----- Thursday

Did you ever have something nagging in the back of your mind 24/7? That's how I felt about Samantha's suicide. It was an itch I had to scratch.

The first thing I did at work Thursday morning was to talk to the human relations department. We were having a long weekend coming up. I asked if I could take that Tuesday through Friday off. With the Monday holiday, that would make over a week of time I could be away. To my surprise they said, no problem. This is such a great place to work.

I told Jennifer all about last night, and all about Sammy. She agreed with me that this was too strange. She wanted me to let her know what I would find out. If I found out how Samantha knew she had the disease while she was still contagious then it might be a clue for figuring this thing out.

When I got off from work I had numerous messages waiting on the phone; both voice and text. Sue had heard and was concerned. She wanted to come over tonight. I, of course, texted her back, "sure thing". Michele had also heard and was offering anything she could do to help. I even heard from Matt, from Tee's group. This one had just come in so I guess Tee had told her group at the clinic just then.

It was a little after five o'clock in Arizona when I got home. I looked up a phone number of an old friend and gave him a call.

"Gabe? Gabriel Rodriguez?"

"Yes, this is Gabe. Who is this?"

"Gabe, it's Sam. Sam Cook. Remember me?"

"Sam, my man! I've been try to get a hold of you."

"Cool. It's serendipity."

"No, man. It was that girl. That Samantha chick. She committed suicide. They're all looking for you. I tried calling."

"Whoa. Slow down. I heard about it. I spoke to the police already. That's why I'm calling."

"Where are you? I tried to get in touch but you're number was disconnected."

"Yeah, I know. Mom and Dad are separated; I guess they both got new numbers. Long story. We'll have plenty of time to talk about that later. Look, man, I have this disease. It's a virus that makes you shrink."

"Borgford's disease. I hate to say it, Sam, but me too."

"Aw man. Gabe, that's terrible."

"Eh, it aint so bad. About half the people in town have it."

"They do?"

"You should see the place. Problem is, I had to quit the Army."

"You're not in the reserves anymore?"

"No. They don't let midgets serve."

"But you're an engineer. Surely, they need people like you."

"You tell them then."

"I'm so sorry, man, that sucks. Look, I need to get back there. I'm taking a week off during the holiday weekend. I was wondering if I could come see you."

"You better stop by and see me. I'll never forgive you if you don't. Where're you staying?"

"Not sure yet. I'll book the hotel tomorrow."

"No, you won't. You're staying at my place. I have plenty room for you. Especially since we don't take up much room anymore, if you know what I mean."

"Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. I can't do that to you, Gabe."

"Hey, it's no problem at all. It'll be like old times. I'll text you my address now that I have your number."

"I'll be arriving some time Saturday. Don't worry about picking me up or anything, I'll need to rent a car anyway. I'll be doing lots of driving."

"So, how've you been? You know, overall."

"Good. I have lots of real good friends now. I'll tell you all about it Saturday. Ok?"

"It's a deal man. I am so looking forward to this."

"Me too, Gabe. Me too."

Gabe knew both Samantha and I when we were going out. He knew about Samantha leaving and helped me out to try and find her. I was hoping he might have some insight into the whole state of affairs. He had heard of her suicide so that meant he might know a few things I didn't.

Plans were coming together now. I still needed to book a flight so I closed the door in the office and went to work. I got online and bought a round trip ticket. I did some research on the Damark family. Sure enough, I found information on Samantha. The news about her suicide was in the news. I found out information on her parents too -- William and Aileen. I found Gabe's place on the map and I sent all of this information to my phone.

When I came out of the office Cindy caught me.

"Are you ready for tomorrow, Sam?"

"Oh yeah. I almost forgot. I don't really need to prepare much, right?"

"Just tell them what it's like to perform in front of a bunch of people, how you got started, that sort of thing. And don't forget to tell them that you practice a lot."

"No problem, Cindy."

"So, who were you talking to?"

"A friend in Arizona: my roommate from college when I was a junior."

"You're going back to Arizona, aren't you?"

"I have to find out more information about Samantha, Cindy. I hope I have enough time down there to figure it all out."

"How long will you be?"

"I leave Saturday afternoon. I'll get back next Sunday; not this coming one, the one thereafter."

