THUD, THUD, THUD!

Khrystina nearly jumped in fright as a sudden barrage of three successive poundings smashed against the white maple door. Her breathing became deeper and faster. Her panicked heart emulated a fight-or-flight mode pufferfish deep within her chest.

CLICK, CLICK, CLICK!

The door knob squirmed around its axis in futility. Although she was relieved that she had locked the bathroom door, her fear did not subside. Her bladder swelled like a rising hot-air balloon, just barely preventing the trickling of a golden stream.

THUD, THUD, THUD!

She pulled down her leggings and her underwear in haste, and the lower half of her body collapsed onto the toilet seat. Her legs oscillated as if they were the plucked strings of a guitar. In the face of an ever-rising terror, her mind lost its unconscious resolve to withhold the process of micturition, and a flood of urine gushed out of her vaginal lips like overflowing water from a crumbling dam.

The wisdom of experience had long taught her that silence was the best course of action. Although fear, terror, and panic had contorted her mind into that of a flustered animal, her instincts did not fail to warn her. Like a red laser beam cutting through a thick cloud of mist, her instincts cut through her clouded mind with the message: ‘Don’t do it. Just hold on to your silence for a little longer.’ She knew that she should listen to her gut, but her mouth, like her bladder, just couldn’t hold it in. 

At first it came out like a small stream:
She said loudly, “I am peeing. Don’t come in here.”

But almost immediately, she realised that the stream had grown into a gush which she could no longer control:
She shrieked, “DON’T COME IN HERE, YOU CRUEL BRUTE!”

CLICK, CLICK, CLICK!

The door knob squirmed more rapidly and more violently.

She howled louder than before, “HAVEN’T YOU MADE MY LIFE MISERABLE ALREADY? HAVEN’T YOU TAKEN EVERYTHING FROM ME ALREADY? I HATE YOU, YOU EGYPTIAN RASCAL! CAN YOU AT LEAST LET ME PEE IN PEACE, YOU BASTARD? CAN YOU AT LEAST LEAVE ME WITH THE RIGHT TO PEE IN PEACE?”

SILENCE

Khrystina cried out, “I should have never married you, you wife-beATING BRUTE!”

SILENCE

She knew that he had heard her, and that he had chosen to remain silent. This both unnerved and infuriated her. 

She continued, “OH MIGHTY ADEEL IBRAHEEM FAROOQ HASSAN GAMAL! DID I DO MY JOB OF BEING YOUR PUNCHING BAG WELL TODAY? DID I MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE A MAN? DID BEATING THE CRAP OUT OF ME FINALLY MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE A MAN?”

A disembodied voice called out in a low, fruity manner from the other side of the door, “Khrystina.”

SILENCE

It continued weekly, “Khrystina, I am sorry.”

A pool of tears welled in her eyes, distorting her vision and flooding the plains of her soft cheeks. She squinted her eyes, sobbed hushedly, and sniffled. Golden buds of relief blossomed in her heart, but a storm still brewed in her mind.

The voice croaked, “I am sorry. You don’t deserve this.”

While one part of her wanted to forgive him and let it go, another part of her impulsively wanted to get even; momentarily she wanted to hurt him like he had hurt her.

She blurted out, “Everytime you hit me, I wonder to myself just how you became like this. But then I try to step into your shoes and see the world from your perspective. An orphaned bastard boy raised by the streets of Cairo. With no mother or father to teach him the rights from the wrongs, how can I expect you to know better?”

By referring to his parentless poverty-stricken childhood, she knew that she had plunged a dagger of emotional pain into his heart. She had hurt him deeply. She knew it. But she couldn’t help herself. She had to deal the killing blow.

She declared triumphantly with a tone of vindictiveness, “I am all you have, little Egyptian orphan. You have no family to love you - no mother or father or sister or brother. I am all the family you’ve got.”

THUD!

A single half-hearted blow to the maple door. She could hear him slump to the floor on the other side. Almost immediately, she felt guilty. Terribly guilty. She shouldn’t have said what she had said. In her mind, she began weighing the pain caused by his physical blows against the pain that her words had inflicted. She wondered which one was worse, and whether her impetuous strike at his Achilles' Heel was justified. 

She pressed her ear against the door. Receding footsteps. The front door slammed shut. She sighed, partly in relief and partly in sadness. She knew his post-beating ritual very well, and knew where he was heading: the superstore at the mall. He was going to purchase a generous quantity of expensive foreign chocolates and delicious light-snacks in a vain attempt to bribe his way to her forgiveness. She snickered at how he naively believed that expensive gifts were the solution to all his problems.

Flush!

As Khrystina washed her hands, she gazed at her reflection in the shimmering bathroom mirror. From the reflective pool, a beautiful 24-year old Ukranian stared back at her. Streams of tears dissolved lines of black eyeliner into a dark smear across her bony cheeks. The reddish-black imprint of Adeel’s fist stained the facial area underneath her brilliant turquoise left-eye. A thick crimson brook drooled out of the bruise. She pulled herself closer to the mirror. Her luscious pink lips- torn and bleeding. She felt a deep sense of pity and compassion for the figure staring back at her. The woman on the other side of the mirror looked at her pleadingly as if to ask, “How many more beatings am I still condemned to? When will the beatings stop?” Khrystina thought to herself, ‘As long as I am still with him, probably never.’ This sudden realisation rose out of the mirror like a daunting spectre.

She asked herself, “Why don’t you leave him then?”

Khrystina closed her eyes, and her mind time-travelled through the stream of her memories.

