Jake couldn’t believe he was alive. It was dead silent and blazing hot under his mother’s foot, and he couldn’t see a thing. It felt as though his entire body was one giant bruise, and he couldn’t have moved, even if he could. Above him, the sole of Joanna’s foot left him and his siblings indefinitely trapped, forced to inhale the smell of the dingy floor rug, the smell of sweat, and a hint of body lotion. Though he couldn’t see much from his pinned position under foot, he could, however, see farther ahead, where the artificial light of the bathroom pierced the cavernous wilderness at Joanna’s arch, which was more the depression of a cave in a mountain’s face.
“Jake, are you alright?” Allison called out weakly, fighting the urge to start crying again. “I have Danny with me…we’re okay…please answer us…” The two younger siblings were also under the foot of the goddess, closer towards her toes, yet still under the sole.
“Yeah, I’m alright…a little sore…” And rightly so, the soft, wrinkled sole above them was pushing them, threatening to increase the pressure just enough to cave in the bruised ribs of each of the children. While Danny and Jake were on their stomachs, Allison was unfortunate enough to have landed on her back, so that her face was planted deep into one of the fine lines that made up the foot prints of her mother’s sole. Each breath she took permeated her nose with the light musky scent of foot flesh, and the stale smell of lavender scented lotion. She opened her eyes briefly, but could see nothing but skin, thick enough to easily prevent the seventeen year old from budging. If she squinted, she could even begin to see the miniscule veins and arteries inside the foot itself, and possibly even hear the blood rushing through them.
Danny, the youngest and smallest, was given a lighter sentence, and while farthest from Jake, he was closest to the arch. This reprieve gave Jake more fresh oxygen than the others, and the most lighted view of the underside of Joanna’s oppressive foot. He’d considered climbing towards it, but was scared, unsure of what he would do should he escape anyhow. He wouldn’t give up though, there had to be something.
Just as these thoughts crossed his mind, there was yet another rumbling from somewhere in the distance. In fact, there were five distinct rumbling, and the children could feel the muscles deep inside their mother’s foot pulling and stretching beyond the skin. Joanna was wiggling her toes, unaware of her kids’ plight.
“Brace yourselves!” Jake screamed. It was like he anticipated what was next. The kids all shut their eyes tight, as light flooded back into their miniature world, as Joanna rocked the foot barely back onto its heel, her mammoth toes continuing to wiggle in delight at the plush surface below them now.
“Run!” It was Allison’s turn to shout commands to the ground, and she attempted to follow her own orders, by quickly getting herself to her feet, and grabbing Danny’s hand to pull along with her. Jake had attempted to stand as well, but was slower, feeling it would be pointless. As usual, Jake was right. The foot, easily the size of a football stadium in length, quickly began to descend again, slamming the children back to the floor harshly with its sole. The kids screamed in pain, Danny crying again, as the pressure was now much heavier than the first step.
No one would get even the slightest chance to recover, however, as the foot repeated the process, lifting quickly up into the air, sending a harsh draft of air underneath it, before slamming back into the carpet, crushing the fibers under it again, and nearly smearing the children into paste In Its many wrinkles.
Joanna was only tapping her slender, petite foot gently in the carpet, while she removed the hair pins from her shoulder-length, brown hair.
Her kids couldn’t take much more. Both of the older kids had bruised ribs, and Danny had carpet burns on nearly every part of his body. It didn’t last long though, as with one final tap, the foot that had kept the trio trapped underneath its sole finally relented, lifting into the air much higher before, and landed back on the linoleum with a resounding thud. They were free from their mother’s wrath, for now.
However, through this process, Joanna had given them a gift, each tap of her foot sending the tumbling and rolling further along in the rug, until they were now standing at its edge. They could see that their mother had stepped away though, and however badly it hurt, they had to get up. The sound of the shower turning on gave them hope to escape though, and they quickly sojourned out of the forest of rug.