes to mind is a little bit of maze with long corridors so that it makes sense to write sections like 'while there is a right wall, go forward, end while, turn right'. Seems almost too simple but it might be on the right level.”

"Should work. Oh, we could - make the walls or floor different colors and give them a color sensor too, once they get past the basic one? And it'll help that the game isn't the only part of the display."

“Don't want to get too complicated for the couple of minutes they're probably going to want to spend on this,” she says dubiously.

But they can try things and program prototypes with colored or plain walls, or multiple levels, or different sections of one big screen…

It's productive! The upperclassmen come along and suggest changes. 'Suggest' might mean 'require', but if they have good arguments defending something they can keep it.

After an hour and a half the meeting disperses, they can continue working on it next week.

You know what else they can continue working on next week? Homework! Classes! Schooooooool! Walking past the genie in the library while trying to pretend it isn't there! And a sprinkling of other things!

By Saturday she has to contribute: an explanation of the problem (left vague where they hadn't actually finalized whether it is a maze or an open field or what) and of a simple programming language, and a rough but adequate parser for the same language. This should fit in neatly with the others' work, but you know how group projects go…

Group projects contain a lot of duplicated work if you don't plan it all out ahead of time!

Her code and two upperclassmen's code can get assembled into a working prototype. Terry says he knows an artist and can get simple graphics made. What-all animations and graphics do we need hmm...

Terry seems distracted and a bit stressed, though.

Well, it does all have to get done in less than a week of days that also have classes in them.

In a moment when neither of them is needed for a piece of the work: “You okay?”

"I got bad news from my family, is all. Nothing - earth shattering."

“Oh.”

“I wouldn't up and assume we're that kind of friends but I'll listen if you want to vent? But not right now in any case.” Attention back to assembling the never-fit-in-the-first-place jigsaw puzzle!

"Yeah, we're friends but not super friends yet. Maybe I'll vent later. I'm going to go home early today."

She will get out of the way so he can exit as discreetly as possible.