THE SMALL MAN CHRONICLES
(Part I)
How to begin? Well during my childhood no one had known
about me and my size except for a few people. I’m Mike
Tompkins. The smallest man in the world. I was born May 1,
1966. I was born under strange circumstances. My mom,
Karen, was very rich. She never worked a day in her life.
She was married to my father who mysteriously died just
before I was born. She hardly knew she was pregnant. When
she had me I was only 3 inches tall. She almost didn’t
realize she had me and didn’t tell anyone for fear they
might take me away.
I grew up like any normal child except I was very small. I
was brought up as best as could be under the
circumstances. My mom had a room built with miniature
furniture, TV, stereo, and even books were miniaturized so
that I could learn. I was never lacking for anything. I
knew very little about the outside world except what I saw
on TV, read in books, or was taught by my mom. Mom told me
the outside world was big and scary and no place for a
very little boy like me. She told me stories of what would
happen. I believed her because I had no contact with
anyone else. I was also a child. What child doesn’t
believe their mother?
Life was grand; mom took great care of me. Once in a while
I would see a maid, butler, or her bodyguard, but I was
very frightened of them. Then, when I was 6, my mom
adopted twin girls. They were about 1 year old at the
time. They were normal sized, suddenly she had little time
for me. Their names were Heather and Lisa. I still wonder
to this day why she adopted them. She never told me why.
They were kept away from me until they were 7, then mom
introduced them to me. They were about 4 feet tall and I
had only grown to 5 inches. I was only 12 at the time we
were introduced. Their size had scared me because I really
only saw my mom who was about 5’ 11” in person, besides
she had filled my head about how dangerous the outside
world was.
I remember the first time I had met them like it was
yesterday. They were identical twins about 4 feet tall
with long red hair in pony tails and blue eyes. I was
frightened out of my wits. I was in mom’s hand and they
were staring at me intently. Then the twins had smiles
show on their faces. Mom reassured me they would not hurt
me. Then one of them spoke, I think it was Heather, and
asked mom if they could play with me. Mom said not today,
she had only wanted us to meet. She said she was going to
slowly introduce me into their lives. I asked her why and
she replied that someone had to take care of me after she
was gone. After she was gone, now that’s a thought that
had never entered my mind. What would happen to me if she
were gone? She reassured me that she would be living for a
long time. Then she put me back in my room.
My room, the only world I knew. I felt safe and secure
there. My room was about 8” high, which is roughly equal
to 8’ for you regular sized people. It was about 40” long
and 24” wide and was divided into a living room, a
kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom. Mom had it enlarged
after I was 10 now that I could handle appliances. I don’t
know how she had all the appliances, TV, stereo, lighting,
and electrical stuff miniaturized without anyone knowing.
As I said earlier mom was very rich, also, the whole town
catered to her every whim. I watched on the news and saw
how she practically ran the town. What Karen Thompkins
wanted Karen Thompkins got, no questions asked. She owned
a manufacturing company and did lots of charity work in
the town. As a matter of fact that day I saw her start a
new line of what was a new product at the time personal
computers. (Remember, this is a story so bear with me.)
Finally after about a year of getting aquainted with my
sisters she decided to let us spend more time together,
mom called it playtime. My sisters and me would spend
about an hour a day together. The first thing my sisters
wanted to do was play dolly with me. I thought it was fun
until I saw they made a dress for me. Even though I had no
contact with the outside world I somehow knew a 13 year
old boy wearing a dress wasn’t right. Mom said I looked
cute in the outfit and laughed, that was the first of many
times in my life I would feel inadequate. Then Lisa picked
me up and put me in a dollhouse. She asked if I like the
dollies in the house. The dollies were bigger than I was,
I felt so inadequate but I didn’t want to disappoint them,
so I said they were fine. This was the first real contact
with other people other than my mother and I didn’t want
it to end. We played dolly for about an hour, and then mom
said it was time for me to go back to my “house”. The
girls didn’t want my mom to take them away. She told them
I was so small that I needed to rest, so my mom took me
back to my room. I went back to my room and fell
immediately asleep, man was I exhausted.
Well things went along fine for years, then my sisters
started high school. I was about 19 at the time. Mom
wanted me to have a better education so she asked my
sisters to take my to school with them. In order to do
this correctly she first decided to let the world know
about me. Mom realized that at 19, I could be considered
an adult. To do that we went to her personal lawyer her
name was Laura Peterson. Laura was unbelievably
attractive; of course it could be me because I was not
used to seeing normal sized people. I would say she was
about 5’ 9” tall, 130 lbs., and wore a woman’s business
suit. Her nails were moderate lengths, impeccably
manicured, and unpainted. When we first met she couldn’t
believe her eyes. Her first word were my god he’s so
small, can I pick him up. Mom consented, I don’t know why
she had to after all I was 19 and if I wanted a woman to
pick me up I think it should be my business. Funny thing
for some reason the first thing anyone wanted to do when
they met me was to pick me up.
We got down to business quickly, actually mom and Laura
got down to business, when your 5” tall, I was to find
out, your input did not matter. It was like I wasn’t even
there, here are two powerful women discussing what would
be best for me and my opinion didn’t matter. They thought
it would be best for me to be brought in front of a judge
to be declared competent, then I would be enrolled in high
school. That was a shock after all I’m 19 for Christ’s
sake why go to high school now. Mom explained that it
would be a good way to get introduced to the real world. I
would need to do that if I were going to inherit the
business and the fortune. We went home that night and I
felt scared. I had never felt so scared in my life I
slowly drifted off to sleep.
Suddenly I was awaked by a loud thud. There were giant
sneakers in front of me. I looked up and saw a giant
teenage boy. Oh my got I thought what happened. He looked
down at me and said, “ look at the shrimp. I’m gonna crush
you.” I started to run but I couldn’t get away, my god
what do I do? I ran down the corridor and tripped over a
candy wrapper. Shit here he comes I thought. I tried to
get up and he grabbed me. I squirmed to get away but it
was no use. He brought me close to his face and said “ I
think it’s the end for you!” With that he started
squeezing me, oh my god why did I have to go to school. I
pleaded with mom and she swore I would be safe. Now I’m
going to be crushed to death by a 13-year-old boy.
Suddenly the alarm went off and I awoke in my room. I
grabbed myself and saw it was just a dream. Then I began
to cry. I wept uncontrollably, like a baby crying for his
bottle. Well what do I tell mom? There is no way I want to
let the world know who I am, then I why did I want this to
happen in the first place. How can I be normal my god I
cant even lift a foot long ruler or a pencil, there so big
and heavy. How will the world take me seriously, I
thought. Well I would find out soon enough, today was the
day I would go to court.