Five years ago. Paris. At the tender age of nineteen, in the City of Love, she had unearthed one of Egypt’s most magnificent contributions to Human Civilization: Adeel Ibrahim Farooq Hassan Gamal, the Jewel of the Nile. Eight-thousand years of Egyptian civilization had led to this- and it was worth the wait. Pure Pulchritude. Adjacent to a giant glass pyramid, by the banks of a long queue waiting to flood into the Louvre Museum, Fate had placed two lonely strangers in the night next to each other. Paris and Helen. Adam and Eve. Coffee Beans and Milk.

“Something in your eyes was so inviting,
Something in your smile was so exciting,
Something in my heart told me I must have you…”

Once their eyes met, conversation had flowed so naturally. An entire evening was spent in the admiration of some of Mankind’s most exquisite artistic brainchildren. Just the two of them, ravishing each other’s company.

No contact information was shared. And for a year and a half, Khrystina found her heart frozen in a time-loop of that evening. For a year and a half, she had languished in the fear of never being able to ever see him again. But then it happened.

London. Orchestrated by Fate, or perhaps the random nature of sheer coincidences, or perhaps both, the duo ran into each other on the streets of London. No words were exchanged. Just a passionate kiss, and Khrystina’s hand holding his, shepherding him towards her apartment. An evening which exceeded her imagination’s expectation. Eight months down the line, they had gotten married. But the beatings, violent manifestations of his wrath, didn’t first materialise until one-and-a-half years after their wedding.

Khrystina opened her eyes. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She couldn’t leave him. The pain of not being with him would be far more unbearable than all the beatings that she had endured combined. But she couldn’t continue tolerating his beatings either. Something had to change. And something would.

For the forty two months that they had been together, they had been each other’s diaries. They had shared everything with each other. But there was one thing that Khrystina had never told Adeel. She had a secret. A secret so strange, so fascinating, and so bewildering that nobody would believe her. A secret that had been handed down to her by her grandmother, who had worked in a top-secret Soviet research project. But now that secret would come out in the open. It would be wielded as a weapon of deterrence against the object of her obsession and of her affection, the Jewel of the Nile. It would be wielded as a weapon to compel her tormentor, Adeel Ibrahim Farooq Hassan Gamal, to change his ways.

Khrystina mumbled to herself, “Am I taking this too far?”

The Great Florentine statesman Machiavelli had once said that, “It is better to be feared than loved.” But fear is a great aphrodisiac. She would be both feared and loved.

Khrystina looked at her reflection, and said, “This is my last ditch attempt to fix something that I value a lot. So I’ll give this my 100%. If this doesn’t work… well…” 

She shrugged.

CLICK, CLICK!

As the white maple door swung open, Khrystina emerged as a changed woman. She was no longer going to tolerate her husband’s abusive behavior in the hopes that he would eventually change. She was going to compel him to change.

Khrystina rummaged through the compartments of her jewelry box until she found what she was looking for: two unique rings. Both of them were golden and adorned with precious stones. While one of the rings housed the miniature statue of a chinese Jade dragon, the other one housed the miniature statue of a Carnelian ant. She had never used the power of her Secret before, but that didn’t stop her from devising a cunning plan for its administration.

‘Ryazhenka’, she thought to herself.

She twisted the miniscule Carnelian ant statue and pulled it out of the ring. A tiny pipette, filled to the brim with a mysterious red substance, dangled from the ant’s thorax. 

An hour later, Adeel returned home. He stood outside the door for a full five minutes. His guilt barred him from entering his house. “Thou shalt not pass!”, it seemed to say. After much deliberation and effort, Adeel turned the door knob and entered his living room.

“Khrystina!”, he called.

SILENCE

With a large bag filled to the brim with goodies on either side, he slowly made his way into the kitchen. His gorgeous blonde wife was sitting on the dining table in the company of two glasses. One of them was filled to the brim with a thick white liquid, the other was empty but its base had a mysterious red tint.

He fumbled, “Khrystina, I am sorry.”

She looked at him and said nothing. He dropped the bags at the door of the kitchen. He walked slowly towards her. She did not react. He dropped to his knee, grabbed her hands, and kissed them. His gaze rose upwards towards her face. It was empty, void of all emotion. So he kissed her hands a couple times more. But her face was still expressionless, and appeared to be set in stone. He rose up and let his hands run along the bruise underneath her left eye and along her torn, bleeding lip. He kissed her forehead. But it was as if his wife was carved out of marble: her posture and expressions unchanging. 

“What are you drinking?”, he asked in a desperate bid to break the silence.

“Don’t you recognise it? Ryazhenka. Your favourite Ukranian beverage.”

“That sounds lovely. Could you give me some?”

“It’s in a jug in the fridge.”

Khrystina raised her glass to her lips and chugged it in a matter of seconds.

She said, “This is delicious. I think I might go for a second round. Would you be kind enough to pour me some more?”

“It would be my pleasure.”

Adeel retrieved a transparent jug from his refrigerator and filled the two glasses which were on the dining table. 

Raising his glass, Adeel exclaimed, “Cheers.” He was hoping to clink his glass against that of his wife, as was customary. But she seemed uninterested. He slowly withdrew his glass away from her, and towards his mouth. As he downed the Ukranian beverage, he heard her ask, “So what did you get to bribe me this time?”

He smiled at her. Something was not right. He felt a bit dizzy.

He managed to say, “Guess!”

“Why don’t you show me?”, she responded.

A tingling sensation swept across his body, and he blacked out. 

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

Adeel woke up in a dark, slippery cave. The air around him reeked of sweat.

“Am I dreaming?”, Adeel asked out loud.

