DECEMBER 21, 2012

Aryc Omcic (the American-born son of Slovak immigrants) was having lunch at the local coffee-and-donut shop when they first walked in.

He had ordered a crescent roll with melted butter, a bag of hash-brown potatoes, a cup of hot chocolate, and a jelly stick. The latter had originally been known as a jelly cruller! Due to budget cuts, however, the bakery staff no longer twisted the raw dough in intersecting strands like a science book illustration of DNA.

Which, incidentally, is what he had been reading when they first walked in.

He was a high school science teacher, you see. And, he was trying to figure out what to ask on the mid-term finals he would have to oversee during the January hiatus. But, when they walked in, every male head in the place automatically looked up. All other activities or conversations forgotten!

Why? Because "they" were a quartet of lovely young women who walked into the shop like they owned it. A striking blue-eyed blonde followed by identical triplet brunettes!

The one who was second in line had long brown hair; a bluish-gray jersey; blue denim jeans; and faux-fur boots. While the third one in line had the same kind of hair, pants, and boots. But, her jersey was a long-sleeved pull-over with blue and white stripes. As for the last in line? She had brown hair styled upward in a bun. While her blue jeans and boots were off-set by a copper-colored sweater and a gray scarf.

Their blonde leader, on the other hand, was dressed semi-formally. With a purple-and-black striped mini-dress that just barely concealed the waist band of the translucent black tights she wore over her lovely long legs. And, with her feet totally concealed in opaque black moccasins!

The four of them sat down just two tables to Aryc's left. Prompting him to concentrate more fully on his reading. It wasn't that he was disinterested, mind you! But, the boarding school where he worked had been hit with a sexual harrassment scandal the year before. So, Aryc--who had never exactly been an extrovert before this, anyway--became twice as bashful. Successfully avoiding any eye contact, with the fairer sex, that might be misconstrued.

While he sipped his hot chocolate, the blonde (who wore an artificial mistletoe sprig in the hair over her right ear) suddenly reached into her purse and withdrew a vibrating cellphone.

"Hello? Yeah, Mom. I'm on my way home, now. I just stopped in at Hook, Line, & Sinkers for some decafe. No, I'm not alone. I have Alice, Betty, and Courtney with me. Yes, Mom. I promise we won't flirt with any strange boys!"

Then, as she hung up, she looked over her left shoulder.

"But, I didn't promise not to flirt with any cute older guys," she smilingly muttered.

The triplet in the blue jersey (Alice) looked towards Aryc's table and giggled.

"He's cute and older, all right. But, a bit on the puny side. Don't you think, Michaela?"

"Hey! After all the basketball jocks we got stiff necks from, trying to look them in the eye, it's nice to have someone who has to look up to us."

"That's assuming," replied Betty (the one in the blue-and-white pull-over): "...he was looking at us, at all. Maybe he's gay?"

"Either that, or frigid," remarked Courtney (the one in the gray scarf).

"Only one way to find out," countered Michaela.

So, she got up and slowly walked over to Aryc's table.

tbc

* * * * *

Now, it just so happens that Aryc was finishing his lunch at that exact moment. So, when he saw Michaela getting up from her table, he hurriedly got up from his table, and (as the teenagers say, now-adays) "beat feet out of there!"

Unfortunately, for him, he forgot his General Science 101 textbook, in the process.

"Hey, Mister! Wait!" Michaela exclaimed: "You forgot..."

But, it was too late to stop him from leaving. He had already made it through the front door and was already half-way across the parking lot. As luck would have it, though, he was not making for any of the parked cars. He was heading for the steel-and-glass enclosed bus stop on the nearby corner!

"Come on, girls. Let's catch up to him."

The brunette triplets needed no further urging. They were right behind Michaela as she half-jogged/half-ran to the bus stop with WARRINER'S GUIDE TO SCIENCE tucked under her left arm. As a result, Aryc's eyes grew wide with shock and fear when he suddenly found himself femininely surrounded on the green-painted wooden bench. Scarf-wearing Courtney to his immediate right...and mini-dressed Michaela to his immediate left.

"Whew!" exhaled the latter: "You sure can move for a little guy."

Aryc (who was only five feet/one inch tall) nervously chuckled and shrugged.

"Th-Thank you," he finally managed to stammer: "Miss...?"

"Michaela. These are my friends; Alice, Betty, and Courtney. We're on our way home for Christmas from Bowling Ball State."

Aryc shook his head: "I beg your pardon. Did you just say...?"

She laughed and pointed to Alice's jersey which bore the letters "BBSU" in white.

"It's a jointly-owned annex of Ball State and Bowling Green Universities, in the Union Cities area. But, the four of us hale from Bethlehem Township, in Clark County, Indiana, much further south."

Aryc (only slightly less nervous) nodded and introduced himself. Identifying himself as a science teacher at George Rogers Clark Preparatory School.

"Are you going home for Christmas, too?" asked Michaela.

"Unfortunately, no. I have to stay on campus during the Holidays. To get the science mid-terms ready!"

"Won't your family miss you?" Courtney now asked.

