“You guys are gonna get in sooooo much trouble…” drawled Maggie Stevens as she leaned against the doorway to the study den, twirling one of her pigtails between her fingers and smacking her jaws a few times as she continued chewing a stick of gum that had long ago lost its flavor and color.

                “Shut up, Maggie, no we’re not!” her brother Kyle answered through gritted teeth before returning to his work of rapidly surfing the web for whatever piece of information his brother Scott told him to look for next.

                “Yeah you are.  And when you do, I’m gonna look you in the eye and say “told you so!” and then you’ll both realize how much smarter I am,” Maggie bragged with a girlish giggle.

                “Keep telling yourself that, Maggie.  But this is for all three of us.  This’ll help you too, you know!” Scott Stevens said with some annoyance as he continued thumbing through the touch pad on his mother’s Portable Matter Reduction Device.

                “How is you breaking into mom’s shrink machine thing gonna help me?” Maggie whined, irritated.

                “Because…” Scott groaned.  “Then she won’t use it on us, at least not for a while.  Not until she can get it fixed, or get a new one, and that should be a nice span of time.”

                “Then why don’t you just take a hammer and smash it?” Maggie asked, lowering her voice to sound as stupid as possible in order to poke fun at her brothers.

                “Haven’t you ever watched a crime show, you idiot?  She’d know it was us immediately, and then she’d use it on us.  All of us, probably,” Scott grumbled, continuing his work.  “Kyle, look up this number here that I have pulled up on the screen.  See what you find.”

                “Don’t you pull me into this, I have NOTHING to do with it!” Maggie squealed, sounding somewhat fearful, before crossing her arms and pouting her upper lip.  “And don’t call me an idiot.  I’m not an idiot.”

                “Okay, then.  Help us, then,” Scott offered.

                “No.  I don’t wanna get caught.”

                “Then piss off,” Scott groused, yielding a chuckle from his younger brother Kyle, who nearly jumped with excitement when he found what he was looking for onscreen.

                “Got it!  Got it!  What now?” Kyle asked excitedly, showing the screen to Scott.

                “Okay, hold up, I gotta type that all in,” Scott said, half-mesmerized by the screen, as he began feverishly typing in data, now ignoring his sister Maggie, whose eyes had by now begun to well with tears.  She wiped them away with her soft knuckle, embarrassed, and sniffled a few times to clear her sinuses, before bringing her hand back up to her silky blonde locks and twirling her fingers back through it.

                “You better apologize to me,” came the quiet voice of Maggie again.

                “Stop bugging us, Maggie!  If you don’t wanna help, go away!” Kyle groaned.

                “Apologize,” Maggie demanded, her voice firmer this time.

                “Not a chance,” Scott said with a sigh.  “What would you do about it, anyway?  Tell on us?”

                “I don’t know.  Maybe.”

                “You know you wouldn’t,” Scott said with a frown, the intensity rising in his voice.  He was sick of his sister’s constant butting into his business, and on today, the day that he might finally get a well-deserved break from the oppressive threat of the PMRD, he was in no mood to tolerate her shenanigans.

                “I totally would.  Unless you apologize.”

                “Look, I’m not gonna let you hold that over my head.  Then you’re gonna start asking for allowance money, or something.”

                “Actually, allowance money would help… there’s some cute shoes I kinda wanted to pick up down at the mall, and…” Maggie said with a satisfied grin, tapping her lower lip with a pointer finger in thought.

                “Okay, look, we’re done with this conversation!” Scott interrupted angrily, rising to his feet and taking a few threatening steps closer to his sister.  “I’m not letting my thirteen-year-old kid sister blackmail me.  You wouldn’t know the first thing about it, anyway.”

                “Oh yeah?”

                “Yeah.”

                “Well, how about THIS then?” Maggie said suddenly, whipping her cell phone out from behind her back and pressing a button that caused a small bright light to flash over the room, capturing the incriminating moment photographically.            

                “That’s it, you’re done,” Scott shouted, moving with a purpose toward the door.

                “NO!  GET AWAY!” Maggie screeched in somewhat feigned terror, pocketing her phone and dashing down the hallway in the other direction.

                “Scott, Mom’s gonna be home any minute, we gotta finish this!” Kyle cried out nervously from the bedroom.

                “Hold on with that thought, and start looking up the next number.  I gotta take care of this,” Scott called back to his brother, bounding across the living room and easily overtaking his sister.  “GOTCHA!”

                “That’s not fair!  Get off me!  Stop it!  Stop grabbing me!” Maggie cried in a slew of angry jeers, trying to tug away as Scott remained hanging onto her arm and trying to grab for her pocket, where her phone was located.

                “Fine, as soon as you delete the picture.”

                “I want money first!  Not a whole lot, but I want you to buy me the shoes!”

                “You’re out of your mind, Maggie, now GIVE ME THE PHONE!” Scott growled, snatching the phone from his sister’s pocket and throwing it across the room, into the tiled kitchen.

                Maggie stifled a scream by covering her mouth, then immediately lashed out at her brother with a swinging right hook that barely missed the eldest brother’s head.  Grumbling loudly, she stomped across the room to retrieve her phone.

                “See?  Act like a bitch, that’s what happens,” Scott said with a shrug.

                “YOU BROKE IT!” Maggie screamed, stomping down hard on the tile, the rubber sole of her Ugg boot sending a vibration down that very nearly toppled a small flower pot resting on the countertop.  She held it up for her brother to see, pointing to the corner where a small piece had chipped off.

                “It still works, don’t be such a whiner.  You can glue that back on.”

                Maggie began frantically pressing buttons and flipping the on/off switch back and forth.  “No it doesn’t!  LOOK!”

                “Well, maybe you should’ve thought of that before trying to take pictures of us while we do something that’s going to help all three of us.  Go buy yourself a new one if you’re gonna cry about it.”

                Maggie frowned.  “No.  You’re getting me a new one.”

                Scott threw his hands up in the air.  “For the last TIME, Maggie, you can’t just order everyone around however the crap you want to.  Nobody’s gonna want to hang out with you with that attitude.”

                “Get me a NEW ONE!” Maggie yelled, flinging the phone across the kitchen and back into the living room.  Unprepared for the assault, Scott felt the phone bank hard off his left temple, leaving a small red mark.  Grunting with pain, the teen doubled over before marching across the kitchen.

                “Leave me the hell ALONE!” Scott retorted, pushing his sister hard.  She toppled backward and fell flat on her butt on the tile floor, unhurt but stunned and scared by the swift motion of her brother.  However, studying her eyes and wondering if what he had just done was a huge mistake, Scott saw her dread and terror turn to contentment, then to peace.  Almost… joy.

                Inexplicable.

                And then Scott heard it.

                Clack.  Clack.  Clack.  Clack.

                A high heel tapping impatiently against the tile, imperiously, in the general direction of the front door.  The sound of shopping bags being placed on the floor.

                Scott swallowed hard.

                Fuck.

                “Scott… Franklin… Stevens…” hissed the calmly enraged voice of their mother Judy.  Scott dared not turn around to face her, but instead focused his wild eyes down on his sister, who had remained sprawled on the floor for the sake of milking the drama.

                Slowly, Scott watched a smile far more demonically satisfied and gleeful than he would’ve thought possible to appear on the youthful, angelic face of his bratty little sister spread across her freshly glossed lips.

                “Somebody’s in trouble,” sang Maggie in a hushed whisper, hardly able to contain her laughter.

                “Mom…” Scott whimpered as peaceably as he could, trying to make no sudden movements.  “Listen.  There’s… there’s two sides here.”

                “Oh, I’ll just BET there are… just like there always is.  There’s always a reason for you acting out, Scott.  Always.”

                “Mom…”

                “BE QUIET,” thundered Judy, filling the entire house with the fiery command of her voice.

                Scott clenched his eyes tightly shut.  Had they done enough on the PMRD to prevent it from functioning correctly?  Would it not work?

                And then the more frightening thought struck him.  What if it did work, but not as it normally did?

                What if something went wrong?

                Cursing his luck and most of all his sister under his breath, Scott’s eyes scanned across the room, and he realized his brother had quietly repacked the PMRD and placed it under the hallway table to help allay suspicion before slinking upstairs to his bedroom to ride out the maternal storm.  A small blessing.  Maybe this could work after all.  Sighing, he turned to face his mother, who by now had cheeks flushed bright red, her eyes narrowed in on him and firing daggers.

                Scott felt himself tremble around his knees, like they’d suddenly turned to jelly.  He didn’t even know if he had the will to move, let alone speak.

                “Now.  Here’s what’s going to happen,” Judy said, lowering her voice again but removing none of the venom from her words.  “I’m going to go put my shopping away in my room.  I’m going to take a shower.  I’m going to come back here.  And we’re going to find a more suitable height for you for the rest of the week.”  With that, Judy stomped off in the other direction, scooped up her shopping bags as well as the PMRD with a flourish, and headed upstairs toward her bedroom.

                Once their mother was out of earshot, Maggie rose to her feet and sauntered toward her brother, a smug smile spread across her lips.

                “She’s gonna shrink you, you know.”

                “Yeah,” Scott said quietly, trying to maintain his composure.

                “I’ll bet a lot, too.  She’s pretty mad.”

                “Yeah.”