"Can I come with you?"

"Can you take off all that time?"

"Probably not. But I could take off until Wednesday. I could stay until then."

"Well, I don't know." I wasn't at all expecting, or even wanting, anyone to come with me.

"Please."

"I'm staying with Gabe; my friend I just told you about. I don't know if he has room for you."

"I can find a place to stay. I'm sure one of my old friends would be happy to take me in."

"Alright, I'll tell you what: you confirm a place to stay and I'll buy a ticket for you on the same flight. I'll try to see if I can get the return ticket for Wednesday."

"Oh, Sam, thank you so much. This will be great. Let me go make some calls, ok?"

"Don't be too long. There may not be too many more airline tickets left on the same flight."

It wasn't but a half hour later that she had found a place to stay. I arranged and paid for her ticket. It was the least I could do. She got paid as a teacher, which wasn't much. And to tell the truth, I was feeling good about someone accompanying me.

I told Erin and Julie. They didn't want to see me go but they knew I had to do this. It wasn't just about Samantha. It was also about this disease. I was on a mission.


----- Friday

I had off today, having already worked forty hours this week -- four, ten hour days. But I promised Cindy I would visit the girls in her class. I was a little nervous about this as I never really had much experience with children before.

I had to check in at the school office that morning and get a temporary badge. One of the secretaries at the front office brought me to the dancing room. Next door was a little office -- Cindy's office.

The dancing room was typical: shiny wooden floor, a mirror on one wall with a rail, a piano on the wall opposite. There were two chairs on a side wall with a table in between. On the table was a boom box and a flower.

Cindy and I talked for a few minutes before the girls arrived. The locker room was a couple doors down. She had two ballet classes, one jazz, and one tap. I wasn't sure if I was going to stay for all the classes but she wanted me to stay for the ballet classes, at least; one was in the morning and the other was the first period after lunch.

It wasn't too long thereafter that the girls began filing in. Cindy clapped her hands and they lined up against the mirrored wall. They all had tights on, either pink or white, and the typical ballet type shoes that they wear. Two were barefoot.

Cindy was dressed similarly but in blue. She was the only one wearing blue, which I assumed was reserved for the teacher. She looked extremely cute. In fact, she could have been a miniature version of any of the girls. Well, almost. Yes, they were all bigger than she was. And also, all bigger than me.

There were seven girls in this class, mixed from grades three, four and five. The youngest one, Penny, I found out was seven. Can you believe she was already four ten? Anna was nine years old and was the tallest there at five feet, five inches tall. The shortest, you ask? That would be Sarah, four foot four inches and eight years old. Still taller than Michele and I.

She introduced me to the girls first thing, but then had the girls go through a warm up right after. When the warm up was finished she had them sit down on the floor while Cindy and I sat in the chairs. I started talking and to my surprise they listened pretty well without interrupting or getting distracted.

I started talking a little about myself: what I did, my education, and hobbies (singing, or course). I told them about how Julie, my girlfriend, had forced me to perform that first time in front of a bunch of people at the coffee house. I was nervous but I didn't tell them by how much. After a few performances the nervousness gets better but doesn't totally go away; and that's a good thing I tried to get across.

I talked about my songs, folk music, and even about putting my songs up for sale. Then it was question time. A lot of the questions were about Borgford's disease. I tried to make them short answers and the girls didn't seem to mind.

One of the girls said something that was pretty inappropriate I thought -- and so did Cindy -- but I'm sure it wasn't Lexie's fault.

Lexie said, "My Mom says those who get the shrinking disease are sinners and shrink because God's punishing them."

I wasn't sure how to respond so I said, "Tell your mom that you can get it from a mosquito bite. Mosquitos bite everyone, even those that aren't sinners, so not everyone that has the disease is a sinner." It seemed to satisfy Lexie.

One of the questions I thought was pretty cute: "Are you and Miss Cindy brother and sister?" I had to answer no, but they all thought we looked like twins. I don't see that in us, only that we're the same height now. It's a good thing they didn't ask about Erin.

I was only allotted half the period, the last half they practiced. I got to stay and watch. It wasn't quite as boring as I had thought.

