They walked off into a room which wasn’t as high tech as Doug had imagined, in fact there was a just a couple of chairs a small table with a control screen and then a raised stage like area with a floor base that looked like it should belong in a discotheque as it glowed.

“So Mr Quaid please step up onto the Reformation platform over there so I can just scan your current stats please”

Obliging Doug put down his bag in the room and stood on the glowing surface and watched Mandy sit down at the desk using a holo interface gesturing with her fingers to make the system work. A laser soon traced him from head to toe and then vanished.

“That’s fine now please come and take a seat”

Mandy looked at her screen which wasn’t visible to Doug from the other side and she took a few seconds to absorb the information before talking again.

“Ok, so you are exactly 72 inches tall or six feet, we like to work in feet and inches is that ok with you Mr Quaid?”

“Sure I can relate to that better and call me Doug”

“That’s what we find with most clients Doug they like the old fashioned measurement system”

“Now, you are physically fit the health scan finds no problems so I can legally proceed with any Reform treatments and looking at your booking it’s a height reduction that you desire is that correct?”

“Yeh, I guess”

Doug was still a little nervous especially now he was in a room with a machine that could alter his height for real.

“Relax Doug, this is your time and we are not going to do anything here that you don’t wish and all treatments are reversible remember”

“Of course it’s just strange to be altering my body like this”

“Not strange just preference, we all have things about ourselves we don’t enjoy and you obviously would like to experience life from a shorter perspective am I right?”

“Well kind of”

“Doug....”

Mandy stood up and then took her coat off revealing a rather nice figure, her body was unexpected by Doug who now could see a formal sweater on top of her skirt with two perky breasts making themselves known. She then took her hair out of its restrictive bun and let it hang down to her shoulders. She was quite stunning hidden almost behind the way she presented herself as so dowdy before.

“You have to be honest with all the questions I am going to ask or you won’t get what you want from your treatment, look at me now and just think that I was once her”

Pointing out towards a holo projector that was in the corner of the room, a full sized 3d image of a woman appeared, this woman had a large frame and was obese with a chubby face yet not unattractive but sort of jolly looking in Doug’s opinion”

“Who is that?”

“That was me six weeks ago before Reform, you see I was honest about my desires and well I am so much more confident now than she ever was”

“That was you?”

It was hard to believe the transformation but it was there if you looked into the eyes and the mouth.

“Wow”

Was all Doug could say as the holo projection faded away.

“Indeed, so Doug, lets start with your wishes, you want to be a little shorter than you are now why is that? It’s certainly not for medical reasons I know this much from your health scan”

Doug felt like he was being put on the spot but he didn’t know this woman and probably wouldn’t meet her ever again so he thought why not be honest.

“It’s my anniversary today with my wife I mean, and she’s always longed to be taller or for me to be a touch shorter, so I thought the surprise could be that I would let you people reduce me a little”

“Ah, well that’s good we have a need established now so how tall is your wife?”

“Five foot six inches”

“Ok, let me enter a template for her, what does she look like?”

Doug explained and a rather good full scale imitation of Lori was presented.

“So here is Mrs Quaid and here are you Mr Quaid”

An exact replica of Doug was produced presumably because the computers had scanned him so well moments earlier and it even had the same clothes.

Encouraging Doug to wander over and view the holograms he did just that. It was uncanny how well his mere basic descriptions of Lori had produced this life-sized replica and even he would have had to look twice to know the difference. The holo-projectors at the Reform centre were also state of the art, Doug was of course used to seeing projections in 3d but they normally had a translucent appearance or some interference flowing through the otherwise solid images, but these creations were good and looked real even under close scrutiny. He hadn’t seen such detail since the wax work figurines at the local museum. The only way the illusion could be broken was when he allowed his hand to pass through these images, as it was after all only very clever light converged by the unique holo-projector lenses.

Seeing himself and Lori full sized and from a third party view was odd to say the least and he felt somehow disappointed to note his height advantage.

“Let me just adjust your wife’s image as your model is wearing shoes with at least an inch heel”

Mandy said from behind Doug and he noticed that apart from a basic blue dress which was very non descript Lori’s double now had a pair of modest heels on that raised her by an equivalent inch.

“Those are too flat, she tends to wear larger heels than those, she likes being taller”

“I see, then what do you suggest a three inch heel? Four even?”

“Four will do”

Doug said knowing Lori would hardly ever go out in anything less than four and he smiled inwardly as he saw her blonde head of hair rising closer to his own, now there was just three inches between them given the shoes on his model.

“So Doug what size do you desire to be?”

Boy that was the question Doug had been anticipating for a long while and he wasn’t really sure of the answer himself, part of him wanted something dramatic yet he knew how losing too much in the way of inches would make his own life more difficult and he didn’t want to be too short that his job would be jeopardised.

“Um, I’m not entirely sure”

He admitted and Mandy took control of the situation.

“That’s ok Doug we can work on this together, that’s why they employ consultants like me to help define preferences, now take a look at the other Doug whilst I do this”

Slowly the holographic version of Doug deceased in height until he was exactly level with his wife as she wore her high heels.

“Now that’s around three inches, your wife is five foot ten in her heels and you are five ten in those shoes making you more or less eye to eye with each other”

The image of them both was interesting for Doug and he walked around the models as they were positioned only inches apart staring blankly face to face. His own body with four less inches didn’t seem that short at all.