                “And she’s gonna put you in her shoes.”

                “Yeah,” Scott swallowed solemnly.

                There was an awkward silence for a moment as Maggie came to a halt, standing in front of her brother, her arms clasped absentmindedly behind her back as she looked up at her considerably taller brother.

                “And what was it?  A week, she said?” Maggie offered with false sugar in her voice.  Scott nodded.

                “So… a week.  A week at a size probably small enough for her to fit you between her toes.  Just… just walkin’ on you, everywhere she goes.”

                “Yes,” Scott said through gritted teeth.

                “Eeeeeeverywhere.”

                “Uh-huh.”

                “She’ll probably barely let you out.  I bet you’ll faint, like a scared little girl.”

                “Maggie…”

                “And she’ll take you out and pour some water on you or something to wake you up, and then… back in you go!”

                “Stop,” Scott growled, not even looking at his sister, his anger at all things in general too great at the moment.

                “All I’m saying is, it’s gonna suck unless you do something about it.”

                “What could I possibly do about it?” Scott hissed, suddenly looking up.

                “Well… I mean… there’s a few things, I guess,” said Maggie coyly, stroking her chin, as if she didn’t already have some scheme cooked up in her head.  “Like… you know how Mom likes to keep things even?  Whenever she does stuff to us like this, she always makes sure it kinda makes sense with whatever we did wrong, just so we remember or something?”

                Scott nodded, frowning bitterly but agreeing with her words.  Where was she going with this?

                “So… I figure… since she saw you push me… maybe… she’d let me be the one who punishes you,” Maggie said, obviously relishing every word.

                “What?  No way!” Scott growled back.  “She wouldn’t do that.”

                “Well, no, probably not unless I asked… but I don’t know if I want to.”

                “Okay… then why are we even discussing this?” Scott asked grumpily, flopping down into a chair at the kitchen table to savor his remaining minutes of being able to fit comfortably into one.

                “Because it would probably be better for you.  I’d make it look like I wanted to punish you a lot, but maybe I’d just wear you until I got upstairs, and then I’d let you out once we were in my room.”

                “Why the hell would I even want to do that?  Like you’d do that, anyway…”

                “I would!  I swear!”

                “Why would you?” Scott fired sarcastically, searching for his sister’s meaning.

                “Because I’m your little sister and I WUV YOU SO HUGGY MUCH!” Maggie cooed in her best baby voice, leaning down and planting a sloppy kiss on her brother’s head where her phone had struck him.  “Well… okay, soon to be BIG sister, but same thing.”

                “Be serious, weirdo,” Scott scowled, wiping off the dampness from his temple.

                “Because I bet you’d buy me that new phone after the week was over,” Maggie relented with a smile.

                Scott stopped in his tracks, considering this for a moment.  There was a point there.  And the best part of this was that he had the upper hand in the deal; sure, Maggie would probably find a way to get back at him once the week was over, but if she was true to her word and didn’t make him camp in her shoes 24/7 like Judy was surely planning on doing for the next week, he wouldn’t even have to pay her once it was over.

                “Think about it,” Maggie wheedled.  “Mom would keep you in her shoes for the whole day, you’d be… naked… and she’d probably feed you less.  With me, I’ll let you out and just keep you in my room most of the time, and I’ll give you some doll clothes to wear if you want.”

                “Sucker,” Scott thought to himself.  He looked up at Maggie and sighed.   It was still a damn unpleasant prospect to be at the mercy of his sister and effectively let her win the day’s argument, but in this moment of oncoming crisis, it seemed like the best option.  He nodded slowly.

                “Okay, fine.  Deal.”

                “Not… quite…” Maggie said cheerfully.

                “What?  You just said…”

                “I want the phone, yeah, but you’re gonna have to work for it a little so I know you’re not kidding.”

                “What the hell does that mean?”

                Maggie paused for emphasis, grinning widely enough so that Scott could practically see every pearly white in her mouth.  She shrugged, pretending that the words were being spoken as they came to her rather than being planned out ahead of time.  “Why would you rather go in my shoe than Mom’s?”

                Scott blinked a few times, not entirely understanding.  “What the… what are you even asking?  Because we have a deal, why else?”

                “No, no… I mean…” Maggie said, clearing her throat and standing up a little taller as if showing herself off.  “I mean why would you rather go under my feet than Mom’s?”

                Scott groaned, but knew he had little choice.  He could hear the water running in the upstairs shower, but knew his Mom would be out soon.  He had to act if he still wanted in on this deal.  He sighed.

                “Because yours aren’t as heavy.”  Regrettably, Scott knew this from personal experience, not just because he was trying to appease his younger sister’s insane demands.  On at least four occasions before, his mother had to leave the house wearing open-toed shoes during one of his punishments, a prospect which would have threatened to strand the inch-tall boy somewhere miles from the house.  So, Judy had taken it upon herself to bestow her son on his 5-years-younger sister, who gleefully stuffed him into her favorite pair of pink bunny rabbit socks and spent the rest of the day grinding him into her doughy sole the moment she had him in her treacherous fingers.

                “That’s not good enough.  Why else?”

                “They’re softer.”  This, too, was true.  Judy took good care of her feet (at times, Scott suspected for his benefit alone), but there was no denying that in her mid-forties, her feet had undergone some wear and tear.  Despite usually carrying a stench powerful enough to knock out the least choosy goat at the garbage cans, Maggie’s feet were practically as soft as baby skin.

                Maggie nodded, grinning.  “They are, aren’t they?  What else?”

                “You… usually don’t walk as hard.”

                “Uh-huh.”

                “So it doesn’t hurt as much.”

                “What about… breathing?” Maggie insinuated.

                “Oh… um, yeah it’s easier to breathe,” Scott lied.

                “Why?”

                He groaned.  “Because it doesn’t smell as bad.”

                “AS bad?”

                Scott sighed, gritting his teeth and biting the metaphorical bullet, speaking robotically.  “They don’t smell bad.  They smell good.”

                Maggie giggled riotously, taking a seat herself at the table, and looked absolutely beside herself at this as her fingers stealthily fished down into the opening of her furry gray Uggs. 

                Scott felt hopelessly degraded.  He only hoped this was all worth it in the end.

                “Show me,” Maggie said quickly, swinging her boot up in the air.

                “What?”

                “I said show me.  Stick your idiot nose in there and show me that it smells good.”

                “Maggie, there’s gotta be a freaking LINE…”

                “Scott, I don’t know if you forgot, but if you want this deal to happen, you’re going to have to go in there no matter what.  And… and not just your nose, your whole body… under these…” Maggie cooed softly, wriggling her freshly freed, light blue-painted toes in the cool air of the kitchen, and moaned with pleasure.  “Ohhhhh… God, it feels good to get that out of there.”

                Scott could already feel the rank stench of his sister’s feet, which had just spent the better part of the day cooped up in her worn out, fur-lined Ugg boots, creeping up to his nose.  He sniffled a little, hoping to avoid the stale, moist flavors reaching him as long as possible.

                “You better start getting excited for that, too,” Maggie said snidely, chuckling warmly at her brother’s expense.  She arched her sole and wriggled her toes again, extending her leg across the short distance between them before placing the heel of her foot gently on her brother’s knee.  Scott stared blankly at the pale, soft appendage of his teenaged sister resting idly on his leg.  “You’re going… under it…” Maggie whispered joyfully, knowing full well the impact she was having on her older brother.

                He felt like he was going to vomit, having to stare at it.  Any minute it now, he was going to be small enough to be smothered by its immense weight and equally overpowering scent of sweat.  Any minute now, his sister’s humongous fingers were going to closer around his nude body before releasing him into the bottom of the boot.  Any minute now, she’d showily slide her foot in, allowing her wrinkled sole to brush over his back, just to spook him.  Any minute now, he was going to be nestled in the tip of that boot, with his sister’s toes hugging themselves disgustingly around his cold naked body, spreading her slimy toejam across his entire body like a signature of her victory in their personal sibling war.

                Any minute now.

                “So… you gonna smell this boot, or am I gonna have to make you smell the actual thing?” Maggie threatened under her breath in a voice that bordered on seductive, sliding her bare foot further up her brother’s thigh and pressing it against his stomach.

                “What?” Scott exhaled, his eyes bugging.  He could hardly believe how deeply his sister was becoming embroiled in this mad power fantasy his mother had been indulging in for years.

                It was like looking at the teenage version of his mother.  What kind of untold damage had Judy done to her children by ruling with the kind of iron fist that she did?  Had she just created a little clone of herself?

                “I’M DONE WITH MY SHOWER!” called Judy from the top of the stairs, still sounding just as tense and ready to deal her brand of justice.

                Disappointed, Maggie pulled her foot off her brother’s lap and jammed it roughly back into the boot.  Scott breathed a sigh of relief.  He was off the hook for now.  Now, he just needed Maggie to follow through on her promise.  Knowing her, though, Scott had a darkly sinking, subconscious feeling that by putting any trust in his sister to make good on a promise, he had effectively tried to win a lottery by tearing up his own ticket.

                “So, Scott…” Judy said slowly, pacing around the kitchen as she unpacked the PMRD from its case.  “I thought about it while I was in the shower.  We haven’t done a 2-inch time-out in a long while, and I just… I just LOVE having you that size.  Big enough that I can wrestle you a little while you’re down there, but small enough that you’re probably not going to win too easily.  So, that’s what we’re going with.” 

