My name is Ben Sullivan, and my first experience with miniaturization happened when I was eighteen years old, during my final year of high school. At that time, I was living with my mother, Lauren, and nine-year-old sister, Emily. It was the start of the winter holidays, and, as was usual for that time of the year, I had very little to do. Almost all of my friends were away for the holidays and there was little I could do but spend most of my time at home, playing games online or watching TV, although sometimes I would go for a walk outside my house. This particular holiday, though, would turn out to be very different than usual.

On a cold Saturday in the middle of November, I was lying on my bed and reading the latest bestseller when my mother knocked on my bedroom door. She was a tall, elegant woman of 44, standing 5’10” tall. She had long, flowing blonde hair, as did my little sister. My mom worked at a medical and biological research facility located just outside the city limits, although at the moment she was taking a couple of days off from work. She came in and sat down at the foot of my bed, and I asked her if anything was wrong.

“Ben…how would you like to take part in an experiment I’m currently working on?” she asked hesitantly. “I can tell that you’re pretty bored right now, and this might be a fun thing for us to do.”

“Umm…okay. What kind of experiment is it, Mom?”

“Well, for now it’s still supposed to be a complete secret, but, if everything goes according to plan, we’ll definitely make it known to the public somewhere down the line. It’s part of something I’m busy working on at my lab…and I’d like you to be my test subject.”

“Test subject? You mean, like, a guinea pig? It’s not dangerous or anything, right?”

“No, of course not! Well, at any rate, it shouldn’t be, not if we follow basic safety regulations. It’s just…well, a bit bizarre, that’s all. Not something I’d like to advertise to the wider world, if you understand me.”

I didn’t understand at all, in fact, so I asked her to explain exactly what it was she wanted me to do.

“I’ve developed a new medicinal formula that affects the human body. It’s part of a larger project aimed at attempting to eliminate, or at least reduce, the problems of overpopulation and worldwide food shortages. If it’s successful, it could be quite the breakthrough!”

“Okay, so what does this formula of yours do?”

“Well…to put it simply…it’s a shrinking formula.”

“A what?!”

I sat up straight when I heard that. Did she just say ‘shrinking formula?’ Mom laughed when she saw the shock on my face.

“Yes, you heard correctly!” she said, laughing. “It’s a formula that, when ingested, will decrease your size and weight by altering the scale of your constituent molecules. You’ll be reduced in size, but you’ll still look and feel exactly like yourself.”

“What, really? Wait, so how small is this going to make me?”

“Well, I’d like to do the experiment in stages. By which I mean, you’ll be shrunk down to ever-smaller sizes over the next three weeks or so. The first potion will reduce you to about one-quarter of your original height – so about eighteen inches, I’m guessing, assuming you’re now about six feet tall. And after that – well, who knows? I’d like to shrink you as small as possible, to see how your body copes with each new size.”

“Wow, no way! That’s impossible!”

“Well, that’s what we’re going to find out,” she said, smiling. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to decide right away…and if you don’t want to do it, that’s totally fine. But, on the other hand, being shrunk to a tiny size could be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for you, something you’ll remember for the rest of your life.”

“How…how long do the effects of the potion last? It’s not permanent, is it?”

“It is permanent, but there is an antidote – a re-enlargement potion, so to speak. However, in order for me to perform the full experiment, I will need to shrink you gradually over a period of at least three weeks. At the end of that time period, I will give you the re-enlargement formula and you will return to your normal size in about a week or so.”

I sat and thought about all of this. It sounded so farfetched, but also strangely enticing. Mom got up from my bed and headed for the door. She turned back to me and spoke again.

“If it sounds like something you’d like to try, let me know. I already have a sample of the formula here at home. On the other hand, if it sounds a bit too much for you to handle, that’s okay too. I can always find another test subject. I could of course test it on myself, but then, who’ll be able to record all the data I need?”

“What about Emily? Couldn’t you test the formula on her?”

“I could…but I’d rather have a subject who’s more-or-less fully physically developed – an adult, in other words. Like you, dear. Emily’s still busy growing, and I don’t know if the formula will affect her differently than expected.”

“I get it. Well, okay then…I’ll think about it. I’ll let you know by tomorrow, okay?”

She smiled and left the room. I lay back and tried to absorb everything she had told me. If what she said was true, she could shrink me down to the size of a baby – and even smaller. At that moment I remembered a dream I first had long ago, when I was still a little kid. In the dream I woke up to find myself shrunk, and everything around me was massive compared to me. I couldn’t remember the details of the dream, but I did remember that the whole experience had fascinated me, and ever since then being shrunk had been a secret little fantasy of mine, almost a desire. If Mom’s formula works, this could be my chance to live out that fantasy.

I decided not to wait for tomorrow, so that night, at the dinner table, I told my mom that I wanted to do it. She seemed surprised that I had made up my mind so soon.

“You can still back out if you want to, Ben,” she said to me. “Remember, I’m not forcing you to do this, and the next month won’t be an easy time for you. You’ll be tiny and almost completely helpless, and I’ll have to take care of you the whole time you’re shrunk. You’ll be giving up your freedom, essentially.”

“Yeah…you’re right,” I admitted. “But…I actually think it sounds like it could be fun, to be honest. And you said there wasn’t anything to be afraid of, so…what the hell, I guess! Besides, three weeks isn’t that long of a time, and what else is there for me to do right now in any case?”

My mother nodded in agreement and we spent the rest of dinnertime talking about what the experience would be like for me. Emily seemed pretty quiet the whole time, almost as if she didn’t like the idea at all. After dinner, Mom left the table and headed for her room, returning with a leather briefcase. Inside were several vials, each containing a transparent liquid. She took out one of the vials and carefully unscrewed the lid.

“This is the size reduction formula,” she explained. “Once you drink it, the miniaturization process will begin immediately. It’ll take about twelve hours, though, so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning before the process is complete. The formula also contains an ingredient that’ll help you fall asleep quickly, so you’ll probably want to go to bed right after taking it.”

I took the vial in my hand and examined it. It was just a plain, water-like liquid in a glass tube, nothing remarkable to look at. Hesitating for a long moment, I finally worked up the courage to drink it, which I did all at once. It tasted bitter and I immediately reached for my glass of juice to wash the taste down.

“How do you feel?” Emily asked, looking very anxious. I could tell she was afraid for me, almost as if she thought she’d lose her big brother somehow. However, she seemed a tiny bit excited as well.

“Uh…still the same, I guess,” I replied. “Just a little tired, though, so I guess you were right about going to bed early tonight, Mom.”

“That’s a good idea, Ben,” my mother said. “I’ll check in on you early tomorrow morning and then we’ll see whether the formula was successful or not.”

“Is there a chance that it…won’t work?” I asked. I was actually starting to regret my decision now…but it was too late to turn back.

“Perhaps…but we’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?” She smiled knowingly, as if she knew that it was going to work. “Sleep well, dear.”

“See you tomorrow!” Emily said, as I headed up the stairs to my room. I felt rather drowsy, as if all of my energy had been drained away, and just moving around took a lot of effort. At first, I couldn’t tell if I had started to shrink or not. However, as I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth, I noticed that my clothing felt rather loose. And when I stood at the washing basin, I saw that it was now at the level of my waist, not at the level of my hips like it had always been.

“I guess it’s really happening,” I thought fearfully. “Oh God, why did I ever agree to do this? What if Mom can’t change me back to normal again? How am I even going to be able to sleep tonight?”

That last concern, however, turned out to be no problem at all. The formula must’ve had some pretty strong stuff in it, because I soon felt incredibly numb and sleepy, so I climbed into my bed and turned off the lights. I was soon fast asleep, dreaming the same dream I had once had, all those years ago. Only this time the dream was about to become a reality.

When I woke up the next morning, everything had changed. I was lying underneath a huge blanket of thick, heavy cloth and my bedclothes were now much larger than I was. My bed itself was massive, at least four times my length. Mom’s shrinking formula had actually worked! I crawled out of my now-way-too-big clothing and tried to wrap the bulky blanket around my naked body. I was starting to feel very cold, but since I had nothing to wear, I had no idea what to do next. The floor was nine feet down from where I sat (as seen from my perspective, of course). I wondered if I should go and look for something I could use as clothing or sit here and wait for my mother to arrive. I decided to wait.

It wasn’t long before my mom knocked on my door and entered the room. I peered out from underneath my bedclothes and watched her advance towards the bed. She was wearing a fashionable coat and long skirt and looked lovely as always, but she was a giantess to me now, over twenty-five feet tall from my point-of-view, and I actually felt a little afraid of her. When she saw me, she hurried over and sat down on my bed, right next to me. I suddenly felt very small and frightened, looking up at her and how much bigger she was than me.

“Good morning, Ben!” she said, looking perfectly calm and composed. “Looks like the shrinking potion worked after all, didn’t it? How are you feeling, sweetie? Are you in any pain?”

I drew the bed sheets closer around me, uncomfortably aware that I was wearing nothing underneath them. Mom just kept on smiling down on me and gradually I began to feel more relaxed. She didn’t seem concerned at all, so why should I be? I tried to put on a happy face.

“Uh…I feel fine, I guess,” I said. “Just a little cold, that’s all. I don’t have any clothes that fit me now.”

My embarrassment must’ve been pretty obvious for my mother to see. It really felt like I’d been turned into a little child again. Mom laid her huge hand on my back and drew me closer to her.

“Yes, that is a big problem, one I honestly should have prepared for,” she said. “Hmm, I don’t think I have anything for you to wear right now, but I’ll make a plan later today. Until then, I believe I’ve got a temporary solution.”

She removed the knitted scarf she was wearing around her neck and began to wrap it around my body. The fabric was soft and quite comfortable, even if it wasn’t very practical to wear. When she was done, my whole body was completely wrapped up in the scarf and only my head, shoulders and arms were still free. I felt even more helpless than before, being now unable to move my legs or get around on my own. Mom didn’t seem to be concerned, though. She picked me up easily and without any effort, wrapping her hands around my waist, and gave me a giant-sized hug. Then she lay me gently down in her lap. I was in awe of her great size and strength, even though I knew it was really I who was much smaller now. She looked down at me lovingly.

“My dear little Ben,” she said. “This is going to take some getting used to for both of us, isn’t it? But you needn’t be afraid of anything, dear. I am here to look after you and to make sure everything goes smoothly. If there’s ever anything you’re worried about or don’t like, you can tell me, and I’ll bring you back to normal at once, understand?”

“I understand,” I said, my voice sounding faint and quavering to my own ears. It was such an awkward position for me to be in and I wondered if I would ever get used to it. “Everything’s just so big and…and scary now. You won’t let anything hurt me, right, Mom?”

“No, never! I can promise you that…my brave little man. Just relax and enjoy the whole experience, and let me take care of all the details, okay? Now, how about heading downstairs and getting some breakfast?”

“That sounds great, Mom. I’m really starving right now!”

“I can imagine! But first, would you mind if I took you into my little office downstairs and took some measurements? I’d like to know exactly how small my formula has made you. It won’t take long, I promise.”

“Uh…okay,” I replied. “I guess that’ll be fine…and I’d also like to know how small I am now. By the way, where’s Emily?”

“Huh? Oh, she’s downstairs somewhere, waiting to see you. She can barely contain her excitement, but I told her to wait while I went up to your room and made sure you were okay. She actually seems kinda happy that she’ll be having a little brother now instead of a big one! Okay then, shall we go?”

“Yeah…but…how am I going to get downstairs? I can’t move my legs while wrapped up like this, and I don’t want to walk around naked!”

“It’s all right, don’t worry! I’ll simply carry you, that’s all. You’ll have to get used to being carried around a lot, by the way. You’re still big enough at the moment to walk around on your own if you want to, but remember, the experiment has only just begun and I plan on shrinking you a lot smaller still in the days to come. But for now, I’ll simply carry you around myself, at least until I’ve found some sort of clothing for you to wear.”

She hugged me firmly against her chest with her right arm as if I were a tiny little infant. I tried to hold on to her huge chest with my puny arms, while sitting on her forearm. She stood up and began to walk. I was now being carried at least eighteen feet above the ground, but I felt safe in Mom’s arms. She headed out of the enormous bedroom and down the stairs to the study room/office where she did some of her work at home. While I was being carried like a baby, I looked around me at everything with a new sense of perspective. I was actually beginning to enjoy this unusual feeling of being small and having a vast, unfamiliar world around me to explore. Having a giant-sized mom was pretty cool as well. Once we reached the study, Mom set me down on the edge of her desk. She then fetched some measuring equipment – a tape measure, a pair of callipers and a scientific scale that could weigh objects with great accuracy.

“Okay, let’s get started,” she said. “I’m afraid you’ll have to take the scarf off for me, Ben. I know it must be awkward for you, but I am your mother, and you know that I only want to help you and make sure you’re okay. I’ll try and be as quick as possible with the measuring, but I want to be thorough as well.”

“Yeah, okay,” I mumbled. “Let’s just get this over with.”

I began to clumsily remove Mom’s scarf from my shrunken body. I had never really felt self-conscious before, but, then again, I had always been a six foot-tall, athletic, muscular guy, without any issues regarding how I felt about my own body. I suppose I was still an athletic, muscular guy, but I definitely wasn’t six feet tall anymore. I lay down flat on the giant desk so that Mom could measure my length, while awkwardly trying to cover my nether regions with my hands. To be honest, the cold bothered me more than the fact that I was naked in front of my mom. Noticing how uncomfortable I was, she measured me quickly, then used the callipers to measure my shoulder width, waist, arm thickness and several other minor measurements. When she was done, I quickly sat up and grabbed her scarf, hastily wrapping it around my midriff.

“Hmm, this is interesting,” Mom said, entering the newly gathered data into her computer. “Looks like you’re only sixteen inches tall now, Ben. The potion reduced your size a little bit more than I was expecting it to. Now, let’s find out how much you weigh.”

“Uh…Mom, can I be alone for this?” I asked her sheepishly. “I mean, I know you’re just here to help and all, but…this really is very embarrassing for me. I’ll climb onto the scale and weigh myself, and then I’ll tell you, but I’d like to be alone if that’s okay.”

My mom understood my plight and didn’t argue. She left the room for a bit while I stripped and climbed onto the scale. I only weighed about two pounds and two ounces now – less than a third the weight of a new-born baby! When I told Mom, she didn’t seem surprised at all.

“Well, it’s just basic maths that your mass would decrease by a greater factor than your height, so this makes perfect sense,” she said. “In fact, your lower mass ratio compared to your height might even make life easier for you. You won’t hurt yourself as much when you fall, for instance, as a full-sized person would…though I wouldn’t go jumping off any tall buildings – or furniture – yet if I were you. Remember, this is still a completely novel experiment we’re conducting here. You are the first person in history to have been miniaturized in any way, and we don’t know how your body will react to everything around you yet.”

The momentousness of the situation was becoming clear to me.

“Wow…I guess I never really thought about it like that,” I said. “This…this is actually pretty cool, Mom! Being tiny, I mean. Just…please promise me you’ll find me some clothes soon, okay? What if someone else sees me like this?”

Mom laughed and promised me again that she’d come up with a solution to my clothing problem soon.

“Speaking of someone else, I’m sure your little sister is dying to meet you,” she reminded me. “Come on, let’s get some breakfast for you, and you can show Emily that you’re still perfectly okay. She’s been worried all morning.”

After swaddling me up tightly in her scarf again, my mom took me up in her mighty arms and held me close to her body, then began heading to the kitchen. My new life had begun and I wondered how things would be from now on.

When we arrived in the kitchen, Emily was there already. She leapt up excitedly when she saw us and ran over to us. My younger sister now stood over three times taller than me.

“Wow, is that really Ben?” she exclaimed. “Mom, he’s so little! Look at him, he’s like a little baby now! Can I hold him, please? Please?”

“Of course, you can!” my mom said, laughing. “Just be careful, okay? He can easily get hurt now, at this size. And please don’t remove the scarf he’s wrapped in – he’s not wearing anything underneath!”

My twenty-foot-tall little sister took me eagerly in her arms. I was turned upside-down and around in every direction as she examined me. She seemed completely spellbound by the fact that her big brother was now smaller than a new-born baby.

“This is the coolest thing ever!” she exclaimed, easily throwing me up in the air and catching me in her hands. “Hey, Ben – how do you like being the little one for a change?”

“Could you put me down, please?” I begged her. “I don’t like being thrown around like this! And I’m still your big brother, okay? That means you have to listen to what I say!”

“Whatever you say, ‘big brother’!” she said, grinning at me. “Oh, Ben, we’re going to have so much fun together now! Mom, can I keep him for the rest of day?”

“No!” I exclaimed. “Mom, don’t let her do this!” I really didn’t like the idea of being my giant sister’s plaything for a whole day – especially when I still didn’t have anything to wear!

“It’s okay, Ben!” Mom said, laughing. Emily had put me down on the kitchen table in the meantime. “There’s no need to yell like that! If Emily wants to have a little fun with you, that’s nothing to get upset about. I know she’ll look after you and make sure you don’t come to any harm – isn’t that right, Emily dear?”

“Uh-huh, you bet!” the little girl said mischievously. “I’ll make sure nothing bad happens to him. You’re safe with me, little bro…oops, sorry – ‘big brother’, I mean!”

I trembled at what she had in store for me and looked up at my mom for support. But she was still busy fixing breakfast, so I turned my attention back to Emily. She giggled again and grabbed me, then hugged me tightly against her chest. My face was pressed into the fabric of her jacket and I struggled feebly against the pressure of her powerful embrace.

“Aw, don’t look so scared, you little baby!” she said. “I’m not going to hurt you; you know I’ll never do that! You’re still my brother and I’ll take good care of you. You’ll be my little playmate for today and I’ll make sure nothing happens to you. If you don’t want to play with me, that’s fine – but you might get bored really quick! I mean, there’s not much you can do at this size, is there?”

“Sure, there is! I just need to find some clothes first, that’s all! Mom said she’d help me with that later today…right, Mom?”

“All right, breakfast’s ready!” Mom interrupted, apparently not having heard me. “Emily, put your brother down on the table, please. Let him get used to all of this first, before you plan on doing anything too spirited with him.”

Emily lay me down on the table. I was still wrapped up in Mom’s scarf and my legs were totally immobile. It was quite humiliating for me to be so powerless, but I hoped it would only be temporary, until I had some proper clothes to wear. Mom took me and sat me upright against her arm on the table. I was then given a little saucer with some bacon and scrambled eggs on it, as well as a miniature plastic cup filled with juice. The food would have been barely enough for one bite, had I been normal sized, but it was more than enough to satisfy me now. Mom told me that, since I had been reduced in size to only 22% of my original height, I only needed one-ninetieth my usual intake of food and drink.

“This’ll actually help me save a lot on groceries,” she joked. “You always did have a big appetite, Ben. I might have to keep you at this size indefinitely!”

“Hey Mom, can I take Ben up to my room after breakfast?” Emily interrupted as I was busy eating. “I could give him some of my dolls’ clothes to wear, since he’s about the same size now. Then he won’t have to stay trapped in your scarf all the time.”

“Hmm…that’s actually not a bad idea, Emily!” Mom said. “That’ll save me the trouble of having to make him something myself immediately. What do you think, Ben, does that sound good to you? If you don’t like it, I can always go back to the original plan.”

“Yeah, okay, whatever,” I said, sighing. I didn’t think things could get even more humiliating for me than they already were in any case. I also didn’t want to start an argument on my very first day of being shrunk, and it’s not like anyone besides my family would find out about all of this. After breakfast I would’ve liked nothing better than to go back to my room, but Emily had other plans for me. She picked me up and held me up to her face.

“Ready to come with me, little guy?” she asked sweetly.

“Do I have a choice?”

“Oh, come on, it’ll be fun! You’ll see!”

Emily practically ran up the stairs to her room, her miniature brother tucked firmly under her arm. I realized that I only weighed a couple of pounds now and that even a little girl like my sister could easily pick me up with just one hand. Initially I hated being carried by her like this, but gradually I began to feel that I kinda liked it. Once we were in her bedroom, she sat down on her bed and lay me down on top of her pillow. I really was just like a doll to her now and I could see how much fun all of this must be to her. She loosened the folds of the scarf I was wrapped in a little bit, exposing me down to the waist. This made me really uncomfortable and I began to protest, but Emily shushed me.

“Relax, little bro!” she said, giggling. “I don’t wanna see what you look like naked either. I’m just helping you get out of that cocoon you’re trapped in. You don’t look strong enough to do it on your own.”

“I’m strong enough!” I argued. “I did it before in Mom’s office just now! I’m not completely helpless, Emily!”

“You look like it, though,” she teased me. “Aw, Ben, you look so cute when you’re frowning like that!”

I wanted to get her back, but I realized that trying to stand up for myself would just make her tease me even more. Even though she was annoying me greatly, she was still my sister, and I knew that she in actual fact really cared about me. She was just having some fun, that’s all, even if it was at my expense. I also knew she’d never tell anyone else about all of this, so I decided to relax and just go along with whatever she was planning for me. My pride and manliness had pretty much disappeared the moment I woke up this morning anyway. Emily gave me a gentle hug, then sat me down next to her on the bed. I felt so puny, sitting next to this preteen giant, but I no longer felt afraid. I was in a new world now, and I wanted to enjoy exploring it.

“I’ll go and see what clothes I have for you,” she said. “Just stay here and wait for me.”

“Thanks, Emily,” I said. “Sorry for being so difficult earlier. This…well…this is actually a really cool thing you’re doing for me.”

“Really? You mean it? Does this mean I can call you ‘little brother’ from now on?”

“I…yeah, okay…big sister.”

She knelt down next to the bed, still looming over me, and gave me another hug. This time it actually felt really good, to my surprise: she was careful not to crush me too hard in her strong arms, hugging me just hard enough to let me know how devoted she was to me. She then began looking around her room for any dolls whose clothes would fit me. Most of them were too small however, and in the end, she only found one that was the right size. It was a doll of a little girl, wearing a fancy blue dress and a blue bonnet. Of course, I didn’t want to wear girls’ clothes, but Emily had already made up her mind. She undressed the doll, then held the blue dress next to me and made sure it was the right size for me.

“Here, put this on,” she said, putting the dress by my side. “I can’t wait to see what you look like!”

“Um…Emily…you know that’s a dress, right? Only girls wear dresses, and I’m not a girl.”

“Yeah, so?”

“So? I’m not wearing that! I’ll look ridiculous if I wear that! Don’t you have any boys’ clothes somewhere?”

“Nope! Looks like this is it, little bro! Oh, Ben, don’t look at me like that! Come on, just try it on! Just for today, please! I wanna see what you look like in a dress!”

“No, I’m never…okay, fine, I’ll put on your stupid dress! I’m not wearing the bonnet though – you can forget about that!”

Emily just giggled even more. I reluctantly agreed to wear the dress, but only until Mom made me some proper clothes. I also asked her (politely) to leave the room and give me some privacy while I put it on. She grinned down at me and patted me on the head, clearly relishing her newfound power over me. But she did at least agree to leave the room while I got dressed. I climbed out of my scarf cocoon and looked at the dress Emily had given me. It was a fairly simple long gown, with long sleeves, made out of some kind of velvety fabric. I slipped it on, and to my surprise it was really comfy to wear. It was slightly too big for me and the fabric felt a little cumbersome, but I didn’t care. I had something to wear, at least for now. When I was done, I called Emily’s name as loudly as I could, and she re-entered into the room. She cried out in delight when she saw me dressed as one of her dolls and scooped me up in her mighty arms.

