As I fell to the carpeted ground of my parent’s bedroom, I thought my life flashed before my eyes. Being only seven, that didn’t last long. “Ahhhhh—oomph!” I thought that I was dead, but surprisingly, I was unhurt. At the time, I attributed this to the carpet, but I later learned that my durability greatly increases the smaller I shrink. Outside, the sound of Jeri’s crying was deafening. It was akin to being in the middle of a busy airport. But what this meant was that I could pinpoint her location just by sound, as the forest of carpet kept me from seeing her. After walking about 20 minutes (jeez can this girl cry), a horrible smell began to attack my senses. Looking up I could see that I was at Jeri’s toes. I stood there in awe. Jeri had to be taller than any skyscraper I saw. Her big toe looked larger than our house! As I approached closer, I could see the very fine detail hidden from one of regular size. I could see the blood vessels feeding those monoliths precious nutrients, the dead flakes of skin that looked to be the size of small cars and, perhaps most unfortunately, I could smell what would probably be imperceptible at my regular size; her foot stench. “Ugh gross! From now on, she’s wearing socks in the house.” I said to myself, covering my nose. I was about 40 feet away from her big toe when I saw her begin to shift. “Uh oh.” I said, backing up. Uh oh was right. Jeri tended to cry herself to sleep. It didn’t matter where she was. In school, at the mall, or, in my case, on the carpet. I ran as I saw her hand land to my left. Looking up, I could see her body begin the slow descent toward me. Realizing that running parallel to her body would make escape impossible, I decided to run to my right. As the sky fell, I jumped forward at the last moment. The displaced air beneath her body pushed me even further away from her. As the dust settled, I began to hear snoring. “How the hell am I going to get her attention now?!”

Realizing that Jeri was probably my only hope at getting back to normal size, I began to walk toward her head, staying 60 feet away from her in case she moved. After 10 minutes, I reached my goal. “Why’d you have to have such a big head Jeri?” I asked half-jokingly, half seriously.  She was facing my direction, hot breath reaching me even though I was 60 feet away from her (later I realized that I was only half a foot away). Climbing her hair would not have been easy, considering how slick it was. Plus, I didn’t want to risk getting lost in there. My luck finally began to turn around when I saw her chin. Two days ago, Jeri had fallen running up the stairs. She gotten a nasty cut on her chin, prompting a visit to the doctor as well as a Band-Aid. The material of the Band-Aid would make the climb extremely easy, and I could just walk across her face to her ear. Easy as pie. I ran to her chin to make the climb. I wanted to get out of this nightmare. The climb seemed about 30 feet high and was made harder by the fact that I was exhausted by the whole ordeal. Not to mention the fact that Jeri would smack her lips from time to time. I was halfway up when she turned her body. I braced for impact until she settled, laying on her back with her chin facing upward. For not having to finish the climb, I was thankful. But now I was faced with a new challenge. For me to get to her ears, I’d have to either a) scale the side of her face and risk falling or b) crawl past her mouth, hoping she doesn’t open it. Plan b would be riskier but much faster than plan a and once I made it past her lips, I’d be home free. Wanting to be free from this nightmare as soon as possible, I took the riskier option. It took some effort climbing over the steep incline her bottom lip made, but after a while, I made it to the top. Once I did, however, I realized I made a fatal error. When a ten-year-old is crying, you would expect there to be snot, wouldn’t you? And all this snot usually goes down to the lips. This made her lips extremely slippery, causing me to slip in to the crevice. “No! Jericho! Wake up!” I screamed in desperation. Unfortunately, my movement brought me the wrong attention. Slowly, Jeri opened her mouth, and out came a tongue the size of a whale! It started at the left side of her mouth, licking the snot that gathered on Jeri’s lips. As it made its way to me, I wondered how much more Jeri would cry if she realized she ate her brother. The tongue hit me harder than I expected it to, and once it brought me to the other side of the mouth, it began its slow descent into the hell that was Jeri’s mouth.

The mixture of snot and saliva ensured that escape was not an option. I reached out as if someone would pull me out and save me. If only I wasn’t so small. Then Jeri wouldn’t be so sad and I wouldn’t be eaten. Suddenly, I felt my viscous restraints begin to slightly tighten, then break. Being brought past her teeth, Jeri’s lips closed and took the light of the outside world from me, sealing my fate. More saliva washed over me, but didn’t seem as overwhelming as it did before. I noticed her mouth wasn’t as large as I expected it to be. “Oh my gosh! I’m growing!” I said with excitement. I was now twice my original height, at one inch tall.  But m growth wasn’t fast enough, nor was it sufficient. Jeri still had the ability to swallow me whole. But my newfound size provided me an opportunity to better my chances. The tongue, which used to be the size of a whale, was now the size of a king-sized mattress. I began to kick and scream. She started sucking on my body, holding me in place. My ears popped with the change in pressure, but once I got too big, she had to open her mouth a bit. Jeri began to drool out the excess saliva that was forming because of my actions. I tried to make it out where the spit was escaping, but I was now too big. I was making Jeri’s mouth uncomfortable now. With my body the same size as her tongue, I accidently kicked her uvula, causing her to cough me out. I was ejected from her mouth and fell onto the carpet, the bedroom seeming much smaller in comparison. My clothes were soaked, but I was still growing, now at a faster rate. Once I was big enough, I went up the stairs and went to my room. After 20 minutes, I was at my full size. I changed into dry clothing and put my wet clothes in the wash. I dried my skin off but still smelled like Jeri’s mouth. “Nothing I can do about that now. Should I tell Jeri what happened? Mom and Dad?” I asked myself. What had occurred was truly life changing and it would do nicely to have someone to talk about it with. But it was also exciting to be able to possess a secret that no one was privy to. “I’m like Ant Man!” I realized. I decided to keep what happened a secret, after all, it would hurt Jeri to know that she almost ate her little brother. Heading down the stairs, I called out to Jeri. “Jeri! Looks like you lost!” I shouted with glee, my new secret still leaving me excited. “I walked downstairs to our parent’s bedroom to see her arousing from her nap. “Wha, Chris!? Where were you?” she asked, wiping the drool from her mouth. I shuddered from the memory. “My secret hiding spot.” I said, refraining from laughing.  I knew that what had happened was serious, but being seven years old, those feelings of worry were quickly replaced by excitement. Can I control it? How small can I go? Can I make myself bigger? These questions coursed through my mind as I saw Jericho get up with a relieved but angry look on her face. “Didn’t you hear me calling for you?! I was so worried! Where were you hiding?!” She demanded, but I couldn’t let her know for obvious reasons. “I can’t reveal my secret hiding spot. Then it wouldn’t be a secret now would it?” I said mockingly. She looked as though she was about to slap me but she just walked past me and stomped up the stairs. Setting out to determine what I could do with my newfound powers, I locked myself in my room. I later came to find that it would have been better for everyone if I hadn’t kept it a secret.