                Judy ignored Maggie for the time being, who by now was seated docilely in the corner, brooding heavily.  Or, at least, she appeared to be.  Scott couldn’t tell if she was just putting on an act, or harboring an even deeper grudge after he’d refused to stick his nose into her boot like a curious dog.  He tried not to look directly at her.

                Slowly, Judy geared up the PMRD, and aimed it at forehead level with her oldest son.  Evidently, Scott and Kyle hadn’t done enough to disable the machine’s primary function.  Or at least, it appeared that way for the time being.

                Scott did absolutely nothing to resist.  By now, this kind of thing was almost as inevitable as the sun rising in the mornings.  He remained seated at the kitchen table, staring at the floor, gritting his teeth and blinking repeatedly in preparation for the bright green light flash.

                “Hold still, Scott.  And just before you try to ask, in seven days I’ll regrow you.  Maybe in that time you’ll be able to think about how you treat members of this family.  Especially the ones that love you so much,” Judy said slowly and methodically, lining up the reticle.

                Scott fought the urge to snort loudly at such a statement.  He doubted by this point his sister loved him so much as loved the feeling of him squirming between her toes.  That wasn’t what mattered now.  What mattered was whether or not Maggie would keep her word, regardless of whether or not a new cell phone was at stake.

                The telltale beeping of the small device in Judy’s firm grip.  The familiar green flash.  It was all the same song and dance routine to Scott.  As he felt the entirely too well-known sensation of cold rushing through his body as he shrank into the folds of his clothing, Scott tried to think impossibly positive.  This was the final summer before college.  Freedom from this oppressive environment was only a month away.  Only a month.

                If he could go that long without cracking.

                Scott did nothing as he felt the giant, billowing folds of his t-shirt which now covered him like a parachute being lifted by his mother’s probing fingers.  He was practically despondent as the giant, meaty thumb and forefinger pinched smoothly around his waist and plucked him up from the pile.  A motion she had repeated so many times before.   It was practically a habit for the mother and son pair by now.

                “And there’s my little boy,” Judy said sternly as she deposited her son into the palm of her hand.  “So here’s the deal: you might remember I have a series of meetings at town hall this week.  ALL this week.  Whole day kind of affairs.  You know.  But the thing is, Scott, you’re going to accompany me to each and every one of them.  Six plus hours a day, plus a forty minute lunch break in between.  Straight through in that big ‘ol building that’s too broken down in the piping for them to put in air conditioning,” said Judy with delight, drawing her son closer to her mouth, and purposefully sighing for emphasis on words so that her warm, sticky breath could wash over her tiny naked son’s uncaringly limp body.

                Scott tried to just mentally lock himself in.  He really, really, really needed Maggie now.

                So far, though, the girl remained silent in her chair.

                “But there’s a bright side, honey,” Judy said emphatically, nodding her head to her son, who only stared blankly up at his mature mother’s gigantically beaming face: watching the creases in her plump lips moving in and out as she spoke, the wrinkles around her eyes from laughter forming, and the brief flashes of light reflected off her spit-slicked white teeth.

                “Oh?” said Scott dejectedly.

                Judy clucked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and waggled a finger from her other hand in front of Scott.  “No need to be such a Debbie Downer, even if you’re about to start a new time-out.  It won’t be all bad.  See, I haven’t even decided what I’m wearing each day.  And you’re going to help me.”

                “Okay,” said Scott, deadpan.

                Judy frowned, obviously disappointed.  “You’re not making this too fun for me, Scott.   I’d like a little more enthusiasm.  Here, we’ll head up there right now!  See, you’ve kind of got a stake in this, because I’m sure you’d like to have some say in what kind of… time-out cell… you’re going to see almost ceaselessly for the next week.  Surely by now, you’ve got some kind of preference among Mommy’s shoes?”

                Scott shook his head.  He truly didn’t.  It was all the same by this point.  Soul-crushing, mind-numbing, body-bruising pain and humiliation worse than he suspected a sane person could stand.  All of them promised this and sometimes more if his mother was in a hurry wherever she was going.

                “NONE?  I find that hard to believe.  All the different heels?  Like the crocodile skin, or the red patent, or… or maybe you’d like a boot?  I’ve got those, tall, knee-high leather ones.  How about it, honey?  You wanna go in Mommy’s boot for the week?”

                Scott sulked.  Obviously, Maggie had been too insulted to follow through on her word.  He said nothing, and simply stared at his lap.  Sighing, Judy turned to head for the stairs.

                “Well, regardless of whether you decide to help me choose once we’re up there, I’ve already had my shower and I’d like to get my slippers on soon, so I guess that’s where you’re sleeping tonight.  And don’t worry, I won’t let it happen again what happened last time.  THIS time, we’ll just find some masking tape and put you nice and firmly on my sole, and...”

                “Mom!” Maggie called out at last, breathing deeply.

                Scott exhaled with hesitant hope.  Was she about to come through after all?

                “Yes, honey?” Judy answered lovingly.  “Do you feel okay after what your big brother did?”

                “Well…” Maggie drawled, taking a few steps forward and sniffling sadly for effect.  “I want him to remember what he did.  And what a jerk he is.”

                “I’m intending to teach him that lesson, sweetie,” Judy said.

                “I want to do it,” Maggie said solemnly, continuing to walk forward.  “Can I have him?”

                Judy studied her daughter’s face and looked down at Scott, who was trying not to look eager.  He knew if he gave any sign that Maggie was the preferred option, he’d find himself pinned under his mother’s toes for the week faster than he could sound a cry of protest.  That was just how it worked.  The worst case scenario was always Judy’s best case scenario.

                “I suppose it would be… fitting enough,” Judy said thoughtfully, shrugging.  “All right, honey.  He’s your charge for the week.  Same rules, though.  I want him to learn.”

                “Oh, yeah… he’s gonna learn, all right,” Maggie said hungrily, eyeing her brother with so much malice and aggression the tiny lad felt chilled to his very bones, even though he knew she was just acting.  The way his sister was staring at him made him feel like, were the pair left alone for an extended period in the same room, he would not emerged unsmeared across the bottom of her boot.  The fire in her eyes was that palpable.

                “Now, now… play nice with him.  I want him to learn his lesson, but I don’t want him to come back to me with a bunch of broken ribs.”

                “Oh my God, Mom, that’s not gonna happen… I just need to get some stuff off my chest, is all.  We’re gonna have a little… chat.  Later on,” Maggie whispers darkly, her hand extending toward her mother’s outstretched palm.  “Come to sissy, like a good little boy.  Come to sissy, you annoying little runt.”

                Trying to maintain the carefully crafted illusion, Scott remained motionless as he felt his sister’s powerful fingers wrap themselves around his body and pluck him from the fleeting sanctity of his mother’s warm palm.  He breathed slowly, trying his best to remain calm, as she made a dramatic show out of pulling her foot out of her boot and holding the gray thing upright.

                All in all, he had to hand it to Maggie.  She had pulled off the act beautifully.  He almost felt guilty for knowing he was going to pull out of the deal once Maggie had upheld her promise.

                Almost.  The brat didn’t deserve a damn thing, let alone a new phone, especially after she had chucked it at his head.

                He stared down into the abyss, preparing to feel Maggie’s firm fingers softening their iron grip around his sides, allowing him to tumble down into the boot.  It would hurt a bit, but this was by far the best deal he could’ve made, given the hatefully unfair circumstances that he had long ago learned to let be rather than combat.

                At least it would only be for a few uncomfortable moments as his teenage warden stomped up the stairs to make a show of it for Judy before releasing him onto the floor, where he would probably just hide for the next week in a situation infinitely preferable to spending the same week with his lips pressed forcibly against the fleshy crevice between two of his mother’s juicy toes.

                “Oh, by the way, Mom,” Maggie said, pausing for a moment, still gripping her brother in a tight fist.  “My phone stopped working.”

                “Again?  Maggie…” Judy groaned, running a finger along her forehead in frustration.

                “Sorry.  It was my bad.”

                “But, Maggie, you’re leaving for soccer camp tomorrow morning!  I need you to be able to contact me so I know when to come get you!  And… and what if there’s an emergency?  This is why I got you the phone in the first place!”

                Camp?  Scott felt the slightest uncomfortable tingle in his stomach.  Something here wasn’t right.

                “I know, and I’m real sorry, Mom, honestly.  I promise I’ll be careful from now on.”

                “Right.  Well, I suppose I’ll just have to go get you another one right now before the store closes.”

                “I don’t have enough birthday money right now to afford it, Mom,” Maggie said sadly, her voice cracking.  “Just… this day… it just sucks…”

                Judy bit her lip, a look of deep sympathy crossing her face.  She sighed.

                “Don’t worry about the price tag, honey.  Just get all packed for tomorrow.  We’re leaving the house at 7 am sharp to get you there on time.”

                Scott thought he was going to piss himself.  He began squirming violently in his sister’s hand, which only clenched even tighter around his body, pinning him down hard against her palm, as it lowered into the black hole of the boot.  He tried to scream and cry out for a final word with his mother, but he felt his sister’s huge, smooth thumb press hard against his mouth, silencing him.