“Oh Benny, you are so totally adorable right now!” she cooed. “You look so pretty! Here, come and see what you look like!”

She walked over to a mirror on the other side of the room and held me up in front of it. I looked at my reflection, stunned by how miniscule I looked in my baby sister’s hands, and my face grew red from embarrassment. But Emily looked so pleased that I decided not to let it bother me. Let her have some fun with me, I told myself. She’ll never have this opportunity of having her big brother as a doll again. She flung herself back on her bed and held me above her head.

“This is so awesome!” she said. “I wish I could keep you like this forever, Ben! You’re so much cooler now than when you were big!”

“If you say so…”

“Ha-ha, you look so sad! Don’t be sad, my little baby brother. I promise I won’t tease you from now on…too much.”

“Hey, as long as no-one else except you and Mom sees me like this…you can have as much fun with me as you want, big sis.”

“Really?! Ben, you’re the coolest brother ever! I won’t tell anyone about you without asking you first, I promise. Not even…no wait, we have to tell her. You have to tell her, Ben!”

“Tell her? Who are you talking about, Emily?”

“Why, Kara, of course!”

Kara was a girl a year younger than me whom I had been on a couple of dates with. I had met her at a school sporting event – she was in a different school than I was, a girls’ school – and we have become quite close, having even gone on a couple of dates together. Of course, I would love to take our relationship further than that – I found her really attractive and nice, and she seemed to really like me as well – but that was out of the question with me being in my present state. Besides, she still had a couple of weeks of school ahead before her holidays began, so I hadn’t really planned on meeting up with her that much before the end of the year.

“Are you crazy?” I asked Emily. “I can’t let Kara see me like this! It’ll be over between us immediately!”

“Really? I thought you said there was nothing between the two of you! You’re just friends, right?”

“Yes, we are friends…really good friends, to be honest…and there isn’t anything serious between us, not yet at least. But I really like her and would like to take things further…but if she sees me when I’m like this, there won’t be anything between us ever again!”

“How do you know? Maybe she likes cute little tiny guys…”

“Drop it, Emily! I’m not gonna call her or anything like that until I’m back to my normal size again! Now put me down! I’m getting sick of you holding me like this…”

“Okay, if that’s how you feel…” Emily said, sighing. She sat up again and put me down on the floor in front of her feet. I looked up at her and felt incredibly small and pathetic. I regretted shouting at her just now, so I mumbled an apology. She looked down at me with a clear look of superiority.

“I think we should do something together another time,” she told me. “I’m feeling kinda tired right now.”

“Okay,” I said. “I guess I’ll go back to my room then. See you later…and, uh, thanks for the clothes. You’re right, they are better than wearing nothing, or being wrapped in Mom’s scarf.”

“No problem!” she said. “You look really cute in a dress, you know. But I’ll ask Mom if we can go shopping tomorrow, then I’ll look for some boy dolls that are your size. Maybe we can find something that fits you then.”

“Thanks, Emily. That’s really nice of you, to do that. Oh, and please don’t tell Mom I said this…but I kinda like having a big sister for a change.”

She smiled down at me. I walked up to her and hugged the lower half of her leg, which made her giggle. Then I left her bedroom and walked down the colossal hallway to my own room. Walking around in a long skirt took some getting used to and I almost tripped over the fabric a few times before I got the hang of it. My door was open, thankfully, and I went inside. Everything around me was so overwhelming now. I wasn’t completely trapped on the floor, though. I found it possible to scramble up the side of a chair at my desk, and from there I could hoist myself up onto my desk itself. My laptop computer was lying before me, its screen now nearly as wide as I was tall. I could still use my computer, though pressing the keys now required a bit of moving back-and-forth on my part. I browsed around on the Internet for a while, then got bored and took a running jump down from my desk onto my bed. I sat down on my pillow and tried to come to terms with my new size.

“It’s not so bad, being small,” I thought. “I do feel way more helpless than I’d like, but Mom and Emily are here for me, so I guess it’s not that big a deal. It’s going to be tough living like this for a whole week, though – and after that I’m going to be shrunk down in size even more. Just how small does Mom plan on shrinking me eventually? I wish I knew…”

I also thought about what Emily had said about calling Kara. She and I were getting along very well, and I’d actually gotten the impression that she really enjoyed my company. If she saw me like this, would she freak out and refuse to see me again…or would she think that what I was doing was pretty cool and interesting and stick around? It was only a temporary thing, after all. By the time her school holidays came around I would be back to my normal size in any case – but I would like to see her again before then. Maybe I should risk it and see what happens…

My first day being shrunk turned out to be rather uneventful. I mostly stayed in my room, though eventually I did grow bored and decided to explore a little. Still wearing the dress Emily had given me, I headed downstairs, which took some time since each step was now three feet high to me. I tried to find some way out of the house, but the door handles were all way too high for me to reach, as were the windows. It was also pretty cold outside and I wasn’t dressed very warmly, not to mention being barefoot as well, so I decided to stay indoors today. I went to the living room, climbed onto the gigantic couch (which took quite a bit of effort) and decided to watch some TV.

Later that afternoon, my mom came into the room, looking for me. I turned off the television and she sat down on the couch next to me. Her great size once again made me feel puny and inadequate. Mom noticed how ill at ease I looked and lifted me up with her hands, then sat me down on her knee. She kept me from falling by wrapping her fingers around my waist.

“So, I see Emily has found something…interesting for you to wear,” she said, looking amused. “I have to say, you look really pretty in that dress, dear. Would you like to keep it on while you’re this size, or would you like me to make you something a bit more manly to wear?”

“Yes, please!” I blurted out. “Being this tiny is awkward enough already! I don’t want everyone to make fun of me for wearing girls’ clothes too.”

“It’s all right, I understand,” Mom replied. “I’ll see if I can find something for you by tomorrow. I’m heading in to work tomorrow morning, by the way, and I’d like to take you with me, if that’s okay with you. I would like to perform some more thorough tests on you, just to see if you really are okay and everything.”

“Uh…okay. Is it just gonna be you and me…or will there be other people there too?”

I was really afraid of letting others see me like this, especially people I didn’t know. Mom reassured me that there was nothing to worry about. She would introduce me to a couple of her colleagues who had helped her work on the shrinking serum, and who were eager to find out if their hard work had borne any results. But for most of the day, she told me, it would just be me and her in her laboratory. I agreed to come along with her.

“Thank you, Ben,” she said, giving me a hug. “You really are very brave, you know, agreeing to take part in all of this, just to help your mother with her research. I’m very proud of you!”

“Thanks, Mom!” I said, her huge arms squeezing me tightly against her chest. “I’m actually enjoying being this tiny, you know?”

“You are? That’s good news, sweetie. I’m glad you decided to trust me, even though the size reduction process is still completely experimental and untested.”

“I know…but I also know how smart you are, Mom. You promised me that you could bring me back to normal, and I know you’ll keep that promise.”

“That’s right…even though I must admit, having a little doll-sized teenage son does make my life a lot easier! You’re so much more manageable now, and a lot easier to take care of as well!”

I knew she was only joking, but a part of me wondered what my life would be like if I really was stuck like this forever. There would be loads of things that I’d never be able to do, including going out with my friends, driving a car, getting a job, living by myself one day...I suddenly remembered what Emily had said, about letting Kara know about my present condition. Maybe if I asked Mom about it, she could give some advice? As I sat on her knee, I told her about my plan, and asked her if she thought it was a good idea or not. Her answer surprised. me.

“Why, I think it’s a wonderful idea, Ben!” she said. “Yes, I think you should definitely get in touch with Kara and tell her about our little experiment. Maybe she’ll be excited…”

“Or maybe she’ll think I’m a total weirdo and she’ll never want to see me again!” I interrupted.

“Oh, come on!” Mom scoffed. “You don’t really think she’s that superficial, do you, Ben? I’ve never met her myself, but from what you’ve told me about her, she sounds like a wonderful, kind, intelligent young lady. Why would she abandon you just because you’re going to be smaller than her for a short while? Or are you telling me she really is that shallow, and that she’s only interested in you for your looks? In that case, maybe you shouldn’t call her…or maybe you should and tell her that it’s over between the two of you.”

“But we haven’t even begun…I mean, we’re still only friends…but I really like her, Mom, and I don’t wanna screw things up between us. And she’s not shallow! She likes me too, I know it, it’s just…”

Mom held me firmly by the waist, her long fingers easily wrapping around my shrunken body.

“Call her,” she told me, and I nodded obediently. “Invite her over and let her see what you’re going to be up to for the next few weeks. I’m sure she’ll be very excited that her boyfriend…oh, sorry, potential boyfriend, I mean…is busy making history.”

“But what if she doesn’t believe me, Mom? What if she thinks it’s just some stupid prank that I’m playing on her, and she doesn’t want to see me anymore?”

“Now you’re just being silly, Ben. If you ask me, I think you’re just trying to come up with an excuse not to see her. But you needn’t worry – I’ll call her for you. I’ll just get her number from your phone and give her a call, maybe sometime tomorrow. Then I’ll invite her over after school. She’ll be thrilled to see you, I know it.”

“If you really think so…okay. You can call her from my phone any time you want, Mom. Thanks.”

“No problem! Then I can also make sure she promises not to tell anyone else about this secret experiment we’re busy with. In any case, I’m just glad there’s something I can still help you with, sweetie. What with you already being grown-up by now, I sometimes feel like we’re not spending any more quality time together. But we’ve got a chance now, haven’t we?”

I agreed, then told my mom that she could carry me around with her for the rest of the day. She was right that we didn’t spend much time together, since I was always hanging out with my friends instead, or with Kara these last few weeks. But I didn’t mind hanging out with my mom for a while – especially since I didn’t really have much choice at the moment, nor was there much else I could do on my own. Mom picked me up and held me up against her chest, so that I sat on her forearm.

“How about we go for a little walk outside?” she suggested. “You must be feeling so bored, being trapped in the house like this.”

“Okay…but what if someone else sees me?”

“Don’t worry about that! I’ll just carry you like this, wrapped up in a blanket, so that only your face is visible. You’ll look just like a little baby to any passers-by, unless they look really closely, which most people don’t do when passing someone else in the street. It’ll also help keep you warm, which I don’t think that lovely dress you’re wearing will do on its own.”

Her plan seemed good to me, so I agreed. Mom fetched a little pink baby’s blanket, which had once been Emily’s when she’d been an infant, and wrapped me up completely in it. It was nice and warm and only my face was let uncovered. Then she positioned me on her right forearm and stabilized me with her left hand, just as if she were carrying a baby. I was perfectly comfortable and could look around with ease. Mom told Emily that we’d be gone for a short while, then left the house with me in her arms. I didn’t tell her so, but I was secretly enjoying this experience. She walked all the way to a nearby park, chatting with me all the while. There were very few other people out and about, since it was a cold day and everywhere was covered in a blanket of snow. Mom sat down on a bench and cradled me in her arms.

“I can’t wait to tell my friends about this, once they get back from their holidays,” I said as my mom held me tightly. “You don’t have any more of the shrinking stuff left, do you, Mom? I think it could be a lot of fun if some of my friends tried it as well.”

“My, my, you really are enjoying this, aren’t you?” Mom said, giving me a wink. “You want to invite some of your friends over and have a ‘shrinking party’, is that it?”

“Well…yeah…if it’s possible…”

“I’ll think about it…but first, let’s make sure all of the size reduction formulas I’ve been working on are safe to use first, okay?”

“By testing them on me?”

“That’s right! You volunteered for this, remember? If something does go wrong, I’ll restore you to your normal size immediately, don’t worry.”

“I’m not worried. So, how much longer until you make me even smaller, Mom? And how small am I gonna be then?”

“I don’t know. These potions haven’t been tested on human beings before, remember? As to when, I’m thinking next Saturday would be a good time to give you the second potion. That gives you one whole week at sixteen inches tall.”

“That sounds great! Hey Mom, could we maybe go back soon? This is really fun and all, but it is pretty cold out here…”

“That’s okay, Ben, I’ll take you back right now. I definitely don’t want you to catch a cold while you’re shrunk, that’ll just ruin the whole thing, wouldn’t it? Here maybe this will help.”

She took me and tucked me underneath her coat, carrying me hidden away like this all the way back home. Once we were back, Mom removed me from my blanket and dropped me off on the living room couch, then went to start preparing dinner. Emily came and kept me company and we watched TV together for a while, with me sitting in her lap and her arm draped across me, as if she wanted to stop me from getting up and leaving, which I didn’t plan on doing in any case. At dinnertime, Mom came and picked me up again, her fingers curled firmly around my waist, and took me to the dinner table. There was a plate with a tiny amount of food on it for me, as well as a little cake fork for me to eat with. Eating with this oversized utensil turned out to be quite a challenge, but eventually I got the hang of it. As we ate our dinner, Mom brought up the subject of my personal hygiene – specifically how I would be taking baths.

“There’s a large washing basin in my bathroom that I think would be perfect for you,” she told me. “I’ll fill it up with hot water every evening, then I’ll give you about ten or twenty minutes to wash yourself and get dressed again. Does that sound good to you, Ben?”

“Yeah, uh, thanks, Mom. That sounds great. Are you sure you won’t mind?”

“No, not at all. It’s the least I can do. After all, you were kind enough to agree to my experiment in the first place. By the way, dear, have you…um, how do I put this…have you felt the need to go to the toilet at any time today?”

“Actually…no, I haven’t,” I answered. Suddenly I felt very worried. “Why? Should I have…I mean, nothing’s gone wrong, has it?”

“No, I don’t think so. In fact, this was one of the predicted side-effects for the shrinking formula, so I’m actually glad to see that my predictions were right. The size reduction process causes many bodily functions to fluctuate – for instance, your hair shouldn’t grow any longer than it is now, and your facial hair shouldn’t grow either. As for going to the toilet…well, that shouldn’t have stopped entirely, but you won’t have to go nearly as much as you used to when you were still your regular size.”

“Okay, I understand. It’s very weird, though…but then, everything about this feels weird and abnormal!”

Mom laughed and stroked me gently with her hand.

“You’re very brave, sweetie, as I’ve told you before” she said. “Come on, finish up your dinner, then I’ll take you up to my room for your bath.”

My bath turned out to be an interesting experience. Mom took me to her bathroom and filled up her washing basin with hot water. She put a few drops of her shampoo on the edge of the basin, then she cut off a small chunk of her bath sponge and a flake of her soap for me to use. She also gave me a few sheets of tissue paper to use as towels. When everything was ready, she left me to myself and promised to collect me in half an hour’s time. I took off my dress and lowered myself into the seven-foot-wide basin. The warm water all over my body felt amazing. I washed myself and splashed around in the water for a bit, then lay back and relaxed, feeling totally at one with the balmy water. Eventually I got out and dried myself off with the tissues. I put on the doll’s dress again and waited for my mom to come and collect me.

I also needed to use the toilet then, but Mom had a better idea. She emptied out the basin and told me that I could use it instead, since the actual toilet was now much too big for me to use. She also gave me some toilet paper I could use. Since I was so small, there was no danger of my waste blocking the basin’s drain. After that had been taken care of, I was feeling pretty sleepy and decided it was time for bed. I was fine with sleeping in my own bed, but Mom didn’t like the idea of me being alone at night, in case anything unexpected happens.

“Please, Mom I’ll be fine!” I insisted. “Just because I’m the size of a baby doesn’t mean I am one! Besides, where the hell else am I gonna sleep?”

“Well, you’ll have to stay either with myself or with Emily,” Mom replied. “As to what you’ll be sleeping in, I think I have an idea.”

That idea turned out to be a little baby’s crib, less than three feet long, with wooden bars all around it. Like the blanket earlier, it had once been Emily’s, but of course she hadn’t used it for many years. My mom carried it into her room, with Emily following her, while I sat helplessly by on her bed and wondered if I should object to this further assault on my dignity. Mom didn’t give me any time to raise my objections, though. She simply lifted me up and lowered me down into the crib, then covered me up with some blankets. The bars around me were over two feet high, too high for me to climb over. I was trapped. Mom and Emily looked down at me from their lofty height, very obviously amused at my situation.

“He’s just too adorable like this!” my little sister said, grinning from ear to ear. “He can sleep in my room, Mommy. Then we’ll both know that he’s safe, and if he wants to go to the bathroom during the night, he can just wake me, and I’ll take him.”

“That’s very nice of you, Emily. Yes, I think it’ll be best if he stays with you tonight. If he’s too much trouble, I can always take care of him from tomorrow onwards.”

“Oh, he won’t be any trouble at all – will you, little Benny? He’s so small and cute, I just want to cuddle him all night!”

She stooped down and scooped me up in her great arms, then cuddled me tightly against her chest. Mom knelt down beside her and hugged her as well, and I was surrounded by the enormous bodies and arms of my mom and sister. It was an amazing feeling.

“I wish he could stay like this forever,” Emily sighed, as she lowered me back into my crib.

“I know, darling, but you know he can’t,” Mom replied. “He’s probably already tired of us two treating him like a little baby, aren’t you, Ben?”

“Uh…yeah…a little,” I said. “But I don’t mind being tiny if it’s for a few weeks only. Can I go to bed now, please? I don’t know why, but I’m just really, really tired, and I wanna get some sleep…”

“Of course. Good night, dear, and sleep well. I’ll come and fetch you tomorrow morning before work. I’ll also have made some new clothes for you by then, I promise.”

Mom lowered her head down all the way into the crib and gave me a little kiss on the forehead. Emily then picked up the crib, with me lying comfortably inside it, and carried it all the way to her own bedroom. She put it down next to her bed and looked down at me adoringly. She had always been fond of me when I had still been a big brother to her, but now that I was essentially her new favourite doll, she seemed to adore me even more.

“Good night, my little Ben-doll,” she said. “I hope you sleep well – and thanks for letting me dress you and everything. Most of my friends’ older brothers and sisters would never let them do something like that. But you’re not like most older brothers, are you? You’re much more awesome!”

“Thanks, Emily. You make a pretty awesome big sister, you know? If you like, we can hang out tomorrow, once Mom brings me back from work.”

“Yeah, that’ll be great! I have to get back from school too, but then we can have some fun. See you tomorrow!”

I slept like a log that night, and when I awoke the next morning, I found that Emily was already awake and had left the room, leaving me to sleep on. Instead, it was my mom who greeted me, looming tall above me, and lifting me up in her arms after I woke up.

“Good morning, little Ben!” she said happily. “You look like you’ve had a good night’s sleep, am I right?”

“Yeah,” I mumbled, still feeling pretty sleepy. “Oh God, this still feels so weird.”

So began the second day of my new miniature life. Settling into it proved to be a lot easier than it had been yesterday. Mom and Emily had both been very supportive all the way and I felt lucky to have such a great family to spend time with. Mom had also made good on her promise and made some new clothes for me – mostly simple T-shirts and pants, which she’d sewn together from some loose fabrics she had lying around. She put me down on my sister’s bed and handed me my some of my new clothes, then told me that she’ll give me some time to try them on, while she went downstairs and fetched me some breakfast. We would be leaving immediately afterwards. Mom was already dressed for work in a dark blue jacket, knee-length skirt, and high heels. After she’d left the room, I slipped off Emily’s dress and tried on my new, more masculine clothes. They were comfortable enough, but they were bit bulky and didn’t fit me exactly. I couldn’t complain, though. It was better than having to wear a dress, in any case.

After breakfast, it was time to set off. Emily usually took the bus to her school, so she left a little bit earlier. I would be riding along with Mom in her car. Since I was still supposed to be a secret, Mom didn’t want everyone at the facility she works at to know about me, merely the couple of co-workers who’d helped her to develop the shrinking serum. So, she decided to carry me in a small basket once we arrived at the place, covered in several blankets. This would look innocent enough and she could always make an excuse as to what she needed a basket filled with blankets for. On the way there, however, she gave me the choice of sitting in the passenger seat next to her or in her lap while she was driving. I chose to sit in her lap, of course – it was way comfier, after all. Only the lower bit of the oversized seatbelt covered me as I sat on her skirt, but it was almost as wide as my torso and more than enough to hold me down securely. Mom’s huge arms stretched above my head from her shoulders to the steering wheel. I was way too small to see out through any of the car’s windows.

“Do you still like being this small?” she asked once she’d pulled out of the driveway and onto the road. “I’m guessing you do – even things as ordinary as riding in a car must feel like strange new experiences to you.”

“Yeah, it’s incredible!” I replied. “It’s so much fun, being this little, riding in the car with you like this – although it wouldn’t be nearly as great if you weren’t such an awesome mom.”

“Aw, Ben, that’s so nice of you to say! I was actually afraid I was being a bit too…what’s the word…overprotective of you. I know you’d much rather get by on your own, but of course that’s not an option for you right now.”

“Nah, I like it…being taken care of, I mean. Like I said before, I feel like a little kid again, and I get to have fun and not care about anything, ‘cause I know you’re there for me, Mom.”

She laughed affectionately and gave my shoulders a squeeze, her hand easily taking hold of my upper body. I sat back and enjoyed the ride. It didn’t take long for us to reach the research facility. Mom pulled into an underground parking area and parked in an empty space. She unbuckled the seatbelt and I immediately stood up. Even though I was standing on top of her upper legs, her chest still completely dwarfed me.

“Well, here we are,” she smiled. “Are you ready to spend the next few hours being your mother’s lab rat, dear?”

“Well, I already kinda am one, so…”

“Ha, you’re funny! Okay, come on, let’s hide you inside the basket. Climb in and lie down, then I’ll cover you with the blankets. And please let me know if you’re not comfortable in there, okay?”

I did as I was told and got into the two-foot-long basket. The blankets were a lot heavier than they looked, but Mom put several of them beneath me to cushion me, so it wasn’t that bad. She also folded up the ones on top of me a bit, giving me room to breathe while still concealing me completely. She then got out of the car and gathered up her briefcase, handbag, and other work items, before tucking the basket under one arm and heading to the nearby elevator. I was looking forward to my first day away from home while shrunk and to meeting some new people. The only thing that could go ruin my day was if things between me and Kara fell apart. Mom had promised to call her this afternoon, and then perhaps tomorrow or Wednesday she’d pop by for a visit. I was really eager to see Kara again, though I was also dreading it, since so many things could go wrong. But I guess it wouldn’t do for me to back out now. I’d accepted my mother’s advice, and I was going to trust her that things would turn out okay.

My mom carried me straight to the section of the facility where her office and laboratory were located. I lay as still as I could, hoping no-one would notice me underneath all the layers of fabric. It was bizarre to think that I, a fully grown young man, could be smuggled around in a little basket such as this. Mom’s invention was definitely gonna change a lot of things, that much I was certain of. I listened to the rapping noise her high heels made on the floor and wished I could sneak a quick peek at my surroundings. But I waited until my basket had been set down and Mom removed the blankets on top of me. When I stood up and looked around, I saw we were in a small office filled with files, computers and some glass laboratory equipment. The door was closed, and Mom told me it was safe for me to get out of the basket. I did so and she immediately picked me up and carried me over to a desk in the corner of the office. She put me down on top of it and then took a seat behind a computer screen.

