Chapter Four

By

Invisible ink

Samantha and I tried to climb out of the bowl ourselves however; the sides of the bowl were so smooth we couldn’t get a grip on anything that would allow us to pull ourselves out.  This only caused Katherine to laugh harder at our plight. In fact as we struggled to free ourselves I saw her Iphone hover over head. The loud identifiable click of a photo being taken was all I needed to fuel the burning rage inside of me. Katherine clearly did not see the seriousness of the issue. We are shrunk and yet here she is playing around.

“Hahaha, this picture is classic. Just wait till the girls get a load of this.” Katherine exclaimed as she sat up setting the bowl down on the coffee table and standing up to her full height. Samantha and I could only look on as she typed in a text message to her phone before the sounds of Katherine plodding up the stairs echoed throughout the room.

The once cool milk had already begun to turn warm as we stood in silence waiting for Katherine to return. Neither of us needed to vocalize what the other was thinking, that Katherine’s intent might not be to change us back.  She has been going through a rebellious, I am an independent person phase that according to my mother in law, all teens go through. However, most teens don’t find their parents shrunk while going through it.  

Time seemed to stand still as we stood in the milk struggling to keep our heads above it. We had to stand on our tiptoes which meant our full weight was on our toes just to keep our head above the milk.  As time continued to tick by we grew more and more tired. Our muscles had begun to cramp and give in.  I couldn’t believe my little girl was doing this. We raised her better than this.  I kept running through my head where we could have gone wrong.

“We were good parents right Samantha?” I asked finally breaking the somber silence that had overcame us as we continued to struggle for survival in our daughter’s cereal bowl.  I desperately wanted her to say yes, or be able to pinpoint the exact spot we must have gone wrong in our parenting. My conscious desperately wanted that comfort that we weren’t at fault for any this. That relief would be so freeing and yet it never came.

“We did our best Greg, that’s all anyone can ask of us. We can only hope that she remembers the morals and values we taught her and that when she returns she realizes the mistakes she has made.” Samantha says while wading towards me to give me the hug I desperately needed.

The seismic tremors of Katherine coming down the stairs immediately alerted us. A sense of relief overcame me as I knew for better or worse I was about to find out which way this was all going to turn out.  Unlike before, when Katherine exploded down the stairs she was walking more gingerly this time. It was as if she was trying to be quiet or sneak up on us. However, because of her size in comparison to ours made the idea of sneaking up on us is preposterous. This would be like dropping an elephant in the forest and expecting it sneak up on you at camp. You would hear the trees being knocked down, and the loud thuds of elephant no matter how much it tried to be quiet. This was much the same way with Katherine.

As Katherine approached it was a surreal moment.  The constant tremors made ripples roll across the milky pool. As the waves of milk washed over us we couldn’t help but swallow the now disgustingly warm milk along with a few clumps of soggy cheerio that had broken away. This caused us to cough in an attempt to spit out the milk but the coughing threw off our balance so we dipped beneath the milky surface.

The milk poured down my throat as I flailed my limbs in the milk desperately seeking help. My lungs begun to burn from the lack of air as I tried to repel the milk from my mouth. I somehow managed to poke my head above the milk. As soon as my head went above the surface I spat out as much of the milk as I could before reluctantly swallowing the rest.  I gasped for air as I felt Samantha’s arms wrap around me.  Once her arms were around me she pushed herself off the bottom of the bowl and sent us into back float.  I kept spitting up milk as Samantha held onto me as we floated in the vast cereal bowl.

“I’m okay, thanks Sam.” I never had been a great swimmer or enjoyed water. So this was sheer torture to me. I had spent the better part of my life avoiding water. I wasn’t a strong swimmer but I had taken basic swimming lessons as a boy. However, that is what feels like another lifetime ago.

Samantha and I both watched the top of Katherine’s head bob above the rim of the bowl. The first thing we could see was her layered blonde hair with streaks of black and blue. The blue is reminiscent to the coloring of a blue raspberry icy.  As more of her started to come into view into view we both turned our heads as soon as we realized that she completely topless.

“Don’t be so shy now, you both ruled over my life with an iron fist for years. I never had a moment of privacy why give me any now?” Katherine snidely stated. 

As she sat down on the sofa we could hear the compressing of the cushion.  Katherine’s shadow soon overtook the bowl which had trapped us.  She blew her warm morning breath over us. Our noses crinkled as the air around us took on smell of her breath.

“Look at me when I talk to you” Katherine bellowed in an authoritative tone.  The difference in our sizes has caused her voice to take on a much deeper tone.  As she spoke her words dictated an ascendancy in which it never had before.   We looked on as her eyes bore down on us with a controlling glare which caused our spines to dither in murky milky waters.

“Katherine, put a shirt on” Samantha called out uncomfortable with the sight of her daughter running topless around the house.

“Whatcha ya gonna do if I don’t? Spank me? Ground me? I don’t think so. You like can’t even get out of my frickin’ cereal bowl. You ain’t doin’ shit to me; in fact you ain’t doin’ shit period unless I say so.”

Katherine’s hand was around us in an instant. There was no sign or warning of it coming.  It was just beside her and then all the sudden it was around us; as terrified and angry as I was at that moment I couldn’t help but be amazed at the same time. Katherine appeared almost to be another being in comparison to us now.

As quickly as Katherine’s hands were around us and we were being lifted upwards from the bowl, were dropping through the air just as quick.  A synthetic material was all around me. It felt kind of like hammock almost. As I looked from left to right at the black plane in which I was on I noticed that the floor was perfectly smooth and flawless in design.  I can hear Samantha nearby, however I cannot see her.

“You know? I guess you are parents and I should respect your wishes. So I guess I will put something on.” I felt relieved as I figured Katherine had seen the light of day.  Mere seconds after I had finished that thought everything lurched upwards. I had just made it to my feet when I was sent tumbling back down onto my back. A moment later the entire world started to tilt. I felt myself slide a bit as I reached my hands out to slow my descent.  As I looked forward my eyes bugged out as the chest of my daughter drew in closer and closer.

The nipple of my daughter’s breast smashed against my chest knocking the air out me and my eyes to bug out. I could feel my body contort and wrap around her breast. I sunk into her skin, as her nipple dug deeper and deeper into me as if it were a knife.  I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it sooner. She had dropped us into her sports bra.  The clasp of her locking the sports bra into place was deadening. I found myself unable to move a muscle as her sports bra treated me as if I was just a part of my daughter’s breast.

I tried to yell over to Samantha to see if she was okay but my voice was completely muffled by my daughter’s breast. As Katherine stood up I could feel how her weight shifted and contracted in the sports bra which tightly held against her. This was something I couldn’t fathom. As Katherine stood up, for the first time I found myself wanting to cry. It was all I could do to hold back tears as I felt myself jostle slightly as she moved about the house, fearful for what more she had in store for us, while wondering how this could possibly get any worse.