                Scott rolled down along the fur-matted base of the Ugg, desperately trying to climb back up to the top.  He had to get back to his mom and let her know what had just happened here.  He had to.

                “Hey, where you think you’re going, you cute little guy?” Maggie cooed as her face suddenly blocked out the trace amounts of light that had managed to leak into the boot.  “By my watch, you’ve still got a solid… oh, I don’t know… 7 days before you can come out?  We’re headed up to my room now; see you in a minute.”

                Unable to muster a response, Scott watched hopelessly as his little sister’s bare foot cascaded down into the boot, her sky-blue toenails glistening faintly just as the final bloom of precious light was extinguished in the furry prison.  The whole thing was plunged into absolute darkness just as Scott felt his sibling’s toes crash into him like an unstoppable row of linebackers pile-driving him painfully into the tip of the boot.

                Scott groaned achingly as his sister’s massive bare foot slammed back down into the base of the boot as she bounded up the carpeted steps of their house toward her bedroom.  Just as he heard the creak of her door followed by the windy whistle of it being slammed shut, he felt Maggie’s big toe pointing hard against his abdomen, instantly knocking the wind out of him as she plopped carelessly onto her bed, rattling Scott violently around the content of her boot enough to leave him sprawled on the smooth top of her foot as she tugged it out.

                Scott rolled over on the bright orange bedspread before scrambling to his feet and looking up at Maggie, who was reclining comfortably against the headboard of her bed, her legs outstretched.  At this point, Scott realized she had placed her toned, pale thighs on either side of him, the soft, creamy walls of flesh acting practically like a small canyon culminating at the young woman’s mountain of an upper torso.

                Scott’s blood boiled.  He hadn’t been this angry in a very long time.  He could hardly remember feeling this enraged before, and yet Maggie didn’t even seem to care.  The point was driven home when he watched his sister reach for the remote control resting on her bedside table and click a button, allowing the TV resting on her dresser across the room to spring to life.  Her eyes were then glued to the screen, which instantly began blaring with one of the girl’s preferred Malibu-based reality shows.

                It was like he didn’t even matter anymore.  Like what had just happened and her cheating of him out of salvation was a passing moment of entertainment for her.  How could she?  Did she not even care?  Could she possibly be that callous?

                Yes.  Yes, she could.  Scott almost had to remind himself of that.

                “MAGGIE!” he roared, taking a few steps forward, but knowing there wasn’t much point to it.

                His titanic sister frowned, finally giving him the time of day by leaning forward and glaring at him.  “Geez, little boy, shut up, I’m like right here.  You can talk like a normal person if you have to.”

                “I… I…”

                “But make it fast, the commercial is almost over.”

                Scott wanted to scream as his sister’s eyes casually flipped back and forth between him and the TV screen.  He practically wanted to double over and bellow into the earth.  He clenched his fists tightly, clenching his already sore muscles, feeling the wrath welling up inside him.

                Knowing every ounce of strength he could possibly muster at this moment could be instantly cancelled by a simple flick of his little sister’s thumb and forefinger.

                “You can’t DO THAT TO ME!” Scott shouted finally, trembling with unrealized vengeance.

                Maggie studied her brother for a moment before cracking into an amused bought of chuckling.  She shook her head in disbelief, nodding and grinning.  “Maybe you should check the family calendar more often?”

                “Screw you!” Scott screeched, coughing a little from disorientation.

                “Awww… is that any way to talk to your best friend for the rest of the week?”

                “You will NEVER be my FRIEND, Maggie,” Scott growled venomously.

                The gargantuan sister snickered again.  “You might want to start changing that attitude sooner rather than later, little guy.  You’re not in any kind of position to be pulling weight.  Especially since I kinda weigh a LOT more than you right now, and… well, since you’re gonna be in a position where I could very easily put ALL of it on your puny little body…”

                Scott could hardly believe his ears.  Did being Maggie’s older brother mean absolutely nothing to her?  Experiential and age superiority?  Had she no respect for others feelings or minds, so long as she could overpower them, like she could to him in his vulnerable position?

                “We had a DEAL!”

                “Well, maybe YOU had a deal… I found a better one and I took it.  The deal I had with you was… phone.  The deal I have now is: I got to hear you groveling like a little girl, I get a brand new phone, Mom on my side, and… the absolute best part of it all…” Maggie said dreamily, leaning further forward, her fingers outstretched toward Scott, who took a few fearful steps back as his sister’s slender digits brushed along his side.  “…I get to have my big, mean, scary old brother wrapped snug around my big toe for the next seven days, where he belongs.  I don’t think it was much of a decision, really.”

                “That’s… that’s not… fair…” Scott breathed heavily, his voice cracking as he realized how rapidly he was running out of options.  “After all those things you made me say…”

                “And they were VERY NICE things, little guy, believe me… well, sort of… I know you didn’t really believe any of it, or at least not yet… but it was totally worth it just to hear you…” she chortled, hardly able to get the words out.  “My big, tough older brother having to compliment his little sister’s pretty feet.  I mean… God, you think I’d be stupid enough to pass up an opportunity like that?”

                Scott’s heart sunk.  By this point, he had a very clear idea of his this week was going to go.  His lip quivered.  He had almost nothing left to say.

                “Maggie?”

                “What?” his titanic sister guffawed back at him.

                “Can I have some clothes?  P-P-Please?  You said you’d give me some, and… and…”

                Maggie’s laughter quickly dissipated, her tone hardening as her fingers instantly snatched her brother roughly back into her fist.  Thrashing fruitlessly against his sister’s strong thumb, Scott found himself mere inches away from the deep, swirling pool of color in Maggie’s irises.

                “Now, listen up, you stupid little bug-boy,” Maggie began, taking a deep breath.  “Let’s get one thing straight, right here, right now.  I don’t owe you anything.  You picked the wrong choice today, I guess.  I know you weren’t going to get me the phone anyway, so don’t try to lie about it to make yourself feel better.  You deserve all of this.  You deserve what Mom does to you so often.  You deserve to sit crumpled up and naked at the bottom of my boot like a used tissue under my pretty toes.  Because you’re below them.  Every one of them.  My pinky toe is more important than you this week, little guy.  Got that?”

                “Y-Y-Y…” stuttered Scott, hardly able to breathe from sheer terror.

                “Say it back to me.”

                “W-W…”

                “What’s more important than you?”

                “Your… Y-Y-Your pinky t-t-toe…”

                Maggie nodded, seemingly satisfied at last.  “That’s right.  And don’t you dare forget it.  I OWN you now.  For the next seven days, you’re my PROPERTY.  You don’t talk, move, or breathe unless you get my permission.  Understood?”

                “Y-Y-Yes…” Scott cried out in horror, cowering pitifully into the cupped palm Maggie had lowered him into.

                The teenage self-appointed goddess held her naked, fearfully quivering older brother in both hands, listening to him try to unsuccessfully silence his own sobs so she wouldn’t hear them.  She smirked.

                “Guess we found out who’s the smarter one today after all, huh, big br- I mean, little brother?”

                Scott laid huddled at the bottom of his sister’s duffel bag in pitch blackness, encased in a thick, woolen knee-high sock that she had tied at the top with a hair scrunchie to ensure he stayed locked inside it all day.

                The sock had been worn earlier that week on Maggie’s right foot during a short walk around the grounds, but she hadn’t exercised in it, which was a definite plus for the mentally crippled eighteen-year-old high school grad.

                “Bye-bye, big… I mean, little brother.  We’re running a couple drills this morning, so I’ll be back to feed you at noonish, I guess,” Maggie shrugged, clutching her doll-like sibling in a fist, her thumb pressing into his lower abdomen dangerously close to his crotch.  “I’m gonna give you your own little sleeping bag so you can take a nap and be alllllll ready so we can… hang out later.  Deal?”

                “Yeah,” Scott sighed lifelessly.  As if that was really a question.

                Maggie gave him an extra little squeeze with her fingers before grinning at him and lowering her fist down into the depths of the bag, past the pile of unfolded clothes and toward the waiting opening of his “sleeping bag.”

                “Don’t try anything stupid, Scott,” she said with pursed lips and narrowed eyes, her tone suddenly tensing.  “You better still be in there when I get back, or we’re gonna have problems.  And… if you actually try and get OUT of the bag, well… let’s just say I’ll want some extra company in my cleats when we play a scrimmage tonight.  Got that?”

                “Yep.”

                “Sweet.  Seeya!” Maggie cooed, the joy returning to her tone. 

                When she had first plopped him inside and blown him a sarcastic kiss before tightening the top up and leaving him alone, Scott had felt his stomach stirring, begging for a clean breath of air that he knew wasn’t going to come for a number of hours.  The smell wasn’t painfully strong, but it was everywhere.  It was impossible to lay down for rest without burying his nose in a wooly fiber containing the very essence of the filthiest part of his sister’s body.  His best hope was sitting up straight, although even this allowed the upper layer of sock fabric to cascade heavily down onto him.  He eventually resorted in the first hour or so to remaining perfectly still in an upright seated position, with his arms heaved over his head so he could distance his abused nose as much as possible from the stale-smelling footwear.

                After a while had passed and the stench wasn’t quite as sharp, Scott found his breathing coming easier, and he was able to let the sock fall, as his arms were becoming sore and he was running out of options. 