“Khrystina?”

SILENCE

“Where am I?”

SILENCE

In the distance, he could see an opening from which light flooded into the cave.

“Alhamdulillah!”

Slowly, he made his way towards the opening. 

He asked out loud, “Have I been drugged?”

Adeel was the size of an ant, and the entire expanse of the Kitchen spanned out in front of him. The wall in front of him seemed like it was miles away. Adeel slowly raised his head upwards. The ceiling was so far away that it felt like it was the sky itself. He turned around and looked at the cave from which he had emerged. It was a fold in the sleeve of his city-block sized T-shirt.

A feminine voice boomed, “It took you long enough.”

He turned around to see a behemoth of a beast rushing towards him. A giant foot slammed into the ground around him, and Adeel found himself saved only by the gap between the big toe and the second toe.

“You always did love my feet, Adeel. Why are you so afraid of them now?”

The owner of the leg turned the foot around and raised the big toe right above him. It slowly descended until it touched the tip of his head. The SUV-sized toe paused briefly before slowly continuing to exert pressure on him. Adeel, fearing that he might be crushed if he continued standing, fell to his feet and tried to crawl away. But the big-toe descended, and pinned his back against the ground.

Khrystina bent down and plucked her tiny husband. She dropped him into the expanse of her other palm and raised it to her face.

“My, my. I had no idea that it would make you so small. How does it feel to be so helpless?”

The beautiful, battered giant face in front of him was as tall as a four-storey building.

“Khrystina, I cannot believe this. What sorcery is this? Is this witchcraft?”

His wife threw her head back and laughed like a maniac.

She snorted, “Witchcraft?! WITCHCRAFT?!”

He raised his hands upwards and declared, “God is with me. I won’t be intimidated by black magic.”

She pursed her torn lips and blew a gust of Ryazhenka-scented air at him. Adeel fell, his back collapsed onto her palm.

She laughed menacingly.

“Witchcraft? You flatter me husband dearest. Now, back to my question. How does it feel to be so helpless?”

Adeel stuttered, “Why are you doing this?”

“Why, to punish you of course!” She smiled at him evilly.

A pink beast, the size of a great white shark, lunged at him from between her lips. It jabbed at him briefly before hastily withdrawing back into her mouth. 

She threw her head back and laughed evilly.

“Ooh… all this power is really getting to me, Adeel. Now I understand how you must feel when I am so helpless and powerless in front of you.”

Adeel stuttered, “Khrystina... Khrystina you are scaring me.”

“Good. You should be scared. Now you know how you made me feel all this time.” 

She flashed her sparkling white teeth at him.

She added, “Now when I said earlier that I did all of this to punish you, I was joking. I just want to talk. It is much less intimidating this way, you know.”

SILENCE

“And I also want to have fun. You see Adeel… all this power, it really turns me on. Plus there’s all this tension between us that we need to diffuse before we start talking. So why don’t we have some fun first, get relaxed a little bit, and then we can start talking.”

Adeel asked quietly, “What do you have in mind?”

“Something which kills two birds with one stone.”

With just one finger, Khrystina pressed her tiny husband against her cleavage

THUMP, THUMP! THUMP, THUMP!

Adeel covered his ears. It was as if somebody was rhythmically blowing up boxes of TNT deep within his wife’s chest cavity. The two massive mounds of human flesh on either side of him trembled in the face of the powerful pumping organ.

“My heart is pounding so quickly against my chest. Can you feel it?”

Khrystina’s eyes were half-closed and her pupils were rolled all the way up so that only the whites of her eyes were visible. She bit her lips sensually.

Emphasising each word, she said, “I… LOVE… this...”

Adeel called out, “Khrystina!”

“Mmmmm….”

“Khrystina, this isn’t black magic, is it?”

She snorted and said, “How does it matter?”

“Khrystina, you’ve got to tell me that this isn’t witchcraft.”

“Shhh… it’s not important.”

“It is kinda important to me.”

“Just enjoy the moment, will ya buddy?”

“Would you enjoy this situation if you were in my position?”

Khrystina plucked her husband and raised him up to her lips.

“You know what’s important Adeel?”

He could feel her breath wash over him. She pressed him against her torn lips and kissed him.

She added, “It is important that we fix this once and for all. After today, this will never happen again.”

“Ok, ok, I have learnt my lesson. This will never happen again. Please turn things back to normal.”

“No Adeel. You haven’t learnt your lesson. We need to resolve all our major problems today. Period. So that we can finally be happy.”

“Khrystina, change takes time. You can’t expect everything to resolve itself overnight. It doesn’t work like that. We can’t fix all our problems in one day.”

“Then you will remain small until we finish fixing them.”

Khrystina turned her gaze towards her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She ran her other hand over her injuries.

She said slowly, “Look at what you’ve done… All these marks… All this pain… Why?”

Adeel said nothing. A feeling of remorse swept over him.

“Look at how you’ve smashed my face and battered my lips. How can you keep doing this to me? There has to be another way for us to solve the issues which arise between us.”

Khrystina pressed her tiny lover against her lips and kissed him again.

“Why do you keep reverting back to violence, Adeel?”

When she looked at him, she realised that he was frightened out of his wits. She needed to diffuse the tension before any further discussion could take place.

“You can tell me. I won’t hurt you. I promise.”

“It is a spontaneous burst of anger. I don’t know why I do it. I don’t want to do it. But it just happens somehow.”

“Adeel. You are a very successful businessman. I’ve never ever seen you abuse your employees or your clients or any other person. Why can’t you treat me the same way you treat them? You are always so compassionate and so kind to everyone. Why can’t you treat me with the compassion and kindness that I deserve?”

