Tess

Saturday morning and Tess sat on her bed, fiddling with her phone at a loss as to how to proceed in reacquiring Tom from Miss Addison. Should she just straight up confront her? Flopping back onto her bed, she looked at the device in her hands and decided to try the number for Harrison Kinsley’s office again.

Calling up the number from her phone log, she tapped the phone icon and brought the device down beside her right ear. There were a series of rings, followed by a pause, then two more rings before, “Harrison,” replied a rich male voice on the other end.

“Oh,” Tess blurted, momentarily surprised someone on the other end actually picked up.

“Hello?” said the male voice in an inquisitive fashion.

“Hi, you probably don’t remember me,” she started hesitantly, visualizing the older man. Although nearing sixty, he was still in remarkably good shape, his hair gone over to white and neatly groomed. What she remembered most were his piercing blue eyes.

There was a soft chuckle, “I recognize the voice, so either it’s the remarkably beautiful Ella, or the equally lovely young Teresa,” he said, using her mother’s nickname.

He did remember, she smiled, “Tess,” she answered.

“Gosh, I haven’t seen you in a coon’s age, you have to be what, fourteen, fifteen now?”

“Eighteen,” she replied.

“Wow, practically all grown up,” he mused, “Time and tide wait for no man, or woman.”

“Chaucer,” she said, recognizing the proverb.

“Very astute, which leads to the questions as to why you called,” he stated. “Why now?”

“Honestly, I’m just surprised I got through, especially on a Saturday, I wasn’t expecting anyone to answer. I tried earlier in the week but was told you were unavailable,” she explained.

“Did you let Carol know who you were, she would have transferred you directly through to me, I always have time for my goddaughter slash honorary granddaughter,” he informed warmly.

“No,” Tess responded sheepishly, feeling foolish.

“No worries, but for the moment, you’ve got me, so what can I do for you dear Tess?”

Tess cleared her throat, “I have been in communication with Grandfather and,”

“You’ve actually talked with Tom Sr. recently?” he interrupted, tone becoming more animated.

“No, not talked, exchanged a few emails, and he is the one that instructed me to contact you. He said to tell you the molecular de-stabilizer works and serves as a compression device reducing sub atomic gaps between the nucleus and electrons bands. He said you would know what that means,” she relayed.

There was silence from the other end, the pause long enough for her to check to make sure they had not been disconnected. “Mr. Kinsley?” she asked.

“Sorry,” he answered, “I’m just jotting some information down. I thought your grandfather abandoned all his projects when he suddenly retired. This is good news, though I must confess the method for delivery of the information is highly unusual,” he finished, a chuckle in his voice. “Unless,” he paused, it sounded almost like a gasp to her.

“What?” she asked.

“Do you have any idea what the device you mentioned does?” he inquired.

Now it was Tess’s turn to be silent a few moments before she hesitantly replied, “I have a pretty good idea what it does.”

“Tell me what you think,” he instructed.

“It makes things smaller, shrinks them down,” she answered directly.

“What things?” he asked.

“People,” she completed.

“God it makes so much sense now,” he conceded. “It all fits.”

Tess paused, unsure. “What?”

“I believe perhaps your grandfather may have become a victim of his own device and has been shrunk down and has only now been able to reach out through you to let me know he is in some kind of trouble,” he stated.

Tess shook her head, “Not grandfather, my brother,” she countered before digesting Harrison’s assertion.

“Little Tom?” he queried, using the ironic appellation they had used for Tom III when he was younger.

“Yes, he found the machine in the basement and somehow triggered it,” she provided.

“Tell me everything,” he urged.

While she explained the circumstances surrounding Tom’s accidental size reduction, including smuggling him back to school, she left out his escapades involving the host of females he had been intimate with.

“He is with you now?”

“No, we believe he is currently in the possession of one of the teachers here at the school, but we don’t know for sure,” she explained.

“Who is we?” Harrison inquired.

“Um, my roommate Samira and I,” she replied.

“How many others are aware of the situation?”

She made a mental tally, aside from her and Sam, there was Janine, Lina, and now Miss Addison. “Five of us in total, as far as I know.”

“And nothing has been leaked? Good I suppose,” he opined. “How’s he holding up?’

Frowning, she considered her response, “As well as can be expected so far,” she offered.

“That’s good, if my aged memory serves me correctly, Tom can be a bit of a rapscallion when he sets his mind to it,” he chuckled.

“He’s a real handful,” she started, grinning at her funny, “Of that you can be assured. I’m just not sure how to retrieve him from the teacher we think has him,” she finished.

There was a tapping at her door. “Miss Wentworth, are you in there?” came the voice of Miss Addison through the door.

“Is there anything I can do?” he offered.

“She’s at my door right now,” Tess whispered, “I’ll have to contact you later,” she said.

After a hasty parting, she disconnected the call and walked to the door and opened it. Miss Addison stood there, attired in her usual utilitarian fashion.

“May I come in?” asked the teacher, face an unreadable mask.

Tess nodded, hoping she wasn’t about to find out her brother was trapped in the older woman’s underpants, or worse yet, some tragedy had befallen him and he was hurt or killed. Swallowing hard, she stepped back to make room for the teacher to enter.