                After becoming bored, Scott climbed his way toward the opening of the sock until he hit the tightened end that was loosely sealed by the hair scrunchie.  By pushing his arm through the hole, Scott found he was able to force his way through enough that he could probably get his entire body through by working the scrunchie slowly up the mouth of the sock until it was off.  That, at least, would allow him the freedom to roam the limited, hilly environment of his sister’s shorts and underwear, a prospect that didn’t particularly appeal to Scott, but it was better than being cooped up in the itchy blackness of this knee sock for the next four hours or however the hell long was remaining. 

                To Scott, time seemed to be passing at an inordinately slow rate.  It was only the third day of the camp, with still two more days of this hell before he got to return home, and already it felt like a month, at best.  It dragged on even more hellishly when he was serving part of his in-shoe sentence, mashed up as hard as he could be against his little sister’s foot without bruising.

                The nights had been sleepless.  The previous one, Maggie had borrowed a small roll of Scotch tape from one of her friends and pressed it in layers all over Scott’s body until the only part of him not covered in it was his head and feet.  From there, she had plastered him heavily against the ball of her foot and, after wriggling it a few times to ensure he was cemented in place, she had tugged a thick blue sock over top of him and hopped into her top bunk. 

                The entire night was spent with Scott struggling uselessly against the bonds holding him down, taking slow breaths so he had to endure the aroma as little as possible.  For the most part, Maggie had bathed herself after the day’s hard work on the soccer field, but she had never been particularly thorough, and Scott could feel tiny flecks of dirt imprinted in her skin rubbing up against his back, itching, when he could do nothing about it.

                In the morning, he was blinded by sunlight as Maggie tore the sock off and, in one swift motion, ripped the pieces of layered tape off of Scott’s body, a sensation he would’ve been willing to do without, particularly when the strip was pulled off of his member.  The next several minutes after that were spent with him gasping for air and clutching his crotch in agony while his sister cackled at his misfortune before scooping him up into her palm and flicking idly at his hair with her thumb and forefinger.

                Still lodged in the sock and considering forcing his way out, Scott decided against it.  While getting out was a prospect, getting back in before his sister returned and managing somehow to replace the scrunchie while inside the sock was a tougher one.  The range of the duffel bag wasn’t much larger than the length of the tube sock, and besides, Scott did not relish the idea of having to endure an additional punishment for breaking Maggie’s rule. 

                Sighing with temporary defeat, Scott flopped dejectedly back into the folds of the giant tube sock.  Summer was almost over.  Soon, he’d be headed off to his dream school, away from the controlling grasp of his mother and bratty sister.  Away from goddamned machines that could render him a toe ornament for his soccer-holic kid sister.  The very idea of such a reality was enticing enough to actually put a smile on Scott’s face and resolve into his heart.

                Fuck her, Scott breathed to himself.  Fuck her.  I can handle this.  I can handle anything she dishes out, the slimy bitch.  Bring it on.  Bring it on and I’ll laugh at you.  Stick me in your sock, jam me between your toes, flick me in the face with your thumb and pretend it was an accident.  I’ll still laugh.

                Scott’s attention was returned to the present moment when he heard the sound of the duffel’s zipper slowly being undone just above him, through the filter of the sock fabric.

                Huh.  That hadn’t been very long at all.  It felt to Scott like it had only been a couple hours, if that.  Maggie wasn’t supposed to return until noon.

                “Little guuuuuuy…” sang a soft voice happily from above.

                It wasn’t Maggie.

                Nervously, Scott huddled up into the sock.  Maybe Maggie was on the other side of the room and had simply asked one of her friends to grab her favorite toy for the week out of the bag to put him in new footwear lodgings.  Yeah, that had to be it.  It had to.

                “Are you sure he’s in there?” hissed another feminine whisper from above.

                “Yeah!  I asked her like five minutes ago, she’s out with Squad B running suicides around the East Field.  I asked her if she was wearing him right then and she said no, that she left him in her bag,” answered the first voice.

                “Why the heck wouldn’t she want to wear him all the time?” chuckled the other girl’s voice.  “If my mom let ME shrink one of my brothers, I’d wear the same freakin’ shoe all week and not let them out at all.  Like… at ALL.”

                “I know, right?” laughed the other.  “But she said he was in here somewhere, and it doesn’t look like the zipper’s open, so he probably didn’t get out… little guy?  Little guuuuuy…” she called out again softly.

                Shit.  Shit.  Shit.  Scott froze in place.  Was there even a plausible way out of this?  Perhaps it was just delaying the inevitable, but by remaining as still as possible, Scott clung to some invisible hope that they’d give up after a couple minutes of searching underneath shirts and underwear and finding nothing.

                As if he was that lucky.

                Even sooner than he subconsciously expected, Scott felt his sock prison being tugged up an uneven ramp of t-shirts before going limp and hanging in the air as he tumbled into the toe section.  Almost immediately, he felt a set of thick, firm fingers prodding at him through the sock, quivering.  Probably with excitement.

                “Janie, is… is that him?” asked the second voice eagerly.

                “Oh, yeah.  I can feel him squirming in there between my fingers.  He just feels cute.”

                “Did Maggie say this was okay?”

                “Oh, pipe down, Gabby, they’re gonna be out on that field for another half hour, at least.  She won’t even know we were here,” protested Janie.  The fingers finally relented, and Scott breathed a momentary sigh of relief just before feeling the tremors in the fabric originating from the top of it, where the scrunchie was obviously being tugged off.

                Scott knew how this next part went.  He’d been through it a hundred times, just under the supervision of a family member.

                The sock was violently tipped and Scott tumbled down the fuzzy white slope as light flooded in at last, flaring into his pupils briefly, causing him to throw his hands up in defense just as he plopped into the soft palm waiting at the bottom.

                Trying to get his bearings, Scott looked around, intimidated, at the layout he had just been dumped into.  The girl’s hand was pale and soft, with crisscrossing wrinkles in greater quantities than he was used to seeing.  As her fingers curled out into a flat position to give him more room, her lime green fingernails catching the light for a second, a small silver ring with hearts around the band was revealed on the fourth finger of her left hand.

                He could feel Janie’s hand tremble nervously for the first few seconds.  He heard her exhale in surprise out her bright pink lips, her almond eyes practically tripling in size as she stared down at him.

                “Gabby…” she breathed with shock.  “He’s… naked…”

                “Holy COW!” Gabby giggled in surprise.  “Look at him!”

                “He’s so tiny,” Janie cooed with admiration.  “I mean, I’ve seen people shrunken before.  My aunt shrinks my cousin Suzie whenever she dents the car, but even then… she only makes her, like a foot tall!  And she lets her wear clothes!  I’ve never seen… I mean, wow…”

                “Hey there, little fella,” Gabby whispered as gentle as possible, leaning forward into Scott’s vision over Janie’s shoulder.  Her voice rang with a thick, almost sultry Hispanic accent, with long, dark hair corralled into thick pigtails that hung over the shoulders of her camp uniform.  Quickly, she brought a fist up into view, her pointer finger extended and approaching Scott.  “Can I touch you?”

                “Of course you can, silly, I’ve got him.  He’s not going anywhere,” Janie frowned, chuckling at her friend’s folly.  “Besides, he’s shrunken.  It probably means he’s being punished for something HUGE.”

                “I was still gonna do it, I was just trying to be polite,” Gabby sassed back, jamming her tanned finger hard into Scott’s abdomen.  She giggled.  “He’s got some muscles on his stomach there, Janie.  Feel it.”

                “Oooohhh… do you work out, little guy?” Janie sighed in a hushed voice, quickly stroking a thumb along Scott’s torso, across his chest and down to his stomach.  Her touch was considerably gentler than Gabby’s.

                “Look at his little…” Gabby gasped as if she was only now noticing it.  “…wienie.”

                “I know,” smiled the blonde Janie, her eyes growing hungrily wide again, her lip curling upward into a half-smile.  “I can see all of you, little guy.  I hope you don’t feel weird about that… oh, who am I kidding?  What do I care if you feel weird?”

                “We should probably get him out of here,” Gabby hissed in her friend’s ear.  “I don’t wanna get in trouble because of you if a counselor walks in here, or…”

                “NO!” screamed Scott suddenly, finally gathering the courage to act in this increasingly hopeless situation.

                Janie and Gabby froze for a minute and stared at Scott with untold shock as if he had spontaneously transformed into a rhinoceros.  This faded quickly, though, into uncontrollable laughter.

                Scott watched nervously as Janie’s eyes began watering as she tried to stifle her own chuckling, wiping her knuckle across her eyelids.  Turning back to look at the small naked boy sprawled in her palm, she lowered her voice.

                “Well, look who’s suddenly Mr. Bigshot around here, huh?”

                “Please…” Scott croaked, already imagining the horrendous punishments that would befall him if his sister discovered he had allowed himself to be captured.  Obviously, that wasn’t really what had happened, but Scott had no doubt his sister would see it that way.

                “Oh my gosh, Janie, listen to his little voice!  It sounds like he’s gonna cry,” noted Gabby piteously, bringing her chubby hand back in and this time gently caressing Scott’s right cheek with her pinky finger.