“I do, don’t I?”

Khrystina tilted her head upwards and dropped him onto the bridge of her nose. He could feel air moving through the nasal pathways beneath him. She turned towards her reflection.

“Just look at what you have done to my face. Does this look like compassion and kindness to you?”

“Khrystina, you are acting as if I hit you all the time.”

“Does that really justify your actions? How many times have you hit me?”

“Probably eleven times in the last four years. But you are right.”
He raised his hands upwards as if to say, ‘I surrender.’

He continued, “I have hit you a lot, and it isn’t justified, no. You are the apple of my eye. And you are entitled to the love, respect, and kindness that you deserve. When I am dealing with my employees, clients, or other people, I am dealing with people with whom I have a very superficial relationship. I don’t care about them. What they say doesn’t hurt me. But I care about you. You are my whole world. Sometimes when we argue, you tend to bring up my parentless childhood. As an orphan who has had a hard time growing up, it really cuts through me like a knife. It hurts, and it is very provocative.”

Khrystina pointed to the bruise underneath her left eye.
She said slowly, “Adeel, this can’t happen again. You hear me?”

She added, “Just look at this bruise. Your fist has left such a big mark on my face.”

Her finger swept him off her nose, and onto the bruise. She winced.

“Look at how your wrath has left a path of destruction in its wake.”

The purplish-blue ground on which Adeel stood covered an area the size of a bedroom. When he moved, she winced in pain.

“I am sorry about all of this. Please unshrink me. Let’s continue this conversation normally.”

“Adeel, do you know what I do after you hit me and leave?”

“No, I don’t really-”

“You are going to find out today. That will be your punishment.”
_ _ _ _ _ _ _

When the goddess Fortuna showered the young, hard-working Egyptian mohammedan with a mountain of wealth, his subconscious overcompensated for his impoverished childhood by planting the seeds of Hedonism into some aspects of his life. From the very first moment that Adeel became immensely wealthy, every fabric of his being reeked with a lust for material goods. For most children who grow up on the streets, owning their own homes is the ultimate achievement. Adeel was no different. Ever since he took his first steps, he dreamt of having his own house. His custom-built mansion was the crowning achievement of the insatiable hedonist within him. He had spared no expense in its design and construction. Every minute detail was accounted for.

Of all the opulent amenities of his luxurious house, Adeel had come to favour his lavish, marble bathtub the most. The diamond-crystal shaped bathtub was so large that it could comfortably fit one and a half people. The “head” of the diamond-crystal shaped bathtub was a flat countertop-like structure.
It was designed to fulfill two purposes: 

The first purpose being that the vast, flat expanse provided for a stable surface on which a user could keep an object like say, a book, or a drink, or a towel, or anything really.
The second purpose being that it housed a single, tall, silver tap which stood equidistant from the edges.

Adeel sat at the edge of the white marble countertop, gazing at the massive crater in front of him. His legs dangled freely over the edge. A fall from this height would kill him- there was absolutely no doubt about it. The unexpected arrival of a looming shadow cast him and his surroundings into complete darkness. It was as if the goddess Nyx had descended upon him herself. Although he knew that this mysterious shade-giver was none other than his caring wife, the experience of darkness abruptly swallowing vast swathes of surroundings around him was deeply terrifying. But then again, in his newfound size, he found everything terrifying. He wheeled around to face the light-blotter: a skyward-rising milk-pale humanoid mountain. As she bent down to turn on the faucet and adjust the knobs, she blew him a kiss. A torrent of steamy-hot water poured into the bathtub. The sight of the massive expanse of a crater slowly filling up with water alarmed him. To him, the rising waterbody was as vast as a lake or a small sea.

A voice boomed, “Ahem, Ahem!”

Khrystina had brought her face closer to the countertop to get a better look at her lover. A slender, metallic ornament dangled from a chain around her neck. 

Adeel pointed at the mysterious, elegant trinket and asked, “What is that?”

“You’ll find out soon.”

“Is that a part of my punishment?”

“Maybeeee….”

She smiled at him deviously, and made a mock flicking motion with her thumb and index finger.

“NO, NO, PLEASE don’t. I am serious.”

“It is really funny. Just a few hours ago, you were towering over me with your balled up fists. I was so weak and helpless in front of you. And now… now, all I need to do is blow gently, and I’ll be sending you to a watery grave.”

Adeel was terrified. “Khrystina! Khrystina, you promised not to hurt me!”

“That I did. But you are just so small and helpless, I can’t help myself. If I let a spontaneous burst of emotion take over my body, who knows what will happen? I may end up causing a very serious accident. I wouldn’t know why I allowed myself to cause such a serious accident. I wouldn’t want such a serious accident to have occured. But it might just happen somehow.”

At first Adeel said nothing. He was terrified at what his brobdingnagian of a wife would end up doing. But then he quietly said, “Wow. That last part sounds eerily similar to something I said a while ago.”

She flashed her teeth at him. “Why, yes it does! I am GLAD that you recognised the similarity.”

She stood up, raised her right foot, and hovered it right above him.

“Khrystina, this isn’t funny. You might actually end up killing me.”

“Terrified?”

“Most certainly.”

The leg soared above him, and crashed into the rising sea. The other leg followed suit. 