“So, are we gonna start with the tests now?” I asked, sitting down on the desk’s edge.

“In a moment,” Mom replied, already busy on her computer. “Just be patient, my little man! I need to finish some other work first, okay? I can put you down on the floor if you want to explore the office…”

“No thanks, I’m fine up here with you.”

I tried to read some of the papers on the desk, but the scientific terminology in them was way too complicated for me to understand. So, I just lay on my back and thought about stuff, occasionally asking Mom a question about what we’ll be doing today. Eventually she stood up, and I sat upright as well.

“Just stay put for now,” she ordered me. “I’m going to fetch two of my closest colleagues, the ones who helped me develop the shrinking serum. They know that you’re here and are eager to see the results of our work. I won’t be long. Just stay where you are and relax. I’ll lock the door to make sure no-one else can get in.”

“Okay, no problem.”

Mom was only gone for about fifteen minutes, before she returned with two other women accompanying her. Both women were about the same age as my mom and both wore similar-looking professional clothing. One woman, who was almost as tall as Mom was, was dressed all in red and had long red hair as well. The other woman had darker skin and hair and wore a headscarf as well, which made me guess that she was of Middle Eastern origin. The three ladies approached the desk I was on and came to a halt, looming large over me and making me feel very insecure. The two newcomers were both very attractive as well, especially to me at this size, which made me even more jittery. Mom stepped forward and clasped her hands around my waist, then lifted me up and held me in front of her colleagues.

“As you can see,” she said with a smile, “the first test of our miniaturization formula has been a great success. My son, Ben, has been reduced from a full six feet in height to just sixteen inches, without him being harmed or impaired in any way. Say hello to the nice ladies, Ben!”

I mumbled ‘hello’ and waved up at them awkwardly. The two giant women each laughed with delight when they saw me and heard me speak. They then introduced themselves, each offering me the tip of her finger to shake with my hand. The redhead was Dr Nicole Spencer, whom Mom had known since her college days, while dark-haired woman was Dr Zira Ajani, a biological research scientist from Pakistan whom Mom had met at a conference and had invited to participate in the project she was working on. The two giantesses were eager to hold me and interact with me, so I was handed over to them and they passed me around and examined me as if I were a rare and valuable object.

“He’s so incredibly light!” Dr Spencer exclaimed, holding me in one hand and lifting me up and down as though I were a dumbbell. “I can carry him around without any effort at all.”

“He must be so much more manageable now,” Dr Ajani added, as I was passed into her possession. “I’ve got a teenage son of my own – perhaps I should let him have some of the formula as well. That should keep him out of trouble!”

“Now you’re talking,” the redheaded giantess said. “As for me, I’ve got a husband who needs to be brought down to size every now and then. What do you say, Lauren?”

Mom was laughing along with the others. She took me back from her colleagues and sat me carefully on her right shoulder, holding my legs to keep me secure.

“Oh, I’m with you on that one, Nicole!” she said. “I think it would do the men in our lives good to spend some time as the weaker sex. They’d be much more attentive to our needs and desires after spending a month at our feet, believe me!”

The three women laughed again, as did I, albeit more nervously. I wondered if they were only joking or if they were seriously considering shrinking down all the men they knew. But I didn’t have time to dwell on such thoughts, since it was time for my examination to begin. Mom handed me over to Dr Ajani, who told me that I could call her Zira and who would be doing some strength tests with me. I asked my mom what these would be like.

“Oh, nothing at all complicated,” she assured me. “We simply want to measure how strong you are right now, dear. Whether your strength is still in the same relative proportion to your size as it was before I shrank you, I mean. Go with Dr Ajani, she’ll take care of everything. When you’re done, she’ll bring you straight back here.”

My new guardian held me close to her chest, letting me sit on her forearm. I looked up at her and saw her look down at me compassionately. I didn’t feel threatened by her, but I was rather nervous about being in the custody of a woman I didn’t know at all.

“How are you doing, little boy?” she asked as she began to walk, carrying me to her own office. “Oh, sorry – ‘little man’, I meant to say!”

“Uh…I’m fine, I guess,” I said. “I am still weirded out by this whole experience, even though my second day already.”

“Yes, I can imagine how strange this must feel to you. But do you like it so far, being this small?”

“Yeah, I guess so…as long as I’m with someone who can look after me, you know? I mean, it’s really embarrassing to admit it, but I am kinda helpless now, so…”

“Ah yes, it must feel quite mortifying, a young man of your age having to rely on his mother to look after him now. But, seeing as you volunteered for this, there must be some aspects of being miniaturized that you enjoy?”

“Yeah, of course! It is a strange and unfamiliar feeling, so there are lots of new things for me to experience like this. My mom’s really great to me too, so this isn’t actually that bad. Plus, I got to meet you, Dr Ajani…I mean, Zira.”

She giggled at my awkwardness. When we reached her own laboratory, she put me down on a large empty desk. I got to my feet, eager to get started, but Zira asked me to lie down on my back. She then handed me a small metallic rod, about two-thirds the length of my body and an inch thick from my perspective.

“Let’s begin with some simple bench press lifts,” she told me. “I assume you’re familiar with this exercise, am I right?”

“Of course, I am! I can…I mean, I used to be able to lift almost 200 pounds.”

“Really? That’s quite impressive, Ben. Let’s see how much of that strength you have left. Lie down on this cushion, please.”

By attaching small circular weights to the ends of the metallic rod, she was able to make me some miniature barbells, to which she could add more and more weight over time. I would then do a couple of reps each time the barbell got heavier, with short breaks after each round so that I could recover my strength. She kept on adding a little bit of weight until I could no longer lift it off my chest. The maximum weight I could lift turned out to be only two pounds and fourteen ounces. I was rather ashamed by my new lack of strength, but Zira quickly reassured me that I was actually stronger in proportion to my size now than I had been when I was full-sized. In fact, she seemed to be really impressed with my meagre feats of strength, coming as they did from a doll-sized man. Several more strength tests followed, with Zira carefully noting all the results, until I asked her for a break, since I was starting to feel exhausted. She gave me some water and let me rest for half an hour or so, before my next task awaited me.

My mom soon came to collect me again. Dr Spencer accompanied her, and the three women looked over and discussed the results of my strength trials while I rested on the desk next to them. Then Mom came over and told me it was time for the next test. I would be going with Dr Spencer (or Nicole, as she insisted that I call her), who would be measuring how fast I could run at my miniscule size. They had selected an empty corridor in a disused section of the facility. It was roughly twenty yards long – which made it about ninety yards in length to me. Nicole would take me there, but rather than conceal me inside a basket again, she had found a different way of carrying me around. She held up a baby’s car seat, small enough for her to carry, but easily big enough for me to lie in.

“This was my son Jack’s car seat, but he grew out of it a while back,” she explained. “I still kept it in the back of the car, always meaning to get rid of it at some point, but never actually getting around to it. Lucky for you, I guess. Come on, little guy, let’s get you strapped in.”

“Listen to her, Ben,” Mom said, as she saw me about to protest. “It’s a lot better for you than being trapped underneath all those heavy blankets. Now you can at least talk to us and look around while we carry you. Come on, I’ll wrap you up in one of the blankets I brought – just like I did when we went for a walk yesterday. You’ll look just like an innocent little baby boy to any passers-by.”

I had no chance of getting out of this arrangement. Mom simply took me in her hands and did as she said, wrapping me from head to toe in a soft blanket and leaving nothing but my face exposed. She then lay me down in the spacious baby seat, which could’ve easily held two of me at my current size, and buckled me in. I was trapped and unable to escape, and looked up at the three towering ladies who, judging from their laughter, no doubt found all of this incredibly amusing. But they were also professionals with a job to do, and Nicole wasted no time in picking up the seat and heading off to the next test.

The running tests were quite difficult for me. Not only because I was now less than a quarter of my former height, but because I was running on a hard, solid floor with bare feet. Nicole dropped me off at one end of the corridor and walked briskly to the other end, then gave me the signal to go. I ran as fast as I could, and a few seconds later sprinted underneath the arch formed by her long shapely legs, which she’d told me was my finishing line. I sat down and took a moment to catch my breath, before Nicole excitedly picked me up and sat me on her arm.

“How did I do?” I panted.

“Oh, quite well, I believe,” she said, smiling. “Just under twelve seconds – not bad at all, considering the relative distance involved. Of course, I’d like you to go several more times, but I’ll give you a moment to recover first.”

“Are you gonna keep on doing these tests once I’m even smaller than this?” I asked.

“I suppose so. You’ll have to ask your mom about that, little guy. This whole project is her brainchild…I’m just helping her with it, that’s all.”

Once all the tests were done it was time for lunch. Nicole strapped me back into the baby seat and covered me up nicely. I let her do it without protesting, since I had actually begun to like her. She was really friendly throughout the whole testing period and I had never felt threatened or uncomfortable in her care. She did tease me a little bit about how little I now was, but she was just joking around with me and trying to make me feel relaxed with her. I lay back in the oversized chair as my giant caretaker lifted it up and carried me off. Not long afterwards, I was back in my mom’s office. Nicole made sure I was still okay, then handed the seat, with me still in it, over to my mom. She put it down on her desk, then headed off with her colleague and shut the office door behind her.

“Well, this sucks!” I thought. I was now trapped in the seat and, try as I might, I couldn’t break free from my restraints. Nicole had strapped me in properly, just like she no doubt had done to her own infant son once. I was suddenly struck by just how much like an infant I was now treated by the women. I hope they still realized I was an eighteen-year-old man, practically an adult, and capable of looking after myself even when shrunk down like this. I was gonna have to talk to Mom about it. It had been fun for a while, but I can already see it becoming tiring. Luckily it wasn’t long before Mom came back for me. She strode into the office with two plates of food – one with a couple of sandwiches and some salad, and another with a tiny portion of a sandwich and a much smaller helping of salad.

“I almost thought you’d forgotten about me, Mom!” I said, relieved.

“Oh, don’t’ be silly! I just went to get some lunch, that’s all! So, how do you want to do this? I can undo your straps, but maybe it’d be better if you stayed put? Then I can feed you your food. What do you think?”

“Mom, no!” I exclaimed, while she laughed at how horrified I looked. “This isn’t funny anymore, okay? Get me out of this thing, please!”

“But I thought you liked being taken care of like this,” she said, still laughing. “Okay, okay, you don’t need to get all worked up like that! I’ll let you go, don’t worry! It’s just…well, it’s nice having you be my little baby boy again, you know? But I’ll stop it if it’s upsetting you.”

She took me out of the seat and unrolled me from my blanket, then put me down carefully on the desk. I sat down and she gave me my plate, as well as a little toothpick which she told me I could use as an eating utensil. It was definitely a lot less of a hassle for me to use than a regular-sized fork.

“So, how’s your day been so far?” she asked me as we ate our lunch. “Are you having fun doing these tests or do you find everything incredibly boring?”

“No, it’s fun, I suppose – just gets a little tiring after a while, you know? All that running and exercising. I don’t have to come here every day, do I?”

“Oh no, that won’t be necessary. Just one additional day this week should be enough, I think. In fact, we’re pretty much done with you for today, so you can relax and find something to do while I complete my other work here. Then we can go home.”

“Okay, sounds good. Are you…are you still gonna phone Kara today?”

“Yes, if you want me to. I was thinking of doing it once we’re back home, later this afternoon? Is that okay?”

I nodded. Even though I was nervous as hell about seeing her while I’m miniature-sized like this, I felt it was something that needed to be done. It could be a great way for me to learn how she really feels about me.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty quiet. I lay on a couch in Mom’s office and read some of the magazines she had, while she continued working at her desk. No-one else came for a visit except the two doctor ladies I’d already met, and I began to realize how big a secret this whole project really is. Mom took some more bodily measurements a bit later on to confirm that my size hadn’t changed since yesterday. Eventually it was time to go back home. I was rolled up in my little blanket and strapped in the baby carrying seat, which my mom then just tucked under her arm. Once again, her huge strength relative to my own was incredible for me to behold. I lay back comfortably in the seat and looked around at the enlarged world surrounding me.

“Damn, I love being tiny,” I thought to myself. “I wouldn’t mind staying like this…but, on the other hand, maybe being even smaller will be fun as well. I’ll have to wait and see…”

It was Tuesday afternoon and I was awaiting a visit from Kara, my potential girlfriend. My mom was at home as well, so that she could explain the whole situation to Kara beforehand. While I was waiting nervously for her to arrive, I wandered around my room. My bed, desk, chairs and cupboards all loomed over my head, making me feel dangerously inadequate. I tried to climb onto my bed by jumping up and grabbing onto the sheets, but fell back to the floor on my first two attempts. At that moment the door opened and I quickly tried to regain my composure. But it was only Emily, thank goodness. My little sister came towards me, then bent down and scooped me up in her arms, without so much as asking my permission first.

“How’s it going, baby brother?” she asked cheerfully. “Are you ready for your special visitor?”

“Uh-huh,” I said, trying vainly to free myself from her powerful embrace. “Emily…could you put me down on my bed please?”

“Why? Don’t you like it when I hold you like this?”

“Yes, of course I do…but I don’t want Kara seeing me like this, okay?”

“Helpless in your little sister’s arms, you mean?” she asked, grinning. “Whatever you say, big guy!”

She plunked me down on the edge of my bed, then sat herself down next to me. I looked up at her and was surprised to see a look of encouragement on her face. She lay a large hand on my shoulders and pulled me closer to her. It felt incredibly weird, looking up to my younger sister almost as if she were a sort of parent figure, but that was the effect that being miniaturized had on me.

“Emily, can I ask you something?” I said hesitantly. “I mean, I know you’re only nine years old and you probably don’t care about these things yet, but…would you be okay with having a boyfriend who’s only one-quarter your size?”

She giggled and hugged my shoulders even harder.

“Oh Benny, you worry too much!” she said. “I wouldn’t care what size my boyfriend was, as long as he loves me. But hey, what do I know? I’m just your dumb little sister, who’s too young to know anything.”

“Hey, I didn’t say that! I was just asking…”

Before we could argue any further (an argument she’d probably have had no trouble winning), the doorbell rang. Emily leapt up, leaving me sitting on the edge of my bed, and told me she’d be right back. I knew it could only be one person. When Emily didn’t return straightaway like she’d said, I grew even more anxious. I could hear voices coming from downstairs, but they were too faint for me to hear what they were saying. They spoke for what seemed like a very long time. Mom must be busy explaining to Kara the bizarre sight that awaited her. I could only imagine the look on Kara’s face upon hearing that I’d been shrunk. She must be thinking the whole thing is some sort of bizarre joke. At least I knew she wouldn’t scream or faint the moment she saw me. She wasn’t that kind of girl.

Eventually I was relieved to see my mother enter the room. She stood in the doorway for a moment, then walked over to me and sat down at my side, just like Emily had done earlier. Her large hand rested on my shoulders as she gave me a reassuring squeeze.

“Kara’s downstairs right now,” she told me. “She’s doing okay, I suppose, considering everything I’ve just told her. Of course, I don’t think she really believes anything I’ve told her at all. I’m going to ask her to come up, so let me know if you’re ready to see her…”

“I’m ready!” I said hastily. “Mom, I know Kara, I know she’s gonna be fine with this…or at least, I hope she’ll be. You can send her up, I just wanna see her now, instead of waiting here in suspense.”

“Okay, you got it!” Mom said, standing up and leaving the room. I sat on the edge of my bed in silence, trying to keep cool. I heard footsteps coming up the stairs, then heading down the hallway to my room. The door opened, and there she was, standing before me.

Kara was a tall, athletic girl, about the same height as my mom. She had light brown hair and a face and figure that I could only describe as ‘hot’. She was wearing her blue school uniform, which I thought made her look even sexier. Of course, this was probably just because I had such a huge crush on her – I’m sure there are other girls who looked just as sexy as she did, but I didn’t care about any other girls. My heart leapt when I saw her, but I remained sitting where I was, frozen. She, too, stood still with shock for a moment, then came striding towards me. Her statuesque figure loomed large over me, making me feel weak and feeble. Being overshadowed by my giant-sized mom was one thing, but it felt even weirder for me to be so small compared to the girl I was dating.

“Oh my God!” Kara said, looking down at me with total amazement. “Oh my God, she wasn’t lying! Ben, you…you’ve been…”

“Shrunk…yeah, that’s right,” I muttered, completing her sentence. “This…well, this is gonna be what I look like for the next few weeks.”

“No way! This…this is…oh God, Ben, did your Mom really do this to you? How is it even possible? You’re so small now, you’re like a doll or something!”

Her imposing body loomed over me, out of reach for my short arms. But a moment later she knelt down in front of me, and her own hands reached out to take hold of me, before hesitating.

“Ben…can I…” she said, still having difficulty believing what she was seeing.

“Yeah, it’s okay,” I answered. “You can pick me up if you want. I mean, I’m used to it by now, so…”

I lifted my arms to my sides. Slowly, carefully, her great fingers wrapped around my chest, completely encircling me. Her mighty arms lifted me up, hesitatingly at first, then with more confidence. She held me aloft in the air and I could feel her hands trembling. This must be a nerve-wracking experience for her as well, I imagined.

“Holy crap, you…you’re so light!” she said breathlessly. “So light and…and so small! Oh my God, Ben, what’s happened to you?”

“What’s happened…I thought my mom explained everything to you. Didn’t she?”

“Yeah, but…this is unreal! Are…are you okay? Like this, I mean? Am I hurting you?”

She quickly put me back down on the bed. Of course, she hadn’t hurt me – in fact, being held by her had felt really good. Just being this close to her, with her so much larger and stronger than me, was turning me on in a big way. I stood on the edge of the bed, my eyes level with hers as she knelt on the floor.

“You didn’t hurt me, don’t worry,” I said. Then I stretched out my arms towards her and asked: “Can I get a hug?”

It took her a second or two to react, but when she did, she began to laugh. I was lifted up again and pressed snugly against her chest by her hands. It was a heavenly feeling. Keeping me in a close embrace, she stood up and sat down on my bed. I was let go and she lay me down on my back in her lap, with my head resting between her knees.

“Did you like that?” she asked. I nodded, a great big smile on my own face as well.

“You’re probably gonna think I’m really weird…but I actually like being this little,” I confessed to her. “I don’t know how to explain it, it just feels really…I don’t know, satisfying?”

“Arousing, you mean,” she said. “Hey, don’t look so shocked! I can tell you’re enjoying all of this, perhaps a bit more than you ought to be! Looks like you’re really into the whole ‘giant girlfriend’ thing, am I right?”

I was feeling really uncomfortable, ashamed that she’d discovered my secret fantasy, but I nodded all the same.

“I haven’t told anyone yet, not even my mom,” I mumbled. “In fact, I had no idea I would be so…into all of this. Hey, I…I hope I’m not freaking you out or anything! If this is too much for you to handle, well, I can always ask my mom to bring me restore to my normal size.”

“Huh? Oh no, don’t worry about that!” she said, smiling. “I…huh, you’re gonna think I’m pretty weird too, but I’m finding myself rather liking this as well. I also think having a cute little boyfriend I can pick up and play with and carry around is – what was that word you used – ‘satisfying’!”

“So, when you called me your boyfriend just now, does that mean that you and I are…”

“In a relationship? Well, if you wanna put it that way…All I’m gonna say is that I find you really intriguing and, you know, attractive, and, yeah, I’d like to get to know you a bit better first before we start an actual relationship or anything like that, but if you want to call me your girlfriend, go right ahead!”

I sprang to my feet and tried to give her another hug, but tripped over the fabric of her skirt and sort-of stumbled forward against her chest. This embarrassing blunder just made her laugh, thank goodness, and she helped me to my feet before giving me another mega-sized hug. She even kissed the top of my head – which was the first time she’d kissed me, in fact – and I looked up at her beautiful face, completely smitten.

“So, Ben,” she said, her voice low and enthralling, “looks like I’m going to be the dominant one in our relationship for the next few weeks, isn’t that right?”

“Yeah…yeah, that’s what it looks like,” I stammered.

“I can do anything I want with you, and you’d be powerless to resist me.”

I nodded again. Being this close to her was intoxicating.

“I’m all yours, baby,” I said. It looked like she really was enjoying this reversal of the usual boyfriend-girlfriend roles! Could I really be this lucky? Spending the next few weeks in the company of a giant girl – my girlfriend – who wants to have who knows what kind of fun with me…I couldn’t wait. Kara stood up, still cradling me in her arms like a baby. She looked down at me with obvious pleasure and I was feeling pretty thrilled as well. With her delicate hand she caressed my face and upper body and I fondled her fingertips, each of which were almost as large as my entire hands.

“I wish I could take you to my school and show you off to my friends,” she said. “But your mom said you’re supposed to be a big secret, right? She made me swear not to tell anyone else about any of this.”

“Yeah…although ‘little secret’ might be more accurate, all things considered.”

She laughed at my lame joke.

“All the same, I feel like we should do something…something together, I mean. Just the two of us.”

“You mean, go out together? Like on a date?”

“Yeah, that’s right! We could go out on Friday afternoon, after I get home from school. I know you’re not gonna be busy then, so why not? Let’s go and have some fun, while you’re still shrunk like this. I’ll make sure you stay a secret like your mom wants, but that doesn’t mean you need to hide away in your own bedroom all the time. Hey, don’t look so worried! I’m a big girl, I can take care of you.”

“I know you will, Kara. God, I’m so lucky! Any other girl would probably have freaked out and…I don’t know, dumped me or something!”

“Hey, don’t get too carried away, okay? The whole ‘tiny, cute shrunken guy’ routine will only get you so far with me. You’re gonna have to prove that you’d make a good boyfriend or else I’m gonna have to dump you, like all those imaginary other girls you just mentioned.”

“I’ll be good, I swear!” I blurted out, then realizing how pathetically desperate I sounded. “Kara, I…look, I know I may just look like some kind of dumb jock or something, but I really do care about you! I mean it. Yeah, I’ve dated other girls before, but none of them ever led to anything serious. But you’re different. I…I can’t stop thinking about you, and if you just give me a chance…”

“Okay, okay, relax! You’re getting all worked up over nothing, little guy! I said we’d give our relationship a shot at working and I meant it. And when I said that this whole shrinking thing, that I’m weirdly excited by it…well, I meant that too. Let’s get together on Friday, and we’ll go out and have some fun. I’ll pick you up – in my car, I mean, not like, actually picking you up, although I’ll probably have to do that too!”

She put me down on the floor next to her feet. Standing up straight, I was nevertheless an inch or two shorter than the level of her knees. Her stocking-clad legs rose above my head and disappeared into her grey pleated skirt. I wanted to sneak an upskirt peek, but I figured it was too early in our relationship for that kind of thing and I didn’t want her to think I was some kind of creep. So, I took a few steps forward, then turned around and looked up at her from a safe distance. She looked magnificent in her uniform, a veritable teenage goddess.

“So, I guess this is goodbye,” I said. “See you on Friday?”

“You got it! I’ll come and pick you up right after school and take you to my place. Once we’re there, we can decide what we wanna do. In the meantime, I’m sure I’ll come up with some ideas!”

