True to her word, Betty showed up a half-hour later. She was amazed to see a half size Susan.

"Wow! She really did curse you. Care to tell me, exactly what happened?"

Susan then told Betty everything that happened that evening.

"What I'm I going to do?" Susan wailed.

'Try to cope and plan for your shrinking."

"How does one plan to be shrunk?"

"What I mean is, we can calculate your future height. Your height will be cut in half each night right."

"Unfortunately. Right."

"That's means that you'll shrink to one quarter of original height tomorrow night. And half of that the night after that. Do you have paper and a calculator lying around somewhere? I want to work out a time table for your shrinkage."

"In the desk by my bed. I'm not sure I want to know."

"We'll I do. It’s clear to me that I'll end up taking care of you. And want to be as prepared as possible."

"Take care of me? I'm not helpless."

"Yet! Will you be able to say that when your doll sized? Bug sized?"

Susan sprits sank. She didn't think of that."

"Sigh! Let’s do it."

They then produced the following table.

Date    height

May 5    1/2         3 feet

May 6    1/4         1.5 feet (18 inches)

May 7    1/8         nine inches

May 8    1/16       4.5 inches

May 9    1/32       2.25 inches

May 10 1/64        1.125 inches

May 11 1/128      0.5625 inches

May 12 1/256       0.28125 inches

May 13  1/512        0.14 inches

May 14  1/1024 0.07 inches

"Think that’s small enough. I can't imagine myself shrinking to less than a tenth of an inch tall."

"I’m just trying to figure out the worst case scenario. Hopefully you won't shrink to a fraction of an inch tall."

"I hope so to." But deep down Susan had a feeling she would get that small.

"Were going to have to decide if you're going to move in with me or I'm going to move in to your apartment."

"Don't you have a cat?"

"Shoot! I forgot about Fluffy. Guess that rules out my apartment."

"I don't want to leave my apartment."

"Fine. Guess, I'll move in. If you get as tiny as I fear. You're going to need a full size person around."

At first when Susan woke up, she thought that the events of the night before were a nightmare. But she soon realized she realized she really was shrunk. Then she realized that she was supposed to go to work that morning.

"What on earth I'm I going to tell my boss?" She cried. In then end she decided to call in sick.

"You chose now to get sick?" her boss, a Mr. Simpson asked for the phone.

"I didn't plan this believe me."

"I admit you don't quite sound yourself. And lying about being sick isn't like you. Take it easy and come back to work as soon as you're back to normal."

"Will do Mr. Simpson." Susan wondered what he would think if he realized she had shrunk but she dared not tell him.

"Now What?" Susan wondered.  Betty was busy arranging time off work and arranging for someone to take care of her cat. It would be evening before she could move in the apartment.

Susan then decided to surf the net. She figured that in a few days she'll be too small to operate the computer on her own, so she decided to take advantage of her relatively large size.

She did a search on shrunken women and shrinking and was surprised at what she found. There were all kinds of sites featuring shrunken women, called SW for short. Susan quickly discovered that giantesses and shrunken men were also common. She decided to consternate on the SW sites, looking for practical advice on how to cope with being small.

Susan soon realized that the stuff posted on the web was pure fantasy, although some of the stories looked interesting. Then she discovered the message boards. She decided to risk making a post.  Calling herself 'Shrinking girl', Susan briefly told them what happened to her and asked for advise for what to do next.

It was suppertime when Betty returned. And she came bearing gifts. There were bags of doll clothes and other stuff. And Betty had brought a fancy dollhouse with her.

"I'm not that small yet." Susan complained.

"But you will be. Tell me what did you do all day?"

"Well after I called in sick and went on the net. To my surprise there was all kinds of shrunken women sites out there."

"Really? Were they of any help?"

"Not so far.  I did leave a message at a shrunken woman message board. Hopefully I'll get an answer."

"Interesting, you're going to have to show me some of these sites after supper."

There was something in Betty's tone that Susan didn't like.

After supper they went on line together. Time passed, the sun set and a chill came over Susan.

"It's happening again." Susan cried.

Betty watched as Susan shrank getting smaller and smaller until she was only 18 inches tall.

Susan was dismayed how large everything looked. Even the chair she was sitting on seamed dangerously high off the ground. Seeing her friend as a 23-foot giantess didn't reassure her.

"Need help getting off the chair?" Betty asked.

"No thank you. I can manage." Susan replied.

Manage she did, although it was a big drop to her. Standing on the floor, she could barely see over the top of the seat of the chair.

Sighing, she decided to use the washroom. To her dismay the doorknob for the bathroom door was now over her head.

"Darn it, I could reach this just a few minutes ago."

"Need some help?" Betty asked. Before Susan could answer she opened the door.

"I can answer the call of nature without your help."

"Oh really! Think you can use the toilet by yourself? What about the sink?"

"It's high, but I think I can manage."

"Maybe you can, but what about tomorrow night when you only half your current height?" Betty asked.

"I'll use ladders." Susan replied. "I’ll have ladders in the bathroom. I’ll have ladders in the kitchen, ladders everywhere."

"Ok! But you’re a bit small to use a normal sized ladder. Think you can build one on your own?"

Susan shook her head.

To be continued