Dorothy’s hand wrapped halfway around my jar as she carried it into work the next morning.  She had it pressed against her stomach, keeping me hidden from view and making sure she was the only thing I could see – as she called it, my “perfect set-up.”  Her hold was tight enough that her skin pressed firmly against the glass, but I was still jolted by every step.  I had given up trying to stand a while ago, and now simply bounced against the glass bottom with her gait.

She stooped to walk through a doorway, then strode toward her desk.  Through the glass bottom I watched Dorothy’s legs glide effortlessly over the carpet, her black high heels crushing and rolling over the fibers.  Her gradual turn around the desk was sharp enough to make me slide over the smooth surface, her constant slight changes of direction enough that friction never brought me to a stop.  The faux wood desktop came into view, and I knew it was time for the ride to end.

Dorothy pulled me away from her shirt, and as the fake wood grain grew larger in my view it felt like I was on an elevator plummeting rapidly toward the ground.  A tremendous bang echoed inside the jar while the force hit my body hard enough my teeth rattled.  She dropped her purse by the desk with a thud, and the chair creaked under her weight when she sat down.  Casters roared over plastic when she rolled to the desk, and the whole structure shook when she stopped herself with her hands.  Staring up at just her upper body looming over me gave me a new appreciation for how high she sat in her chair.

Looking around, I realized how utterly she intended to humiliate me.  My jar was placed in a conspicuous spot on her uncluttered desk, and there was no divider so the receptionist would seem more approachable.  Previously I had taken advantage of that so I could catch a glimpse of Dorothy no matter where I was, but now it meant everyone in the office would be able to see me.  There was a good chance that the first thing someone saw when they walked in would be a tiny man trapped in a jar.

There was nothing for me to do, so I figured I would survey the top of her desk.  Closest to me was the keyboard in front of Dorothy, a massively broad structure with keys twice as tall as I was.  Beside that was the enormous tower of her monitor, its glowing screen still showing the still image while waiting for her to log in.  On the far side was a building-sized phones, all its lights dark, with buttons as big as my chest.  Their cords, thicker than most ropes, ran into the darkness beneath her desk through a chasm behind the monitor.

Two loud pings on the glass grabbed my attention, and I spun to see Dorothy’s hand race away.  “Hey!” she snapped, peering down at me from her much higher vantage point.  “You’re supposed to be looking at me!  Isn’t that your favorite thing to do?”  She grinned smugly, then the desk rumbled while she typed in her password.  Being exposed and treated like a desk ornament was not the only discomfort I would have to endure.

The clock on Dorothy’s taskbar helped me keep track of the minutes ticking by.  I tried to keep my focus on her, stealing a glance toward it when I thought she was not looking so I had an idea how much longer I would have to endure this.  If my gaze strayed from her for too long Dorothy rapped on the glass to get my attention back, smirking each time.  She did not have to say anything for me to appreciate the irony.

It felt like everyone glanced at me on their way in, but it was a half hour before anyone said something.  Irene, my former cubicle mate, approached Dorothy’s desk and leaned forward until her hands cupped over her kneecaps, standing the way you would when talking to a small child.  The glass warped her face, making her dark brown eyes seem even larger, and her straight dark hair was pulled back in a bun.  She smiled and waved, which seemed condescending combined with her pose.

“Hey, I thought that was you!” she boomed.  After hearing her voice daily for the past few years, I was not ready for the deep rumble that emerged from her lips.  “I thought you quit, didn’t expect to see you back so soon!”

I looked at her in stunned silence for a moment.  “That’s what’s surprising to you?” I shouted, hoping the jar amplified my voice enough she could hear it.  “Me being here is the shock, not that I’m an inch tall?”

Irene stared at me, confused.  “Why would it be?” she asked.  “You were a bit on the short side, right?  I guess I just never saw you when we were both standing up.  I always figured I was taller than you, but wow!  I feel like I’m a giantess or something standing next to you!”

Dorothy chuckled.  “Trust me, I know the feeling,” she cut in before I could respond.  “Is there a rumor going around that he quit?  Because if there is, we need to squash that before it spreads.”

Irene stood to address her, seemingly forgetting about me in an instant.   As I gazed up at her towering over me, I understood how she felt.  “Yeah, didn’t you hear it before now?  Apparently, he sent Lisa his letter of resignation right before closing time on Friday, and she was pissed.”

“Oh, that?” Dorothy replied, laughing.  “I saw the letter, that wasn’t him leaving the company!    He was just transferring to a new position, as you can see.”  She pointed down at me and Irene nodded.  “He was getting frustrated standing on the keys to type, so he wanted something more in line with his skillset.”

Irene nodded a few more times and cradled an index finger against her lower lip.  “Yeah, I can see how that could be difficult for someone so small,” she finally said.  I was stunned; she had seen me type every day!  “Anyway, I should probably get back to work.  Catch you later!  The cubicle’s going to feel a lot smaller without you in it.”  She waved at me with her fingers and walked away.

“Tell the others to come say hi to him,” Dorothy called after her, “and feel free to stop by any time!”  She lowered her voice to address me, “You sure did.”