She blew me a kiss and stepped forward, then stepped completely over me. I resisted the urge to look up again, even though I figured she probably wanted me to. We said goodbye, then she headed off downstairs, where I heard her talking to Mom about our upcoming date. Eventually I heard her say goodbye to Mom as well, and soon afterwards came the sound of a car pulling out of our driveway. I stood still for a long time, and then I actually leapt into the air with joy.

“Kara, I love you!” I said out loud. I couldn’t wait for Friday. It might not have been my first date with Kara, but I could already tell it would be my most memorable one. As long as nothing went wrong…but I didn’t want to think about that. She said she’d look after me, so I decided to trust her and stop worrying. I headed out of my room and down the stairs, excited to tell my mom about everything. Kara was my girlfriend now for real and our relationship was about to get a lot more interesting.

On Friday morning Mom took me to work with her again. I would be subjected to some more tests, although Mom told me that she’d probably be too busy to be with me the whole time. Instead, she handed me over to her colleague Dr Spencer – or Nicole, as she asked me to call her – who carried me off with her, still strapped into the little baby’s seat she had lent Mom. I wasn’t too bothered by this – my first meeting with Nicole had been great and she seemed like a decent person whom I could trust to look after me.

“So, what are we gonna do today?” I asked the lofty woman as she carried me to her working space. “Not more physical tests, I hope?”

“Why, were they too difficult for you to handle?” she asked jokingly. “If you have to know, I’m just going to ask you some questions and evaluate your mental and emotional state. Basically, I need to know how you’ve experienced your first week of being reduced in size. Then, once we’re done with that, we can do some more fun exercises if we’ve got time.”

Inside her office, which was a lot like Mom’s, she sat down at her desk and set my chair down on the floor next to her. I looked up at her as she started to work, feeling pretty much useless, and of course not even able to get out and move about. After about half an hour, she asked me how I was doing and if I felt ready for her questioning session. I said yes, so she reached down and unstrapped me, then hoisted me up in her arms and headed over to a nearby couch. She sat down and sat me down on her knee.

“Are you comfortable like this, or would you like some more space?” she asked, getting a notebook and pen ready to write with.

“No, this is fine,” I said. “I don’t feel quite as…tiny sitting here, you know? As opposed to sitting next to you.” I didn’t tell her that I actually felt a little bit like a child about to receive a scolding from his mother.

“That’s good to hear. Okay then, Ben, take it away. Tell me about your first week as a shrunken man. What’s it been like, being so much smaller than everyone around you? Did you feel threatened or intimidated by any of the people around you, myself included?”

“No, not really…well, actually, sometimes, a little bit…but mostly I really enjoyed it. Everyone’s been really nice to me, though, so maybe that’s why I don’t feel scared. Like right now, for instance…I know you’re here to look after me and that you wouldn’t hurt me or anything, so I don’t feel threatened…if that makes sense”

“Oh, I understand perfectly, Ben,” she said, smiling down at me. “You’ve only been in contact with five individuals since being shrunk, is that correct? Your mother and sister, myself, Dr Ajani…and your girlfriend Kara.”

“Uh-huh, that’s right…hey, how do you know about Kara? Did my mom tell you? I told her not to tell anyone!”

Nicole began to laugh.

“Sorry, little guy, but I guess she felt I needed to know. Congratulations on your date this afternoon, by the way! It’s not every girl who’d be open to the thought of going out with a guy no taller than her knees. Have you guys planned anything fun to do yet?”

“No…well, Kara has, but she hasn’t told me anything. She’s picking me up later this afternoon, but I have no idea where we’re going.”

“Somewhere private, I assume? Unless Lauren has changed her mind about the whole thing needing to be a complete secret.”

“No, I’m still supposed to be a secret. Mom’s been pretty strict about that. In fact, she said she thinks it’d be best if I don’t meet any more people from now on, until I’m back to normal size again.”

“I see. So that means you’ll be surrounded by giant women and girls all the time, huh? Does it feel strange, especially with you being a man after all? You’re taller and stronger than most women normally, so I imagine it must feel pretty unnerving to be smaller and weaker than us all of a sudden.”

“Yeah, sometimes, but like I said, I like being this small. Being surrounded by giant women like you and Mom…I guess it makes me feel, I don’t know, safe and protected? Like, if it were just giant men who were around me, I might feel more unsafe and threatened, but not with you. Being smaller than my baby sister, well, that’s another matter!”

Nicole made a note of my answer, while I carried on talking about Emily and how much it annoys me when she treats me as one of her dolls, which she’d been doing all week.

“Well, a loss of authority is to be expected as going along with a loss of size,” Nicole observed. “Hmm, this is very interesting, Ben. Now, how would you like to stay like this for a longer period of time? Not forever, but more than a few weeks? Not that that’s the plan for you right now, but just as a hypothetical question.”

“Sure! Why not? As long as Kara’s okay with it. Of course, I’ll still have to go to school and everything, so it’s not like I can actually stay like this for much longer. Unless you’d be okay with exposing me to the rest of the world.”

“Yes, I understand. Are you happy like this, though? Do you feel like you can still live a healthy, emotionally balanced life at this size? Or do you feel…I don’t know…trapped, or powerless, or anything like that?”

“Sometimes, but other times…hey, you’re not actually planning on keeping me this small, are you? Mom said I could return to normal any time I wanted to!”

“Of course not! There’s no need to get so upset, Ben! I’m just asking you what it feels like to live like this, that’s all! No-one’s gonna force you to stay like this, of course we won’t! I’m just curious about what it feels like to be shrunk and whether or not you enjoy it.”

“Okay, I get it…I was just making sure, that’s all. Are we almost done yet?”

I was eager to get this questioning session over with, since I wanted to move on to other, hopefully more exciting, activities. I felt the urge to jump down from her knee onto the floor, but I didn’t want to seem rude, so I stayed put. Nicole seemed to want to wrap up as well, though: she grasped me around my waist with her strong hands and lifted me up from my seat. When she stood up, I was reminded how tall she now was as I was carried twenty feet up above the ground. I wasn’t too bothered by this height, but I did start worrying about how it’d be like once I was shrunk down even smaller. Nicole carried me over to an area that was like a small gymnasium, which I guessed was reserved for employees of the facility only. Inside there was a small swimming pool, about forty feet long, which meant it was bigger than an Olympic-sized pool to me. I was set down by the water’s edge, and she looked down at me and told me that I could go for a swim if I wanted to.

“It’s not just for fun, mind you,” she said. “At your current size, you should experience water differently – as a liquid with a different consistency, I mean. I’d like to see how fast you can swim from one end of the pool to the other, and whether or not you find it easier or harder to swim than normally.”

I stood still for a moment, feeling rather awkward. There was no-one else around, which made me feel more awkward still. I wasn’t wearing swimming trunks, of course – only my custom-made shorts and T-shirt. I asked my towering guardian if she wanted me to undress right here. She looked shocked for a moment, then began to chuckle.

“Oh, come on, Ben, don’t tell me you’re shy!” she laughed. “You can just remove your shirt, that’s all. I hope you don’t think that I brought you here for…well, let’s just say ulterior purposes.”

“No, no! I was just…well, I guess wasn’t following you…”

“Good, now get to it! I’ve got quite a busy schedule today and I’d like to complete these tests as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Then you can go home earlier and prepare for your big evening. Does that sound good to you?”

“Yeah, sounds good.”

I didn’t hesitate anymore and took off my shirt, then slowly lowered myself into the thankfully heated pool. I don’t know why I thought for a moment that Nicole wanted to take advantage of me. I knew that she was married, and of course she was over twice my age – but when you’re only sixteen inches tall and standing at the feet of a beautiful woman, completely at her mercy, I suppose your mind goes to strange places. She’d been really great to me these past few days, to tell the truth, and I felt rather embarrassed for presuming that she wanted to…well, to have some ‘alone time’ with me, I guess you could say.

The water in the pool felt weirdly heavy – there was no other way to describe it – and I found I could float on top with more ease than I usually could. It was also harder to swim through, meaning that I took over a minute to swim my first length. After six whole lengths I was thoroughly pooped and I decided to get out of the pool, feeling like I didn’t even have any energy left to just float around. Another embarrassing moment happened then, when I found that my arms were too tired to pull me out of the pool, and Nicole had to come and rescue me.

She carried me in her arms, soaking wet and shirtless, to the ladies’ changing room, which was yet more awkwardness for me to endure, and gave me a small hand towel to dry myself off. I was then handed back my shirt, which I pulled on hurriedly. Nicole looked at her watch, then asked me how I was feeling.

“Uh, okay, I suppose,” I answered. “I hope there aren’t any more difficult tests coming up. Not to sound like a wimp, but I’d rather take it easy from now on if that’s okay.”

“Oh, I think we’ve done enough for today,” she said. “I’m actually running a bit late for a meeting I’m supposed to go to. Luckily for you, it’s at another facility, so I can drop you off at your home if you’d like. I’ll just go and get the keys from your mom. Otherwise, you can stay here with her, but she might be working late, which will make you miss your date.”

I definitely didn’t want that to happen so I accepted her offer. Mom didn’t seem to have a problem with it either and she handed Nicole the keys to our house. Then it was back into the carrying seat for me, where I stayed during the whole ride home. By the time we got there I was desperate for some freedom of movement. Nicole parked in our driveway and went to unlock the front door. Then she returned, set me free from the baby-sized seat, took me out of the car and placed me on the ground at her feet. She handed me the keys to the now-open front door.

“Well, goodbye for now, little Ben,” she said, as I stared up at her statuesque height. “Good luck with your date this afternoon, I hope the two of you have a wonderful time!”

“Thanks, I’m sure we will,” I answered. After she’d driven off, I headed inside and closed the door behind me, which took a considerable amount of effort. Emily wasn’t home yet, which was fortunate as I didn’t believe I had the energy at present to deal with her. I decided to get some rest before this afternoon, so I headed upstairs to my room. Climbing onto my bed was another tiring challenge, but it felt good once I made it, and I lay down and tried to fall asleep.

As it turned out, Kara didn’t arrive until four o’clock, which was fortunate for me since my sleep turned out to be longer than expected. I wondered whether or not feeling sleepy a lot of the time was an unintended side-effect of the shrinking potion? Regardless, I did feel a lot better once the time came to go out. I didn’t have much choice when it came to clothing, but I knew Kara didn’t care about that. She herself looked really stunning in a bright pink jacket and scarf, knee-length skirt and fashionable leather boots. In fact, when I ran up to her to give her a hug, I found that those boots alone were each taller than I was. Kara laughed as I climbed on top of her left boot and tried to wrap my arms around her lower leg. I suppose I must have looked pretty pathetic to her, but she found it cute and endearing. She picked me up and gave me a proper hug, then asked me if I was ready to go.

“You bet!” I answered enthusiastically. “I can’t wait to see where we’re going.”

“Oh, I’m pretty easy-going with what we’re doing this afternoon,” she said, winking at me. “But I do have an idea I want to try out…come on, let’s get going. See you later, Mrs. Sullivan!” she called to my mom, who had arrived at our home just ten minutes before Kara did.

“Goodbye!” Mom called back. “Take care of my little guy, Kara! Remember, he’s supposed to be a complete secret, so don’t take him anywhere too exposed or crowded, okay? And make sure he doesn’t run off or anything like that!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got everything covered!” Kara replied. “He’s completely safe with me. I’ll bring him back just the way I found him!”

I cringed a little, listening to them talking about me as if I were a helpless child. But, for all intents and purposes, that was pretty much what I had become now. My mind was still as mature as always, but my body was as vulnerable as that of the tiniest baby now. I needed my mom and Kara for protection, to make sure nothing harmful happened to me. Kara put me down in her little car’s passenger seat and fastened the seatbelt for me. My legs didn’t come close to reaching the edge of the seat. Sitting next to me, Kara looked large and powerful as she drove us off. I must have been staring at her, because she noticed it and asked me what was wrong.

“Nothing…just enjoying looking up at the most beautiful girl on Earth,” I said, hoping she didn’t think I was being too trite. “Kara…you have no idea how much I love it when you’re this size. You’re like a goddess to me now.”

“Really? And here I am thinking I’ve always been a goddess in your eyes, even when I was a few inches shorter than you!”

“Oh yeah, of course! But now you’re like…and even bigger and hotter goddess!”

She couldn’t help but laugh. She was clearly enjoying this way more than she thought she would, which made me glad. I was happy the girl I cared about had such an open mind and a willingness to explore…well, let’s just call them different perspectives to our relationship.

“Are we going to your place?” I asked her.

“Well, we could…later, maybe. First, let’s go and have some fun. You don’t mind doing something fun and exciting, do you?”

“No…as long as it doesn’t involve other people, that’s all.”

“Yeah, about that…I don’t wanna intrude or anything, but I think your mom’s going a bit overboard with your safety and the whole ‘big secret’ thing. Don’t you agree?”

I was rather taken aback. On the one hand, I did occasionally feel like my mom was coddling me a bit too much while I was this tiny, but on the other hand I didn’t want to disobey her and make my status as the world’s one and only shrunken man public. I asked Kara what she was planning to do. She saw how nervous I looked, so she tried to reassure me that I would be fine.

“I won’t go against your mom’s orders, Ben, don’t worry,” she told me. “You’re my boyfriend now and I’ll look out for you at all times, I promise. I’m not gonna spoil what we’ll be doing, but there is a small chance of someone else noticing you. We’re just gonna have to play it cool and enjoy ourselves. Hey, what do you know? We’ve arrived!”

She pulled the car up to a halt. I didn’t wait for her to unbuckle my seatbelt and slipped out from underneath it. I ran over to the door and, by standing on the tips of my toes, was able to see outside the window. I recognized the place, and, after a moment or two, I figured out why we were here.

“You wanna go…ice skating?” I asked Kara. “On the pond in the park?”

“Sure! I love going skating. Not as a sport, you know, just for fun. It’s a great way for me to relax and unwind after a long week.”

“But…I can’t do that right now! I’m too small now! Plus, I’ve never done it before, so how am I going…”

“Oh Ben, you worry too much! Let me do the skating and everything. I’m just taking you along as a passenger, okay?”

“Okay…yeah, that might actually be great, you’re right. As long as you don’t the same thing my mom does when she carries me around, disguising me as a baby and everything.”

“Disguising…hey, what do mean by that?”

I told her how my mom always wrapped me up in a blanket to disguise me as an infant, then instantly regretted it as a devilish smile crept across her lips. Of course, she didn’t have a blanket, but she removed her pink woollen scarf from her neck and held it up against my body. Then, quick as lightning, she wrapped it around me several times – just like Mom had done on my first day of being miniaturized – until only my face was left unexposed. Kara lifted me up and sat me down on the steering wheel in front of her, giggling at my indignation.

“This is perfect!” she grinned. “You look just like a little baby doll now, Ben! No-one will be paying you any attention. Luckily it doesn’t look like there’s that many people here today anyway. Come on, let’s go, before it starts to get dark.”

She grabbed a pair of skating boots from the back seat and got out of the car. I was held under her arm like a loaf of bread, pressed tightly against her body. In this way I was carried over to the edge of the pond, where she lay me down on the ground at her feet. By wriggling around in the constricting folds of her scarf, I managed to roll over onto my side and could look at the makeshift skating rink, and I saw that there were about a dozen or so people circling around. Some of them looked straight at me for a moment, but I remained motionless and they didn’t regard me for more than a moment. I was almost completely unable to move in any case, and I must have looked like nothing more than a bundle of cloth from a distance. Kara slipped on her footwear, then scooped me up again and held me at arms’ length.

“Ready to go?” she asked cheerily.

“You bet!”

Skating with Kara turned out to be a genuinely delightful experience. As she held me aloft in her arms while gliding over the ice, I almost felt as though I were flying. She would spin and twirl around and around, drawing me in close to her chest so that her speed increased. Sometimes she would move forward with great speed, legs bent, holding me just above the pond’s frozen surface, while I tried not to scream. She would even throw me up in the air, spinning me end-over-end, then catch me again in her reliable arms. The first time she did this I was petrified, but eventually I learned to just relax and enjoy it. It helped that Kara was a really good skater. She said she didn’t want to do it professionally, but it seemed to me as if she definitely had the skills required. Maybe I could encourage her to give it a shot?

Eventually Kara decided to call it a day, despite the fact that she didn’t seem all that tired. It was getting dark now, though, and maybe she wanted to do some other stuff tonight as well. She glided over to the edge of the pond and flopped down in the snow on the shore. I was held firmly against her chest, feeling euphoric, both from the skating and from being held so closely to her. Seeing how elated I looked, she lifted my head up to her mouth and gave me a big kiss on the cheek.

“That was fun, wasn’t it?” she asked, putting me down on the ground again so that she could change back into her regular boots.

“Fun? Oh my God, Kara, that was the best feeling ever! You…you were amazing!”

“Really? Why, thank you Ben!” she said, and I could’ve sworn she blushed a little bit. “Hey, you wanna head back to the car for a bit? It’s a bit more private there, I think. I mean, my scarf is only gonna disguise you for so long.”

I agreed. She tucked me under her arm again and carried me back to the car. Our date was off to a terrific start, I thought. I had no idea where we’d be going next, but I felt ready for almost anything. In Kara’s loving hands, I had everything a guy like me could ask for.

Back at her vehicle, she put me down on the roof while she threw her skating boots in the back. Then she picked me up again and asked me if I wanted to take a walk and maybe get something to drink.

“Okay, that sounds cool…as long as it’s a hot drink,” I insisted.

“Oh yeah, definitely! I hope you don’t mind staying wrapped up like this a little longer. I just feel like we should play it safe, you know?”

“Huh? Oh no, I’m fine like this, really. Your scarf is really warm and it makes for a good disguise, just like you said. You’re gonna have to carry me around anyway. I’m too small to keep up with you.”

She cradled me in her arms, looking down at me possessively.

“My cute little boyfriend…you’re just too small to do lots of things now, aren’t you? But I think there’s still a lot of things you and I can do together…if you’re up for it.”

“I’m up for anything, just say the word. You can do with me whatever you want…my giant girlfriend!”

We both laughed at how bizarre our situation was – and the even more bizarre fact that we both seemed to be enjoying it. She hugged me tightly against her huge chest as we headed off into the park. With my face pressed into her jacket, I couldn’t see much of what was going on around me, but at least I was well-hidden from any passers-by. I wasn’t here to sightsee in any case, but to be with Kara. She bought a cup of hot chocolate at a small café and found a bench for us to sit on. After checking to make sure no-one else was in the vicinity, she set me down on her lap and unwrapped the top half of my body. After taking a sip from the Styrofoam cup, she handed it to me. It was almost too heavy for me to hold, but I just about managed it. She giggled at me struggling with such an extremely simple task as drinking from a cup.

“Are you sure you don’t want any help?” she asked.

“No thanks, I’m okay,” I replied, handing her the cup after I managed to drink from it with great difficulty. “This is my second-to-last day of being sixteen inches tall, so I gotta make the most of it, right?”

We both laughed, then Kara asked me how small I was gonna become net week.

“I have no idea,” I admitted. “Maybe six inches, or maybe even less. My mom’s being very mysterious about everything. I don’t even know if I am gonna be shrunk down even smaller. Maybe my mom has decided it isn’t worth it, or that it’s too dangerous for me. I’m still up for it though – as long as you are too, of course.”

“Yeah, of course I am! You’re already beyond adorable at this size, so bring it on! Give me the teensiest tiniest boyfriend ever! Oh God, I am gonna look so huge to you next week.”

“But you’ll look even more gorgeous too, I promise.”

“Okay, okay, that’s enough of that. You’re really into the giant girlfriend thing, I get it. Come on, have another sip of chocolate, then we’ll head back.”

“Back home, or just back to the car?” I asked as she helped me to handle the huge cup.

She didn’t answer me, but just gave me a little wink. We finished our drink, then she wrapped me up in her scarf again. Once we were back in her car, instead of just driving off, she sat me down on the steering wheel in front of her and began to unwrap me. I felt a thrill of anticipation run through me. Kara was the first girl I had ever been this close to, and now here I was, sixteen inches tall and at the mercy of her desires. She threw her scarf on the back seat and held me up in front of her. Her hands were wrapped around my waist, holding me up with ease, and I placed my own miniature hands on top of hers. She smiled at me delightfully.

“Aren’t you just the sweetest little thing?” she said, and I knew she didn’t need an answer to that question. “You know, there’s really no need to head home, I think. We’ve got quite enough privacy in here. Don’t you agree?”

I looked around. It was really getting dark outside, with the only light coming from some streetlamps at the edge of the parking lot. There were almost no other cars around. It had also begun to snow quite a bit, so there weren’t that many people around either. I looked back at Kara and was stunned to see her staring at me with obvious desire. She put me down on her upper leg and, without saying a word, lifted my arms and removed my shirt. I could’ve tried to resist, but she did it so quickly that I barely had time to react. I would probably not have had the strength to resist her in any case. She loomed over me, beautiful and powerful and in control, and I felt myself both attracted to her and a little bit frightened. Maybe I was being silly, but I couldn’t help it. I was nervous, afraid that this – my first time alone with a girl, a girl I was crazy about and who was clearly just as attracted to me – would somehow end in disappointment. I had no idea how far she was willing to go tonight, and I was scared that she might want to go too far, or that she might be disappointed by me in my present state, that I would be unable to do what she wanted me to do. She picked me up again and took hold of the bottom of my pants, meaning to pull them down and expose me completely. But she must have seen how frightened I looked and stopped. Instead, she sat me down on her arm and drew me up close to her. I hugged my body against hers, suddenly feeling a lot safer, as well as feeling a bit ashamed that I had been afraid of her.

“I’m so sorry, Ben,” Kara whispered, pressing her hand against my back. “I just assumed you were ready, you know? That you wanted to do it, I mean, and…shit, I’m really sorry! I should’ve asked you first.”

“That…that’s okay,” I mumbled awkwardly. “I don’t know what happened, I…I guess I just…”

I sighed loudly, wondering how to explain it to her. She was so beautiful, so stunning, and being this close to her certainly made me feel aroused. But I was also concerned by how small I was compared to her, how powerless I felt. I knew she wouldn’t hurt me, I knew it, but I couldn’t help the way I felt either. She had also begun undressing me so suddenly that I was taken completely by surprise. But, luckily for me, Kara was more than just a beautiful face: she was also a sweet, loving and understanding person. She kept on hugging me in a warm embrace, occasionally bending down and giving me a kiss on the forehead. It was a perfect feeling for me. Her scent, her warmth and her essence were all around me. We might not have been making love, but for me this felt just as good…for now, at least. Once I was restored to my normal size, I knew I wouldn’t hesitate to take our relationship further.

After we both sat there for what felt like forever, she put me down in her lap again. She handed me my shirt back, which was great, since I hadn’t realized how cold it was while she was hugging me. She also turned on the car’s heater, which made it even more cosy. As she continued to caress me with her hands, I told her about my sudden concerns and why I no longer felt like going all the way with her tonight. I tried to be as honest as possible and hoped she wouldn’t think I was a coward or that I was being unreasonable. Even though she tried to hide it, I could see that she was disappointed. She must’ve been looking forward to this all day.