“How is that?”

“It’s good but not....”

“Not enough?”

Mandy ended his sentence and then continued.

“Would you like to see what it would look like if you were a couple of inches shorter than her stood in those heels?”

“Yes of course”

Doug nearly forgot himself and sounded a little too eager to see the effect of his other self once more being reduced. He could swear that Mandy grinned but what did he care, she probably saw all types in this job.

“Try this one out, I am reducing Doug number two here by another three inches to five foot six, that’s your wife’s actual height making you both even or if you look at it another way you are giving her the advantage of whatever sized high heels she is wearing over you ”

The visual effect was compelling for Doug as he could now see his other self looking across at a much taller Lori who in her heels was three inches superior and probably able to look clean over his head. He couldn’t help but find the scene arousing and had spent far too long staring at the virtual couple before Mandy snapped him out of it.

“Mr Quaid, Doug? Is this new height more to your liking?”

“Yes, well she is taller, at least a few inches”

“Artificially taller”

Mandy corrected and Doug looked back at her.

“It’s just the difference her heels make, if you chose this height you would be equal in stature but she wouldn’t actually be taller than you in a real sense”

This made Doug ponder he was looking at the result of six inches decrease in his own height and giving up these valuable inches only made him on a par with Lori but not shorter unless she wore heels.

“Half a foot Doug and then you are as tall as your wife but if you desire to see her taller you need to go down a few more inches still.”

Mandy’s words struck him hard as he wasn’t contemplating such a drastic reduction in height yet the thought of actually knowing that he could walk out of this building and be forced to look up into his wife’s eyes when she was in bare feet was sexually stimulating. Lori would be taller than him for real and that would be the best turn on for them both.

“Can you show me what five foot three would look like?”

“No problem, here you are at five foot three inches tall.”

The image of Doug reduced again and now the difference was considerable, he could actually observe Lori and his own body from a third party view and it was striking.

“She’s so much taller than me”

He blabbed out loud and noticed that if he was to become that short his eye line would be level with the base of her neck of course only when she wore those heels.

“She certainly would be Doug as five foot three is short for a man, a high percentage of women you would find looking you in the eye or looking down on you if you chose this stature”

It was a lot to take in and on one hand Doug could see the “wow” factor of seeing Lori from that height but on the other hand Mandy was right and he would be officially viewed as short.

“Nine inches”

Doug mumbled to himself as he contemplated his decision walking around the two virtual figures.

“Perhaps you would like to see what you would look like even shorter?”

Mandy poised her hands ready to adjust the visual but Doug connected back to the moment and pulled his eyes away from the scene to look back at her.

“No, I think nine inches is more than enough although I can’t quite get my head around what it would be like to be so short”

“As a tall man you will find adjusting to such a height a little challenging at first Doug but once you accept it and adapt it will begin to feel normal to you, believe me because I have been there”

“Your size was reduced? You look quite tall?”

“I am tall, in my current shoes I would measure five foot nine and these are practically flat, my first treatment before my obesity reformation treatment was to increase my height from my normal five foot one to add eight inches, I thought it would make me carry the weight off better”

“You were five foot one? I couldn’t tell?”

“Of course you couldn’t because I look natural at this size and I am used to it, as you may have been told there are limitations to increasing the height of a subject to sustain it. I added six inches which is permanent but the other two and a bit I add on a weekly basis it’s a staff privilege to get free sessions and if I ever leave then I would revert to five foot seven inches and stay like that until the challenges of the technology are eventually met.”

Mandy smiled as she explained and Doug thought she looked like a tall woman and had no idea she had been altered it was the perfect illusion.

“So you see I have adapted, I used to bump my head on a few things at first and over reach for things but your brain soon learns to cope.”

“Ok, I’ll do it”

Doug was told to stand on the platform along with his small case of clothes nothing was around him to use as a measure until a holographic projection of a measurement pole materialised to his side. As the platforms holo projectors fired up the images of his duplicate self and Lori disappeared.

“Keep still Doug whilst I enter your desired parameters”

“Will it hurt? Will I feel it? Shouldn’t I be wearing shades or something?”

He fired off a round of questions in his last minute panic but Mandy gave a small chuckle.

“No Doug, you won’t feel a thing except the slightest tingle running the course of your body and a warm sensation from your toes rising to you head. There is no flash of light so shades are only needed if you want to look cool”

Just as she said that, the sensations struck him and it was actually pleasant and almost refreshing. Slowly Doug watched the inches indicated along the measuring pole move or rather he was beginning to dwindle in height watching five foot eight rise over him and then five foot six, this was the magic marker for his wife’s height and now the notch of the six was rising.

It had taken mere seconds and Doug looked up at the six foot mark above, it seemed high but he felt no different almost as if he had remained the same and the whole process was a trick, his mind doubted that it had actually taken place. Perhaps they rescaled the pole just to fool me, he thought and couldn’t help but remain sceptical.

“Did it actually work? Am I five foot three inches tall now? I don’t feel any different?”

“It worked Doug and in those shoes you are precisely five foot three and just a smidge under four given the heel”

Stepping down from the platform he looked himself up and down and noticed nothing unusual, surely he would have felt shorter yet his legs looked totally in proportion? But then they should do?

“Are you sure this thing worked I can’t even tell”