I awoke groggy to the sound of my alarm buzzing at the very edges of my hearing. Slowly I forced my eyes open to see a dark room, which was odd given that it was about noon and the sun should be at his highest and brightest. The faintest memories of a faded dream played at my sleep addled mind as I blinked my eyes a few times, trying to fight off the grogginess. A distant roll of thunder drowned out my alarm.

                Turning on my side I peeked out of my blinds to see a sky blanketed in black clouds. “Another cheery day,” I mumbled to myself. I reached over and turned off my alarm, groaning softly at the thought of getting out of bed and starting another day at the theater. No rehearsals today, but there would be meetings, discussions about upcoming plays, and…And Laurie! Laurie and…and? And the necklace!

                The necklace! I switched on the lamp by my bed and searched my bedside table. There it was, right where I set it the night before. I picked it up by the cord and let the gem dangle in front of my eyes. No glowing. No lights. Just a dull, green gem hanging from an old leather cord. I moved to place it around my neck, but then thought better of it. Now that I knew what it was capable of, I’m sure my mind would wander and think of the possibilities. I wouldn’t want to accidentally activate it while driving, or walking in a random group of people.

                Could you imagine? Seeing a girl walking by chewing her gum, randomly thinking if the necklace could do that to you, and then next thing you know you’re a chewed piece of gum sitting on the ground, waiting to be stepped on and stuck to a shoe? And what of the necklace? If that happened, where would the necklace go? It didn’t shrink when I was shrinking. If it could change me into something, would it change with me or just fall to the ground, just out of my reach?

                I should check that out. Try it. But, no. No, if I did that here, and it tumbled out of reach then what? Then I would be stuck, just out of reach of salvation. No, I definitely needed to experiment with someone who could help me in a bind. That’s what Laurie was for. That must have been why I decided to randomly text her before bed.

                The text! I glanced at my phone to see 3 unread messages.

Laurie: What is it?

Laurie: James?

Laurie: Ok, well I guess I’ll see you at work.

                I stared at the messages, then back at the necklace still dangling from my hand. Should I tell her to forget it? Would this all be a little too weird for her? What if it was just my imagination? What if it didn’t work around her? What if it did? Too many questions were racing through my mind, and there was not enough time to figure them out.

                Carefully, I wrapped the necklace in a piece of cloth and set it back on the table to get ready for work. Once I was showered and dressed, I slipped the wrapped package into my pocket, grabbed my keys, and made my way out the door. No breakfast today, as per usual. I would eat later, after I got settled in at the theater, after most of the meetings were done.

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Pulling into the parking lot, I was glad I had kept the necklace wrapped and in my pocket. During the drive I thought about all the things it could possibly do. My mind wandered to random situations. Could I become an animal? What if I had turned into a bug in my car and crashed? I stopped at a gas station to fuel up and saw a young girl, no older than 14, eating a hot dog. Could it have turned me into that very hot dog? Or would I just flop on the ground as a dirty dog, destined for the trash? Until I could figure out how this worked, it would be best to keep it wrapped and not around my neck. I had to figure this all out.

They day went by mostly uneventful. A few boring meetings, a few calls requesting ticket information, some discussions about what plays we should schedule for the rest of the year. The only shining star on this stormy and boring day was seeing Laurie walk in the door. Normally she was wearing jeans and a shirt, and combat boots to protect her while working on props, lighting, etc. Today, however, today she was wearing a sleeveless shirt that showed off her tattoos, short jean shorts that perfectly hugger her hips and soft, perfectly shaped butt, and, for the first time that I’ve seen, a pair of white, dressy sandals. As I was looking at her sandals, I noticed how beautiful her feet were. It looked like she had just gotten a pedicure, her toes were slender, her feet blemish free from what I could see.

I don’t know why I had been so fixated. Sure, I enjoyed feet, I thought they could be sexy, but for some reason hers, much like her smile, captivated me. In fact, they captivated me so much that I almost missed her smiling and waving at me. I quickly caught myself and waved back with a smile. I couldn’t let her catch me staring, as that would make things a little more complicated. She pointed up stairs as if saying “Join me?” and I nodded, holding up a finger. “In a minute.”

I finished up the call I was on, turned to my coworker, a young girl in her early 20’s that seemed to have a crush on me, and told her I was heading upstairs.