“I’m really, really sorry,” I told her. “I know you think I’m being pathetic, but it’s just…okay, look, let’s just forget this happened, okay? I’m being stupid, that’s all. You go ahead and start again, and we’ll…”

“No…no…you were right,” she interrupted. “Ben, you don’t need to feel ashamed, okay? And you don’t need to apologize to me either. I’m a pretty good reader of people’s feelings – most of the time, anyway – and I can tell you really like me. I really like you too, and not just for your looks, or because I’ve got some kind of weird, possibly messed-up thing for tiny guys…okay, maybe I do, but that’s not the point! You’re a really sweet, really awesome guy, and I don’t want you to think I only care about making out with you, or about sex. I mean, yes, I do care about those things, and yes, once you’re back to normal we can talk about that, but if you just want to take things easy for now, then that’s fine by me.”

“God, Kara, that’s really…I mean, I don’t know what to say…uh, thanks, I guess?”

“How about ‘I love you?’” That’s always something girls like to hear.”

I looked up at her lovely smiling face, and I knew I was in love. She was everything I wanted.

“I love you, Kara.”

“And I love you, Ben, my little sweetie,” She hugged me again, then held me up to her face and kissed me on the mouth. Her huge, soft lips covered most of my face, but I didn’t care. It was amazing. I never wanted it to end.

During the drive back home, I sat on Kara’s lap, since I could easily fit under the same seatbelt she wore. She told me about her previous relationships – she had briefly dated two other guys before me, but I’d already known that – and about why they didn’t work out. To be honest, I wasn’t that keen to hear about things that were, as far as I was concerned, over and done with. But she felt she needed to sort things out, to make sure there were no secrets between us. And I got to sit right against her and look up at her – my gorgeous giantess girlfriend.

Once we were back home, she took me and placed me on top of her shoulder. It was big enough for me to sit on comfortably and her long hair was perfect to hold on to for stability. My house’s front door was unlocked, but inside it seemed pretty quiet. Emily must’ve gone to bed already, but I guessed that my mom was still awake since I saw light coming from underneath her bedroom door. Kara took me up to my own room and put me down on my bed. Then she sat down on the floor next to me and rested her head and arms on the bed in front of me. I crept up to her on hands and knees and embraced her face, then planted a tiny kiss on her lips. She burst into a fit of giggles, but then she kissed me back.

“I wish you could stay like this a little longer,” she said. “You’re the perfect size to cuddle, you know? Like a little teddy bear – I mean, a handsome, good-looking, very attractive teddy bear.”

We both began to laugh. I pulled at some strands of her hair to pay her back for that remark, but then she playfully shoved me down and onto my back, with her hand on my chest. She was way too strong to fight against, but I tried anyway, if only to see her laugh. I could tell she loved being so much stronger than me and the feeling of being dominant over me.

“I’d best get going,” she said, giving me one last kiss before getting up. “We don’t want your mom to walk in on us, do we?”

“Oh, I don’t think she’d mind,” I answered. “Mom’s pretty cool about all of this, I think. She also really seems to like you, so that’s good. You know, I haven’t met your parents yet. Maybe we should…”

“Yeah, let’s wait until you’re six feet tall again, okay? My mom would freak out if she saw what you look like now. In fact, I haven’t even told them about you yet. But let’s worry about all of that some other day, hmm? You just enjoy your weekend, and I’ll catch you again next week, okay?”

“Okay, yeah. Well…uh…bye for now, Kara. Drive safely and everything…and remember, I love you.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m not gonna forget that anytime soon! Goodbye, Ben. See you soon!”

She turned off the room’s light and shut the door behind her. I then heard her walk down the hall and knock on my mom’s door, presumably to tell her that I was back and that she was leaving. I was feeling pretty sleepy at that point, so I crawled into bed. I had a fleeting thought that maybe I should call Kara back and ask her to stay, to spend the night with me. But she’d already gone, and I was tired, and I knew there would be plenty of time for that sort of thing in the future. First, I had to complete this experiment of ours. My first week as a shrunken man had went pretty well, I thought, and I was ready to go even smaller.

Saturday was my last day at sixteen inches tall, and Emily took advantage of that fact to keep me in her possession the whole day. I had no complaints, though, since she’d proven to be very caring and responsible with me during the past week. She decided to take me outside on a walk with her to the park, just like Mom had done with me on my first day of being shrunk. She also insisted that I wear the same doll’s dress she’d given me on my first day of being shrunk. Despite my objections, I decided to cooperate, since it would at least make me appear to be nothing more than a little doll to any people we happened to bump into.

Last night had brought with it a lot of snow, and the world outside our home was covered in white. Since it was so cold and snowy, there were basically no other people in the park, apart from an occasional person or couple out on a walk, so Emily decided she could have some fun with me in the park’s playground. She sat down in one of the swings on a swing set and began to swing back and forth. Usually, on the rare occasions I’d accompanied her to the park in the past, I’d be the one giving her a push, but now she had to do it by herself. Instead, I stood on her skirt, holding on tightly to her coat as she swung wildly up and down and praying that I didn’t accidentally fall out of the swing.

“This was a great idea, Emily!” I said to her as she played on the set. “I think I needed to get out of the house one last time, you know, before next week. I’m probably gonna be too small for you to take me outside like this then.”

“Aww, you think so?” she said, looking crestfallen. “But you’ll still play with me at home, right?”

“As long as you remember to play nicely, big sister. At least I’ll be too small for you to make me wear any of your stupid doll’s clothes then!”

“What, don’t you like being my little doll? Ha, you’re such a little baby sometimes, Benny! That’s okay, you’re still pretty cool, I guess. Come on, let’s go and play on the slide!”

She hopped off the swing and headed straight for the playground slide, carrying me tightly in her arms. The slide was only about ten feet high, but it looked almost fifty feet high to me and pretty terrifying. I sat in Emily’s lap as she slid down it over and over, shrieking with delight, and I couldn’t help but enjoy it too. She even let me go on my own several times, dropping me off at the top and laughing as I slid down and landed in the snow way below at the bottom. One time she came down the slide immediately after me and nearly landed on top of me. She would’ve squashed me if she hadn’t braked herself with her legs just in time.

After that we played on the see-saw for a little while. My weight was much less than Emily’s but she used her legs to push herself up, while I sat in the oversized seat at the other end and held on for all I was worth. The whole thing brought up vague memories of when I’d been very little and Mom had taken me to play in a park much like this one, so in a way it felt very nostalgic to me. Eventually, however, I began to feel too cold to continue enjoying it, so Emily decided to take me home. She held me against her body underneath her coat, where I could warm up again and stay hidden from anyone who happened to be around.

That evening, just after dinner time, Emily and I were watching TV. I was back in my regular clothes and was reclining against her gigantic body. She had her arms folded across me, holding me down firmly. My whole body rose and fell along with her breathing, which was a very relaxing feeling. I knew it wouldn’t be for much longer, though. Tonight, my mom would give me the next, even-stronger shrinking potion she had formulated, which would make me even smaller than I already was. Emily wasn’t too happy about it, since she really loved having her big brother as her new cuddle-doll, but I was strangely eager to be shrunk down to an even littler size. I couldn’t wait to see my surroundings from an even more extraordinary perspective. At about 8 p.m., just as the TV show Emily and I were watching was ending, Mom came strolling into the living room. She sat down on the couch next to us and put her arm around Emily’s shoulders. Looking down at me, she gave me a caring smile and laid her hand on my head.

“How are you doing, little man?” she asked me. “You look pretty content, I must say. Are you feeling up for phase two of my experiment?”

“Oh yeah, definitely,” I replied. “How small am I gonna be, Mom? Will I still be able to walk around on the floor on my own, like I can now?”

“No, I don’t think so, Ben,” she said. “I think you’ll be much too small for that. I can’t give you an exact size, since the potion has never been tested on a human being before, but I imagine you’ll wake up tomorrow less than three inches tall.”

“What? He’s gonna be that small?” Emily exclaimed. “Wow, that’s super-tiny! He’ll be like an action figure then.” She looked down at me and grinned.

“Yes, and he’ll be even more defenceless than he is now, so we’ll have to take extra-good care of him, okay?”

“Uh-huh! I promise I’ll look after him…but I can still play with him, right?”

“I don’t know, dear. He might be too small for you to use as a doll, but we’ll have to wait and see. Okay Ben, if you’re absolutely sure you’re ready, then we can proceed.”

“I’m ready, Mom. Just tell me what to do.”

“You can stay where you are. The potion is inside this syringe. I’m gonna ask you to open your mouth, then I’ll just squirt out the amount needed. Don’t worry, it shouldn’t taste too horrible!”

She took a tiny plastic syringe out of her jacket pocket. It was filled with a few drops of clear liquid. I opened my mouth like she told me. She put the syringe’s plastic tip in my mouth and squeezed out the contents. It tasted slightly bitter, but I managed to swallow the couple of drops without any difficulty. I immediately began to feel a numbness spreading throughout my whole body. All of the feeling went out from my arms and legs and I discovered, to my shock and horror, that I couldn’t move a muscle below my neck. I looked up at my mom in distress, but she didn’t seem too perturbed. Emily picked me up by the waist and held me up in front of her. She shook me up and down a little and gasped when she saw what had happened to me. My arms and legs flapped senselessly around, completely out of my control.

“Mommy, look!” she cried out. “What’s happened to him? He’s so floppy – like a doll! A real doll, I mean.”

“What have you done to me, Mom?” I cried. “Is this…permanent?”

My mom took me from my little sister’s grasp and lay me down in her lap. My body was completely limp and unresponsive and I could only move my head, eyes and mouth. I lay there, frightened out of my wits, looking up at my giant-sized mom and sister. Emily was right – I had apparently been turned into nothing more than a doll. But Mom had an explanation ready for me.

“This shrinking potion is far more powerful than the last one,” she said. “It immediately begins to affect your cells, immobilizing them and then beginning to miniaturize them. You’ll soon be unable to move at all. But there’s no need for alarm, Ben. Once the shrinking process is complete, you’ll regain full control of your whole body. When you wake up tomorrow, you’ll be able to move around just like normal.”

“Are you sure?” I wailed, feeling like crying but trying my best to act rationally and in a grown-up manner. “What if I’m still like this tomorrow? What if I don’t turn back to normal?”

“Ben,” Mom said, looking at me firmly. “I know that to you I’m just your typical uncool mother and all, but I believe I know more than you do about my field of scientific research. Now, I gave you my word that you’d be completely safe and sound throughout the whole experiment. Look at me, Ben – I promise you that, come tomorrow, you’ll be perfectly fine and able to move again. The only different thing about you will be your size.”

“Okay…okay,” I said, swallowing hard. “I trust you, Mom. And yeah, you are a lot smarter than me, so I guess…I believe you. You were wrong about one thing, though.”

“Oh, really? And what might that be?”

“I don’t think you’re uncool at all. You’re probably the coolest mom in the world, I think.”

She and Emily both giggled at my awkward compliment. I was aware I was blushing. Emily picked me up again and nestled me in her arms for a bit. She played around with my floppy arms and legs, marvelling at my impotent condition.

“Can’t you make him stay like this?” she begged my mom. “He’s the perfect doll for me now. He’s the right size and everything. I can cuddle him at night, in bed…”

“No!” I screamed. “Mom, don’t make me be her doll, please!”

“Oh, don’t get so worked up, Ben!” Mom said, laughing. “You’ll be much too small for your little sister to squeeze in her arms tomorrow morning. In fact, I think you should stay in my room tonight. That way I can watch over you and make sure I’m there if you need me. I’ll put your crib at the foot of my bed. Besides, the immobilizing effect of the potion will soon affect you completely. It’ll feel just like falling asleep. In fact, it looks like it’s happening to you already. Ben…”

I couldn’t hear the rest. My eyelids began to feel very heavy and before I knew it, my eyes were closing on their own accord. I drifted off into a deep slumber, not even dreaming. Even though I was completely unaware of it, I knew Mom must have carried me up to her room and tucked me in. The next morning, when I awoke, the world around me had changed dramatically again.

I could move my entire body again, thank God, but that was about the only reassuring thing to have happened to me overnight. My old clothes were now far too large for me to wear and my whole body could easily fit through my shirt’s collar. The blankets above me had similarly expanded in size and it was only with difficulty that I could crawl out from under them. Then I looked up and saw the bars of the baby’s crib I was in rising over 70 feet above my head, and I knew I had been shrunk down a lot more than I thought I’d be. The gaps between the bars were now amply big enough for me to slip through, but I was too frightened to do so, not knowing how far I’d fall to the floor below. I was feeling pretty terrified, lost in this massive new environment, but help was on the way.

My mom appeared above me and her incredible size amazed me. A gigantic arm reached down into the crib and the enormous fingers on the end of it gently curled around my naked body. I wanted to protest, but I was honestly too stunned by the scale of everything around me to do so. Mom was careful to not injure me, thank goodness, and I was soon placed in the centre of her palm, where I curled up and tucked my knees under my chin. I still felt cold, exposed and afraid, but seeing Mom’s gigantic face smiling at me helped a lot. I waved timidly up at her and she gave me a little wave back.

“Good morning, my dear little Ben!” she said. “Well, you’ve certainly changed quite a bit overnight, wouldn’t you say? I assume everything must look pretty terrifying to you at the moment, but don’t you worry, I’ll make sure you get used to your new size in no time. So, tell me, how does it feel being as small as my thumb?”

“N-not bad,” I whimpered. My voice sounded faint even to my own ears, but I was glad to see that my mom could clearly hear me. She held me up a little closer to her face.

“That’s good to hear, sweetheart,” she replied. “Do you feel a need to use the bathroom right now?”

“No, thanks,” I said, a little more confidently, though it still sounded like a whimper. “I’m just really hungry, that’s all. And really cold…and naked.”

“Yes, that last part I can see,” she chuckled. “Of course, I’ll help you with breakfast soon, but you know the drill by now – I’ve got to measure you first. Yes, I know it must feel degrading to be measured like this, but it’s necessary, as I’ve told you before.”

“No, it’s fine, Mom, really. Just…please be careful, okay? You…you look so huge…”

Her expression changed to one of empathy.

“I understand,” she said. “And I know you trust me, so I’ll do my best to make it quick and painless. Now, I don’t want Emily to see you yet, or else she’ll be clamouring to get her hands on you all the time, so I’ll take you down to my study in secret. How does riding in my coat pocket sound?”

“Sounds great,” I replied. Mom placed the tips of her thumb and index fingers on either side of my miniature body and delicately picked me up, pinning my arms against my sides as she did so. She was wearing a grey tweed coat with a large breast pocket, which she dropped me into. It was a soft landing and, to my delight, it was a lot warmer in here than outside. I was too short to see outside her pocket, but I could see her giant face above me, looking down at me and confirming I was okay. I waved up at her to show that I was fine, then lay down on my side in a corner of the pocket and relaxed. Already I was feeling a lot more secure and at ease, despite my miniscule size and the fact I had nothing to wear for now. But Mom would take care of that, like she always did.

“This week could actually be even more fun than the last one,” I thought to myself as Mom began to walk to her study. “I can’t wait for Kara to see me like this. She’s gonna freak out completely, I know it.”

Once we were in her study, Mom shut the door behind her. Then she sat down at the desk and opened up the pocket to look inside. With her other hand she reached inside and took me out, then placed me down on top of a large book that was lying on her desk. I immediately curled up again, still much too embarrassed to let her see my whole body naked. But she insisted that I lie down at full length.

“You’ll just have to cover yourself with your hands, I’m afraid,” she said. “I’m sorry, but I need a full-length measurement.”

I grudgingly agreed and did as I was told. She took out a strange instrument from a desk drawer, which I realized was a metallic pair of callipers for taking measurements. Mom told me I was now too small to measure accurately with a normal ruler. She opened the jaws of the callipers and placed them around me, then began to slide them towards each other.

“Just tell me when you can feel it touching both your head and the soles of your feet,” she told me.

I yelled “Stop!” once I could feel the calliper’s jaws touching me, and she then recorded the total length.

“51.1 millimetres,” she said. “That’s…just about exactly two inches, I think. Quite a big difference from sixteen inches, huh?”

I was taken aback when I heard just how little I now was. Two inches…that used to be the size of my little finger. Mom also figured out how tall she looked to me now and she told me that it was a little over 200 feet. Yesterday she’d been less than three stories tall from my perspective, but now she was much taller than the Statue of Liberty.

Now it came time to weigh me and my mom carefully picked me up again and put me down on her electronic scale. Again, my littleness came as a shock to me. I weighed just under two grams, about one-fifteenth of an ounce. Even a one-penny coin outweighed me now. But Mom, as usual, saw all the benefits of this situation.

“You’ll barely need any food at all during mealtimes,” she said. “In fact, I’ll probably just buy enough groceries for myself and Emily this week. You won’t need more than a fraction of a gram of food a day. And you’ll be a lot easier to carry around. We won’t need any more baskets or baby seats, or anything like that.”

“Yeah, thank God,” I agreed. “But what about clothes? And where am I gonna sleep? I could barely move the blankets this morning, I felt like I was being crushed!”

“Oh, we’ll find a way to fix that, and any other problems, I’m sure of it. We’ve got the whole of today to get you sorted out and settled into your new lifestyle. Let’s begin with breakfast. You said you were hungry?”

“Yeah, very. Um…can I ride in your pocket again? It just…well, it feels nice and cosy in there.”

“Really? You wouldn’t rather ride on my shoulder? I bet the view from that high up would be great! But I guess the pocket is a lot safer, and that’s the important thing. Come on, I’ll put you back inside.”

I was returned to the warm confines of her coat pocket, where I lay down on my back and waited for Mom to finish her work and take me to breakfast. The shock of being just two inches tall was beginning to wear off and I was starting to familiarize myself with my new world. Soon it’ll all feel normal, or so I hoped.

I was thankfully spared Emily’s attentions at breakfast time, as my little sister was still in her room. Mom made me a jam sandwich and cut off a tiny bit of cheese and a small chunk of an apple for me as well. The miniscule scraps food on the plate she handed to me were still way more than I could eat in one sitting. I picked up the cheese and apple chunks and nibbled at them, marvelling at the change in texture and the way they tasted more intense than usual. As for something to drink, I was given a teaspoon of orange juice – which was at least forty or fifty gallons to me. I was amazed by how little I now needed to eat and drink.

“Isn’t it incredible?” Mom said, after I had finished the world’s smallest breakfast. “Your body mass – and therefore your food requirements – have decreased by a factor of more than forty thousand. I probably eat more food per day than you’ll need for the rest of your life, if you were to stay this small. Now, let’s find you something to wear, okay? If Emily sees you all exposed like this, she might be a little bit distressed.”

She carried me upstairs after breakfast, with me lying curled up and content in the palm of her hand. Her four fingers formed a protective covering above me. Each individual finger of hers was longer than my whole body, and even her little finger by itself was probably stronger than I was. I was truly as small as an insect now. Back in Mom’s bedroom, she put me down on her vast bed and began rummaging through her drawers, looking for something she could clothe me with. I ran up and down her bed, occasionally jumping and falling down on the bouncy surface. I knew that I was acting like a little kid, but it was too much fun to resist. Besides, with me being so light, I felt like I was actually able to jump proportionately a little higher than when I was big. Mom soon finished looking and sat down on the bed next to me. She scooped me up in her hand and put me down on top of her skirt, where I curled up into a ball again to hide my private parts.

“I’ve got something for you to wear – but I don’t know if you’ll like it,” she said with a mischievous smile. “You can stand up, arms and legs spread out, please.”

I did as I was told and she presented me with my new, makeshift article of clothing. It was a bright red velvet hair ribbon, about three-quarters of an inch wide, which Mom told me she rarely wears anymore. I was so taken aback by this idea that I didn’t even have time to protest before she began wrapping me up in it. She wound it several times around my chest, waist and buttocks, then began looping it around my legs, tying them together. She wrapped it several more times around me until I was covered from shoulders to knees in soft red fabric, with only my head and two arms poking through the folds of the ribbon. Then she brought the two ends of the ribbon behind my back and tied them together, forming a neat bow with two loops. When she was done, she began to giggle at her handiwork.

“You look like a little birthday present!” she laughed as I stood there and fumed with embarrassment. “Oh Ben, don’t make such a fuss! You look great, and as long as you’re warm and comfortable like that, then it’s all good. Besides, I think it’s the perfect look for you. That’s what you are to me, after all – a priceless gift. You and Emily are the two greatest gifts in my life.”

She pinched the loops of the ribbon behind my back and hoisted me high in the air. Then she drew me in close to her and pressed my whole body against her bosom. I was held tightly against her chest, the soft fabric of her coat cushioning me. It was a wonderful feeling. I was suddenly reminded how much my mother loved me and cared for me, and how much I appreciated her. I also knew I wanted to do something to show my appreciation for her years of love and support, but I’d probably have to wait until I was back to my proper size.

After that, Mom decided it was time for Emily to meet the new me, so she carried me over to my little sister’s bedroom. Emily was sitting in bed, reading a storybook, but she leapt up when she saw my mom enter the room. I was tucked away inside Mom’s coat pocket, unable to see anything happening outside, but I heard Emily’s excited chatter clearly enough.

“Did you bring him, Mom?” she said anxiously. “Can I see him, please? Please? How small is he? Is he smaller than a bug now? He…he’s still okay, isn’t he? He didn’t get hurt or anything, right?”

“Hey, one question at a time, okay?” Mom answered. “Here, let’s sit down on the bed. Don’t worry, little Ben is perfectly fine and unharmed. He’s just had breakfast and I’ve found something to clothe him in, so you’re free to have a look at him now. Hold out your hand like this, and I’ll give him to you.”

Mom and Emily sat side-by-side on her bed, and Mom took me out of her pocket, again using the ribbon’s bow to pick me up with. I was dropped in an open hand, smaller and softer than Mom’s, and looked up to an astonishing sight. My sweet little sister was now a 150-foot-tall colossus. I lay on my back in the palm of her hand and waved up at her. The look of shock on her face was priceless and I actually began to laugh. Mom was sitting next to her, an even bigger giantess, her arm across Emily’s shoulders.

“Well, aren’t you going to greet your brother, dear?” Mom said. “Hah, I almost said ‘your big brother’ just now, but we can’t really call him that anymore, can we?”

“Ben? Is…is that really you?” Emily stuttered. “You…you’re…you’re tiny! You’re…what are you wearing?”

“A hair ribbon,” I said, feeling acutely self-conscious. “Mom’s idea. If you’ve got something better for me to wear, please tell me! Just…not another doll’s dress, please!”

“Ha-ha, your voice sounds so soft and little!” she said, her expression of shock turning to one of mischievous amusement. “You’re such a little pipsqueak now! I can barely even feel your weight in my hand. Oh Mommy, he’s perfect! Even more perfect than he was before! I can keep him for today, right?”

“Certainly…as long as he’s comfortable with it too. In fact, I’ll leave Ben in your capable hands today, as I’ve got to start writing a report on my shrinking potion’s latest results. I’ll come and collect him later this afternoon. Ben, are you okay with being with Emily today? I don’t want to leave you somewhere on your own, you’re too small and defenceless right now. Just tell her if there’s any emergency or anything you need. I’m sure she’ll take good care of you.”

“Yeah…okay,” I sighed, accepting my fate. I would rather have preferred some time to myself – but maybe hanging out with my sister will be fun after all? Emily, of course, was overjoyed and treated me to a nice, long hug. My miniature body was pressed between her hand and her chest; luckily, she was wearing a woollen sweater, which cushioned me somewhat. Mom gave us both a little kiss on the head, then left us to ourselves.