Khrystina repositioned herself such that her back was against the bathtub floor, her head was at the pointed tip of the diamond-crystal shaped bathtub, and her legs were on either side of the edges of the countertop, and her vagina was directly under the tap: the torrent of rushing water crashed directly against her womanhood before pouring into the rising pool of water. The mystifying, slender cylinder was tucked neatly between her breasts. Khrystina bit her bottom lip sensually. Her eyes were half-closed and rolled back, so that only the whites of her eyes were visible. 

Adeel’s penis throbbed to life. It slowly ascended upwards as if to salute the majestic scene sprawled in front of it. He was filled with a beastial urge to massage his manhood. But his senses were overwhelmed, and he simply stood there immobilised, and in awe of his wife’s breathtaking magnificence. Her beauty had assumed the spirit of Aphrodite herself.

With the water level reaching high enough to engulf Khrystina’s abdomen, she decided to turn off the faucet.

“Come join me Hubby.”

Two giant fingers descended upon the tiny Egyptian. They delicately and gently lifted him into the air, and dropped him just slightly ahead of her belly-button. Adeel crashed head-first into the warm pool of water, and his body went under. But then he managed to find his footing and stand up. He was chest-deep in water.

Khrystina wrapped her hands around the strange obelisk-sized cylindrical object.

“Are you still curious as to what this is?”

Adeel nodded his head.

“This thing,” Khrystina whispered loudly, “is called the Vesper.”

She explained slowly, “It is a multi-purpose object. It is both an elegant piece of jewellery, and a marvellous sex-toy.”

She took it off her neck, and turned it on.

“It does a wonderful job of massaging my clit.”

Khrystina used her right hand to bring the vibrator down to her belly button. Her tiny husband watched in awe as the vibrating sex toy slowly immersed itself into the water. She gently swirled the tip of the cylindrical object inside her belly button. The machine’s rhythmic wigwag broke the calm of the water, and stirred it into a wild frenzy. Adeel lost his bearing, and collapsed into the liquid. Khrystina laughed heartily before raising her elegant, vibrating dildo out of the water.

“Oh my God! You look so cute when you are this helpless. I am sorry, I just couldn’t help myself.”

Using her right hand, Khrystina slowly massaged her clit with the oscillating, silver cylinder. It moved vertically in a to-and-fro motion between her vaginal lips.

She mumbled softly, “Oooh, this is nice. This is really nice.”

With her left hand, she caressed her right breast. Her middle finger orbited her right-nipple.

“Adeel… why don’t you come up here and worship my nipple.”

With his hands crossed in front of his chest, her tiny husband stood firmly on her belly. Turbulent little waves crashed against his body. 

He called out loudly, “It is too far away.”

Khrystina moaned slowly. Her right hand picked up pace, and moved up-and-down more rapidly. The water became more tempestuous.

He said loudly, “Khrystina, I don’t want to do this anymore.”

The giant Ukranian turned her gaze towards her lover. Even though he was the size of an ant, she could clearly see his erect member. Khrystina smiled. He was in no position to refuse her. But he did not seem to quite understand that yet. She knew her husband too well, and knew how to get what she wanted out of him. She wouldn’t even have to resort to any directly coercive means to get what she wanted.

She wore the masquerade of a poker face, and said softly, “There are sharks in the water. Great white sharks.” 

A bewildered Adeel asked, “What?!” 

“After you hit me and left, I shrunk a couple of great white sharks and put them in the bathtub.”

“What?! Are you being serious right now?!”

She said calmly, “Yeah. I was so mad at you that I wanted to feed you to sharks. I wanted to watch them tear your body to pieces.”

“But you said that you wouldn’t hurt me!” 

“I won’t, but the sharks will. If you don’t swim to the safety of my boobs that is. They can’t reach you when you are up here.” She pointed to her nipple.

“Khrystina, you fucking PSYCHO! I am calling your bluff!”

“Rude.”

“I am calling your bluff. There are no sharks in the tub.”

“Suit yourself, shark food.”

“There’s no way that you would have gotten into the tub if there were sharks in it.”

“I am too big for them. They aren’t stupid enough to bite me. I probably frighten them away. But you, you are bite-sized.”

“KHRYSTINA, you MANIAC! You are lying!”

Adeel watched in horror as his wife started humming the theme of the movie Jaws. She pointed to her toes and said, “Oh look, there’s a great white right there. I think it is slowly making its way towards my abdomen.”

Adeel couldn’t see that far away. He was terrified, and he panicked. He said loudly, “There’s no way that I can outswim a shark. I could really use your help.”

“I would’ve helped you. But you were just so rude to me. I don’t think I want to help you anymore. So unless you want that shark to tear you into pieces. I suggest you start swimming.”

Adeel broke down into tears. He lifted his arms above the water and pleaded, “Please! Save me Khrystina!”

She felt terribly guilty. She had never seen Adeel cry before.

“I’ll make you a deal. If you start swimming, I’ll use my hand to protect you from the shark.”

That was a deal that Adeel could work with. He dived into the water and began making his way towards his wife’s mountain of a right boob. Khrystina’s left hand trailed behind her husband to protect him from non-existent miniature sharks. Her right hand continued its rapid up-and-down motion.

As a result of being caressed by her left hand, Khrystina’s right boob had become wet and slippery. Adeel struggled to climb it, so she used her left hand to drop him onto her right-nipple.

She said slyly, “If you are going to use my boob as a shelter, you’ll have to pay me rent.”

He gave her a confused look.

She added, “And the only currency I accept is pleasure. So start pleasuring my nipple.”

Adeel crossed his arms against his chest in defiance.

She warmed, “I am serious. If you don’t pay up, I’ll flick you back into the water where you’ll become shark food.” 