                “Are you gonna cry now, Mr. Handsome Bigshot?” Janie asked with an expectant smile spread over her lips.  “You’re only making yourself look cuter by doing that, you know that?”

                “No… just… just leave me here,” Scott cried, the panic rising.  “Maggie… she’ll… she’ll…”

                “What’s she gonna do if she can’t find you, little guy?” Janie asked politely, her facial expression obviously mocking Scott’s stupidity at such a suggestion.  “I’ll protect you from mean ol’ Maggie.  Now c’mon.  Trust me, our cabin’s a lot nicer than this one anyway.”

                “No… no, PLEASE!” Scott yelped as Janie covered him up with her other hand, sealing him into an enclosed bubble of cupped hand flesh.  Jumping into an immediate flurry of punches against the soft skin that had imprisoned him, Scott began crying out for help he knew was too far away to come.

                “Keep quiet so no one hears your cute little voice, cutie,” Janie giggled teasingly, pushing her hands closer together to make it more difficult for her captive to move.  Rising to her feet as Gabby quickly zipped the duffel up again and stowed it back at the foot of Maggie’s cot to conceal the evidence, she whispered into the space between her slender fingers, “We’re gonna be best friends, I can tell already.”

“Told you it was nicer than your sister’s cabin,” Janie stated proudly as she held Scott in her open palm again, obviously expecting that to be a huge selling point for the fact that she had just kidnapped him out of his sister’s duffel bag.  Gabby followed closely behind, craning her neck over her friend’s shoulder to get as close as possible to their find.

                “Can I hold him now, Janie?”

                “In a minute… I want to hear how he likes it so much better here instead of in his sister’s cabin!” Janie responded brightly.  “How about it, cutie?”

                “Please… um, Janie,” Scott said, looking desperately up at the smooth, pretty face of his captor.

                “He said your name!” Gabby squealed with excitement.

                “Say it again, little guy.  I can’t stand it,” Janie insisted.  “Say it!”

                “Okay… but, you have to listen to me then.”

                “Fair enough,” Janie admitted, surprising Scott, who then shrugged and cleared his throat.

                “Janie.”

                “Again,” teased Janie, pretending to shy away.

                “Janie.  Now…”

                “One more time.”

                “Please…”

                “LAST time, swear to God.  Say it now.”

                “Janie,” Scott sighed.  For the better part of the next thirty seconds, Janie and Gabby giggled to one another, their eyes practically glowing with excitement before turning back to Scott.

                “Sorry about this.  We just… we’ve never really hung out with an… older boy before,” Gabby said gleefully.

                “Yeah, definitely not.  My older brother’s at college already, and he’s a jerk.  I hate him,” groused Janie, pouting a little before perking back up.  “He’s not like you.  He doesn’t know how to talk politely to us like you do.  How old are you, anyway?”

                “I’m eighteen,” said Scott quietly, subjected to more excited squealing.  When Janie looked back at him, he could tell she was trying to hold her chin up higher, brushing a few stray locks of hair off her forehead.

                She was trying to impress him.  It almost made Scott want to laugh.  It wasn’t that she wasn’t cute, but considering the ridiculous situation, in addition to the fact that she was barely a teenager, he found it absolutely absurd.

                He watched apprehensively as Janie’s finger slid easily up behind him and began idly stroking his back.  At first, he tried to lean forward to avoid it, but she only followed him.  Her skin was soft and warm, and while it did admittedly feel good after all the time he’d just spent trying to sit up perfectly straight while in his sister’s sock, it was beginning to feel more and more uncomfortable.

                “So… what’s your name again?” Janie giggled as seductively as an inexperienced teenager could, batting her bright eyes a few times and grinning smartly.

                “Scott.”

                “I like it.  It fits your cute little face,” Janie remarked, bringing her fingertip up to Scott’s hair and stroking it.  “I like your hair, too.  It’s so soft.  Like petting a bunny rabbit.”

                “I… I… um…” Scott stammered, taken aback momentarily as he involuntarily enjoyed the sensation of the young girl’s smooth fingertip massaging his head and hair with care and grace he thought incapable by someone so large.  Perhaps because it was just that his mother and Maggie had no reservations about roughing him up at this size, but he had never been treated quite this nicely, even if he was getting the awkward feeling that Janie was hitting on him.

                “Janie…” Gabby groaned, irritated.  “Coach told us we should only be gone like 10 minutes.  What did you tell him again?”

                “I told him I wasn’t feeling so well,” Janie responded as if in a daze, her vision entirely focused on the tiny life cupped in her palm, her finger continuing to rhythmically stroke the top of Scott’s head.

                “He’s gonna know that’s not what we’re doing if we don’t at least tell someone that we’re here.  We need to go back!”

                “Stall for me.  Tell him I’m still busy.”

                “He’ll probably come check!  And you have to come too!”

                “Tell him… tell him I’m having…” Janie pondered for a moment, puckering her lips in thought, mostly at Scott.  “…lady troubles.”

                Scott shuddered.  Somehow, he doubted this was entirely false.

                Gabby nodded.  “Okaaay… but I want a turn when I get back!”

                “Fine.  Now hurry up,” Janie hissed urgently, obviously eager to get Gabby out of the room.  Sighing with annoyance, the other girl quickly dashed out of the otherwise empty cabin toward the soccer fields.

                “Um…” Scott croaked, his throat going dry and his words leaving him.  Janie tilted her head down toward him, her golden hair cascading gorgeously down her shoulders, her almond eyes shimmering, her bright pink lips pursed and almost undulating.  Like they were waiting.  It scared Scott to his core, and yet he couldn’t pull his eyes away.  It was mesmerizing, no matter how wrong.

                “So… alone at last, Mr. Handsome Bigshot,” Janie whispered, adding a little bit of a feisty growl to her words.  “How’re you feelin’ right about now?”

                “Like… like you need to… take me back,” Scott stuttered awkwardly, blinking a few times in disbelief.

                “What’s your rush?  Your sister won’t be back for a little while, and besides…” Janie sighed dramatically, pulling her hand closer to her face and exhaling slow enough that Scott could feel the wave of warm air rolling across his nude body.  “…I thought maybe we could hang out a little.  Get to know each other.”

                “Get to… know each other?”

                Janie nodded, grinning.  “That’s right, silly.  So, tell me.  You got a girlfriend?”

                “I… I… um… I…” Scott stammered with embarrassment as he watched the girl’s eyes flame up with intensity.  “Yes!  Yes, I do.  Her name is Ella.”

                Scott could almost see the absolute depression rushing through Janie’s immediately dulled eyes, her smile drooping.  However, she quickly recovered, tossing her hair once for added flair and putting on a fresh, probably fake smile.

                “I see.  And you… like her a lot?”

                “Yeah!  I love her!” Scott protested quickly, annoyed that the question even needed asking.

                “Love’s kinda a strong word, you know,” Janie pointed out.  Gradually, the finger that had been massaging Scott’s head was moving back down to his chest again.  “Maybe you’re just… confused.”

                “I’m not confused,” Scott insisted.

                “Is that so?” Janie questioned with a disbelieving smile her eyes locked to Scott’s chest rather than his eyes, her firm fingertip alternating between Scott’s right and left pecs.  “Does she… like you back?  You know, like… appreciate you?”

                “…Yes.  Yes she does,” Scott answered more quietly, not liking the way the question was phrased.

                “She must know you’re handsome.   That you’d have other girls that like you, too.  Surely she understands that.”

                “She does.  But, that’s… that’s beside the point.  The point is…”

                “You know?” Janie interrupted slowly, as if she hadn’t even heard Scott’s words.  “I’ve never had a boyfriend.  Never even…” she whispered in a low, satisfied rumble as she drew Scott’s body closer and closer to her lips until he was close enough that she could’ve easily poked her tongue out from between her lips and licked him.  “…kissed a guy.”

                “Janie, this… this has gone on far enough!” Scott gasped, backing up slowly in her hand, stopping at her fingers, which instantly curled upward, causing him to roll back into the center of her palm.

                “What’s the problem, you adorable little hunk?” Janie cooed, biting her lip playfully.  “I’m just having a little fun with you.”

                “No!  No, no, no… no!  Don’t you even realize what you’re doing?”
                
                “Lookin’ at the cutest guy I’ve ever laid eyes on, what else?”

                “No!  You’re… you’re… I’m… well, FIRST of all, you’re thirteen and I’m eighteen, but…”

                “I don’t care about that,” frowned Janie.  “My mom told me I’m real mature for my age.  I’m gonna be taking ninth grade-level classes this coming school year, you know, too.”

                “It wouldn’t mean anything.  And even so, I have a girlfriend.  A girlfriend that I care about a lot, and… and…”

                “I thought you said it was LOVE?” fired back Janie accusingly.

                “And finally, you have to take me back to Maggie before she finds I’m gone and wears me for so long I permanently fuse with her goddamned toes!” roared Scott pathetically, his voice fizzling out at the realization of this last absolute nightmare

                At this, Janie wrinkled her nose with disgust, her finger ceasing to stroke.  “She really does wear you all the time like that?”
             
                “Yeah, and don’t remind me,” groaned Scott, rolling his eyes.

                Janie sighed, hanging her head a little.  “Look, Scott, I’ll tell ya what.  I can tell you want out of here and stuff, so how about we make a deal?”