Emily immediately headed over to a little dollhouse in the corner of her room, removed its roof and placed me inside the house’s bedroom. It felt bizarre being surrounded by brightly-coloured walls, furniture and household items, all made of plastic and all about twice as large as they ought to be compared to my size. I lay on the little pink doll’s bed and looked up at Emily’s huge face and upper body, looming above the walls of the room.

“You can stay in here for a bit, tiny Ben,” she said, winking. “You’ll be safe and alone, just like you want. But later, you and I are gonna have some fun, okay? Don’t try and escape either. I’ll see you and catch you!”

“I won’t,” I promised. “Thanks, Emily, I…well, I appreciate this. And I don’t mind hanging out with you, really. It just feels…weird, you know, being this small, and seeing my little kid sister towering over me like a giant.”

“It feels weird having my big brother be a teeny-tiny little dolly too,” she said. “Actually, I don’t think any of my dolls are as small as you. Too bad. Looks like you won’t be wearing any cute little dresses today!”

“Thank God,” I muttered as she replaced the roof of the house and left the room to get her own breakfast. I was now by myself in what was essentially a huge plastic mansion to me. With my legs being wrapped up as they were, it was pretty much impossible for me to walk, so I had to resort to hopping in order to move around. I went through all of the upstairs rooms, amazed at how detailed the place was – I almost felt like I was in a real house, despite everything being coloured pink and violet. I headed downstairs into the kitchen and dining room, and there was even a little doll-garage filled with brightly-coloured plastic toy cars. Unfortunately, the cars all had doors that were fixed shut and were impossible to climb into. I headed back to the dining room and took a seat at the oversized table, then reflected on how surreal all of this was. I’d never have dreamed two weeks ago that I’d be sitting inside my sister’s dollhouse, two inches tall, wearing nothing but one of my mom’s hair ribbons.

“This is gonna be a weird week,” I thought.

About an hour later, after I’ve explored the dollhouse pretty thoroughly, Emily came back for me. She was carrying a Barbie doll in one hand, no doubt to see what I looked like in comparison to it. I hopped out through the dollhouse’s front door and stood at Emily’s feet. She loomed above me like a skyscraper, the fabric of her long skirt forming a cliff in front of me. She sat down on the floor and stood her doll down in front of me. It was a fairly typical blonde Barbie doll, wearing a bright purple jacket, short skirt and high heels, and was over thirty feet tall compared to me. Emily picked me up and sat me down on her Barbie’s shoulder, which was easily big enough to accommodate me. I held on tightly to the doll’s hair, not wanting to fall thirty feet down to the floor below me. Once again I was reminded just how incredibly little I was, when even a doll was giant-sized compared to me.

“You look so sweet, sitting on her shoulder,” Emily giggled. “I was gonna use you as my second doll to play with, but you’re just too small, Benny. Even my Barbie could carry you with one hand.”

To prove her point, she extended the doll’s arm and put its hand through the loops of the ribbon. I hung there, comically and helplessly, held aloft by the arm of a Barbie doll. Emily found this delightfully funny. But she wanted to do something more interesting, so I suggested that we go outside into the garden and play for a bit.

“Are you sure?” she asked, sounding uncertain. “It sounds pretty dangerous, if you ask me. Everything’s covered in snow. What if you catch a cold or something? Mom will be so mad at me!”

“Yeah, you’re right…but maybe we can just go outside for a few minutes? I just want some fresh air, that’s all. You can carry me the whole time if you want.”

That sounded fine to Emily, so outside we went. She carried me just like Mom did, safely in the palm of her hand. I may have been annoyed by her antics from time-to-time, but she really was a sweet kid. Even though she enjoyed teasing me while I was miniaturized like this, I knew she would never do anything to me that would hurt me or endanger me. Compared some other people with siblings I knew, Emily and I got on remarkably well.

Outside it was cold and windy and the whole garden lay under a blanket of snow. Emily opened up her hand so that I could see the outside world around me, magnified thirty-six times in size. It was an incredible sight. The trees were hundreds of feet tall and the snow-covered lawn stretched off into the distance like a field of white. I walked forward in Emily’s hand and stood on the tip of her index finger, staring at the vista surrounding me. She held on to me using the loops of the ribbon behind my back, which kept me from falling off her fingertip. Then she had a funny idea. Once again using the loops of the ribbon, she hung me on the tip of a tree branch just above her head, almost 200 feet above the ground. Hanging above so much empty space, I felt dizzy and my arms grasped around in vain for something to hold on to. But I soon got my nerves under control and, looking around me rather than down, began admiring the view from up here.

At that very moment, a gust of wind hit me out of nowhere. It may just have been a strong breeze, but it felt like a hurricane to me and the dead twig I was hanging from snapped, sending it and myself plummeting down to the ground. I screamed loudly and closed my eyes, and an instant later I fell into a soft, powdery, ice-cold surface. The fresh snow cushioned my fall somewhat, as did the fact that I only weighed a fraction of an ounce, but it was still a substantial impact that knocked the wind out of me. Into the snow I sank, until it covered me completely. It was bitterly cold, but I was still conscious and began to struggle and try to dig myself out. It was hopeless, however – each time I managed to remove some of the snow that was covering me, more fell on top of me. My arms weren’t strong enough to pull me up towards the surface. All the while I kept on yelling my sister’s name as loudly as I could.

I knew it had to have been only a few seconds, but it felt like forever before Emily came to my rescue. Her giant hand dug into the snow I was trapped in and scooped me out. She quickly shook all the snow off of me and held me in her cupped hands, which helped me to warm up. I looked up at her and saw her looking very distressed.

“Are you okay, Benny?” she cried out. “Please tell me you’re okay! I’m sorry I let you fall; I should’ve caught you! But it happened too fast, I couldn’t get to you in time…”

“I’m fine!” I called out through chattering teeth. “I’m okay, really! Don’t worry, Emily, it wasn’t your fault. I’m the one who’s to blame, I wanted to go outside…”

“Really? You’re not angry at me?”

“No, of course not! Hey, you saved me just now, didn’t you? If you hadn’t rescued me, I’d probably have frozen to death or something.”

“No! Don’t say that, Benny! I don’t want you to get hurt again, not when you’re this small! Oh, Mom will kill me when she finds out!”

“I’m not badly hurt, really I’m not! I’m just freezing cold, that’s all. You were right, this was a bad idea. Can you take me back inside?”

She didn’t hesitate and literally ran back inside and up the stairs to her room. I was glad my mom didn’t see us or else she would’ve given Emily a hard time about it. But I figured Mom didn’t need to know, since it had all happened so fast that it still didn’t seem real to me. I had gotten a few bruises but was otherwise unharmed. Back in her room, my little sister held me tightly against her chest and wrapped me up in her warm sweater for a while, which soon brought my body back to an agreeable temperature. In no time at all I was feeling fine again, and I told Emily that we can just pretend that little accident never happened. She agreed, looking very grateful, and told me that I could choose what we should do next. I didn’t have any ideas, since I was still feeling more than a bit overwhelmed by what had just happened, so she suggested I read one of her storybooks to her – surely that would be the least hazardous thing for me to do, and it would help take my mind off my close shave just now.

She lay on her bed, holding the enormous storybook open in front of her, while I lay comfortably on top of her chest and read to her. Each time I reached the end of a page, she would turn it over for me. Of course, she was nine years old and perfectly capable of reading on her own, but she enjoyed it when I read her books to her, since it meant she could spend time with me. It was something I’d done for her since she was a toddler and I usually enjoyed it as well. Sometimes we’d even make up our own endings to the book, or our own stories, and Emily always came up with the most creative scenarios. She didn’t do any of that this time, however, but was merely content to listen to her miniature big brother read to her. Her chest rose and fell with each breath she took, carrying me up and down along with it. It felt so relaxing that I was afraid I was gonna fall asleep before I reached the end of the story.

We made it through two fairy tales before Emily began growing bored. It was obvious she wanted to play with me, but after the close call in the snow she seemed hesitant to ask me if she could. I could tell she was afraid of hurting me in my current vulnerable state, or perhaps she still felt guilty about what had happened earlier. I got up from my comfy spot on her chest and crawled across her chest up to her neck. I managed to pull myself up onto her chin, then further up onto her nose and sat on its tip, looking down into her huge eyes on either side of me. She was trying to focus her eyes on me, which made her look so funny that I began to laugh. This caused her to start giggling as well and soon we were both laughing irrepressibly. She plucked me off her nose and put me down on the bed beside her.

“Hey, I’ve got an idea for some fun stuff we could do, if you’re interested,” I said, looking up at her enormous face. “Well, it’ll be fun for me, at least – I can’t guarantee you’ll enjoy it as well.”

“Okay, I’m listening,” she said. “As long as we don’t have to go outside again.”

My idea involved some items from the trunk in my room which held all of my old toys, most of which I hadn’t played with in many years, but which still had some sentimental value that made me unwilling to just throw them away. I told Emily to look for a toy skateboard, about three inches long, which had come as an accessory with an action figure. I also told her to bring a plastic track for toy cars, which, when assembled together, formed something almost like a roller-coaster. It had steep drops, twisty turns and even a loop. I didn’t have the cars that were supposed to go on the track anymore, but that wasn’t the plan. I helped Emily to assemble the track back in her room, though actually I just stood and gave orders, while she did all of the manual work which I was now too weak to do. Then I told her that I planned to ride along the track, strapped to the toy skateboard. She gave me a sceptical look.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” she asked. “What if you fall off or something?”

“I’m not gonna fall off, trust me. I’m not gonna go that fast in any case. Besides, that’s why you’re here, isn’t it? To look after me? You can just catch me if something goes wrong.”

She didn’t sound convinced but she agreed to my plan in the end. As an extra safety precaution, she placed a pillow at the end of the line, where the track ended in a small ramp. She hadn’t assembled the whole track, just enough for me to do one loop and one steep turn. I was trying to figure out what the best way of tying me to the skateboard was, but Emily had thought of an idea already. She made me lie down on top of the toy board, then tied my body and legs tightly to it using one of her own hair ribbons, much like the one Mom had used to clothe me. My arms were tied to my sides, against my wishes, but Emily insisted that it was safer if they didn’t flail about while I was gliding along the track. Once I was securely attached, she placed the board on the track at the start. I looked down the length of my body and saw the track dip steeply downward for what must have been over a hundred feet from my perspective.

“Are you ready, little brother?” she asked excitedly. “I can give you a little push if you want.”

“Okay…not too hard!” I yelled, suddenly having second thoughts about this whole thing. She pushed the board along the track and I was off.

I immediately closed my eyes and tried not to scream. The board was moving at what was to me an incredible speed. I felt myself go round the thirty-foot-high loop, mercifully staying on the track. Then I hit the steep turn and felt myself being pushed to the right. At last, I hit the final ramp and went flying into the air, before landing abruptly on the soft surface of the pillow. I opened my eyes and saw my giant sister standing over me. She snatched me up and held me up to her face, and asked me how it was.

“That was…a lot scarier than I thought it would be,” I said breathlessly. “And it went by so fast! I couldn’t even open my eyes!”

“Hah, you little wimp!” Emily exclaimed. “Come on, you’ve got to do it again! And this time you have to watch, okay?”

I was put back on the start of the track and, before I had a chance to prepare myself, she pushed me forward and I was off again. I tried to be brave and keep my eyes open, but about the only thing I could see was the ceiling hundreds of feet above me. The intense ride was even more terrifying than the first time and I was glad that this time I came to a halt before hitting the ramp at the end. I knew it must all have looked pretty tame and sedate from Emily’s point-of-view, but it definitely was an adrenaline rush for me.

Emily made me go on the track another two times, but then she grew bored again and decided we should do something else. I was relieved – the makeshift roller-coaster we’d created was starting to take its toll on me and I regretted thinking it was a good idea in the first place. I asked her to untie me and set me free, but she had another idea.

“You were right, little Benny – this is a lot of fun!” she said. “But doing the same track over and over gets old. I think we should go bigger.”

“Bigger?” I said nervously. “Emily…maybe we shouldn’t…”

“Oh, stop whining – you’ll be fine! Listen, here’s my idea…”

Her idea turned out to be to relocate the racetrack to the stairs outside at the end of the hallway. She would lay the track so that it led downstairs, all the way to the ground floor. There wouldn’t be any turns or loops this time – just one straight stretch of track with a ramp at the end. Then she wanted see how fast I would go and how far I would be able to fly through the air at the end. I wasn’t liking the sound of this one bit and wondered if I should try and tell Mom somehow. My sister saw how distressed I looked.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Don’t you trust me?”

“This…just sounds like a bad idea,” I tried to argue. “Emily…what if things go wrong?”

“Hey, this whole idea was yours in the first place. You can’t chicken out now!”

“Yes, I can! Emily, I don’t want…”

“You’ll…be…fine!” she said, saying each word slowly and clearly. “I’m your big sister now and I’m responsible for you, but I still want to have some fun with you too. Look, if something does go wrong, you can tell Mom it was all my fault, okay?”

“What? Of course, I’m gonna tell her, because everything will be all your fault! Emily…hey, don’t leave me here! We’re not done talking about this!”

She put the mini-skateboard down on the floor, with me tied securely to it still. Then she just left me there to yell impotently up at her, as she began breaking up the plastic track and moving it to its new location. I looked up at her immense figure as she went in and out of her room, amazed at her strength and how fast she appeared to move. It was difficult to believe that this twelve-story-tall giantess was my little sister, who normally stood only as tall as my chest. It felt quite disconcerting, being this much smaller than my younger sibling and at her complete mercy. Eventually she came to collect me and showed me what she had in store for me.

The track stretched down the stairs, all twenty-five of them, for what must have been a distance of at least 200 yards to me. At the end I saw a small ramp and, beyond that, several large blankets that Emily had piled on the floor, to act as a ‘safety net’ to catch me. It all looked very alarming to tiny little me, strapped to a little toy skateboard and about to be sent off on a descent of terror. I looked pleadingly up at my little sister one last time, but I didn’t get any sympathy from her.

“Time to ride, little guy!” she said. She put me at the start of the track and I was let go.

For a second or two my ride wasn’t that bad, but as the skateboard began to pick up speed it became more and more intense, until finally I had to close my eyes again and began to pray. I hit the ramp at a huge speed and soared through the air for what felt like a great distance, though it didn’t last very long. Then I fell down into the pile of blankets and lay there, panting breathlessly and waiting for Emily to come and get me. When she did, she looked super-excited.

“That looked so cool!” she yelled. “And look – you’re still perfectly okay! Turns out your big sister knew what she was doing, huh? You wanna go again?”

“Do I have a choice?” I whimpered. Emily laughed again, but then she looked at me with more concern.

“Wow, it must’ve really been scary for you,” she said. “Okay, Ben, I guess we can stop it now – I just thought you’d like it too, you know? I mean, boys like you usually say they like fast cars and extreme sports and stuff like that, so I figured you’d do too.”

“Yeah – but maybe this was a bit too extreme! I’ve gotta say, though, it beats any regular roller-coaster by a mile. And it was kinda exciting, you know – besides being completely terrifying too! You know what, I do want to go one more time. This time I’ll try to enjoy the ride, now that I know I won’t get hurt.”

“Okay, you got it!” she said, beaming. She ran back up the stairs and placed me back on the start of the slope.

When she let go, I braced myself for the acceleration to follow. I rolled down the track, going faster and faster, and tried to look straight ahead at the ramp. What I saw instead was the towering figure of my mother appearing at the foot of the stairs. She was standing right over the ramp, wondering what was going on. I tried to scream and warn her, but I was moving so fast that, before I knew it, I was launching off the end of the ramp and underneath the arch of my mom’s legs. She immediately fished me out of the pile of blankets and held me up to her eyes, which were wide with surprise.

“Ben…what are you doing?” she exclaimed.

“Uh…hi, Mom,” I muttered. “We, uh…Emily and I…we were just playing…”

“Really? I came to see what Emily’s yelling was all about, and here I find her endangering your life with this…what is this, anyway? Some kind of toy roller-coaster or something?”

“Yeah…but it was my idea, Mom! I made Emily do everything, really! And I wasn’t in any danger, she looked out for me the whole time.”

I don’t know why I was standing up for Emily, when the downstairs ride had been her idea, but something in Mom’s disapproving tone made me want to spare her from her anger. My little sister had joined us at the base of the stairs and was looking up at Mom and me apprehensively.

“I don’t care whose idea it was, Ben!” Mom said. “This isn’t a safe way for the two of you to be playing together! If those blankets hadn’t been there…”

“But that’s the whole idea!” Emily interrupted. “I wanted to make everything safe for Ben! Why would I want him to get hurt, Mom? He’s my little brother…I mean, my big brother…well, maybe he is my little brother right now…”

“Okay, okay, that’s enough! I’m just glad I managed to stop all of this before something bad happened. Emily, please clean all this stuff up. Then I want you to go to your room and stay there until dinnertime, okay? As for you, Ben, you’ll be staying with me for the rest of the day, where I can keep an eye on you.”

“No!” I yelled, and Mom looked at me shocked. “Mom, please don’t punish Emily, she was just doing what I told her to. She’s been really careful with me all day and I didn’t get hurt once. If you’re going to make her stay in her room, at least let me stay there with her. I won’t come up with any more dangerous games for us, I promise! I’m sorry about all of this, I just wanted to try something exciting, something I can’t do when I’m regular-sized.”

“I’m sorry too, Mom!” Emily added. “I won’t ever make Ben do anything this dangerous again, I swear!”

Mom sighed and looked at us both forgivingly, then handed me back to Emily.

“You know, I thought that shrinking my teenage son to two inches tall would make him much less of a nuisance,” she said. “Little did I know…all right, neither of you are grounded or anything like that – but no more stupid or dangerous stunts, okay? Clean up this mess, then you can keep on playing together.”

Emily stepped forward and gave Mom a hug. Since she was still holding me in her hand, I was pressed against Mom’s back, but I wasn’t injured, just squeezed a little tightly. Emily then untied me from the skateboard and put me down on her shoulder. Her golden hair flowed down next to me and I held onto it for support. I looked up at my Mom, who now rose up sixty feet above me from my perch on Emily’s shoulder.

“Go on, start cleaning up!” she ordered us. “Oh, and Ben, I need to see you just before dinner, okay? Will you bring him to me then, Emily?”

“Okay, Mom,” Emily replied. Then, once Mom had left the room, she added: “Thanks for covering for me, Benny. You didn't have to do that...but thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. I’m just glad neither of us got into any trouble. But you owe me one now, you hear?”

She laughed, then put me down on a nearby table while she began to break up the track into its separate pieces. It had been a potentially life-threatening thing to try, I had to admit, but I did end up enjoying it. In fact, I had thought of several riskier stunts to try at my current size, but I realized Mom was right. I was very small and delicate now and, whether I liked it or not, I needed looking after by my giant mother and sister. That didn’t mean I wanted to stop exploring the potential advantages of my new size, though. I looked forward to making the most of the week that lay ahead.

Emily took care of me for the rest of the afternoon. Rather than let me ride on her shoulder or anything like that, she’d decided on a more unconventional way of carrying me. She put a string through the loops of the ribbon I was wearing, then tied the two ends of the string together and put it around her neck. She had turned me into little pendant she could wear, almost like a necklace. I rather enjoyed the feeling of hanging against her chest, even though I was dangling over a hundred feet above the ground with nothing but a thin string keeping me from falling. But Emily didn’t spend a lot of time on her feet anyway. She mostly played with her toys in her room or sat on the living room couch and watched television. Sometimes she took me off from her neck and held me in her hand for a bit, her huge fingers encasing me, but always carefully enough so that I wasn’t hurt.

I was handed over to my mom later in the afternoon, and she took me up to her bedroom to show me some things she’d made for me. First there was my new bed – the baby-crib now being far too big for me – which was simply a white cereal bowl that Mom had filled with cotton fluff and covered with a small piece of cloth. She dropped me into the bowl and I was delighted to find it to be the most comfortable bed I’d ever been in. She then carried it over to her dressing table and placed it down on its surface. I climbed out of my new bed and onto the table top.

She had also made me some clothing that fit my new miniscule body. They were just simple pullover shirts and pants, made from the thinnest silk fabric she could find, and they didn’t fit me perfectly, but I was still extremely grateful. Mom helped me to untie the ribbon she’d wrapped me in earlier and watched as I tried on my new clothes. Despite them being made from the thinnest fabric she had available, they still felt pretty bulky to me, but I realized I would simply have to get used to them, since there was really no other option. I looked up at my gigantic mother, who seemed pleased that her handiwork had turned out so well.

“Thank you so much, Mom, for everything,” I said to her. “You really make being shrunk a fun time for me.”

“Oh, I’m so glad you’re enjoying it, sweetie!” she said, taking me up in her hand and giving me a little kiss on the head. “I take it you’re looking forward to this week, then?”

“Absolutely! As long as you’ll be there the whole time to look after me, Mom.”

“You can count on it! Now, I’d better get started making dinner. Do you want to come along?”

“Actually…if it’s okay, I’d like to stay here for a bit. I’m…well, I think I’ve had enough of Emily’s attention for the day. Don’t get me wrong, she was really great to hang out with…but I want some time to myself, too.”

“Don’t worry, I understand. You can stay here until dinner is ready, then I’ll come and fetch you. Just stay away from the edges of the table, okay? I don’t want to find you lying down below on the floor when I come back.”

I was left alone in Mom’s room while she went downstairs. Of course, I wanted to peek off the edge of the dressing table and see how far below me the floor was, but after what had happened outside earlier, I decided to heed Mom’s warning and stay away from any potential danger. I instead climbed into my new bed and relaxed. It felt weird to admit it, but I was already feeling at ease, despite only having been this tiny for less than a full day. It almost felt like I was staying at an expensive hotel, one where every need of mine was taken care of. Mom was really pampering me and I was enjoying it, even though I knew she was only doing things for me which I was now too small to do on my own – which, to be honest, were most things at this point.

After dinner – during which I had to endure Emily’s giggles and funny remarks as she watched me eat crumbs of food with my hands while sitting on a huge napkin – Mom took me upstairs to her room for the night. I said goodnight to my little sister and thanked her for looking after me during the day. She gave me a tender hug, pressing my tiny body against hers with nothing but a fingertip.

“No problem, Benny!” she said happily. “I really liked taking care of you, it was so much fun! We should do some more cool things together this week, okay?”

“Yeah, definitely. Good night, big sis.”

Mom carried me up to her room, cradling me in her palm. I was taken to the little bathroom which adjoined her bedroom and she put me down on the counter next to the large wash basin.

“So, I think you can guess what time it is,” she said, smiling down at me.

“Um…bath-time?”

“That’s right. I’m going to fill this basin up with water, then I’ll leave you for a while, so you can have some privacy. Does that sound good to you?”

“Yeah, of course! Only…um…I, uh, I have to use the toilet first. Can I…I mean, how am I gonna…because I’m too small now…”

“Yes, you are much too little to use the regular toilet, aren’t you? You’ll just have to use the basin. I’ll put you down at the bottom and you can do your business over the drain. I’ll give you some toilet paper too.”