A few minutes later someone else stopped by and stood in the same demeaning way to address me as Irene had.  When her gray eyes got close I recognized her as Anna, someone I had often visited in accounting before Dorothy got hired.  Her blond hair was much shorter than the last time I had seen her, with her bangs swept off to one side.  She gave me a broad smile and leaned in until her nose bumped against the glass, making a loud scrape as she nudged it back.

“Hey, welcome back!” she said.  Her voice was powerful at my old size, and as it bounced between the jar’s walls I worried my eardrums were going to split.  “Hope you had a few good days off to help you adjust.”

“Come on, you have to notice,” I shouted back.  “The last time I was here, I wasn’t an inch tall!”

“Admittedly, I was sitting the last time I saw you, but you seemed pretty short then, too,” Anna replied.  “How’re you settling into your new position here?”

“It’s fine, I guess,” I answered, not really sure what to say.

“He’s still learning the ropes,” Dorothy interrupted.  “First hour of his first day and all.”

Anna nodded as though she had just been told a startling revelation.  “Right, of course.  Say, do you mind if I take him out of the jar real quick?  This is the first time in a while I’ve gotten a good look at him and, since he brought it up, I’d like to compare our heights.”

“Sure, go ahead,” Dorothy replied.  “Just be careful with him, I’m not sure if he’s back on the company insurance yet.”

Anna grabbed the jar, and I slid into the far wall when it tilted in her grip.  She set a hand flat, and I tumbled over the floor when she canted it the other direction.  I drifted along the wall when she upturned it, flowing through the jar’s neck into her palm.  Fortunately it was a soft landing, and I only bounced once off the waiting flesh.

Once I had settled, she reached in with her free hand and pinched the back of my collar.  Anna lifted me out of her palm and held me before her face.  While she studied me with her big gray eyes she smirked, and I could tell she was trying hard not to laugh.  “I guess I never noticed how small you are,” she said, suppressing a laugh by placing a hand over her mouth.  “But then again, with how small you are how could I?”  She could not resist any longer and broke into full-on laughter, tossing me like a ragdoll with the slight movement of her hand.

When she recovered, Anna considered me between her eyes for a moment before looking past me.  “Dorothy,” she began, “do you mind if I put him on the floor for just a second?  I want to see how he looks on equal footing.”

Dorothy’s chair creaked while she leaned back and pretended to consider the offer.  “Well, I guess I don’t see any harm in it,” she replied.  “Go on, but be quick about it.”  Anna let out a high-pitched squeal that pierced my ears, and my body shook while she vibrated in excitement.

My legs kicked up when Anna rushed me to the floor, and momentum kept them there until her hand suddenly stopped.  Her hand continued descending after my feet touched the ground, making me crouch before she finally released her hold on my collar.  She stood back to her full height and placed her hands on her hips while staring down at me.  I glanced to my left and right and found myself dwarfed by plain black flats on either side.  Looking up, I saw that Anna was, if anything, reveling in how she towered over me.

“You’re so puny I can barely see you!” she exclaimed.  “Like, I know I’m not super tall or anything, but next to you I’m gigantic.”

“That’s a common sentiment today,” Dorothy offered.

Anna laughed, then continued, “Man, if I’d known how small you were before I would’ve spent more time around you.  I feel like if I stepped on you right now, no one but me and Dorothy would know.”

“All right, I think that’s been long enough,” Dorothy cut in, offering Anna the jar.  “Scoop him up and put him back on my desk, he’s got work to do.”  I was not sure what my work was, but it would be less dangerous than this.  If Anna walked in either direction, I could be smashed under one of her shoes.

Anna took the jar and turned it upside down before bending over.  She placed the jar atop me, then moved it to the side until the neck bumped into me.  Her wrist turned and the glass caught my legs, flipping me up and into the jar.  As she righted the jar I slid back down along the walls, finally stopping against the bottom before it was vertical.  The sudden rush of movement when she stood made me lightheaded while it felt like my insides stayed on the floor, then it all caught up with a rush of vertigo when she suddenly stopped.  A thud shook the jar when she set it back on the desk, and after a quick wave Anna walked back to her desk.

The employees coming to gawk at me felt like a parade.  Every few minutes another one came, always with the same questions.  Dorothy sat back and watched, interjecting every now and then, glad that her new display piece was generating so much interest.  None of them acknowledged I had been shrunken even when prompted, always insisting that I had just seemed short to them.  Fortunately, no one else wanted to take me out of the jar, and I merely had to deal with them leering at me through the glass.

When the stream of people died down, I turned to Dorothy and asked, “You arranged this, didn’t you?”  If the others could hear me I knew she could, though it would be the first time she acknowledged it.

Dorothy came forward and slammed her elbows onto the desk, and the resulting shockwaves dropped me to my knees.  She leaned in close until her face dominated my view, her nose hanging over the jar’s opening.  “Arranged what?” she asked.

“This farce,” I clarified.  “No one acknowledging I’m an inch tall now.  If it weren’t a controlled response someone out of the dozens would have mentioned it.”