Believing that he had no choice, he complied. The erect pink nipple was slightly larger than him, but he did not allow that to stop him. He could feel the faint throbbing of her heart beneath his feet. With his little mouth, he lapped and nibbled at her nipple. The sensation of the tiny licks and laps sent a tingling sensation through her body.

“Mmmmm… I know you can do better than that Adeel.”

In desperation, he hugged the nipple tightly while kissing, lapping, nibling, and sucking on it. Khrystina could feel his erect penis against her nipple. It was a strange sensation. Using her left palm, she gently pressed her husband against her nipple. She then proceeded to move her left palm in a circular motion. As a result of this, his tiny penis moved up and down against her nipple. Within a matter of seconds, he ejaculated. Khrystina could feel his erection die away.

Using her left hand, she pushed her right boob towards her mouth. She kissed his exposed back gently. Adeel turned around slowly to face her. He was greeted by her gaping maw. Khrystina sucked him into her mouth, and used her tongue to swish him around. With each passing moment, her mouth became wetter and wetter as pools of saliva started collecting underneath her tongue. The moist cave was so dark that Adeel couldn’t see anything. He was afraid that in her passion, she might accidentally swallow him. The air inside the living cavern reeked of a combination of Ryazhenka and her breath. Adeel crunched his nose. 

Khrystina pinned her husband beneath her tongue, coating him in saliva. As she lifted herself out of the tub, she feared that she may accidentally drown him in the pool of saliva underneath her tongue. The thought of having so much power over another human being, particularly Adeel Ibrahim Farooq Hassan Gamal, aroused her. Khrystina walked over to the mirror and lifted her tongue. In the reflection, she could see her tiny husband gasping for breath. He was so helpless and powerless. She wanted him. She wanted to feel him struggle against her womanhood. She wanted complete dominance over him. She closed her mouth and swished him around. With her back pressed against the maple bathroom door, she slumped down to the floor.

She spread her legs apart, and began fingering herself in order to prepare her womanhood to accept a worthy offering. With her tongue, she dropped him onto her sex toy, the Vesper. Fearing that he may be subjected to an unsurvivable fall, he clung on to it. Khrystina raised the silver cylinder up to her eyes. Her husband was coated in a thick layer of saliva.

She smiled at him, and said, “Hold onto it tightly.”

A disoriented Adeel asked, “Huh?”

Khrystina plunged the dildo into her womanhood. 

One coffee-bean in a glass of milk.

The vagina is a human-being’s portal to the World. While all humans crawl into existence through a vagina, Adeel wondered if he would be the first human to use it to portal out of existence. He was fairly certain that he was going to die. Death by pussy. It was a real possibility, and he had to admit that it was a very interesting way to go.

He regretted latching onto his wife’s dildo. But then again what other choice had he had? Everything had happened so quickly. He hadn’t had enough time to react to the situation before Khrystina fed him to her womanhood. He wondered if he could have done anything to stop her from dildo-fucking him. Recognising that there was no way to accurately ascertain this query, he resigned himself to the strings of Fate.

Adeel couldn’t breathe. The air inside Khrystina’s vagina was stale, foul-smelling, and not oxygen-rich. The crushing pressure of being caught between her flesh and her sex-toy was taking a physical toll on him. He gasped for breath, but that did little to alleviate his suffering. His fellow adventurer, the cylindrical humming machine, showed no signs of weariness or exhaustion. On the contrary, the metallic obelisk continued its consistent violent jolting. Adeel’s face-first downward-slant position caused blood to drain into his face. His legs went numb, and his face turned tomato-red. His body, unlike his wife’s necklace-dildo, was not resistant to being shaken so violently. With great difficulty, he attempted to calm his mind and ascertain the potential medical problems that this experience could inflict upon him: brain damage, coma, heart attack, and blood loss due to potential injuries. The dildo started moving in-and-out at a more rapid pace, and the living container around him began secreting a semi-transparent white gooey substance. A couple of minutes later, Adeel could feel the fleshy walls pulsating. He heaved a metaphorical sigh of relief. With the climax drawing nearer, he knew that his ordeal would soon come to an end. But then rather unexpectedly, the Vesper prematurely withdrew from the moist tunnel.

Khrystina smiled at her husband. He was coated in an oozy mess of her saliva and her sexual juices. She turned off the dildo.

She said, “That was amazing. The Vesper never fails to disappoint.”

Adeel’s only response was to gasp for breath. As a pious individual, he believed that every experience was a lesson from God. Fresh air, he realised, was a luxury that he had taken for granted for too long.

Khrystina continued, “But I have a better idea.”

She traced her finger down her pussy and towards her asshole. She briefly rubbed her finger in a circular manner around her asshole before sticking it in.

“Khrystina, NO!”

“Oh c’mon! I am so close to climaxing. Don’t be such a mood-killer!”

She raised the Vesper with the lethal intent of plunging it into her rectum.

“Khrystina, NO means no.”

She laughed lightly and said, “No means no. That’s my phrase! Normally, I am the one who uses it against you.”

“Yes, and when you do, I listen. I respect your No means no.”

“Ok, ok, calm down. I’ll respect your No means no. Here, let me help you off the Vesper.”

She plucked him up, and dropped him onto her belly.

She joked, “How dare you use my own weapon against me?”

Adeel said nothing. He buried his face in his hands, and adopted a fetal position.

With great concern in her voice, Khrystina asked, “Hey, hey, hey, what’s gotten into you?”

“I nearly died in there today, Khrystina! I couldn’t breathe. I was suffocating. Everything smelled gross. The physical pressure was unbearable. I felt like I was being crushed between a mountain and an aeroplane.” 