“Okay, thanks. Sorry about this, Mom, I guess it’s pretty stupid…”

“No, not at all! We both knew that being shrunk down would involve some changes in how you do things…even things as mundane as using the bathroom. You don’t need to be embarrassed about asking, Ben.”

I was left alone to do my toilet business, then Mom came back for me and took me out of the basin. She opened the tap and began filling the basin with warm water, while I walked around on the counter and admired my magnified surroundings. Several huge bottles stood on the counter, containing bath soaps and other such liquids. One of them, a short pink bottle with pictures of roses on it, looked like it contained a bubble bath mixture. I asked my mom if I could try it out. She gave me a funny look.

“So, you want to try out your mother’s fragrant bubble bath?” she laughed. “You’re really trying your luck, aren’t you? You do know it’s marketed as a ‘feminine product’, right? It’s quite expensive too.”

“Well, yeah…but, I mean, that doesn’t mean anything, right? And I’ll only need to use a little bit. Please can I try it, Mom?”

“Okay, okay, I suppose I can spoil you a little.”

She mixed in some of the pink liquid, and pretty soon the basin was filled with sweet-smelling, frothy hot water. The basin was only half-full, but it was still big enough for me to go swimming in it like a pool. Mom looked satisfied, then told me that she’ll leave me here for about forty-five minutes or so. I was more than happy with that and waited for her to leave, then undressed and jumped into my giant-sized bubble bath. It was every bit as wonderful as you could imagine and I played and splashed around in the water for ages, not caring that I was acting really immaturely. It was just marvellous, being this small and having my own swimming pool-sized bath in which to enjoy myself. I washed my body and hair in the soapy water, marvelling at how dense it felt and at the way the oversized drops clung to my skin. There were rose-scented bubbles all around me, some of them larger than I was, and I found I could swim into them without popping them, which was incredibly cool.

But eventually I decided I’d had enough, so I tried to make my way out of the basin. The drain plug was attached to a small metallic chain, which rose up out of the water and looked climbable. I would have to climb about twelve feet or so to reach the top, so I got to it, immediately missing the warm water once I was out of it. But once I reached the top of the chain, I found that my arms were too short to reach the top of the basin. I tried swinging the chain back and forth to get some altitude, but again to no avail. Eventually I had to give up, and I dropped back down into the soapy water below. But I was in for a surprise.

My pulling and tugging on the chain had loosened the plug, which meant that the water in the basin had begun to flow out. Of course, since I was so small, I was immediately pulled down towards the drain by the flowing water. I tried to swim away from the drain, but my arms and legs weren’t strong enough and I kept getting pulled down. I really began to panic now. My only hope was grabbing onto the chain I had unsuccessfully tried to climb earlier and holding on with all my strength. It worked, and as the last of the water was gurgling down into the drain I was left at the bottom of the basin, clinging on to the chain for dear life.

I was out of danger, but I was still trapped down here, so I began calling out, hoping my mom would hear me. She did eventually come, although it couldn’t have been because I was calling her: I knew my voice was now too faint for her to hear in the room next door. She had just come to check up on me and was surprised and alarmed to see me in my current predicament. She deftly picked me up with two fingers and quickly rinsed me under the tap, cleaning off the last of the soap I was covered in. Then she lay me down on a hand towel and began to dry me. I tried to tell her that I was capable of doing this myself, but she didn’t seem to hear me. When she was done, I was lying naked on the towel, looking up at her ruefully.

“I’m sorry, Mom,” I mumbled, as I could tell from her expression that she wasn’t happy with me. “I tried to get out of the sink on my own and…well, one thing led to another, and…but I’m okay, now…thanks to you.”

“Do you realize you could have easily been sucked down the drain, if you hadn’t been alert?” she asked, her voice terse. “I know that you seem to enjoy doing these stunts while you are miniaturized, but you have to be more careful, Ben! I won’t always be just around the corner to come and save you…although maybe I should be, seeing the way you carry on.”

“Come on, Mom, it was just one accident!” I cried, feeling terribly humiliated, lying curled up on a towel, while she towered above me. “Please can I have my clothes now? This is really uncomfortable for me right now! I’ll be more careful from now on, I swear!”

Her face grew more sympathetic as she realized she may have been overreacting a little bit. She handed me my miniature clothes and stood nearby as I got dressed. When I was finished, she picked up the towel, with me still sitting on it, and held it up to her lovely face.

“So, tell me, how was the bath?” she asked. “Did you enjoy it? Before the ‘accident’ at the end, I mean – which I’m sure is something that will never happen again.”

“Yeah, it was great,” I said. “Really, really great. I wouldn’t mind doing this every evening – if you don’t mind, that is. And I’ll never do anything dumb like try to get out on my own again, I promise.”

“Good, then this is how we’ll be doing it, then. Now, before I send you to bed, you’ve got one last thing to do.”

She held up an enormous tube of toothpaste right next to me.

“Really, Mom?” I said, looking up at her. “I can’t brush my teeth when I’m this small – and I don’t want you doing it for me either!”

“Maybe not, but as your mother it’s my job to look after you and to make sure you look after yourself, so it’s got to be done. You can put some of the toothpaste on your fingertip and rub your teeth with it, then rinse your mouth afterwards. Don’t worry, I’ll help you with everything…”

I did as I was told, and was surprised to find that her method actually worked pretty well. It was better than not cleaning my teeth at all, I guess. As she carried me back to her room in the palm of her hand, I asked her a question:

“Mom…don’t you hate all of this? I mean, having to take care of me like I’m a little baby? Because if you do, I don’t mind going back to normal size…if that’s still an option.”

“It is, if that’s what you want to do,” she replied. “But, to answer your question – no, I don’t hate taking care of you at all. In fact, I really like being responsible for you, for what could be the last time. Maybe if you ever have kids, you’ll understand what it feels like. As a parent, a part of you can’t wait for your kids to grow up and head off on their own, out into the world – but the other part wishes they could be kids forever, so you can take care of them and spend as much time with them as you want.”

She looked down at me and smiled, then continued:

“I hope it’s not making you feel uncomfortable, me mothering you this much. What you’re doing – what we’re doing, I should say – can be extremely dangerous if we don’t take all the possible precautions. I just want to make sure you’re never in any dangerous or potentially hazardous situations, that’s all.”

“I know, Mom…and I’m really grateful. I don’t mind being taken care of like this, not at all. I’ve told you already, I actually kinda like it. I get to be a little kid again – maybe for the last time, like you said. In fact, if you ever need another volunteer for this kind of experiment again…like, maybe next year, or whenever – well, I’d like to do it again, if that’s okay.”

“Really? Well, that’s very kind of you, dear. I’ll definitely consider it. Of course, we’re still busy deciding – my co-workers and I, that is – what the next step is going to be. We will eventually have to make all of this public, since it can’t be kept a secret forever, even if we tried. But now that we know that miniaturization is a success and that it doesn’t seem to have any negative effects on the human body, we’ll need to decide on where to take the technology from here, and how it should be applied. But we can talk more about all of that tomorrow. You’re coming with me to the labs again, Ben, where I’m sure the others will be delighted to meet you at your new size. But now it’s time to go to bed.”

I was dropped into the cereal bowl that was my makeshift bed and Mom actually tucked me in, something she hadn’t done in many, many years. I was given a little kiss, then she took my bed and put me inside one of the drawers of her bedside cupboard, so that I could have a little privacy. I was pretty tired and fell asleep soon after, but not before imagining all the things that lay ahead this week. Foremost in my thoughts was Kara, of course. I couldn’t wait for her to hold me in her hands and kiss me with those lovely lips of hers. Last week I was still a bit frightened by the prospect of being intimate with her while so much smaller than her in size. Even though I was now even smaller still than last week, I was actually less afraid of having a closer relationship with her. And I knew she wouldn’t be afraid either.

On Monday morning my mom took me with her to work again. I was stashed away inside her purse, safely hidden from the outside world, though I did feel a little uneasy being cooped up in such a dark space. It didn’t last too long, though, and I was soon released once my mom had reached her place of work. She put me down on her office desk, on top of a stack of large papers next to her computer. I lay down on my back and enjoyed being able to breathe fresh air again. Mom sat down at her desk and began to work on her computer, while also occasionally glancing at some of the papers next to her or rearranging them. I didn’t even try to follow along with what she was working on, since I knew it would consist of a lot of in-depth scientific and biological terms whose meanings I couldn’t begin to guess. Instead, I hopped down from the stack of papers and began to wander around on top of the desk, stopping at each everyday object I encountered and gawking at how much larger everything now was. Even a simple eraser was now bigger than I was, while an ordinary pencil was now the size of a small tree trunk and it required a lot of effort from me just to lift one of its ends. Paperclips were now the size of shopping trolleys and thumbtacks were large enough for me to use as dinner plates, if they hadn’t had spikes sticking out of them.

While Mom was busy writing in a notebook, I noticed that her computer wasn’t in use, so I decided to play around a bit. I climbed onto the gigantic keyboard and onto the ‘Escape’ key, which was big enough for me to stand on with both feet. It began to sink down underneath my weight, but extremely slowly, not instantaneously as if it were pressed by a finger. I then hopped to the ‘F1’ key, and from there I began playing a bizarre version of hopscotch with the keys on the keyboard. Each time I jumped to a new key it gave way a little beneath me. Mom noticed me and apparently decided I’d had enough fun, as she pinched my waist with her thumb and index finger and stopped me from continuing.

“Now, Ben, don’t go using up all of your energy now!” she said, putting me back on top of the paper stack. “You’ll need it for the physical tests later today. Oh yes, there are some more of those coming your way, although once again it’ll be one of my colleagues who’s in charge of all that stuff.”

“Don’t worry, Mom, I’m ready for anything,” I said confidently. “I actually can’t wait to get some exercise, since I’ve been pretty inactive these last few days, being carried around everywhere. I mean, I’d love to go walking around the house for exercise or something, but I’m too afraid you or Emily will accidentally step on me.”

Right at that moment came a knock on the door.

“Yeah, we definitely don’t want that, huh?” Mom replied, while getting up to open the door. It turned out to be my guardian for the day, Dr Zira Ajani, who immediately inquired as to how I was doing. Mom led her over to her desk and showed her how much I had been shrunk down since last week. The charming Asian lady stooped forward until her face loomed over me, a friendly smile on her lips.

“Hello there, Ben,” she said. “Goodness, you are so small now! Tell me, how are you feeling?”

“I’m fine thanks,” I replied, feeling a bit self-conscious under her scrutiny. “I assume you’re here to take me to the tests?”

“Yes I am. I hope you’re ready for today, since we’re going to be working very hard with you. Because your size has been reduced so much, we really have no way of predicting what your physical capabilities are going to be. I may even have to put you in one or two uncomfortable situations, but we’ll see how it goes first.”

I was a bit alarmed when I heard that and looked up at my mom, but she didn’t seem to be upset at all.

“Well, I suppose you two had better head off, then, if you want to get as much as possible done today,” she said. “Have fun today, sweetie! Don’t let Zira intimidate you, okay? She’s really a wonderful person – or at least, she has been the whole time I’ve known her.”

The two giantesses both laughed. I was picked up by Zira’s enormous hand and set down in the centre of her palm. She held me right underneath her face, almost against her body.

“Don’t look so nervous, Ben!” she reassured me. “I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to do, or anything you feel is too much for you to handle. Remember, I’m also a mother myself, and believe me when I say I’ll look after you as if you were one of my own children.”

“Thanks, uh, Zira,” I said. “I think I’m ready to go now.”

“That’s good. I’ll see you later then, Lauren.”

She slipped me into one of her suit jacket’s side pockets and I could feel her body swaying as she walked off to her own laboratory. Once we were there, I was placed on a large, flat, mostly empty table. Zira took a seat next to me and I went over and sat down at the edge of the table, facing her. I trembled a little bit, feeling very vulnerable like this, all by myself in the presence of this giant lady. She began explaining the day’s activities to me.

“We’ll begin with the usual physical tests, just like last week. You’ll be walking and running along measured distances, so we can determine your walking and running speeds relative to your size. Then there’ll be weightlifting, weight throwing, high jumping – in fact, you might even think of it as a ‘mini-athletics competition’, except that you’ll be the only competitor. Do you take part in any athletic sports at school, Ben?”

“Yeah, I have…I mean, a little bit. I prefer team sports more, though. Like football, you know? I’ve been playing football for years now. Sometimes I like to play basketball with my friends, too.”

“Ah, okay, I see. Well, maybe someday soon we’ll be able to test our shrinking formulae on even more people, then we might organize a little football or basketball game for you to play right here on this table? That sounds like it could be fun, doesn’t it? In any case, you do appear to be in excellent shape physically, which is all that matters. We will need to repeat each activity several times to get accurate data, which means you’ll probably get tired before long, but we can take a break whenever you feel you need to. By the time we’re finished here we can go and get lunch, then we’ll come back and do some different tests afterwards.”

“Will there be swimming this time as well?” I asked.

“Oh yes, certainly…but not today. We still have to set up a controlled environment for that, I’m afraid. Our existing swimming pool is much too big for you now, and possibly too dangerous as well. But we’ll definitely return to that later this week. This afternoon, however, we’ll be doing some quite different physical tests. Specifically, we want to see how much your miniature body can handle. Climbing, falling, pressure, wind, g-forces – in essence, we want to find out how tough you are, now that you’re no bigger than my little finger.”

“That sounds…really intense,” I said, chuckling nervously.

“Oh, it will be, believe me! But, as I’ve already said, we’ll be taking every precaution to make sure you are not injured or placed in any unsafe, uncontrolled situations. Also, your mother and I will both be monitoring you during those tests, so you’ll be in very safe hands the whole time. We do want you to come back later this week for some more tests, remember? It wouldn’t do for you to break your legs today or anything like that: if nothing else, it’ll mean delays for our research, and we simply can’t have that!”

She giggled a little and gave me a little pat on my head with her fingertip. I was happy to hear that I wouldn’t be placed in any danger, though I was getting a little bit annoyed with Zira’s patronising tone of voice whenever she spoke to me. I decided to prove myself to her and do my absolute best during the physical tests – then we’ll see if she still thinks I’m not tough enough.

The morning went by fairly quickly and uneventfully. The table I was on was big enough for Zira to lay out a circular track 36 feet in circumference for me to run on. She chose this number because it equalled a standard 400-m track, like in international competitions, which made it easy for her to compare my results to those of actual athletes. I was also given a tiny high-jumping bar to measure my jumping ability (complete with little cushion for me to land on), miniature barbells and dumbbells, and even a tiny metallic ball, less than 200 milligrams in weight, so I could show off my skill in shot put.

Despite how silly the whole thing would have looked to anyone who happened to be passing by, it was actually very enjoyable. There were some things I didn’t enjoy, of course – first among them being the fact that I had no shoes to wear and therefore had to run barefoot, which made my feet hurt after a while. And of course, I did grow tired after some time, which meant that my breaks became more-and-more frequent as the morning wore on. All in all, though, it was lots of fun, as well as great exercise – something I felt I really needed, now that I was being carried everywhere and did very little walking around on my own.

Just as I’d hoped, Zira was very impressed by my results. She told me that, in proportion to my size, I was now fast enough, strong enough and agile enough to compete in the Olympics. Of course, if actual Olympic athletes were shrunk down to my size, they’d still be able to outcompete me, but for what it was worth, I was very pleased with myself. So was Zira, and when it was time for our lunch, she treated me to some dessert, which consisted of a tiny crumb of caramel fudge and a drop of strawberry ice-cream. She brought this, along with my lunch, back to her office, since she didn’t want to risk anyone seeing me at the cafeteria. While sitting on her desk and eating, I decided to get to know her a little better.

“So, uh, Mom said you were from Pakistan, right?” I asked her. She was busy typing on her computer and looked down at me to answer my question.

“That’s right, Ben,” she said. “I’m only staying in your country temporarily, while we’re busy working on these matter reduction experiments. My husband is a professor at a university in Karachi, where he’s still staying along with my son, who’s about your age now. They’ll be coming over to visit me soon, though, in a couple of weeks.”

“Wow, that’s great. You must really miss them right now.”

“Yes, I do, but it’s a sacrifice I’m happy to make, for the sake of this project. Once we go public with our research, I expect, your mother, myself, Dr Spencer and our other colleagues at other research institutes will find ourselves becoming quite famous.”

“Yeah…and rich too, I imagine. I mean, you are planning on selling the shrinking formulas, right?”

“I don’t know, Ben. I’m actually very uncertain about what we should do with these formulas we’ve created. In the wrong hands, they could end up causing a lot of harm. Which is why we won’t go public before we’re absolutely sure what our course of action will be. But we’ve still got time. We’re also constantly working to improve the formulas we have – making them work faster, for instance.”

We chatted on for some time, until she told me she needed to start focusing on her work again. At that moment, my mom came walking into the office, ready to collect me for the afternoon’s testing. She was happy to hear that the morning’s events went well and asked me if I was ready for some more strenuous physical activity.

“Of course, I am!” I replied enthusiastically. “What do you need me to do first?”

“That’s the spirit!’ Mom said, laughing. “Well, how about some climbing exercises first, hmm? Like the rope-climbing exercises you do in the gym at school – only a bit more challenging.”

“Sounds great!”

My enthusiasm turned out to be short-lived. Mom wasn’t kidding when she said it was gonna be challenging. She simply dangled a thread with a weight attached to the tip from her fingers next to me and told me to start climbing. Each time I had reached the top, Mom put me down on the desk again and extended the length of the thread I had to climb. We started with six inches (eighteen feet from my perspective), and Mom added another six inches every time I had succeeded in reaching the top. Zira watched and noted down my times, as well as asking me questions regarding how tired I was every time I had finished climbing. Eventually, on the sixth climb – where I had had to climb up over a hundred feet – I felt my arms beginning to ache and my grip faltering. I was almost at the top when, to my sudden shock, my strength gave way and I let go. I fell and screamed – but I landed safely in Mom’s open hand. She had caught me. As I lay in her palm and panted, she decided I had had enough for today.

“I think I’d best take him home, Zira,” she spoke to her colleague. “Maybe we’ve been pushing him too hard for one day. We can always continue with the tests at a later date, perhaps on Wednesday or Thursday. What do you say, little man? Had enough for today yet?”

“Yeah…yeah, definitely,” I said, still struggling to catch my breath. With all of the stuff in the morning and now this, I felt as if I’d just run a marathon in record time. This day has more than made up for my lack of exercise during the previous few days. I was handed over to Zira, who gave me a little kiss on top of my head and said goodbye.

“Thank you for being such a good test subject!” she said, smiling. “You’ve done very well today, Ben. Go and get some rest, and we’ll carry on later this week.”

Mom put me back into her purse, where I could lie down and recover for a bit, while she carried on working back in her office for a bit. It wasn’t long, though, before we headed home. In her car, Mom took me out of her purse again and put me down in her lap. I lay down on the taut fabric of her skirt and looked up at her imposing figure.

“Oh, I’d completely forgotten to tell you,” she said suddenly while driving. “Kara called your cell phone earlier, while you were busy with Dr Ajani doing the tests. She said she’d love to see you again, especially when I told her how small you were now.”

“Oh yeah? What did you tell her?” I asked anxiously.

“Well, she wanted to know when you’d be free to hang out, so I told her tomorrow might be a good day. Unfortunately, it seems she’s writing an exam tomorrow morning and has to study for another one afterwards. But, when I told her you were just two inches tall now, she came up with a crazy suggestion. Apparently, she wants to take you to school with her tomorrow.”

“Really? Mom, that’s…that’s actually an awesome idea! Then I won’t have to be stuck at home all day long again. Maybe afterwards she can take me home to her place, then I can finally see what her home is like.”

“An ‘awesome idea’…Ben, are you serious? Doesn’t it sound a bit irresponsible to you? I mean, what if something happens to you…or what if someone else at her school finds out about you?”

“I’ll just ask her to hide me in her pocket or something like that. She knows that I’m supposed to be kept a secret. Anyway, I just want to spend some more time with her like this, while I’ve got the chance.”

“Well…okay, I guess there’s no reason to be worried. If you’ll both promise me to be careful and responsible at all times, then I don’t see any reason why she can’t take you with her to school tomorrow. I’ll call her back once we get home and let her know, then I’ll report back to you.”

“Thanks, Mom! I’m sure I’ll be fine with her, don’t worry!”

Once we were back home, I asked my mom to put me on my bed in my room, so I could get a little time to myself. She did as I asked and dropped me onto my 240-foot-long bed, then closed the door to my bedroom and left me in peace. I was glad to get some private time, so I walked around on my gargantuan blankets and pillow for a while before lying down and getting a quick nap. At dinner time, Mom told me that Kara had been delighted to hear that she could take me with her tomorrow. She would come and pick me up just before 8 a.m., then bring me back later in the afternoon. I was thrilled as well, and couldn’t wait to see what my gorgeous girlfriend would look like as an even-bigger giantess than last week.

The next morning couldn’t arrive soon enough for me. I awoke in my little bowl-bed and got dressed, then waited for my mom to come and collect me. She appeared, already dressed for work, and scooped me up in her hand. I was given the usual ‘good-morning’ kiss.

“I’m glad you’re up early,” she said. “Kara just texted and said she’ll be here in twenty minutes. Come on, I’ll make you some breakfast, then you can be on your way.”

My breakfast was a single cereal flake, a minute portion of an apple and a crumb of bread that had been dipped in peanut butter. I was hungry and ate as much as I could; even so, there was still some food left over afterwards. I had only just finished when the doorbell rang and Mom went to answer it. A moment later she came strolling back into the kitchen, with Kara following behind her. My 200-foot-tall girlfriend in her school uniform was truly a magnificent sight as she came and stood next to the kitchen table. With my mom standing next to her, I felt doubly overwhelmed. Mom pointed me out to Kara, who shrieked in amazement when she saw me. I stood up and waved to her, but she was too taken aback for the moment to respond. She covered her mouth with her hands, unable to believe how small her boyfriend now was. Mom lifted me up carefully and held me in front of Kara’s ample chest.

“Hi there, babe,” I said, trying to act casual while secretly being in awe of what I saw. “You look happy to see me – I hope.”

“Ben…holy shit, you’re so tiny!” she cried out. Then she half-gasped and laughed at the same time. She held out a trembling hand next to Mom’s and I stepped carefully from one gigantic hand into the other. Kara then raised me up to her face, where I got a great view of her lovely, alluring eyes.

“You look amazing,” I said, trying my best not to show how overwhelmed I was by her size and beauty. “In fact, you look even more stunning than when you were only four times my size!”

“Really? Jesus, Ben, you’re so tiny now! Oh my God, look at your teeny-tiny arms and legs! You’re so…so little! So…so…”

“All right, all right, I think we get the idea!” Mom said, before Kara could go through every synonym for the word ‘tiny’ that she knew. “As you can see, Kara, Ben is now small enough for you to easily conceal him at school, which I hope you’ll do at all times.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah…I mean, yes, of course. I’ll keep him safe and hidden, until I’m back home.”

“Back home?” I asked. “You mean, after school, we’re going…”

“To my place, yeah,” she said. “If you want to, that is. It seems rather pointless just to take you to school and then back here, because we won’t be able to talk or anything. But we can hang out at my home for a while afterwards if you want…and if your mom’s okay with it.”