Dorothy laughed, a terrifying sound that made the whole environment tremble.  “Your obsession for me has made you think I’m some sort of demigod,” she said.  “I didn’t tell them anything.  Truth is, the human memory is more malleable than you can imagine.  They see you at an inch tall, I weave a little tale about you transferring positions, and you’re stuck on my desk for a while longer.  Now stop distracting me.  You’re supposed to be looking at me, not talking to me.”  She sat back up and returned to her work, making the desk tremble with every keystroke.

Lunch came, and Dorothy pulled a whole salad out of her purse.  I watched her pierce the leaves of spinach with her fork and cram them into her mouth, the mound of food making her cheeks bulge.  Her jaw worked up and down while she mashed it into a pulp, then gulped it down over several swallows, making a visible bulge as it passed through her esophagus.  Almost every day I had watched her eat this same meal, but my perspective was different now that I could end up on her fork.

Dorothy paid me very little mind while she ate until all that remained was a single vinegar-soaked leaf with some bits of cheese stuck to it.  She scooped it onto her fork so it draped over the tines, then moved it over the jar.  Vinegar dripped from the leaf to form a pool beside me, then she scraped her fork against the glass.  I stepped to the side just in time to get out of its way as it hit the floor with a splat.

“Eat up, little guy!” Dorothy implored.  “You always seem so interested in what I eat, I figured I’d start sharing it with you now.”  She smirked and turned back to her work, seeming to forget about me immediately.

I had not eaten since before I shrank, so I attacked the morsel she offered me.  My teeth clamped onto the green leaf, and the acrid taste of vinegar filled my mouth.  No matter how hard I tried, however, I could not tear the leaf with my teeth.  Even with my hands tearing at it I could not separate a bite for myself.  Swallowing my pride, I stepped onto the leaf and walked to where her tines had pierced it.  Knowing that it was this or nothing, I summoned my strength and tore off a handful, then jammed it into my mouth.  It took about an hour but I was famished, and working from that initial point I was able to consume the whole leaf.

No one came to visit me after lunch, though I was subjected to the mocking waves and glances as people passed by.  Anna came close enough to bump the desk with her hip as she walked past, and I decided that was enough.

“Hey, Dorothy!” I called out, knowing she could hear me now.  “Do you think I could get out of this jar and walk around for a bit?”

Dorothy shifted to loom over me, looking directly down at me from above.  “Why do you want out?” she asked, making her booming voice as patronizing as she could.  “Are you getting tired of looking at me?”

Answering that was a trap, so I moved past it.  “It just feels weird being out here and exposed to everyone.  Maybe I want to get some privacy beneath your keyboard, you know?”

She chuckled at the suggestion with the smuggest expression I could have pictured.  “So, what you’re saying is,” she began, then bit her lip to keep from laughing, “you don’t like it when people are always looking at you and can come talk to you whenever they want while you have to stay there and deal with it?”  This was another one of her traps, and I stayed silent until she growled, “I asked you a question, and I expect an answer.”

“Well, when you put it that way, yeah,” I answered, knowing she would not be satisfied until I did.  “I could use a chance to get away from everyone staring at me.”

“I know I’ve been saying this a lot today, but I know how you feel,” Dorothy replied.  “Unfortunately for you, I don’t feel bad for you.  You can deal with the same thing you did to me, I think.”  That seemed to settle it in her mind, and she went back to work.

For the rest of the day I stayed in the jar, watching people come and go as they pleased.  When they got too close I hid on the far side of the jar and crouched over, hoping they would walk past without bothering me.  They got the hint, and I was left undisturbed for the rest of the day.

When it was time to go home, Dorothy grabbed the jar and dragged it toward her so she could look straight down at me.  Being this close to her and having her still tower over me while sitting reinforced how puny I had made myself, and I gazed into her blue eyes through the hole in the glass.  She stared back down at me and let the silence grow with the tension.

When I could not bear it anymore, I shouted, “So we can leave now, right?”

Dorothy grinned and answered, “Yes, of course.  You can come home and sit on my coffee table while I mess around on my phone.  And tomorrow you can come to work with me and sit on my desk again.  And that’s how it’ll be, because you don’t have anywhere else to go in either situation.  Got it?”

I sighed, knowing I had no other option.  “Yeah, I got it,” I said.  No matter what I said, I was not getting out of this jar.

“Good.”  Dorothy reached down and grabbed her purse, then added, “I’m sure you didn’t get your fill of looking at me today, but don’t worry.  You’ll have plenty of time to stare at me longingly after I get home.”  She grabbed the jar so her fingers wrapped halfway around it, then stood and clutched it against her stomach.  Again the only thing I could see was her, and she stood and walked toward the exit.

Each step she took shook the jar, bouncing me in rhythm with her gait.  Through the glass bottom I could see her heels move over the carpet, covering an enormous amount of ground with each step.  She ducked under a doorway and made her way to the elevator, humming to herself as she walked.  Not only had she given me what I wanted, but she had done to me what I had done to her since she got hired.  I suspected the cycle would never end, and I was stuck as Dorothy’s desk ornament with nothing to do but look at the woman I had spent so much time looking at so I could avoid working.