While they were practicing a new movement on the bar Cindy would go help out some of them that were having trouble. One of those having trouble was Anna. As she moved in to help her get in the right posture I could see Cindy was below this young girls breasts. Yes, she had breasts; they were bigger than Cindy's by quite a bit. I realized that I would below this nine year old girl's breasts too. Anna looked like the teacher and Cindy the student.

They all lined up to curtsy and that was the end of class. As they walked by us to leave Lexie, the girl that remarked about being sinners, stopped in front of me. Her hands were balled in fists and placed on her hips as she said, "I'm going to tell my mommy what you said."

My eyes were below the level of her breasts and with her standing the way she was, it was utterly terrifying. I didn't show it, of course, but imagine being intimidated by a ten year old. Geez.

The next class that morning was a tap dance class and it went pretty much the same as the previous one. The questions were different -- no brother/sister or sinner comments, thank goodness.

Cindy and I ate lunch together in the teacher's lounge. We had the same lunch as the kids and it was only like a dollar and fifty cents. Cheap. But it was worth it, as in, it tasted like a dollar fifty lunch.

I met Cindy's best friend from work: Dolly, or Miss Dolly as the kids called her I came to find out. I wondered why I hadn't met any one from Cindy's school before. I made a mental note to ask about it.

I stayed until the last class that Cindy had that day. The other classes were also the same. No other girl was as big as Anna though. I was thinking how even before I caught the virus, this gal would have still have been over six inches taller than me. They're certainly growing them bigger nowadays.

Oh, well. I'll be in Arizona this time tomorrow and if what Gabe says is true, there will be a lot more people my age at my size. Seeing these young kids made me look doubly forward to the trip.

Cindy and I talked a bit about it at home that evening.

"How do you handle all those girls being bigger, Cindy?"

"I don't. I look forward to leaving work every single day."

"Ever thought of doing something else?"

"I don't know what I could do?"

"You have lots of knowledge about the performance industry. I'm sure you could find something."

"I'll think about it, Sam. In the mean time I can't wait to go to Arizona this weekend."

I figured I would try to rack my brain coming up with ideas on what Cindy could do to earn money instead of what she was doing. But there was good news.

"Oh, Sam, I almost forgot. The real estate agent called this afternoon. She got a contract on the house."

"Wow, this is great, Cindy. But", I said with a pout, "that means you'll be moving out."

"It won't be soon. There's still settlement and then I'll have to find a place."

"Just remember what I told you."

It was good and bad news. We were going to hate to see her go. The past few weeks with her was great. This also made me think of Erin. What would it be like if she moved out too? I didn't want to think about that. Besides, I had to get ready for tonight.

Sharon and I only did three songs at Mike's. I wanted to get some rest tonight and I knew I was going to have to do a little shopping tomorrow before the flight.

I met Elena that night. She was Julie's new friend from that tall girl's club. She was nice and seemed to take an interest in me. Yes, she was tall, but no taller than Jill I figured. I can see that Jill will probably have no problem fitting in with that group.

Sharon, Tee, Sue, Gail, and even Michele came over after the show. It had been a week since I'd seen Michele.

"Anything new at work, Michele?"

"Not too much. I'm sorry to hear about your bad news, Sam."

"I'm going to Arizona tomorrow and try to figure it all out."

"Figure what out?"

"Why Samantha committed suicide."

I read the suicide note to here.

"Do you have to go all the way down there?", she asked.

"Yes, Michele. I need to find out how she knew that she had the disease and I can only do that back where I went to college."

"Take care then. But before you go do you think that maybe we could, um, have a little, uh, passionate session?"

"Passionate session? I'm sorry, Michele. I don't have much time and there's a lot to do. I was planning on spending tonight alone with Julie. How about when I get back?"

"Awww. Let me know if you change your mind."

"I will.", I said with a smile to let her realize I still liked her. "Say, how's Yo doing?"

"Ok, I guess."

"You guess?"

"I don't know. He's the same old Yo."

I wanted to see if there was anything between those two but didn't want to be obvious about it. I couldn't really tell though from the way she was responding.

One who was conspicuous from her absence was Jill. She didn't show up to the show either. I hope she's not sick.

I thanked Tee for coming and asked how she was doing.

"I'm doing great, Sam."

"How are you handling the meds?"

"Good, I suppose."

