It was after breakfast that someone was knocking on the door. Beth was still in her room and Marie was in the shower. Arthur wondered what to do.

He neared the living room window and looked outside. Though he couldn’t see who was there, he did recognize the car parked outside. It was Shawna’s.

“Just a second” he shouted hoping that it was loud enough to hear.

Arthur quickly pushed a chair to the front door, having to really struggle to make it move. Eventually, it was in place and he climbed on top of it.
His tiny hands managed to turn the lock and then to twist the large door handle.

Looking outside, he first saw a pant leg, then higher up, a belt buckle. He had to really crane his head to see Shawna’s face.

“Good morning” she said to him.

“Just a second” he said, climbing down from the chair and then pushing it out of the way. The door then opened and in stepped Shawna.

She looked at him strangely for a moment, as if shaking herself awake. Itwas obvious that his size had taken her off guard. This was no longer something she could smirk at.

“Oh my goodness” she said quietly, “You truly are a tiny little man”

Instantly, her hand rose to cover her mouth, as if suddenly realizing that what she had said was out loud.

“Sorry, Mr. Spence”

“It’s okay” he replied. “I’m getting used to it”

“How have you been?”

Arthur shrugged. “As good as can be expected” he said.

Shawna glanced to the doorway then back to the little man before her.

“I notice you’re not trying to escape any longer”

He shook his head.

“What’s the point? They’d just catch me. Anyone could. A little kid could probably even do it”

She nodded down to him. “I supposed you’re right”

Shawna crouched down to a kneeling position.

“And your health?”

“It’s fine” he said.

“Good”

The two of them stared at one another for a second.

“Well, I’m going to be checking up on you here at the house now that you’re no longer going to campus”

He nodded. “How often?”

“Every day or two”

She fumbled inside her pockets. Arthur couldn’t help but stare at her massive, nylon covered legs. Shawna was a tall woman no matter who you were.

“I wanted to give you this”

Arthur watched her huge hand deposit a small pager into his tiny grasp.

“You can contact me through this if there’s ever a big problem”

Arthur nodded. “How does it work?”

“Just press the button. I’ll get the alert immediately and try and be here as soon as I can”

She looked into his eyes once more.

“Anything I can do for you now while I’m here?”

Arthur thought about this for a second. Secretly, he didn’t want her to leave. His encounter with Marie the night before had left him in a state of arousal. Everywhere he seemed to turn, there were giant women, more
than twice his height.

He looked up from her legs to her compassionate face. Despite her bizarre, sometimes cruel behavior at the college, he suspected that deep down, Shawna cared about his welfare.

“I think I’m okay” he said up to her.

Shawna rose to her full height, completely dwarfing Arthur, who presently stood just taller than her knees. She stood there for a moment. This was
where she would have normally said something, a joke perhaps, referring to his tiny size. But looking down at this once robust college professor, no longer brought a smile to her face.

“Okay, Mr. Spence. I’ll see you soon”

With that, she left. He stared after her, peeking through the window, wondering how soon, if ever, he would need to contact her.

Arthur turned to see Beth staring at him from across the room. She was in her jogging attire, a sweat jacket and spandex pants that came only to her knees.

As soon as he saw her, she broke her stare and moved to get her shoes.

“Beth, please… Can we talk?”

Beth slid her shoes onto her big bare feet and stared towards the door.

“Beth, please!”, Arthur continued, suddenly lunging at one of her legs and grabbing hold of her bare calf.

Beth stopped and looked down at him from her huge height, then kept walking. Arthur tightened his grip and struggled to hold on. One step and then two, his belly sliding across the floor before she stopped.

“Let go of me, Arthur”

He let go of her. He stood to his feet, feeling the pain in his neck as he tilted his head upwards, struggling to see her face, high in the air.

She had never called him Arthur before.

“Don’t you mean…Mr. Spence?”

He waited for a smile, but there wasn’t one. Instead, this towering young woman continued to regard him as if he meant very little to her.

“No, I’ve decided to start calling you Arthur. That is your name, isn’t it?”

He nodded up to her.

“Good. Calling you Mr. Spence doesn’t seem appropriate anymore. After all, you’re not my college professor anymore, now are you?”

“I’m not?” he asked upwards, fearing where this was heading.

“No, you’re too small to teach anyone anything. And even if you tried, who would listen to such a tiny little man?”

This wasn’t going well, Arthur thought to himself. She’s really mad.

“I’m sorry” he said up to her. “I’m sorry if what I did upset you. Really”

Beth continued to look down at him, thinking.