Khrystina felt terribly guilty. She had no idea that she had endangered her husband’s life. 

He continued, “You went too far this time. I mean you really crossed the line. I can’t believe that you’d do something like this to me.”

She offered softly, “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

He responded, “You owe me an apology.”

“Hubby, I am sorry. I thought it would be a fun experience for both of us. It was supposed to be a punishment, but more like a fun punishment. I didn’t know that I was putting your life at risk. I got carried away. I am sorry.”

“It wasn’t fun. I did not enjoy being used as your sex toy. I absolutely did not.”

“Ok. Point noted. It won’t happen again. Tell me, how can I make it up to you?”

“The whole purpose of all of this was to punish me, was it not?”

Khrystina nodded slowly, and said, “Partially.”

Adeel continued, “Well, I think you’ve accomplished your goal. You’ve punished me. We are even now. I think you should turn me back to normal.”

“Once we fix our major relationship problems, I promise, I’ll turn you back to normal.”

“The longer I stay small, the greater the risk of you accidentally killing me.”

“Adeel, please cooperate with me.”

“This isn’t the right way to discuss anything Khrystina. I nearly died in a pussy today. And death by pussy is not how I intend to die.”

“As long as you are small, you aren’t going anywhere near my pussy. There, that resolves your dying-in-a-pussy problem.”

“What if an animal, like say a rat or a cockroach, comes in here and attacks me? What then, huh?”

“If you’re so concerned about being attacked by pests, I’d suggest that you stick close to me.”

Adeel sighed in resignation. He realised that he was not in a position to negotiate. Khrystina was holding all the cards.

He asked quietly, “Do you promise to not hurt me while I am small?”

“I promise.”

“And do you promise to protect me and keep me safe from anything dangerous?”

Khrystina joked, “It feels like we are reading our marriage vows again.” 

Adeel pressed on, “Do you promise?”

“Yes, I promise.”
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

Adeel stood at the edge of the marble countertop. With a simple tug, Khrystina had drained away, what was to him, an entire lake. He watched in awe as the water level receded slowly.

He asked in disbelief, “So you mean to say that there were no sharks in the bathtub?”

“No! I was joking. I can’t believe you fell for that!”

“But I don’t understand.”

“Where did you expect me to get the sharks from? By the way, I was snooping through the attic after you left. And I found something.”

Khrystina waved a brown cotton-bag towards him. Adeel looked at her with a bewildered expression.

She continued, “This is why your subconscious is mad and bitter at me.”

“What is in the bag?”

Khrystina dispatched her left-hand into the bag.

SQUEAKY, SQUEAKY!

When it returned, it was holding a yellow rubber duck.

Adeel glared at her, and said, “I can’t believe that you are bringing that up.”

She placed the giant rubber-duck on the countertop next to him. To him, it was proportionally half the size of his mansion. Her hand dove back into the realm of the brown bag and retrieved a toy-boat. She placed it next to him. The boat was proportionally the size of three rooms in his mansion combined. The boat also had two toy sailor-girls on board. They were easily triple his size; his head reached up to their knees.

Khrystina asked with a sad smile, “Do you remember when we purchased these bath toys?”

“Yes. Eleven months into our wedding.” 

“And do you remember who we purchased them for?”

“Khrystina, that has nothing to do with this.”

Khrystina turned on the faucet, and a steamy stream of water poured into the bathtub. In her hand, she held an ocean-blue sphere with streaks of sand-yellow and cherry-blossom-pink. 

“Bath bomb?”, she offered. 

“Yeah, why not.” 

The scented sphere crashed into the water like a boulder falling off a cliff and into the ocean. As the disintegrating blob fizzled out of existence, it adulterated the transparent water with a deep ocean-blue colour and streaks of cherry-blossom-pink and sand-yellow. The magnificent pool radiated an aura of magic and surrealism. 

Khrystina pushed the duck into the water, and said sadly, “Little ducky wants to swim.”

The yellow duck fell head-first into the enchanted water, before bouncing back above the surface, and floating away.

Khrystina lifted her husband up and walked towards the sink. She said, “Let’s give you a quick rinse before we go swimming.”

Adeel leaned over Khrystina’s palm and surveyed the sink. Its strainer had holes large enough to swallow him whole.

“Darling, you’ve got to be careful. Don’t drop me please.”

Khrystina turned on the sink’s tap and a small stream of cool water began collecting in her palm. With her thumb and index finger, she gently cleaned her husband in the itty-bitty pool in her hand.

She asked gloomily, “That has nothing to do with our current problems?” 

“You shouldn’t feel guilty about factors which are beyond your control.”

“We tried everything-”

“I don’t hold it against you, sweetheart. It is not your fault.”

Khrystina looked at her husband with tears in her eyes, and said, “But your subconscious holds a grudge against me because I couldn’t give you the one thing that you’ve wanted most. A family.”

“Habibi, if this was such a big problem for me, I would’ve already left you.”

“You always wanted children. When we found out that I was barren and incapable of giving you any kids, it broke your heart. I could see it in your eyes.”

“In a way, it is good that we couldn’t have children. It helped both of us commit a large amount of energy, time, and resources to further our careers.”

“But you still want children, don’t you? Be honest with me.”

“I would be lying if I said that I didn’t.”
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

A lone boat floated across the enchanted lake. Her captain was neither willing nor able to chart her course. And so, the boat wandered aimlessly through the ocean-blue waters with no purpose. Her incumbent crew, consisting of two insubordinate Amazonian sailors, stood unmoving on the deck, and peered into the distant horizons. The transport slowly bumped into the white walls which kept the waters from the outside world. The captain was young, handsome, and naked. Laying on the floor of the deck, he stared at the ceiling and contemplated his life. Occasionally, waves, stirred up by the movements of the lake’s living archipelago, would crash into the boat and rock her gently from side-to-side. 