"How about the, uh, horniness?"

She was blushing when she said, "I'm working it out."

Sharon, who was listening in, was wearing a big smile when she whispered in my ear, "I took care of that for Tee."

"You mean you and Tee ..."

"Yep.", Sharon said.

Tee was as red as an apple. I wanted to tease her about it but it would be too cruel after all that she had been through lately. Sharon whispered to me rather than blurt it out so I surmised that they wanted to keep it secret. Still, I couldn't completely let it go. I gave Tee a smile and a wink.

"Sam", Tee said seriously, "I'm really sorry for what I did to you."

"You've already apologized, Tee. Apology accepted."

"But I still feel bad. Especially when you got the news about your old girlfriend."

"If you mean Samantha, well, we only saw each other for two weeks. I'd hardly say that she was my girlfriend."

"But you talked of her with tenderness. We could all tell."

"So I did. So what?"

"I think I know how she felt."

"I know you were depressed, Tee. But I doubt it compares to Samantha."

"But I almost died out there too."

"Tee, you were not suicidal."

"How do you know?"

"Because when that limb broke you reached for me when I held my hand out to you. You would have just ignored it if you were truly suicidal."

"Oh.", she said, thinking.

"And if it's any consolation, I was overjoyed that you weren't suicidal."

She gave me a big smile. "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too, Tee. But it's only for a week. It'll go by like that. And besides, it looks like you'll be spending time with Sharon." I winked again.

Erin also expressed her sadness to see me go.

"You'll call me every day, right Sam?"

"Sure, Erin. If you really want me to."

"I do."

"Hey, Erin. I want to ask you something."

"Ok."

"Do you remember when you were nine years old?"

"Barely."

"When you got taller than me."

"Yeah, I remember."

"Do you know how tall you got at nine?"

"Not really."

"Over five feet?"

"I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Probably five two or three."

"When did you reach your current five eight?"

"Before fourteen. I remember being that height at fourteen."

"Do you remember how tall I was when you were nine?"

"I don't know. Probably what you were before."

"Four ten? I don't think I was that tall then."

"You couldn't have been much shorter."

"That would have made you only four or five inches taller."

"Why do you ask?"

"Just thinking. I met the girls in Cindy's class today. One of the nine year olds was five five. I barely came up to her tits."

"Nine year olds don't have tits."

"This one did."

"Shame on you for noticing, Sam."

"Sorry. You'd have noticed too."

"Little pervert."

"So? Tell me something I don't know."

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Just be careful in Arizona.", she said.

We didn't have the wild parties that we've had before. There was much more talking and the mood was kind of somber. Julie's friend, Elena, had not come over to the house. Julie told me that this was not a good time for her because I'd be leaving for Arizona the next day. But I was looking forward to talking with her again.

Everybody left later that night, except Sue who spent the night with Cindy.

When it was time to turn in Julie picked me up and brought me to the bedroom.

"Are you going to put me down, Julie?"

"I just want to hold you and never let you go."

"So, we're sleeping with you standing up and me in your arms?"

"No, silly."

She put me down and started taking off her bra and panties. I was standing right next to her left leg. I looked at it from her toes to the top of her thighs above my head. Damn, she was sexy. I must have mentioned before that she has great legs, right? Her knee was at my waist level. Her thigh was wider than I was and I could see her powerful muscles flex as the moved; an awesome sight.

I stared up at her twat. Even on my toes, there was no way I could kiss it now while she was standing -- not without a stool or some other boost. She went to brush her teeth before going to bed and the sight of her huge ass above me as she walked away was making Mr. Happy take notice.

I joined her in the bathroom. It worked out better for me when she was there; I didn't have to get up on the toilet to reach the stuff behind the vanity mirror, she got whatever I needed down for me. I'm going to have to make a shelf down lower that I can reach.

I had this overwhelming urge to hug her thigh, but I resisted this as I stood there so I could finish brushing my teeth. I could barely see myself in the mirror over the sink, but saw a better picture of the top half of Julie in the mirror. It was better than just standing and looking up, which although itself was a great picture, only let me see her stomach and the bottom of her breasts.