We both looked over at my mom, who, after some hesitation, told us it was okay with her too.

“I’ll see you later this afternoon, then,” she said, leaning forward and giving me a kiss. “Take good care of him, Kara! He’s very…I hesitate to say the word…but ‘fragile’ is probably the best way to describe him now. Please remember that.”

Kara promised to look after me to the best of her abilities, then curled her fingers around me and headed outside. Once she had climbed into her car, she opened her hand again and looked at me in wonder and delight. She held the tip of her outstretched index finger right next to me, about waist height. I clambered onto it and sat there, with a leg on each side of the tip of her finger. Then she lifted me a little bit higher, but not too far above her other hand that the fall would hurt me.

“This is so unreal!” she said. “You’re smaller than my finger…and so light! You barely weigh anything now. Your little hands and feet are so tiny…oh, Ben, you are so adorably cute like this! Can you stand on the tip of my finger for me?”

I did as she wished and climbed on top of her finger, then stood and balanced on the very tip. It was unnerving to say the least, but she held her other hand right beneath me, ready to catch me if I should fall.

“I wish I could take a picture of you,” she said. “But…no, you know what? I am gonna take a picture – no-one’s gonna know if I don’t show it to anyone else, right? Okay, stand still, just like that. This’ll only take a second…”

She held up her phone next to me (even this everyday article was many times my size now) and quickly snapped a few pics, while I smiled and waved and tried my best not to fall. Once she was done, she put me down on her left shoulder. I fell forward onto my hands and knees, then crawled over to her collar and held onto it tightly. Her flowing hair was like a curtain of silky strands surrounding me, and I looked up and saw her gazing down at me with one eye.

“You okay like that?” she asked me. “Sorry, I don’t know where else to put you, besides on the passenger seat – but then we won’t be able to talk while I’m driving. Your voice is just too faint for me to hear from over there.”

“No, this is perfect,” I replied. “I’d much rather be closer to you in any case. Kara, I’m not gonna lie – you really look stunning like this. I…I feel like I should worship you or something.”

She chuckled and gave me a playful poke.

“Feel free to worship me as much as you want!” she said. “Don’t even stop once you’re back to your regular size, just keep on venerating me and doing every single thing I tell you to do…”

“Sure, sure…as long as you do something rewarding for me in return!”

“Wow, you’ve got quite a big mouth for such a little guy! Still, if I find your worshiping satisfactory, I’ll consider it. Okay, that’s enough chit-chat. I should get going or else I’ll be late for the test.”

She started her car’s engine and drove off. I lay on my belly on her shoulder and looked at the magnified outside world flying by the car’s window in awe. Kara told me she was writing a biology exam this morning and that she had to study for another exam during the afternoon, but she promised to set aside some time for me as well today. I really didn’t mind if she was busy or not, as long as I got to spend time in her company. We soon arrived at the school and she pulled into an empty parking space. Then she tilted her head and looked down at me, letting me know that it was time for me to move.

“We should probably find you a place to hide,” she suggested. “What about this pocket, right below you? You’re so tiny now, you could easily fit in here.” She patted the breast pocket of the dark blue school blazer she was wearing.

“Yeah, that’ll be perfect,” I replied. “That’s the same way that my mom usually carries me too. Okay then, see you after the test, I guess.”

I climbed onto her collar and stood on the tips of my toes to give her a kiss on the cheek, then walked along her shoulder about halfway to the edge and sat down. From there I shoved myself forward and slid down the front of her chest and neatly into her pocket. It was a thirty-foot slide but the landing was soft and I wasn’t hurt at all. I looked up and saw my giant girlfriend looking down and giggling, no doubt finding my miniature antics very entertaining. I waved up to her to show her that I was okay and she waved her fingers back at me. Then she grabbed her school bag from the back seat and climbed out of the car, and from then on, I was essentially left to myself.

It turned out that Kara had quite a few friends at her school, which meant that a lot of greetings and hugs were exchanged that morning before the test started. Each time she embraced another girl I curled up in her pocket, afraid that I would be crushed between two immense female bodies, or at the very least seriously bruised. But Kara seemed to be aware of my precarious state and didn’t hug any of her friends too tightly, and the many thick layers of her clothing helped to cushion me as well. All around me were the voices of titanic teenaged girls, sounding incredibly loud to my heightened sense of hearing. None of them were at all aware that there was a tiny two-inch guy in their midst, hidden away safely in their classmate’s blazer pocket.

Things got more comfortable once the girls all entered the building to start writing their exam, and Kara took a seat at a desk and got ready while her teacher began handing out tests. Lying on my back at the bottom of her pocket, I saw her occasionally giving me a glance and a smile, without making it seem too obvious to any bystanders. I always waved back and occasionally made a funny face or something to lighten her mood. But once she began to write I was more-or-less forgotten, as she focused entirely on the exam and didn’t once check in on me. An hour went by, then another, and I began to feel bored.

I decided to risk a glimpse at the outside world, so when Kara leant forward to begin writing another essay or something, I grabbed onto the fabric of her blazer and hauled myself upwards, until I managed to peek over the rim of the fifteen-foot-deep pocket I was in. I saw an enormous table with several gigantic sheets of paper below me. Then Kara, oblivious to my position, suddenly sat upright sharply, yawned and stretched, her eyes being closed while she did this. The sudden motion jerked me forward and I flew out of her pocket and into empty space. It happened so suddenly that I didn’t have time to scream. I landed on the edge of her skirt and rolled forward, then fell down off the edge. At this point my survival instincts kicked in and I grabbed frantically at the nearest bit of fabric. When I returned to my senses, I was hanging from the lower hem of her grey pleated skirt, my hands straining to cling onto the thick fabric, and the floor over fifty feet below me.

I was terrified. I tried to scream and get her attention, but my voice failed me and I knew that she wouldn’t hear me. I was also afraid that one of the other girls, sitting at any of the surrounding desks, would notice me and draw everyone’s attention to me. With my grip beginning to fail, I felt a sudden attack of panic, almost as if I was about to faint. Below me, Kara folded her gigantic lower legs back underneath her chair. I was out of options and, trusting in pure luck, I let go. I fell fifteen feet and landed on the back of her leg and began to slide down towards her foot. My feet crashed against the top of her shoe, halting my slide and giving me time to recover my breath and figure out where to go next. But Kara made that decision for me when she stretched her legs forward again. Had I held on to her shoe, I would no doubt have been crushed and smeared against the floor, and that would have been the end of me. But I let go just in time and fell onto the cold, hard floor tiles, bumping my knees and elbows, which hurt like hell. But I was alive.

The whole ordeal must’ve lasted only a few seconds and not once did it appear that Kara was aware of what her boyfriend was going through. Unless she checked the inside of her breast pocket soon, or unless I could covertly attract her attention, I was stuck down here. I waited for the pain in my arms and legs to subside, and meanwhile felt myself beginning to shiver from the cold of the floor. Far above me, my girlfriend’s legs formed a lofty canopy above my head, and even further above that was the underside of the desk she was writing on. I felt incredibly small and afraid, but I wasn’t going to give in. There had to be a way to get Kara’s attention so she could come to my rescue, without anyone else noticing. I looked around to my left and right and saw rows and rows of colossal school desks, each with an equally colossal schoolgirl sitting at it and writing her test – though I could only see the lower legs and shoes of each girl. I was about to start screaming at the top of my lungs for help when another solution occurred to me: what if I could climb my way back up to Kara, and to safety?

I had no idea if I was even remotely up to the task, but I decided to tackle it one step at a time. First, I needed to get on top of one of Kara’s shoes. I ran over to where her right foot was resting on the floor. The toe section of her shoe was about five feet high – not too difficult to climb on top of. Then I walked along the bridge of her foot, still awestruck by the scale of everything. Being carried in someone’s hand or riding on a shoulder is one thing, but you don’t really feel small until you find yourself at the feet of a girl as tall as a redwood tree, about to try and climb one of her legs. Kara was wearing tight, smooth stockings, which covered her entire legs and made them pretty much impossible for me to climb – although they were certainly nice to look at from down here! I tried once or twice, taking a running start and scrambling up her shin, but each time I ended up sliding back down to her shoe. This was getting me nowhere, I thought, and I wondered what to do next.

Once again, Kara’s movements, inconsequential to her, made a big difference to me. She stretched both of her legs forward, lowering the angle of the slope I needed to climb up. I saw a chance for success and ran forward along her shoe, then began scrabbling up her leg on all fours. I felt for all the world like a tiny, insignificant insect, climbing up the body of a vastly superior being. Once or twice, I slipped on the smooth fabric of her stocking, but I managed to stop myself from sliding all the way down to her foot again. Eventually, after an intense sixty-foot climb, I reached her knee – and not a moment too soon. She bent her legs back again and I lunged forward to get on her upper leg, or else I would have fallen to my death. But I managed it and, with a sigh of relief, I collapsed on her skirt and rolled into her lap.

From here, getting her attention ought to be a lot easier than while I was stuck on the ground. After regaining my breath, I stood up and half-walked, half-stumbled across the folds of her skirt, until I reached her hips. Her upper body rose over me like some great monumental structure. She seemed to have stopped writing the test and was just sitting idly, waiting for the allotted time to finish. I hopped up and down and waved my arms, even calling her name softly, until she happened to glance down and see me. She looked shocked to see me out of her pocket, but she reacted quickly and pressed me against her waist with her hand. I was in her grasp now and she covertly moved me around to one of her blazer’s inner pockets and slipped me inside. I had no view of what was happening above me, but I didn’t mind. I also knew I would have to explain myself to Kara, but at least I was safe again.

It wasn’t long before the exam period ended and all the girls were allowed to get up and leave. Kara spent some time chatting with her friends afterwards, while I lay still in her pocket and listened to their conversations. I was starting to feel rather hungry by now, but I kept quiet and waited for Kara to finish talking and head back to her car. Eventually she said goodbye to her friends, most of whom I would no doubt get to meet once I was back to full size. More hugs were exchanged, though this time I was down by her hips and thankfully out of harm’s way. Then the pocket I was in began to sway as she made her way out to the parking lot and climbed into her car. She scooped me out of her pocket and held me up in her palm, where I scrambled to my feet.

“I can explain everything!” I yelled, before she had a chance to get mad at me. She paused and looked at me, confused. Then she said: “Okay, I’m listening. What happened back there?”

I told her about the accident that befell me and everything that happened afterwards, then I actually got down on my knees and begged her not to tell my mom about it. I also apologized for being so dumb and reckless and for almost putting her in the unenviable position of having to explain to my mother why she had managed to lose me at her school. Afterwards, she simply looked at me with an amused expression.

“You know, I really should be angry with you,” she said. “But…damn it, Ben, you’re just so cute and everything like this…okay, I forgive you. You can stop grovelling now, okay? You’re fine, and you’re not hurt, so as far as I’m concerned nothing happened in there.”

I got to my feet again and relaxed.

“Thanks, Kara!” I said gratefully. “So…does this mean you won’t tell my mom?”

She smiled and gave me a wink. Then she suddenly snatched me between her finger and thumb and pressed my upper body against her lips. It was the first time she’d kissed me at my present size, and it was just as wonderful as I’d hoped it would be. Her warm, bouncy lips were so huge compared to me, it almost felt like they were enveloping me completely. When she drew back, I was blushing a deep red and feeling more than a bit aroused. She pressed me tenderly against her soft cheek.

“Feel better now?” she asked.

“Yeah…yeah, totally! God, Kara, that was…that felt so incredible…”

“It did, huh? It felt great for me too.”

“Really? Well then…looks like I was right to volunteer for this whole shrinking experiment after all.”

“Oh, absolutely. I think we should both make the most of this situation, don’t you? Come on, let’s go home.”

She put me back on her shoulder, then buckled her seatbelt and started the engine. I asked her how her exam had been.

“Oh, not too bad, I guess. I did study a lot for it, so I’m hoping for a good result. I will have to do some more studying this afternoon for the next test, but I think I can set aside an hour or two just for us.”

“Thanks, that sounds great. I don’t mind hanging around while you’re studying, though. I mean, unless you think I’ll distract you or something.”

“No, I don’t think that’ll be a problem. Okay then, it’s a deal. You can stick around until just before my parents get back, which will be sometime between five and six in the afternoon. I’d actually prefer it if you stayed – I really like having you at this size, you know?”

We chatted about mundane things all the way back to her house, which I’d never been to before. Once we arrived, I told her I was starving, and she admitted she was pretty hungry as well, so she took me to the kitchen first of all. She put me down on the kitchen counter next to the stove and looked down at me.

“How about some pancakes?” she suggested. “I can make some for us in no time. Do you like pancakes?”

“Yeah, I love them! But you don’t need to make a whole one for me, obviously.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right! You probably just need a few crumbs to fill you up right now, huh? In fact, you’re little more than a tiny morsel yourself right now. I bet I can eat you whole with just one bite!”

She ducked down and lunged at me with her mouth open, and I screamed and ducked for cover. She then laughed at my fearfulness. I felt rather ashamed as I stood up and composed myself.

“Very funny!” I said, annoyed. “Yeah, you can do anything you want to me now, I get it already!”

“Yes, I can! And what would you like me to do with you first, hmm?”

“Uh…you could start by making us some pancakes, like you promised. I enjoy these games we’re playing and all, but I’m finding it difficult to do anything but think how hungry I am right now.”

Kara agreed with me, and before long the two of us were sitting down and eating a delicious lunch of pancakes and syrup. I sat on top of her dinner plate and waited eagerly as she sliced off a tiny section of a thirty-foot wide pancake. I grabbed the little piece she gave me and began to stuff myself, which she found incredibly amusing as well. I probably wasn’t displaying very good table manners, but I figured I could get away with it while being this size. Being tiny and cute had to count for something, after all.

After lunch Kara took me up to her room. She dropped her bag on a chair, took off her blazer and shoes, and flung herself down on her bed. I was dropped right on top of her roomy chest, where I lay down on the soft surface of her blue woollen sweater and relaxed. I rolled around and looked over at my girlfriend’s beautiful face, and saw that she was enjoying this situation as well. But it turned out she had some work she wanted me to do.

“You know, after this stressful morning, I’d really like to unwind first, before starting with the studying again,” she said. “What do you say, Ben? Would you like to help me with that?”

“Um, sure…as long as it’s not something too…well, hazardous.”

“Oh no, not at all! I just want you to give me a little foot massage, that’s all!”

“A-a foot massage? Are you serious?”

“Yes, I’m serious! Come on, it’ll be fun! Besides, you probably need to do some kind of exercise while you’re this small, right? If you’re just being carried around everywhere, that’s not really what I’d call a healthy, active lifestyle.”

“Well, actually, my mom has me doing these tests at her lab…”

“Nope, you’re not talking your way out of this! Foot massage, now! You want to get the affection of your giant girlfriend, well, then you’re going to have to earn it. Go on, get started!”

I wanted to argue some more, but, after giving it a second thought, I decided it might just be a fun thing for me to do after all. Also, it seemed that she wanted me to make my way to her feet all on my own – which meant I had 140 feet of Kara’s body to traverse. I got up and climbed up the slope of her chest, pausing on top to give her a wave, then rolled down the other side and began running across her torso and waist. I then stepped onto the grey field formed by her skirt and crossed it to reach her knee. From there I had another sixty feet of lower leg to walk along – the same distance I had been forced to climb earlier today, under very different circumstances. But now that Kara was aware of my position at all times, I should have a much more enjoyable time.

Her right foot was waiting for me and, once I’d reached it, I had to lean against its upper surface in order to massage the top of it. Even so, her toes were still ten feet above my head, way out of my very limited reach. It never ceased to amaze me, how small a size I had been shrunk to. I spread my arms across the surface of her foot and began rubbing it as vigorously as I could. The silky-smooth fabric of the stockings she was still wearing helped me a lot – in fact, I found the task of caressing and rubbing her foot surprisingly pleasurable. Before long, I found I had to stop myself, since I was becoming disturbingly aroused by this. I climbed down by way of her ankle and ran around to the sole of her foot, hoping she couldn’t see me here.

“Hey, why did you stop?” Kara’s voice asked, sounding both loud and distant. “I was really enjoying that! For someone so unwilling, you seem to know a lot about giving foot rubs!”

“I…I just need a moment!” I called back. “Just…just a little out of breath, that’s all!” That wasn’t a complete lie, since I was a breathing a bit heavily, but I was really waiting for the unexpected hard-on I had gotten to go away. Who knew that massaging a foot the size of a bus could make a guy horny?

After a while I started again, this time applying myself to the sole of her foot, and before long I was feeling aroused again. It was an awkward situation, to be sure, and I was thankful when Kara seemed to lose interest and told me to stop. Unfortunately, she now decided to play with me using her feet for a while. She pressed the soles of her feet together, trapping me in-between, from where I was completely unable to free myself. It was the weirdest feeling, trapped between two walls with warm, smooth surfaces, being gently pressed down on from all sides. She then lifted me up, being careful enough not to crush or even injure me, and held her legs in an upright position above her upper body. I hoped she wouldn’t be so mean as to drop me from this 100-foot height, but apparently that was her plan, and she pulled her feet apart, which caused me to fall down, screaming loudly. I landed on the soft, bouncy expanse of her chest, completely disconcerted but otherwise unhurt. Kara predictably found my distress and helplessness quite hilarious, and I was about to tear into her for being so careless with me, tiny and fragile as I now was – but she picked me up and gave me another wonderful, sensuous, kiss, and I completely forgave her.

“You are so loveable like this, you know that?” she said, still holding almost against her lips. “My loveable little boyfriend – I just want to play with you and hold you like this all day.”

“Umm, well…uh, thanks,” I mumbled, feeling too overwhelmed by her sheer size and the way I felt myself attracted to her to give a coherent reply.

“I’d love to get you to do all sorts of things for me, you know, things only a teeny little two-inch guy can do…but that’ll have to wait for later, I’m afraid. Right now, I really have to start studying for the next exam.”

“Oh,” I said, sighing. For a moment I had felt a thrill of anxiety, wondering what was in store for me next. Kara smiled, seeing how disappointed I looked.

“Yeah, I’m not happy about it either…but I have to get my priorities straight, okay?” she said. “You can still hang around for a bit, if you want. I could always use some company. I’ll take you home later like I promised, before my parents come back from work.”

“Okay…but we’re still going on another date later this week, right? After you’re done with exams?”

“You sounded really eager there, little Ben!” she said, giggling. “Okay, then it’s a deal. I’ll drop by again on Friday morning to pick you up – I’ll be done with school and exams and all that stuff then – and we can spend the whole day together and do whatever we want: just you and me.”

She gave me yet another kiss, which felt just as wonderful as all the previous ones. I couldn’t describe how much I was looking forward to Friday. Kara seemed to love having me at this size, almost as much as I loved her being an immense, gorgeous giantess. Last week, on our previous date, I had still been a little afraid of her, of being at her mercy and of what that meant for our relationship, but I wasn’t anymore. I was ready for anything now and I knew she was as well. Best of all, I knew now that she deeply cared for me and would never hurt me – the way she had played with me with her feet without injuring me at all proved that – so I couldn’t wait to see what possibilities she had in mind for us.

Kara let me stay with her for another couple of hours while she began to study and sum up her classwork for the next exam. She sat at a small desk in her room, upon which she put me, leaving me to roam around while she was busy. Eventually, it seemed, my constant movements and remarks were beginning to distract her, so I was given a punishment of sorts. She simply took me and, against my feeble protests, tied me down in a spread-eagle position to the surface of her desk with a bit of Scotch tape. My miniscule arms and legs weren’t nearly strong enough to break free, so it was quite a humiliating situation for me, but she found it hilarious.

“That’ll shut you up for a while, I’m sure!” she said, giggling. “You just stay right there, little guy, and I’ll decide later if I’ll let you go again.”

“Well, gosh, Kara, you could’ve just asked me to be quiet!” I said, feeling just a teeny bit upset.

“Yes, I could have…but isn’t this so much more fun?”

She laid the tip of her overwhelming finger on my chest and began to rub me, and I immediately forgot how angry I was. It was such an arousing feeling, being this tiny and powerless beneath her hand, that I actually wanted to stay like this for a while. But then she began to stroke me a bit lower down, where I was a lot more ticklish. I began to laugh uncontrollably, my body twitching as much as possible while tied down like this. I began begging her to stop, but she, as usual, just found my embarrassment too funny for words, and began tickling me even more intensely.

“Aww, is my little guy ticklish?” she teased me, her face looming over me with a fake expression of concern on it. “Okay, okay, stop whining…I’ll stop for now. I really should get back to work, after all, but with you here distracting me that’s not really that easy. Maybe it’s time I took you home.”

She stood up, leaving me where I was, flat on my back and stuck to the desk, while she began gathering some of her things.

“Hey, are you planning on letting me go any time soon?” I cried out, after noticing that she seemed to be deliberately taking her time. “I thought you had some important studying to do?”

“Yeah, I will…I’m just savouring this whole situation, that’s all. Pretty soon you’ll be back to your normal, everyday six-foot height, and I’ll miss having a tiny, thumb-sized little guy to play with.”

She carefully freed me from my position and placed me in her open hand. I noticed that she sounded genuine when she said she’d miss having me shrunken down like this.

“Well, you know…I could always ask my mom for some more of this magic shrinking formula of hers, if she still has any left,” I answered. “I mean, I also love being with you when I’m this little. I just thought you might be getting a bit tired of it. I mean…there’s not a lot we can do together now, is there?”

“Are you sure about that?” she asked, giving me a wink. “Because, speaking for myself, I’m only just beginning to enjoy everything about this situation. But we’ll talk again on Friday. Come on, let me take you home.”

She once again stashed me in her school blazer’s breast pocket, and before long I was back home and being handed over to my mother again. Mom was happy to see me still in one piece (of course, neither of us said anything about the incident at school), and she readily agreed to let me spend the whole of Friday in Kara’s company, with the usual conditions still in force. Kara kissed me squarely on the face as I stood in Mom’s hand and waved goodbye to us, then I was taken inside and treated to some hot chocolate.

“So, I take it things are going well between you two?” Mom asked me, as I sat on the table in front of her and helped myself to the hot chocolate that she had given me in a dollhouse cup.

“Yeah, you could say that,” I replied. “Kara seems to really like me being this small compared to her. Maybe it’s because now she gets to be the one in charge, I guess.”

“Maybe,” Mom said, chuckling. “Although I believe you’ll find that there are some girls who like to be the one in charge, no matter what size their boyfriends are. How about you, Ben? I’m assuming you’re still enjoying this whole experience, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, it’s really fun! Hey Mom, are you gonna shrink me even smaller next week? I’m just wondering.”

“Well, that’s up to you, isn’t it? I do have one more formula I’d like to test, one that’ll make you even tinier than you are now, but like I’ve said, it’s your choice. You can choose if you want me to shrink you even smaller or if you want to return to normal.”

I told my mom I’d think about it. Being two inches tall was fun, but it’s possible that being shrunk even smaller would make it more terrifying than fun for me. There’s probably a minimum size to which I’d be willing to be shrunk, below which pretty much everything around me would be hazardous. Mom would have to take extra protective measures to keep me from harm then, but for the moment I was rather keen on the idea of being reduced to an even tinier size than I was now.