“You’re just going to see Laurie,” Crissy snapped, popping her gum. “Every time she shows up you follow her around like a little puppy.”

“She’s my friend, Crissy,” I sighed, shaking my head. “We hang out, we talk, we have fun. You should try it sometime.”

Crissy cutely stuck out her tongue at me, then reached to answer another phone call. Quickly, I made my way upstairs, down the hall, and into Laurie’s office. It was always a welcoming location. She kept incense in her office to combat the smell of old theater, and always kept it nice and cool. Her office was filled with shelves of lights, lighting fixtures, random jars, odd objects that she, like me, liked to collect. I always felt comfortable in there.

“Shut the door,” she said in that voice that always seemed to make me forget about everything around me. It was a sweet, kind voice filled with joy. She always had a smile to offer, and a laugh just in the back of her throat, ready to go at a moment’s notice. I obliged and closed the door behind her. She was sitting in her old leather computer chair, and used her sandal-clad foot to push another chair toward me. “Have a seat! We’re watching Psych today!”

I sat and scooted my chair up next to her as she put Psych on the TV in her office. She handed me a soda, grabbed on for herself, and put her feet up on the desk.

“How was your week?” I asked, sipping my soda.

“You’re stalling,” she laughed softly. I cocked a brow at her, confused. “You said you had something weird? You know, you always find weird stuff. What is it this time? Another cat skull? Did you find me another bug for my collection?”

“Oh, right!” I said, quickly setting my drink down and reaching into my pocket, pulling out the cloth package. “This!” I unwrapped the package and showing her the gem necklace. She picked it up from the cloth and her fingers danced over it. I stared intently at her fingers. Her hands, despite the work she does, were soft and always well maintained.

As I watched her fingertips trace over the gem, it felt as though they were running delicately over my skin. It sent shivers through my body, and caused me to relax in a way I hadn’t in a long time. It almost felt as though she was holding me in her soft, beautiful hands.

“It’s an old necklace,” her voice snapped me out of my trance. “Nothing at all weird about it.”

“I, uh, it, er…I mean…” I was still a bit dazed after what I had just felt. She laughed softly, seeing me stammer over my words.

“Didn’t you tell me that now that you got the ‘asking me out’ thing out of your system you would be more comfortable, and less awkward around me?” She teased, tossing the necklace to me.

Still afraid to touch it, I flinched and pulled away, watching it fall to the floor. She raised a brow at me. “Is it dangerous? Did you let me touch something dangerous?!”

“What? No!” I searched my brain for the right words. How could I tell her what it does? I took a deep breath and sighed heavily. “Remember the oddities market I went to the other week?”

“Yeah.”

“Ok, well I was going through a box of stuff I found and got cut by a piece of glass. Well, some of my blood, I guess, fell on this necklace and it…Shit, I don’t know Laurie…It bound it to me?  It…became part of me? I don’t know how to explain it. There was this glowing, and tingling and-“

“And you’ve been drinking, haven’t you?” She teased.

“What? No! Well, I mean yes, but no. Listen, Laurie…I know it sounds weird but this necklace seems to have some kind of power. Like, it’s linked to me. And when I touch it, ONLY when I am touching it, it…I don’t know? It does to me whatever I’m thinking about!”

There was a long pause. A pregnant silence as she took a long sip from her soda. She set her can down and shook her head. “Sure, James. Sure. So,” she looked to the TV “What episode were we on?”

“No, look, I…Fuck I’ll just show you!” And with that I slowly picked up the necklace and turned the gem over in my hand. My stomach churned. I started sweating. All this build up and what if nothing happened? And how far would it go? What could it do? I had only tested it so much. What if all it did was take a couple feet off my height and nothing else?

And what would I do to prove it to her? Would I just thinking about being smaller? Nervously I looked around. My eyes fell to her feet, but I quickly looked away. I wouldn’t want to just become a random foot in a chair. My eye kept searching the room and suddenly they fell on her small jars full of different dead bugs she found. I squirmed in my chair, still trying to think.

“Why are you so antsy?” She sounded serious, almost concerned.