                “A… deal?”  Scott asked, half horrified and half suspiciously.  His recent experiences with “making deals” with thirteen-year-olds hadn’t ended well, and he saw no reason this one should either.
                
                “Don’t look so nervous, it’s nothing bad.  I just want a kiss.”

                Scott stared blankly up at the plush lips hovering above him while also nervously eyeing the girl’s fingers curling protectively around him.

                “Janie… I’m… I’m not gonna give you a…”

                “It wouldn’t mean anything!  You said yourself!  And besides, you’ve got a girlfriend.  You’re experienced.  I’m not.  It would probably be like kissing your cousin or something!”

                Scott fought the urge to laugh aloud at how preposterous Janie’s reasoning was.

                “Janie, I don’t even want to get back into that, or the fact that I’m too small to kiss you anyway… look, I…”

                “Mr. Handsome Bigshot, let’s cut to the chase, okay?  If you don’t wanna play with me, then I don’t really want to deal with you, and… well, since you’re pretty used to them already…”

                “What are you saying?” Scott asked shakily, already knowing what was coming as Janie’s hand lowered toward the cement floor of the cabin, nearer and nearer to her grass-stained cleats.  Scott could smell the rank, spicy aroma wafting up from her clearly soaked socks that were so heavy with liquid there were clinging to her leg all the way up her shin, and her laces were even tied tightly.

                “Smells, huh, little guy?” Janie asked calmly before bringing her hand back up.  “Look, here’s your deal.  You want to avoid going in there?  Then pucker up and give me a little lesson.”

                Scott sighed, already knowing she’d won.  The horrible, painful irony to Scott was that he was supposed to go out on a date with Ella tonight to see a movie and grab dinner, hopefully followed by some hardcore necking in the backseat of his car afterward.

                Sitting buck-naked and cold in the soft, giant palm of a cute but abominably strange thirteen-year-old girl with designs on wrapping her lips around his face was not his idea of a satisfactory substitute.

                Yet, the options were far bleaker down below.  Scott could practically feel the vomit welling up inside him at the thought of being plastered against Janie’s disgusting foot by the thick, soggy fabric of her sock. 

                Hating himself but knowing there was no other option, Scott nodded with a forced smile.  No sense in repeating this whole charade if he could help it.

                Janie positively beamed.  Scott honestly couldn’t remember seeing a happier look on a girl’s face in years.  It was almost frightening to see, knowing his comparatively frail form was the object of that affection.

                “All right, so… we just gonna lean in, or…” Scott began, but his words were cut off as his face was immediately swallowed up in the damp, glistening, puckered lips of his gigantic admirer.  Instantly, as he felt her lips loosening with comfort and sliding down his body to his abdomen, he could feel warm, sticky droplets of Janie’s enthusiastic saliva trickling along his cheeks and neck, down to his shoulders and along his back.  With a shiver, he felt a small gooey drop of it run along his ass before plopping into Janie’s palm below.

                Cupping her hand closer to her face, Janie’s had Scott’s entire body pressed hard against her lips and chin.  She moaned softly, puckering harder and steadily sucking more and more of Scott’s unfortunate head into the slobbery, passionate onslaught.  Gasping for air, Scott found his attempt fruitless, and instead succumbed to the wet suction of the young girl’s desirable mouth, his entire head sucked wetly into the soggy darkness.  He inhaled, sensing the flavors coating her mouth: sweet, ripe strawberries ground to a pulp between her perfect teeth.  A faint hint of a sharp mint gum, chewed probably a couple days back.  The pale grime of tiny bacteria clinging in microscopic colonies to her tongue.

                Her tongue.  Scott was totally unprepared in the near pitch-black of the soft, squishy cavern of Janie’s mouth as the hot, sticky tongue, red and rearing like a slimy serpent, slicked itself along his chest before lapping powerfully up his face, leaving a thick residue of opague goop in his hair and along his face.

                Scott’s eyes widened with shock, his breathing slowly returning to normal as Janie removed his head from her mouth with a soft pop like finishing off a particularly tasty lollipop, and allowed the spit-covered, slightly swollen form of her kissing teacher to collapse weakly into her palm.

                Regaining some composure, but certainly not his pride, Scott stared bleary-eyed up at the young blonde girl, who tossed her hair regally and raised an eyebrow.

                “Bet your Ella can’t do THAT, huh?” she laughed, her almond irises twinkling gorgeously.

                “Are you… are you sure that was your first time?” Scott opined too quietly for Janie to hear.

Scott knew he shouldn’t even bother being disappointed that he wasn’t handed back over to his sister as soon as his rather unorthodox make-out session with Janie was concluded.  Somehow, from the look of glee in the girl’s eye, he knew she wasn’t going to want to give up her little pot of gold just yet, if at all.  The latter was probably more likely.

                Turning her head to look out the window, Janie could see a small crowd of girls heading back to the cabins.  Her eyes bugging with fright, Janie quickly leaned forward toward the ground and plopped Scott down by her right foot, the long muddy lace brushing against Scott’s arm as she did.  Immediately, the young man panicked.

                “NO!  PLEASE!  Don’t… d-d-don’t… you don’t know what it’s like to… t-t-to…”

                “What’s like to what?” Janie asked kindly, quickly undoing the zipper on her duffel bag.

                “Please don’t put me in your shoe,” Scott squeaked more pathetically than he intended to, falling to his knees involuntarily as if in prayer.  “Please.  I’m… I’m begging you…”

                Janie plucked her catch back off the ground in her fingers, frowning for a moment before giggling and shaking her head.

                “Don’t be silly.  Why would I put something I like to kiss down there where it’s all gross and sweaty and… UGH!  No, I just said that so you’d kiss me.  Don’t be such a weirdo.  You’ve gotta be a little smarter than that if you’re going to be my boyfriend.”

                Boyfriend?

                “The girls are all coming back in,” Janie explained quietly.  “So I’ve gotta put you away for a few minutes.  I’m gonna take a bathroom break and hide you out back until Gabby leaves me alone about you.  Don’t worry, I’ll be back before dark to pick you up again.  You can sleep in my bed tonight,” she detailed with an enthralled grin.

                “But…”

                “Because I’ll bet you’re getting SO sick of getting stuck between your sister’s toes all night instead, right?” winked Janie, gently depositing Scott into her right pocket.  “Which reminds me: we’re not making out again until I give you a bath.  Freakin’ foot germs all in my mouth…”

                “Janie…”

                “Two seconds, Mr. Handsome Bigshot.  I gotta get us out of here,” Janie promised with a smile before allowing her athletic shorts pocket to billow shut.

                A matter of minutes later, Scott found himself with two dirty shoelaces tied around all of his limbs and looped together multiple times before being tied tightly into a nail spike jabbing awkwardly out of a tree hovel about twenty yards behind the cabin that had evidently been used to hold up a tent at some point.  Janie was obviously taking no chances on her prize/newly chosen significant other making a break for it.

                “Janie… this isn’t necessary…” Scott protested weakly as, with a musical hum, the young girl finished looping the intricate knots around her lime-painted fingertips and tightening them just enough that Scott had no chance of breaking out of them by sheer force.

                “I’d love to believe you, Scott, but honestly?  I don’t want to take the chance.  I want you to be here forever.  You’re gonna teach me even more stuff later,” she said with a wink that made Scott shiver with terror.

                “This is ridiculous… I’ll… I can come visit you!  We could hang out when I’m normal size!  And…”

                “Did you just say when you’re normal sized?” Janie said with a piteous huff.  “Try if you’re normal sized.  And I don’t think I believe you.  I bet you’d just go straight back to your bitch girlfriend and forget about me.”

                Using the skill of holding back the rage that he had learned a long time ago, Scott took a deep breath.  “She’s not a bitch.  She’s a wonderful person.  You’d like her.  And…”

                “But she’s not willing to offer you everything like I am.  I’m… I’m younger than you, and I’m okay with that.  I want to learn from you!  You’re almost a real man, but you need me to protect you… we can take care of each other, Scott!  Forever and ever!  I’ll be the best girlfriend you’ve ever had.  You won’t even miss her because you’ll be too much in love with me.”

                “Janie, I have a FAMILY, too!  They’ll be looking for me, and…”

                “The kind of family that shrinks you all the time and wears you in their shoes like a bug?” Janie said with a snort.  “Doesn’t sound like much a family.  Sounds more like jail.”

                Scott came dangerously close to pausing in his argument and agreeing with her, but stopped himself short.  Priorities.  Priorities.  Priorities.  College coming up soon.  So, so close.

                “Yeah, but…” Scott tried to butt back in.

                “I’d never wear you in my sock, Scott.  Ever.  Not in my boots.  Not in my stockings.  Not in my sandals.  And I wouldn’t even think of taping you to me when I sleep.  Not unless you asked me to.  You’re too important.  I like you too much.  I’d do whatever you wanted, once you accepted me as your girlfriend.” 

                Scott became lost for a moment.  The thought was wild and horrible and didn’t make any kind of sense from any angle, and yet he found some deep, primal, untapped part of himself not totally opposed to the idea.  What was going on with his mind?

                “We’d be perfect together.  Believe me, I’d only put you under my foot if you cheated on me or something…”

                Scott grimaced, brought somewhat back to reality.  This was just getting peachier all the time.  He grumbled, struggling against the strings to no avail.

