Once, when I went on a vacation, I had left a block of cheese sitting out in my apartment.  It was a hot week, and I had turned off my air conditioner to save money.  When I got back...well, let's just say my nose knew I had made a big mistake.

That instance flashed in my mind as I lay trapped under my girlfriend Maria's foot, smashed between her skin and the left flat she was wearing.  At her her request, Sasha had turned the heat on in the car, and I could already feel the hot air flowing down on Maria's shoe.  If only she knew I was trapped beneath her!

I struggled again, trying to free a hand so that I might tap on her toe, or otherwise free myself from the painful squeeze.  Despite my efforts, I was trapped; and the already meager oxygen I could suck in from between her toes was now getting warmer, and with it, the odor of her shoe finally freed itself from the fabric.

Try as I might, I couldn't help but inhale the smell of a shoe worn many times by bare feet.  The cheesy odor filled my lungs and left a sweet, pungnent taste in my mouth.   Helpless, I inhaled the hot air time and again, begging Maria to take her shoe off and perhaps scratch an itchy toe.

No such luck.

Instead, as the car vibrated down the road and the shoe slowly became a smelly oven, I heard Maria and Sasha begin to talk.  The noise of the engine and the heater prevented me from discerning specific words, but I could sense that Maria wasn't happy about something.  Sasha must have started her "break up with Jake" talk.  I found myself frustrated and angry.

In the darkness, I  began to feel a slight moisture--and realized that Maria's foot was beginning to lightly perspire!  A tiny sheen of sweat was developing on the skin between her toes, and on her sole directly above my barely-exposed face.   I detected a new smell--this, not of her shoe, but her foot itself.  Despite her recent shower, a new, fresh foot-odor began to compete with the already stinky air that the shoe had become filled with.

Even as my numb body lay motionless under her foot, I could feel the sweat slowly developing all along her sole, and after a few mintues, I felt my face wetten.  Either I was sweating--or Maria's foot was sweating on me.  I realized both were true.

More time passed.  I knew we had to be close to Thursday's Resturant, but Sasha seemed to have taken the "long" route, going downtown through as many stoplights as she could to prolong my torture.  I opened my mouth to suck in more air, only to discover that tiny beads of sweat, miniscule to Maria, were dripping into my mouth.  I had no choice but to swallow the sweat from my girlfriend's foot.   The salty liquid felt warm as it made its way to my stomach, time and again.

Just as I felt I might drown under Maria's foot, the car suddenly stopped moving, and the engine turned off.  Immediately, the heater stopped, and I silently begged Maria leave the car--hopefully, the restaurant would be much cooler.

"...should think about it, Maria," I heard Sasha say.  "He couldn't wait twenty mintues for you to get back? What does that tell you?"  Sasha was clearly trying to drive a wedge between Maria and I. 

"I don't know, Sasha," Maria responded, her accent thick with concern.   "Maybe he had his reasons."  I did! Sasha had shrunk me!  

I began to yell, hoping Maria might hear something--anything--that would get her interest.  Just as I started forcing my exhausted lungs to push some air through my mouth, the car door opened and Maria stepped out.  I came crashing hard on the pavement outside, her foot and shoe violently smacking me against the unforgiving surface of the parking lot. 

I gave up yelling, concentrating again on breathing as Maria began walking and the cycle of crushed lungs and desperate breaths began again.  Each step sent a jolt of pain through my tiny body.  The sweat on Maria's foot also acted as a lubricant, and with each step I felt my body shift and slide more and more beneath her sole. 

I realized that the action of her walking was causing me to slide--downwards--toward her inner sole, and as my face slide under her smelly skin, obscuring my nose and mouth, I hoped Maria wouldn't feel guilty if she found my lifeless form under her foot later that night...

To Be Continued...