Antsy. Antsy…Ants. Ant. It just kept echoing in my mind. Ant. Bugs in a jar. Ant. A little, tiny ant. Crawling on the ground. Crawling up her sandals, across her soft, beautiful feet. Ant. I saw the familiar glow, felt the familiar tingle spread through my body. My clothes started getting larger and larger. Heavier and heavier. I was so lost in the sensation I couldn’t make out what she was saying. I vaguely remember seeing a look of concern on her face as she grew larger and larger.

She was standing now. So was I, I think, but I was so small it was as if I was sitting in the charge. She had rushed toward me. God, she had been beautiful before but now she was an absolute goddess. Seeing here there, towering over me, continuing to get larger and larger…I had been fixated. I gazed into her beautiful eyes, I focused on her soft lips. Giant lips that could now almost cover my entire body. But I was quickly losing sight of her as I shrunk away into my clothes. Concerned she would lose me, she quickly pulled me out of my clothes. Her hands, so warm and soft, were wrapped around my entire, naked body. Somehow I was still able to hold onto the gem, but I was lost.

Lost in thought. Lost in sensation. Lost in ecstasy at everything that was happening.  I had never been so turned on in my life. “J-James?” Her voice rang through my ears like a thousand angels calling to me. “James, say something”

“Ant” I whispered. It was the magic word. The instant the sound left my lips, the transformation became instant. No longer was I a rapidly dwindling man in her hands. No. No, now I was a tiny speck of an ant, standing on a mountain of soft, warm flesh. The gem had fallen from my grasp, fallen from her hands, fallen to the floor. Neither of us had noticed this, however. No, right now all she could focus on was the tiny, pathetic ant in her hand, and all I could focus on was the goddess that filled my entire world.

“James, can…can you hear me? Can you understand me?”

I twitched my antenna. I tried to speak. That was a stupid thought. Ants can’t speak, and even if they could, I was far too tiny to be heard. I tried to walk but there were so many legs to get used to. I tried to do something but all I could focus on was her. Her scent, now filling me completely. Her warmth, becoming on with me. Her indescribable beauty as her face was all I could see.

She leaned in closer. I had never been so close to her lips, her soft, plush lips. If I had had the gem now, I would have thought of nothing more than to be chapstick spread across them. Her warm breath washed over me, completely shattering my thoughts. I could form no thoughts other than a desire to have those lips pressed against my tiny body. To crawl across them. The be pulled past them and into her waiting mouth. I tried hard to walk, moving toward her lips.

“James?” she whispered. “James, what are you doing?” Gently she moved her hand toward the desk and I watched my entire world pull away. She placed her hand on the desk, dumping me carefully onto it. I tried to walk toward it, tried to be held by her once again, but it was pulled too far away.

“Oh my god, James! You’re a fucking ant!” Ever so slowly I saw my sky fill with the tip of her finger as she gently prodded me. I realized now just how small I was. A tiny sugar ant, no larger than a grain of sand. To her, nothing but a moving black speck. “James, we have to get you back”

She quickly reached down and grabbed the gem. “You…You said you had to be touching this, right?” She set it on the desk next to me. “Here you go, James. Come on, touch it and change back. This is so fucking weird.”

I stared at her, stared at the gem, then back at her. Slowly I approached the gem. I wasn’t ready to turn back. Not yet. I wanted to explore. I wanted to test this out. I wanted…I wanted to be one with her warmth, with her protection. But how could I tell her all this? How could I assure her everything was ok?

I stopped walking toward the gem, which towered over me like a mountain. Slowly I backed up, away from it.

“James?” She whispered.

I continued to back away from it. I couldn’t go back. Not yet. “James, are you saying you want to spend some time as an ant?”
I backed up more, and this caused her to giggle. “Oh really, now?” She looked around the room and grabbed an empty jar from a shelf, placing it next to me. “Well, I guess you can explore a little bit. But be careful. I may decide I like you much better like this, and you may just end up spending your life in this jar.” I looked at the jar, then back at her. If that would be my life, I would accept it. I don’t know what had gotten into me, but somehow I felt safe under her protection.

“Well, what episode were we on?” She asked again, picking up the remote. She found the episode she was looking for, then got comfortable in her chair. There was suddenly movement from her, a loud sound, and the desk shook. I looked over to notice that she had propped her feet up on the desk, mere inches from me. Her perfect feet, and beautiful sandals dwarfed me, teased me, called out to me. I couldn’t take my gaze away from them.

Slowly, I moved toward them.