I recall way back when we first had sex how her areola were the size of a dime, maybe a little bigger. Now each one was a little more than half the size of my face and perfectly round. They weren't too dark, weren't too light. It brought to mind the term, "suckable". If only I could reach them right now. Instead, I had to settle on admiring her legs as she stood next to me.

When we hit the bed I immediately began sucking her tits.

"Can't wait, huh?"

"Sorry.", I said. So I gave her a kiss on the lips and then all over her face. I worked my way to her neck and decided to kiss her arms. My whole wingspan was just a little longer than one of her arms; that's a lot of arm and it took me a while to kiss all of it. But I did and eventually I found my way to her nipples again. She seemed to be enjoying this but was not quite at that point of no return. I wanted more, so I went south.

Her clit was standing up just waiting for attention. I kissed and nibbled on it until she was moaning. I teased it, not letting her get off just yet -- I tried to keep it up as long as I could, but climax was near.

I figured since I wasn't going to see Julie for a whole week, I would make this night special. So I did what every guy who wanted to drive their lover crazy does: I went surfing, dude. That is, I was in control of her orgasm. Edging, some call it. I thought earlier she wanted to be the one in control tonight by the way she grabbed me and brought me into the bedroom. But I was clearly the one in the drivers seat right now and I was relishing this.

We had done this enough by now for me to know exactly when she was nearing orgasm. I would stop, denying her a climax, and do something crazy instead, like saying, "So, what do want for Christmas this year?"

"Sam!", she'd whine.

"Oh, you want me. Well, you already have me. Don't you want anything else?"

"Just do it and finish me off!"

"Oh, didn't you want me to stop?"

"NO!"

"But you seemed to be in pain. You were moaning."

"In pain? I'll show you pain if you don't start again."

"Ok, ok. Sheesh. Be patient.", I'd say in jest, and started again slow. But I always build her back up. How long could I go tonight? How big can I make her clit grow? She was moaning again.

"You know, I should get you a fleshlight for when I'm gone."

"Huh?"

"Search the internet; just don't let anyone look over your should when you do."

"Ok. Don't stop again, damnit."

So, I went at it yet again. I sucked on her clit and started talking with my mouth full of Julie meat.

"Mm hlmm bzzzzzzt."

I was driving her crazy.

"Hey, will you look at that.", I said pointing up. "The ceiling is not flat."

"What?"

"It has a wave in it. Right there."

"I'm going to bonk you on the head."

"Got it. Back to work."

So back at it one more time. I really wanted to see how big that clit was. I took my clothes off -- yep, I was still dressed; guess you weren't expecting that. Then I went to mount her, but this time I held onto her clit and bent Mr. Happy down next to it. Mine was still bigger but only by an inch or so. I started rubbing them together. Mr. Happy and Ms. Happy were dancing together. She seemed to be getting close again.

"You know Julie, your clit is almost as big as my dick."

"Keep going, Sam. Keep going!"

"No, look. Look. See them next to each other?"

She looked down and said something I didn't expect, "When mines bigger I'll fuck you."

"How?"

"I'll bend you over."

"Oh, I wouldn't like that."

"Then get back to work."

"Yes, ma'am!"

I kept the teasing up as long as I could stand it. Her clit was rock hard. I flicked it. I reckon I could launch rocks with it like a catapult by doing that.

"Hey, Julie. Can you Kegel?"

"What?"

"Never mind."

Then I went down on her again.

"Oooooooooh!"

She was near her orgasm again. How long could I keep this up? I went back up to her face to kiss her on the mouth. I tried to be better than Sharon at it. Not sure if I was, but I tried. I expected Julie to complain again, but she seemed to enjoy this. I went down to her tits again and sucked on her nipples like I was sucking on her clit. After some time alternating between her mouth and tits I finally went down to her clit again.

By now it was getting late. I wasn't worried about losing sleep -- we could sleep in and it would be a long flight for me. However, I didn't want to wait for the sun to come up so I gave her what she was craving. I sucked on her clit and didn't stop.

"Aaaaaah!", she moaned arching her back. I tried to make it last as long as I could but she eventually made me stop.

By this time we were both exhausted. She wanted to reciprocate, but I told her I was too tired. I was too, but I wanted this night to be for Julie. We cuddled up and fell asleep, me next to her chest completely engulfed in her arms.