Even though my strength was insignificantly small, I still resolved to take daily exercises. It wouldn’t do to just lie around all day and let Emily do everything for me. She might not always be around to protect me, and if an insect or spider chose to attack me then I have to at least try to defend myself. As it was, I was busy doing push-ups on the living room floor when Emily returned. She was carrying several bags of groceries, just like the first time I laid eyes on her. Setting these down on the table, she came towards me and lay down on the couch next to me. With her arm she reached down and brought me up seventy feet to her level.

“Gosh, I’m tired,” she said. “Two exams in a row, followed by five hours of studying…you don’t know how lucky you are, living the easy life, while I do all the work!”

“Oh, come on! You know I’d love to write your exams for you, but I’m afraid I’m to small to even lift the pen.”

She smiled her gorgeous smile. No matter how bad things were getting, I always seemed to cheer her up, or so it seemed to me.

“Okay, I get the idea!” she said, giving me a poke. “Then I guess you won’t mind rubbing my feet for me while I relax? I know you just can’t resist my lovely feet, and besides, you need the exercise.”

“Actually I’ve just finished exercising, so I think I deserve to relax as well.”

“Hah! Yeah, right! Don’t even try and talk yourself out of it! Feet, now!”

She kicked of her shoes and wiggled her feet. On another day I might have gone on arguing, but, to be honest, I was too tired, and rubbing her feet might actually help me relax. I started walking along her body, treading lightly across the surface of her leather jacket. I kept walking when I reached her short skirt, pausing now and then to admire her contours. She was wearing nylon stockings, and when I climbed over her knee I had to crawl on all fours to keep my balance on her leg. Eventually I reached her left foot, and spent a blissful half an hour rubbing myself against it. After I finished Emily decide to give me a little break. She fetched me some water, then went to the open window and gazed out at the street below.

“I’ve never seen snow so early in the year before,” she said. “Must have something to do with the changing climate, I guess.”

“Can I take a look?” I asked. Because there was a risk that someone else might find out about me, Emily kept me safely away from the outside world, and my glimpses of it were rare. This time, however, I was eager to see, even if it meant a few seconds in the cold.

“Sure!” she answered. “I’ll just hold you tightly, so you don’t freeze to death. We’re seriously going to have to find you some clothes, Alex. I guess I’ll just have to make some for you, it’ll be a lot easier than looking for doll’s clothes that might fit.”

“That sounds great, thanks, Emily. Not that I mind being naked around you, of course.”

“Of course.” She placed her hand next to me and I hopped in. Then she curled fingers carefully around me and took me to the window. Instantly I felt the cold hit me. I instinctively covered my groin with one hand; the cold feeling was greater there than anywhere else. I carefully poked my head between her fingers, and the sight was breathtaking. It was, of course, just an ordinary city street, unusually quiet, with a thin blanket of snow. But everything was thirty-six times bigger to me, and it felt like gazing out onto a vast canyon, with towering, cliff-like walls. The ground was so far below me that I felt my stomach contract. For a moment I forgot about the cold and was mesmerised by the view. And that’s when it happened.

From out of the blue a powerful gust of wind hit me. One moment I was lying in Emily’s hand, the next I was hurtling through the air. The apartment building whizzed past me at a great speed, and I seemed to be constantly on the verge of getting slammed against the wall. It was too much for me to handle. The last thing I heard was Emily’s agonised scream, as she stood powerless to stop me. She should have held me tighter, was the last thing I thought before blacking out. At that moment, I felt certain I was going to die, and it felt awful.

Naturally, when I awoke, I immediately thought I was dead. Scenes from my life whirled in front of my eyes, and once more I heard her scream in my mind. I tried to picture how her face might have looked, and found that I couldn’t do it. She was gone, the only person who ever loved me was gone, and now it’s just me who’s left. Me…and the cold. Why was it so cold, so cold that it burned my skin and chilled me to my bones? And why could I still feel pain, why was my entire body hurting? My head felt like it had been stabbed by a knife. With great effort I opened my eyes, and saw the grey and white landscape around me. And I knew where I was. Or, at least, in what kind of place I was.

Around me, in all directions, stretched an unending surface of asphalt. Here and there patches of snow were visible, and it was in one of these in which I had landed. My arms, legs and torso were bleeding, but otherwise I seemed all right. In fact, I was extremely lucky to survive. In the far distance I saw monstrous trees reaching up to the sky, and to my right the massive walls of a house loomed. I was in someone’s driveway. It might be next door to Emily’s place, or it might be miles away: who knew how far I’d been carried, like a dead leaf, by the wind?

Wherever I was, I couldn’t stay there. I had to get back to Emily somehow. However, in this extreme cold, I wouldn’t get very far, and I didn’t even know which way to go. The only option was to go to the house and get some help. But that would mean exposing myself. Who knows, perhaps the people living there might not want to help me. Perhaps I might not even be able to get their attention. Perhaps… It was hopeless, I thought. I sat down on the hard asphalt and began to feel sorry for myself. If Emily could see me now, she’d probably be ashamed of me, but I didn’t know what else to do.

I was still sitting there, sulking, when I heard a loud noise approaching me. Another second later an enormous car came round a bend in the driveway, heading straight towards me. I leapt to my feet and ran away as fast as I could, before slipping on a patch of ice and falling down. In that instant a massive tire rolled past me, crushing the place where I’d been a few seconds earlier. The noise was deafening. I managed to stand up, and looked up in awe at the gigantic vehicle before me. The engine died down and, before I had a chance to run away again, the driver’s-side door opened and a woman stepped out.

She was wearing black high-heeled boots, a black knee-length skirt, and a red coat. That was all I could take in at the moment, as her fifteen-foot stiletto heel crashed down next to me. I was so scared that I pissed on the ground. From way down here I could barely see her face, but I saw that she had long blond hair. As she fumbled with her purse she accidentally dropped her car keys. They nearly landed on top of me, frightening me out of my wits. And when she bent down to retrieve them, her eyes happened to fall on me.

I was off in a millisecond, running as fast as possible. I didn’t know why, but for some reason I didn’t want her to find me. Of course I didn’t get very far. She merely bent down a little more and grabbed me without any effort. I think I screamed, both in pain and in fear, as the ground retreated beneath me. She was wearing leather gloves, which felt cold against my pitifully exposed body. Without saying a word she held me before her face, dangling upside-down from my legs. I saw her cold blue eyes observing me, saw her vivid red lips parting in surprise. She was, I thought, extremely beautiful, but that didn’t comfort me at all.