Aryc shook his head: "I'm a bachelor and an only child. So, I have no social commitments, this time of year."

"Awwwwww!" cooed Michaela: "You poor thing! I wish I you could take you home with me. You're mighty cute. In fact, you're a cute little mite!"

The triplets giggled as Michaela then bent forward and kissed the top of Aryc's head!!

Naturally, Aryc became flustered all over again.

"W-W-W-What was that for?"

Michaela grinned and pointed to the artificial sprig.

"Mistletoe. Now, you have to kiss me back! It's supposed to be bad luck if you don't."

Aryc half-smiled: "I've never been a superstitious man. Like that wish you just made? Well, it was very kind of you to express it, the way you did. But, you know the old saying about wishes and flying pigs."

It was at this instant that the sound of jingling bells was heard within the bus stop kiosk. And, the odd quintet looked around themselves in complete bewilderment. They would have been even more bewildered if they had seen what all the nearby Christmas shoppers had witnessed. Namely, a UFO resembling a miniature red sleigh...drawn by eight winged Poland Chinas!

The next thing Michaela and the triplets knew is that, when they turned back to resume their conversation with Aryc, he was gone!! That is, they thought he was gone. Until they suddenly heard a high-pitched voice seeming to come from just below their collective eye level. And, they gasped as one when what to their wondering eyes should appear, but a forty-something science teacher...only two inches tall.

tbc

* * * * *

For the first ten seconds, it was hard to tell who was more nonplussed. The four young women, or Aryc! Then, slowly, Michaela lifted her right hand...and brought it just as slowly down atop the shrunken science teacher.

So dazed was the latter, by what had happened to him, that he just sat where he was. Not resisting, in the slightest, being lifted upward by the blonde giantess. Thus, she was able to examine him (with unblinking eyes) while listening to him mutter (over and over):

"This can't be happening. There's no such thing as bad luck. People cannot shrink. It's physiologically impossible!"

Of course, by the fifth time he began to recite that litany, Michaela and the others had come out of their own dazes. At which point, the former--to reassure herself and the others that they were not hallucinating--gingerly took off the little man's shoes and socks. Whereupon, she began to tickle the soles of his bare feet with her left index finger!

"Ha-ha! Stop...ha-ha-ha! Stop that! Ha-ha-ha-ha! Please, d...ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Don't do tha-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

And, as the shrill little voice of Aryc Omcic continued to ring with laughter, giggles of relief began to issue from the mischievously grinning faces of the four young women.

"I don't believe it," whispered Courtney: "How in the world did this happen?"

"Do I look like I know?" replied Michaela: "All I do know is that we've been presented with a unique opportunity, here."

"Opportunity?" echoed Alice and Betty as one.

Michaela nodded: "What was the number one drag about sleep-away college? No male overnight guests in the girls' dorm. And, what's my mother constantly harped about, as the one condition for letting you three spend the Holidays at our house? No boy/girl parties that might result in unsafe sex!"

Courtney covered her mouth as she gasped with realization.

"Are you saying that you intend to...?"

Michaela smiled, and nodded again.

"Not only can we help having nothing _but_ safe sex with him. We can also have him help us with our science and math homework!"

"Now, see here!" Aryc shouted upward: "That's slavery, you're talking about. And, I won't stand f--HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Michaela over-rode his protests by tickling his bare little feet some more.

"Come on, girls," the curvaceous blonde urged: "He'll be our little secret. Heh! Emphasis on the 'little!' What do you say?"

Courtney looked at Alice, who nodded approval. Then, both of them looked at Betty, who also nodded. To which Michaela joyously responded with:

"Awesome! Here, Bets, you put his text book in your purse until we can find someplace out of the way to throw it away. Al? Do you have a spare handkerchief in one of your back pockets?"

The latter nodded, and withdrew one from her right rear pocket. Placing it squarely in the palm of Michaela's left hand.

"What are you...?" Courtney began to ask. Then, she stopped, as it swiftly became obvious. Both to her and Aryc!

"No! Don't you dare put me in there. Don't you _dare_! Do you hear MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMPH!"

Michaela quickly wrapped the shrunken man up, inside the handkerchief, before expertly knotting the top of it. And, she and the others grinned as they watched the little white bundle swing back and forth like a pear-shaped pendulum.

"Sort of gives new meaning to the phrase 'bagging a man.' Doesn't it, girls?"

The triplets giggled at Michaela's quip, and nodded in perfect unison. Whereupon, she put the little bundle into her own purse, just as the local crosstown bus arrived at their stop. And, as they boarded, Michaela asked the driver if the interstate bus terminal was one of the other stops along his route. Adding how they wanted to buy tickets for the last leg of their trip, to Bethlehem Township, as soon as possible.

"Don't worry, Miss," replied the driver: "You lucked out. That's my very next stop, after this!"

"Awesome!" she exclaimed, before paying her fare and sitting down next to Courtney. The latter remarking how it looked like they were going to have a merry Christmas, after all.

Michaela nodded, adding: "And, all four of us are going to have a _lot_ of good nights."

THE END *

*And, Happy Holidays, too. :-)