“I think that the problem is that I’ve been too tolerant with you” she said.

Arthur wondered what she meant. Too tolerant? She hadn’t been tolerant at all. Besides what did she have to be tolerant of? HE was the one whose size had dwindled to that of a pet chiwawa.

“And I think that if you want to convince me that you’re really sorry that you need to convince me”

“Yes. Yes. Just say it and I’ll do it” He didn’t mind that she was calling him Arthur. He only wanted her to like him again. Being disliked by Beth, a woman whose size was almost incomprehensible next to his own, was not something he wanted.

Beth continued to stare down at him, wondering how she might have him prove his innocence to her.

She looked down the hallway, around the kitchen, then to the front door.

“My shoes” she said.

Arthur looked to where she was looking....to three pairs of shoes, all running shoes and all far from new.

“Your shoes?”

“There’s gum on the bottom of my old sneakers” she said. “And road film and all sorts of garbage. I want them cleaned”

Arthur didn’t think she was serious. He forced a laugh.

“Beth, I know you’re mad, but this isn’t…. I’m not your maid”

Arthur stared up at this colossal girl, instantly wondering if he should have said that or not.

“No, you’re not my maid, you’re my pet man”

”That’s not funny, Beth”

Beth slowly folded her arms over her chest.

“I wasn’t trying to be funny”

* *

Arthur spent the better part of the next hour cleaning the bottom of her shoes.

Beth had left over a half an hour earlier to go for a run, but had stayed to watch his progress for a few minutes first. She had sat nearby and read the paper, occasionally glancing over top of it, to check on his progress.
Occasionally she had offered suggestions, as to how he might clean them better.

Arthur just nodded to Beth, disliking the task set out before him, but knowing that he had little choice in the matter.

The shoe, which rest on his lap at this point, was enormous. At one point, struggling to clean the gum off the sole, he noted that if it were stood next to him, it rose almost to his waist in height. Naturally, this did little to lift his spirits.

Just the same, it didn’t smell too bad. It was a shoe she hadn’t worn in some time, so, though he could detect their aroma, it was offensive or anything. By the time he started on the second shoe, his back had started to ache from having to lift her shoe and reposition it in order to clean
it properly.

On the bottom of one ragged shoe, stuck in the grove of the sole, was part of a crushed grasshopper. Arthur couldn’t help but wonder if that’s how he’d end up, crushed on the bottom of a running shoe. Unnoticed.

He quickened his efforts. He was going to perform this task well. He would do such a good job that Beth would see how he had struggled and immediately feel badly about having asked him to perform such a nasty chore.

So, after almost forty-five minutes, a sore back and two pair of very clean shoes, Arthur felt good about what he’d done. He’d performed the task well and would certainly make her feel guilty about what she had asked of him.

Imagine…a college professor cleaning shoes. He laughed to himself, wondering what this must look like!

When Beth arrived home from her run, she wasn’t quite as pleased as he had hoped.

“All done, are you?” she asked, walking past him with barely a downward glance.

“Yes. All done” he said happily.

Beth sat down on the couch and stretched out her long, mostly bare legs. There was a slight shine to her as she’d run long enough to really sweat.

“Bring one of them over to me” she said, without moving a muscle.

Arthur hadn’t expected this, but decided to oblige. He bent down and started to push the shoe across the floor.

Beth started to laugh.

“You expect me to believe that you can’t even pick up one of my shoes?”

“I can” he said, “It’s just that they’re a bit heavy”

She laughed again.

“Suuurrreee they are”

Arthur stopped and glared at Beth. This new attitude of hers was really beginning to annoy him.

He bent down and lifted the shoe, stopping to bend down and pick up the second one too. It was awkward, but he managed to do it.

Beth laughed at the sight of this tiny man struggling to carry her old running shoes.

“Now let’s see them”

He expected her to lean forward and to take them, but no, she wanted him to show them to her.

So he did. He put one of them down and rotated the other at her feet, turning so she could see the top, sides and bottom.

“Good job, little guy” she said. “You’re off to a good start”

“Good…start?”

Beth laughed. Not the innocent laugh he’d grown accustomed to, but a devious, self serving laugh.

Arthur gawked at Beth as she started to peel off her left shoe with herright foot. She pried it off and then thud, it hit the floor. Then, with her now bare right foot, she pried off the other.

Thud. It landed beside the other.

“Now does these ones too” she said, smiling down at him and stretching out her bare, sweaty feet, flexing her toes into the fresh air.