The girl next door

St. Louis, Chesterfield suburb

How had it come to this? The heat was palpable, almost unbearable, but thankfully, the sticky wrappings around his torso and limbs had finally been loosened and he had retained some freedom of movement. For all the good that did him. He was still confined in the dank and dark recesses, the motion below and all around him of undulation and the occasional constriction. It was impossible to find footing, for the ‘ground’ itself moved and arched. And the pool of acrid sludge which bit as his ankles and began to burn up his thighs continued to worsen his plight. It prevailed upon him that he was being extinguished.

The sound of her heart murmurs was a constant and seemed to be increasing in speed due to the girl’s excitement. There was a steady ‘bahwrum’ as the muscle enclosing him hummed like an engine. Lastly were the occasional squelching sounds from one side or another from what he realized were ducts releasing acids into growing pool which surrounded him. From all around, he heard…laughter. It struck him to the very core of his being, even worse than his current physical ailments. What a fool he had been. To ease his own suffering, his mind played back the events which had led him to this point.

It was more than two years ago when he had…

--

…first come to live in the subsidized housing complex. It was spring and the still-young man, good-looking and fit at the age of thirty-one, had been downsized from his job as an engineer at a corporate company. Brett Jameson had needed a break from the helter-skelter of constant deadlines before rejoining his field. A bit of a fitness freak, his sports hobbies and workout regimen were some of the things which allowed him to retain his sanity. Though he had plenty of money in the bank to last him several years, the break was intended to last a year or year-and-a-half, and yet his lack of employment had allowed him to successfully apply for the cheaper housing. He didn’t need a fancy place, just something to tide him by for awhile so that he could mentally recuperate as well as visit family – his father and brother also living in the suburb, and only a handful of blocks away to the west. So he took a two-bedroom apartment on the second floor in one of the buildings overlooking the center of the complex. He was a bit of a people watcher and the central location served these purposes well.

Just a little ways (several hundred yards) to the east, across a field which separated it from the complex, was the high school. Thinking nothing of it at the time, it would have important consequences for him over the next two years and four months.

With the advent of shrinking technology in the previous decade, huge changes had quickly evolved within society. Although research was originally funded to pioneer technological advancement in the fields of storage and conservation, within two years the suggestion had been made that it could also be utilized to remove the less desirable people from society by the act of simply swallowing them, thus allowing mankind to strive towards a Utopian model. The initial popularity of the idea within central Europe quickly expanded and successful trial experiences by three local governments, one each within England, France and Germany. The United States and Russia quickly followed suit and soon, there was broad appeal to the rest of the world. LUMP (Legal Ultra Miniaturization Penalization ) Foods had been created as a multinational umbrella corporation not long after the shrinking technology had become viable to provide this service.

‘Lumps’ (Legally Ultra Miniaturized Persons), were initially the shrunken versions of irredeemable and unfortunate persons in society who typically had committed a severe crime or were repeat offenders of less severe crimes and thus, the judicial system acted as the source of persons to be shrunken into foodstuffs, but with the popularity of the service, the shrinking had expanded in recent years to those deemed as ‘underachievers’ - persons deemed as too lazy, too violent, lacking intelligence, etc. This had created the need for more plants to open across the world and the creation of more local highly trained employees for each area. Over time, these employees were given more and more discretion to act on their own experiences and interactions within their communities and encouraged to investigate and root out underachievers, though all persons who were shrunk down were required to be documented and the reasons for why they were thus penalized. Many referred to the shrunken people as ‘lumps’ or ‘shrinkys’ and boxes of LUMPs could be found at special outlets or in select grocery store chains around the world, with boxes sized for 4, 8, 12, and even the ‘super-package’ of 24 lumps. Recently, the company had even begun partnering with select fast-food chains where boxes of LUMPs could even be purchased via drive-thru.

--

Brett had noticed the girl for the first time as he and the movers carried his items to his apartment. She was outside playing with her friends – he didn’t pay much mind to her, as she looking to be no older than fifteen or sixteen, but something about her caught his attention. She was cute, a tanned brunette with short hair, and seemed curious about him and the items he was having moved. And she didn’t show any trepidation making eye contact with him. He nodded at her and smiled, though her response was stoic.

--

Brett wasted no time in converting the second bedroom, the one with window and small balcony overlooking the center of the complex, into his office, setting up his computer monitor in front of the large window, with the small door to the balcony just to it’s side. This afforded him a bird’s eye view of the center of the area while he worked and played on his computer.

It wasn’t long before he realized the cute young girl who had stared so curiously and brashly at him when he moved in was living catty-corner to him (but on the first floor) with what he deemed to be her single mother. He never saw a male adult enter or leave the apartment or even around the two. But while there was an absence of an adult male presence, there was no shortage of female visitors. Most were the age of the girl and Brett often heard them playing outside during the late spring and summer months, running around, giggling and sometimes screaming, and having fun and enjoying each other’s company for the most part. And occasionally, some young boys were allowed or invited to join, though these all seemed to be of a younger age than the girl – no doubt children from within the apartment complex.

Though at times annoying, Brett enjoyed the sound of laughter and young ones playing – it reminded him of his own youth which was not too far in the past and his own memories, not all of which had entirely faded away. He noticed that the girl had a spunky personality. Once, she had spied him watching her and the others playing and had looked up and stuck her tongue out in bratty fashion, causing him to smile and laugh. He noted that she seemed to be a leader amongst the other girls and children and they took to her quite well, following her directives in the games they were playing.

He considered going out to play with them, in a paternal way. He liked to think that he had a ‘young mind’, that he could communicate with the younger crowd. But something always held him back.

--

As the late Summer turned into Fall and Fall into Winter, with the weather dipping, Brett saw less and less of the girl and her friends. Besides his running and weightlifting at the local gym, he took up his old hobbies of reading to occupy his time as well as spending more time with family over the holidays and meeting with old friends who had remained in town (all his best high school friends having long moved away to various parts of the country).

There was one memorable occurrence, one evening when he had returned from an errand and was entering into the enclosed stairwell, rounding the corner when she also turned the corner from within, accompanied by one of her friends. What they were doing in his stairwell, he did not know. She ran, hurtling around the corner and right into him, her face bumping into his chest. She seemed surprised and embarrassed as she looked up into his face, the light from the stairwell illuminating her cute cherubic face.

For a couple moments, time stood still. He was unsure how to react and she just stood there. Then, in an instant, she and her friend bolted away and towards her home, half-giggling and half-screaming. He stood there, frozen and stunned, his gaze observing the retreat of the two girls. As her friend got to their door first and entered, the girl took a moment to look back at him. Making eye contact, she winked, then with a loud giggle, closed the door behind her.

***