                “You can forget about getting out of those.  I have two older brothers, both cub scouts.  Taught me like 4 different knots that are really hard to get undone unless you know how.  Plus, I don’t think you’re strong enough, anyway,” Janie giggled, biting her lip again softly.  Bringing her finger up to her lips, she puckered against it and kissed it before tapping it ever so gently against Scott’s face.  “See you later, handsome,” she whispered before stealthily hurrying off back toward the cabin to avoid suspicion.

Night had begun to fall.  Scott suspected it was around 8 o’clock.  Janie was running later than she’d said, but that was all right with Scott.  She had left enough slack in the lace-chains that bound him to the tree that he could at least rest his arms and legs by kneeling down in the small pile of leaves resting in the hole in the side of the old tree.

                Besides, it had given him time to think. 

                There was no way around it.  His life for the past six years had been nothing short of a living hell with short flashes of calm before the next storm.  His girlfriend Ella.  Sharing a joke with his brother Kyle.  Hanging out with his friends at a party.  These were the things that let him keep his sanity.

                These were the things he came back to every time he found himself ground powerfully underfoot by his mother’s aggressive toes.  The things he had to come back to in order to keep mind somehow intact whenever his sister’s soft, creamy sole would bury him underneath it like a toy.  The only things that allowed him to maintain some shred of dignity, or some last piece of hope that things would be all right again, no matter the foul stench, the crushing weight, or the utter brain-detonating humiliation that would so easily have driven countless others to the nuthouse were they in his situation.

                Why did he remain?  How had he not been driven mad several years before?  How had it been possible?

                Was it the promise of escape?  His odd encounter with Janie this day had been grotesque and terrifying in its own way, but also, somehow, liberating.  Not in the sense that he had been forced to more or less cheat on Ella against his will with someone wildly underage, but because he was vulnerable, capable of being broken, and in the hands of a girl who only wanted to feel wanted.  Sure, she had taken it much too far and clearly was harboring some emotional damage and vagrancy of love, but she had held Scott in her hand and looked at him not as an insect.  Not as a plastic figurine.  Not as a living toe ring.

                As a boy with the capacity to love.

                Scott shivered, feeling a slight summer chill beginning to settle in more fully over his exposed body.  He knelt down in the leaves, hoping to be brought some comfort there, but found none.

                He knew that this life offered to him by Janie couldn’t be real.  She was thirteen, confused, and beside herself with a sudden crush she’d developed on a boy she didn’t actually have to listen to because she could overpower him.  It was a twisted and wrong relationship that Scott knew he had to forget about.

                Breathing in and out, calmingly, Scott focused on the sounds around him.  An ant the size of a baby chihuahua skittering along the bark of the tree outside.  Leaves swept around in the light breeze.  Stones tumbling down a muddy slope.

                It wasn’t the fake fantasy romance that Janie had envisioned for them that enticed Scott.  It was the idea of what it offered.  The essence of freedom.  No fear or doubt, just peaceful being.  The ability to exist and not have to worry that any wrong step on his part would result in literally being stepped on for the better part of the day under a massive, unforgiving ceiling of foot flesh that cared not for his feelings or worries, but only ground him harder into the sole of the shoe and twisted his neck so tightly between the toes he thought he might suffocate.

                That was what he really wanted.  He wanted it so badly he almost couldn’t breathe.

                “Scott!” called out the voice of Maggie from what sounded like just a few yards away, the crunch of leaves under her boot awakening Scott from his philosophical trance.  “SCOTT!”

                For a moment, as Scott opened his mouth to answer, he hesitated.  Could he really be happier in the hands of a semi-crazed girl with a lovesickness bad enough to leave her bedridden?  Experiencing those unbelievable kisses every day and feeling confident he mattered as a person to someone?  Could he?  It might.  Might it?

                “MAGGIE!” called out Scott, resealing his fate in a painful microsecond he already half-regretted.  “I’M OVER HERE!  IN THE TREE!”

                A rustle of leaves and the sound of Maggie’s hand brushing over the peeling bark of the tree, followed by the blinding beam of a flashlight pouring into the tree hovel gave Scott to know the decision was made.  It was over.

                Maggie gazed in, her crystalline blue eyes practically swirling with pent up rage in the dim glow of the flashlight beam.  Shaking her head, allowing her golden braided ponytails to bounce cutely over her shoulders, she opened her mouth slowly, exhaling.  “Why, you low down, scummy little piece of poop,” she said with an overdone grimace.

                “Maggie, I swear to God, it was…” Scott squeaked, panicked.

                “Yada, yada, yada, you don’t have to get all weepy on me, little brother, I know about it.  Relax,” Maggie smirked, dropping the façade of terror.

                “How?” Scott asked dryly.

                “Who do you think?  Gabby.  Duh,” Maggie groaned as she wrapped her soft, warm fingers around her tiny brother’s chilled body and set about undoing the knots as best she could.

                “Oh.  Yeah.”

                “Janie’s not real good about picking hiding spots.  Also, news flash: not leaving you alone in the bag anymore.”

                “Okay,” Scott said softly, his heart sinking.

                Maggie shrugged like it was nothing.  “Yeah, sorry ‘boutcha, but I can’t have you running off again and you… God, how did she tie these knots… and you getting a new girlfriend.”

                Scott blushed ten shades of red as his sister undid the final knot she was capable of getting before plucking him from the tree with the mud-caked laces still twisted at awkward angles around him like a half unwrapped mummy, cradling him in her palm.

                “Don’t worry, bro, I won’t tell Ella about her.  Maybe.  You know, if you buy me something.”

                “Maggie, you already got your new phone a few days ago, I don’t think that…”

                “Shut up.  You’re getting me something.  Maybe that new pair of shoes I saw at the mall the other day.  You could even help me pick them out, you know.  Might be able to pick out some ones that would be more comfortable for you the next time I…”

                “Maggie, you’re…”

                “Don’t even start with me, little mister.  You’re in enough trouble as it is,” Maggie scolded in the best motherly impression she could do, waggling her finger, as she made her way back toward the cabin.

                “I thought you said you understood.”

                Frowning and realizing her own break in logic, Maggie scoffed but said nothing else.  “Yeah, well, okay, fine.  I do.  I’m not gonna punish you tonight, I guess.  But I don’t have to listen to your crap anyway.  You’re still mine for two more days, remember?  Two more days of fun.  And tomorrow is the big scrimmage day.  All the squads facing off.  Three whole games, sixty minutes each.  How’s that sound?”

                Scott was silent.  He had nothing more to say.

                “Don’t worry, though, I’ll keep it interesting.  Tomorrow morning we’ll put you inside my sock under my toes so you can feel every time I kick a goal.  Then, after I shower, we’ll switch you to the middle, outside the sock, so you can feel the ground bumping underneath.  That’ll be fun, won’t it?” Maggie remarked devilishly, obviously waiting to get a rise out of Scott.  “I’m so glad we’re brother and sister.  I think, most of the time, we get along better than most siblings.  Especially the times when I can wear your stupid little naked body wherever I want…”

                “Maggie, I’m just… I’m just done for the night.  I don’t care anymore.”

                With a bratty huff, Maggie held her chin higher and continued walking.  “Well, fine.  I hope you saved a little energy thought.”

                “But… you said you weren’t going to…”

                “Oh, this isn’t a punishment, bro.  I owe someone a favor,” Maggie said with a grin.

                “What?”

                “Well…” Maggie said slyly, pushing open the back door to the cabin.  “To get Gabby to tell me what had happened to you, I kinda had to make a deal with her.”

                “A deal?”

                The cruel goddess of a little sister nodded.  “Yep.  She told me who took you, and in return…”

                “Guess where you’re sleeping tonight, little cutie?” came the excited squeal of Gabby as she twirled her chocolate locks between slightly chubby fingers.  She was sitting upright on her bed and holding her legs high in the air so the tanned bare soles of her feet were fully visible as she pointed at them.

                “Don’t get too fresh with him, Gabby, he’s too much of a nerd to deserve it.  Just make sure you roll over a lot.  He likes a fun ride while he sleeps.”

                “Sounds good to me,” Gabby said with a wink, holding out her hand to accept her consolation prize for the night.

                “Could I… could I see… Janie again?” Scott asked hopefully, his voice so low only his sister heard it.

                “Don’t be stupid, weirdo.  And end up in all that danger again?  FORGET it.  I’d never let anything bad happen to you, my sweet little baby brother-boo,” Maggie chuckled mockingly, plopping her tiny brother into the waiting hand of her friend, the palm of which was clammy and damp with nervous sweat.  Scott could feel the young girl’s massive hand quivering with anticipation beneath his feet.  “You’re like a little china doll, after all.  You have to be protected.”

                “Maggie, please, just… just…” Scott gasped as he was plunged down into Gabby’s faded yellow sock covered in orange polka dots, but his final words were drowned out as the thirteen-year-old plunged her naked foot down like a fleshy weight into the sock.  She sandwiched the boy between her smooth sole and the fuzzy interior of the fabric cave, relishing the moan-inducing euphoria of the tiny body splayed across the bottom of her foot, his head nestled snugly between her thick, stubby toes that hugged him lovingly as if welcoming him home again to his true place in the world.