Sitting on his bed, his open hand extended over the carpeting, James gasped at how small his stepdaughter had shrunk his athletic shoes.  At one-sixth of an inch long, the blue and white sneakers could easily have been mistaken for a tiny piece of lint or a little speck of paper.  If he had not known the exact location on the floor, he probably would have never even given the shrunken shoes a second thought.

            “I agree with James,” Karen said, standing on the opposite side of the bed, in front of her dresser.  “Addie, you have been treating James as though he is not worthy of your respect.  I want you to start respecting him.  All right?”

            Her daughter snickered, crossing her arms.  “Jim makes it too hard to respect him, Mom.  He’s so pathetic.  I have to tell him to shut up — otherwise we’ll all die of boredom.”

            James, having difficulty picking up the miniaturized shoes, finally gathered them up, putting them into his shorts pocket.  He heard his wife then say, “James, are you going to stand for this?  Raising my daughter is not 100% my responsibility.  We are married, you know.”

            He looked over at the annoyed face of his wife, and then turned toward his stepdaughter.  Standing up, he said, “Adelaide, your mom told you, ‘Go back to your room,’ five minutes ago.  Now, go to your room.  Now.”

            His beautiful stepdaughter gave him a look of displeasure, her eyes narrowing.  “Ooh… are you big man, Jim?  Or are you a little man?  I’d have to say, you’re little.”

            “Go to your room, now!” James yelled, pointing toward the door.

            “Why don’t you make me?” Adelaide said, with a smirk, putting her hands on her shapely hips.  “Shrinking shoes is so easy for me.”

            “Adelaide, please,” Karen said. “Go now.  I want to talk with James alone.”

            “Whatever,” the teen answered, rolling her eyes.  She stepped out into the hall.

            James then realized that his heart rate had skyrocketed, his fists clenched.  His wife asked, “What did she mean by ‘shrinking shoes’?”

            “It doesn’t matter!” James snapped at his wife.  “She does not run this house!  I am not going to let someone still in high school run this house.”

            James’ body shuddered at the sound of his stepdaughter’s bedroom door slamming shut, the walls of the hallway vibrating for a couple seconds.  He sat back down on the bed as Karen closed their door.  She walked over to her husband, speaking emphatically, “I don’t even know why you two are fighting.”

            “She thinks she can manipulate me.  Besides… you told me to stand up for myself.”

            “I know…” Karen breathed.  “I’m sorry.”

            “It’s not your fault.”

            “Maybe… you should let me do all the fighting and arguing from now on.  I’m used to it.”

            James almost laughed and then touching his face, he responded, “I don’t know.”

            “Oh, I am so angry with her,” Karen said.  “Sure, she un-shrunk Ruff, which I thought she was never going to do.  But she still denies that she took my credit card.  I swear she has it hidden in her bedroom somewhere.”

            “Are you sure?”

            “I’m not making this up, James.  My credit card is gone.”

            “Okay,” he answered, lying down on the bed.  “I believe you.”

            He heard the sound of his wife opening the door.  Lifting his head, he saw her exit the room.  His head dropping back onto his pillow, he thought, So what if I’m afraid of my stepdaughter?  That doesn’t make me less of a man, right?  Her magical powers are more than any girl her age should have.  I just have to not give in to her head games.

            About ten minutes later, Karen re-entered her bedroom, speaking to her husband.  “Adelaide went out.  I’m not sure where.  And Brian just left to play with his friends at the park.”

            “That’s good,” James answered, still lying on the bed.

            “I’m stopping to pick up a couple items at the store.  You’ll be the only one here, so you’re in charge of the house, James.”

            Watching his wife leave with her purse, he sat up, thinking, Oh, so I’m only in charge of the house when everyone has left, huh?

Rubbing his forehead, he thought of the miniaturized shoes that he had placed into his pocket.  He remembered how frightened he felt seeing them shrink smaller and smaller and smaller on the carpeting.  They were his shoes.  His stepdaughter shrunk them immediately after he said he was going for a walk.  And amid James’ intense apprehension, there lingered his fetish… the pleasure, the arousal he had of not being in control.  His stepdaughter was in control.  She dictated the terms of their relationship.  She knew the kind of things his shrinking fantasies entailed, having had plenty of time to examine the shrinking story website.  His fantasies… his obsessions… were now an open book.  James felt naked.  He was certain Adelaide did not like him as her stepdad — but she sure seemed to like having him wrapped around her little finger.

James felt his shorts pocket.  His shoes had been shrunken so small, he couldn’t even detect them through the cotton fabric.  “I am not going to beg Adelaide to return my shoes to normal size,” he said angrily to himself.  He suddenly stood up, walking toward the door.  Marching down the hall he came to the end and looked down the stairs… listening.  The house was utterly silent.  Quickly stepping back down the hall, he stopped in front of his stepdaughter’s room.  He reached for doorknob… pausing… as he stared at the bold, red letters of the ‘KEEP OUT’ sign.  He swallowed, his determination fading back into anxiety.  “No,” he said, trying to bolster his resolve.  “I will find Karen’s credit card, and Adelaide will know she is not in charge of this family.”

Turning the knob, James was surprised that it easily opened.  He imagined it would be locked.  He slowly pushed the door open, his eyes assailed by the one room of the house he had never seen before.  Even when they moved in, his stepdaughter refused to let James assist in moving her bed and boxes.  It was a couple of her friends that helped on a separate day, when he was away at work.

