Marlin awoke the next morning feeling a bit light headed. The events of yesterday were in the back of his mind. They were so unreal that it was sorted along with the memorries of his dreams. He didn't give it much thought because it was in the back of his mind, but his mind has perceived it as if it is a dream. 

He got up, got ready for work, kissed his wife goodbye while she sleeps on the bed, and got going.

Marlin works as a sales manager for an orthopedic company called SpenBio Inc. Marlin has been very successful, and closed some of the best deals for the company. SpenBio is now the second fastest growing company, which might not be that great given the small number of competitors in the market. Yet still, Marlin was one of those who contributed to that growth. His great charisma and self-esteem was very useful at closing deals, and his height always served him well at that.

Coming into work, Marlin saw Finley earlier than he is. "Good morning Finley!"

"Good morning Mr. Rover. Your coffee is on your desk already!"

"You are great, Finley. Thanks!"

Finley was one of three that worked under Marlin, who formed his team. Marlin neer felt that he needed more than one person, but the company wanted to hire 3 people for the sales team. 'I guess if they really wanna waste money, then let 'em waste money' he always thought.

Another reason is Marlin's low trust in their abilities. Marlin is always afraid to give them crucial tasks because they might not do it correctly, and it would ultimately reflect on him. He doesn't want to put the effort in training them. For that reason, Marlin gives his employees little work, which is great for them, because they get paid pretty good for doing a super easy job.

"Mr. Rover, you have a meeting with Miss Ranksho today. Our client Mr. Zekovo has left you a message. I sent to you earlier this morning".

"Thank you Finley. You always stay on top of it!"

Finley was a beautiful girl who had been working with Marlin ever since he got promoted to sales manager two years ago. She was a young blonde girl with blue eyes, and she stood quite tall at 5'10". Marlin has not yet realized the new difference in their hieght.

-----

15 minutes before the meeting, Lulian, the second employee, came in. She was late again, however. Marlin could no longer stand her being late every time.

"Lilian, you're late again!? Okay this has got to stop now. This is your 3rd time being late this month, and it has not been two weeks yet!"

looking pissed and bratty like a kid to a parent, Lulian with her 5'5" looked up at Marlin trying to formulate her back argument "Mr. Rover, the temperature was very low this morning, and my car's lock system froze and it would not open. There was nothing that I can do".

Marlin knew that girl was lying, but he had to go along with it.

"Lulian, this is the 3rd time you claim a car issue. When you were hired, you were asked if you had reliable ways of transportation and you answered yes. This doesn't look realiable to me. Look, I let it go the last two times, but if you had car issues three times, then there is something you have to fix, or start leaving early. Otherwise, I cannot afford for you to be coming late here".

"Mr. Rover, I can't do anything about the weather!"

"Lulian, why don't you learn to just say yes sir and do as I say? is that really hard? You are not giving an argument here. you're just arguing for the sake of it".

Staring silently for a second, Lulian finally ends the conversation and says "Yes sir" before Marlin started to walk away to the meeting, saying "Thank you. now you're on the right track".

------

After the meeting, Marlin came back into the office. By that time Spirit, the last employee, was in. Spirit was still an intern. She's a senior in college, and like typical interns, Spirit tries really hard in this job. Sadly for her, working under Marlin won't give her much experience. He just took her in because he has to, but his restrictive way of distributing work will not benefit her the way she needs. Nevertheless, this doesn't stop Spirit from being productive.

When Marlin went to sit on his desk, he was stopped by Spirit calling his name. The petite, 5'2" girl was struggling to keep up with his pace. 

"Mr. Rover!! can you please look at this for me?"

Marlin was tired after his 5 hour meeting and just wanted to sit down, but it would not be nice to ignore Spirit. He smiled down at the innocent girl and said "what is Spirit??"

Marlin noticed a very excited look on her face, and she began saying "Mr. Rover I was trying to look around and be productive, and Finley told me about the deal with Mr. Zokovo. You are probably the best person at this, Mr. Rover, and I tried to do this as practice, and just thought I'd be productive. I have outlined a detailed procedure for the deal with Mr. Zokovo, and even a text outline for the talk. I know this is probably very primitive and that great, but can you please look over it, peer review it, and tell me what you think? please!?"

As she was talking, Marlin was reading her paper. What she wrote was nothing he'd expect from an intern. This might not be as good as his, but it is pretty damn good! 'In no time, this girl can pretty much surpass me and win over me. My God, I can't let that happen'.

"Spirit, I have been clear about giving you specific tasks in this job. What makes you think that you are allowed to waste your time around here by doing tasks outside of your range?? there is plenty of room for other type of work. Look at this desk, it needs wiping! and this -"

Suddenly, everything froze around around Marlin. Everthing stopped moving. Then an echoed voice started to speak

"Fragile manhood, and little dignity? You will be punished".

suddenly, everything started moving backwards, as if time was rewinded "I will give you the chance to fix what you have done, but until then..."

That's when it started to happen. Right before his eyes, Marlin started to shrink, and Spirit was growing.... very slowly. 

Then time started to go again. Spirit, slowly growing, but acting as if its not happening, was waiting for his answer.

"Spirit, this is good work, thanks" as he quickly handed it to her, and she felt his lack of attention. As he does that, her growth starts accelerating, and Marlin panics.

"I said fix it" the echoed voice said. Then suddnely, Marlin pulled back the paper, and started giving actual reviews as quick as possible "The beginning is actually what pulled my attention the most, and it is quite important because it is what you start with" The size change still continues to occur, but has slowed down. Spirit's eyes have already crossed the bottom of his chin, and is still climbing.

"In the fifth row of the text, I think another word for 'reduce' is 'slash' because it sounds a lot better and is more effective when you are talking face to face".

Marlin was having some of the worst thought processes ever. He had forgotten all about the shrinking, and now it is all coming back, and worse. The girl that he used to tower above is now almost as tall as he! He is feeling so insignificant at this moment. This petite college student is his height, and he doesn't know how to stop it. He is losing his height and dignity to the whole world. 'This is horrible'

The size change stopped, but the despair did not. In complete shock, Marlin was, as he was looking Spirit eye to eye.