The space was 50% larger than Brian’s room.  In the center was a full-sized bed with a soft-pink bedspread and a fluffy white pillow.  Everything appeared neat and tidy.  The bed was made… there were no clothes on the floor… no empty soda cans to be seen.  Instead of carpeting, his stepdaughter’s room had a polished hardwood floor.  A large window with the blinds open wide allowed plenty of sunlight into the teenaged girl’s room.

Looking around, James noticed the walls painted in a light violet… large posters of boy bands and other music-related pictures adorned the room, none of which he could identify.  On the left side of the room, there was a large dark wooden dresser with six drawers — three on the left and three on the right — a large ornamental mirror on the wall behind it.  On top of the dresser were nearly a dozen soccer trophies of various sizes, dating back a decade since his stepdaughter had begun competing in the sport.  It entered James’ mind that Adelaide’s incredibly toned, strong, and fit body was the result of her dedication to play on the varsity soccer team every year as well as running for the track and field team.

He began to open the two top drawers of the dresser, his hands rummaging through some clothes looking for the credit card.  “I don’t see it,” he said aloud, losing patience with himself.  Switching to the next drawer below, he manhandled his stepdaughter’s undergarments, tossing them to the floor.  “Come on,” he muttered.  “Where is she hiding it?”

James caught his image in the mirror, his body startled as he froze.  What am I doing? he thought.  You’re being a fool.  Leave now.  His heart began to race and he sensed his breathing was now fast and shallow.  Instead of exiting, his eyes continued looking around the room.  He noticed a tall set of white wooden shelves lined with hundreds of books.  Stepping closer, his eyes randomly noticed the words The Art of Shrinking: Volume 8… and also Size Alteration for Masters.  He swallowed hard as his eyes drifted upward to the top shelf, which held several stuffed animals along with various girlish knickknacks and cute decorative items.

“What the hell are you doing in my room?” Adelaide’s voice raged from behind him.

James’ body jerked around, seeing the gorgeous teen standing in the doorway, ten feet away from him.  “Uh…” he uttered, his voice box no longer functioning properly.

He looked at his stepdaughter’s long, muscular legs… her voluptuous hips, narrow waist… her splendidly large boobs — her short shorts and tight-fitting T-shirt leaving little to the imagination.  He watched as the teen stepped into her bedroom, looking down at the floor.  “You fucking prick!” she yelled, her voice growing in volume… louder than James had ever heard before.  “You fucking went through my underwear drawer and my bras!”

“I-I-I-I… I-I-I couldn’t find it,” James stuttered.

“What the hell do you mean?” she shouted.  “You couldn’t find it?”

“Y-Y-Your mom’s… c-c-credit card.”

“I didn’t fucking steal it, you stupid fuck!  God!  You are such an asshole!”

“P-P-Please, Adelaide,” he begged, holding his hands out in front of him.  “I am so very sorry.”

“Oh, really?” she answered, placing her hands on her womanly hips, her eyes glaring furiously into his eyes.

“I-I-I made a big mistake.  Okay, I admit that.  I did something really bad, and it’s all my fault.  So, I am very sorry to you.”

Adelaide smirked watching her stepdad squirming nervously.  “Well…” she said, her girlish voice suddenly sounding more seductive and focused.  “I could… Jim… act like none of this ever happened.  You could walk out of here, and everything is back to normal.”

“Sure, sure,” James said, nodding like an eager-to-please child.

Adelaide pouted her full lips.  “But it did happen, didn’t it?”

James’ mouth hung open as he looked into his stepdaughter’s light-blue eyes.

She crossed her arms as she continued to speak, “It would be wrong to pretend you didn’t violate my bedroom, disrespecting my intimate things, throwing them on the ground.  I put up a very easy-to-understand sign on my door.  I thought the letters were big enough and the sign was placed high enough on my door so that it wouldn’t lead to any confusion.”

“Okay, I see I made a mistake.  I’m sorry,” James said, stepping toward the exit.  Walking out into the hall, he gently and quietly shut his stepdaughter’s door.  Oh, shit, he thought.  That could have gone a lot worse.  He took a deep breath in… and then exhaled.  Turning, he took one step, the air around him suddenly feeling electric… his whole body, from his head to his toes, feeling a subtle tingling sensation.

And then, in a fraction of a second, the walls in the hallway seemed to shift upward as though the whole world was growing larger, a mind-bending sensation of one’s entire self being reduced… diminished… shrunk.

James blinked several times, astonished how everything had changed.  The tan carpeting that was about 4 feet from wall to wall was now closer to 300 feet — the length of a football field.  And that was the width of the hallway… its length now appearing to go on for thousands and thousands of feet, a seemingly endless sea of tan carpet.  James stared incredulously at the wooden baseboard fifty yards away.  Even from that distance, he could tell that it was 15 to 20 feet high, and all of a sudden it became crystal clear that his stepdaughter had not only shrunk him, but had shrunk him to the height of no more than an inch.

Beginning to hyperventilate, James’ gaze moved over to his stepdaughter’s bedroom door.  His neck craned backwards, his mouth agape as he stared dumbfounded at the skyscraper-sized door… his memory of visiting the towering buildings of New York City flashing back into his consciousness.  “No…” he said.  “No, no, no!”

His body began to move all by itself, his legs and arms pumping — and then he realized he was in an all-out sprint, the wind rushing past his face.  The enormous sound of his stepdaughter’s doorknob being turned caused him to spin around as he tumbled to the floor.  Getting to his feet, he could do nothing but helplessly watch as Adelaide’s gigantic pink-socked foot emerged from her bedroom… the floor trembling beneath James as her foot landed.  BOOM!