The captain’s mind was stuck in a time loop. He could picture his fist smashing into his wife’s left cheek. He had made a grave mistake by striking her. And although he had anticipated to face the consequences of his actions, he hadn’t expected them to be so serious. With his face in his palm, the captain conducted a thorough mental investigation of the incident.

At the end of the day, domestic violence, or any kind of violence for that matter, is all about control. Party A exercises violence on Party B to coercively compel them to or prevent them from doing something. Deep down inside, Adeel knew that he had hit her because he wanted to control her. But he would never admit that to anyone, not even himself. So he did his best to rationalise his actions. He told himself that he had hit her for her own good- to punish her, and prevent her from making the same mistakes again. 

Two days ago, he had discovered his wife’s secret credit card debt. She had maxed out four of her credit cards and was not paying them off on time. This was typical Khrystina. She was horrible with money; it was as if she had never been taught how to handle it. She was an ardent shopaholic. If she saw something that she liked, she would buy it without batting an eye. She burnt through her cash faster than she could earn it. This infuriated Adeel. He absolutely hated people who were reckless with their money. As an orphan who grew up on the streets, Adeel knew the true value of money. As a child, he had made it his first priority to become financially-savvy. He had once told Khrystina that, “A healthy bank balance is absolutely crucial for a well-lived life.” But much to his chagrin, she never heeded his advice on money matters. It is said that an individual should marry someone who is his/her financial equal. Khrystina Kuznetsova was not Adeel Ibrahim Farooq Hassan Gamal’s financial equal. But this wasn’t the direct cause of the violent incident.

An onion has many layers. In order to get to the bottom of the onion, one has to cut through all its layers. Most things in life are like onions: they are multi-layered, and in order to fully understand them, one has to cut deep into them. 

The root cause of the violent incident was Adeel himself. Although his charisma, ambition and success drew a lot of people towards him, Adeel saw them all as pawns on a chessboard. He did not trust them fully, and always wore a purposefully-woven facade around them. His every move was coldly calculated, and served to either maintain his personal brand or further his agenda. Although he blended everywhere and fit in with everyone, he belonged nowhere. To put it simply, he did not consider anybody to be a real friend. Since he had no family of his own, all his affection and emotional energy were focused on the one person he loved: Khrystina Kuznetsova. He had become too emotionally dependent on her. He craved for every drop of her attention, affection, and love. And when he did not get that, he went mad with envy. She was everything to him: a parent-figure (despite being younger to him),  friend, lover, and confidant. The thought of losing her drove him insane. So he did everything in his power to hide her from the world, and discreetly restrict her social interactions.

When Adeel discovered that his wife was planning on going on a trip to Venice with a group of friends, his subconscious decided to intervene. On the day that she was supposed to leave for Italy (this happens to be the same day when the violent incident took place), Adeel brought up Khrystina’s four maxed-out credit cards. When the conversation began descending into an argument, Adeel sped up the process by talking about his wife’s previous bad financial decisions. He brought up the car loan that she wasn’t making regular payments to, her reckless adventure in the stock market, and her recent spending spree on jewellery.
Having known her intimately for such a long period, he knew what ticked her and what didn’t. So he used every little trick from his book, the ins-and-outs-of-Khrystina-Kuznetsova, to drive her insane. Then, when she started yelling at him, he responded by pressing his sweaty palm against her face. In her fury, Khrystina countered this by biting his hand. And he retaliated by delivering two successive punches to her face: the first punch smashed into her left cheek, and the second punch struck her lip. Realising that there was no way she could hide the bruises, Khrystina called her girlfriends and told them that she wouldn’t be able to make the trip for personal reasons. When Adeel tried to apologise to her, she pushed him before seeking sanctuary in the bathroom. Mission accomplished.

From the stern of his boat, the Captain gazed at his colossal, sleeping wife. She looked beautiful, and also thoroughly exhausted. The water in the pool had bartered with the colours of the bath-bomb, exchanging transparency for opaqueness. Consequently, he couldn’t see parts of Khrystina which were underwater. Instead he saw a disembodied archipelago of her body parts. Abruptly, he dived into the pool and swam towards the nearest island: her left breast. He swam across a patch of ocean-blue and streaks of cherry-blossom and sand-yellow. After a lot of effort, he managed to climb onto her mammary, which was proportionally large enough to host human settlements. From atop her nipple, he could see his boat at a distance. Like a predator stalking its prey, the monstrous yellow rubber-duck slowly creeped towards the vehicle. His wife’s D-cup breasts easily dwarfed both the boat and the duck. His presence on her nipple stirred her to life. 

She said with a faint smile, “I see you are enjoying yourself.”

“Yeah, swimming is much more fun when there are no sharks in the water.”

“How’s the view from down there?”

“Majestic. I wonder if I can get a better view from atop your forehead.”

“I think you just might.”

“Could you maybe give me a lift?”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

Khrystina stroked her chin slowly.

She then said, “I think I have a better idea.”

She flashed a mischievous smile at him, before adding, “Why don’t you climb all the way up here?” She pointed at her temple.

“Ooooh, that sounds like fun!”

Khrystina nodded playfully. “You can be the first Mountaineer to climb Mt. Khrystina!”

Adeel dived into the water right above her cleavage, and swam towards her face.

She offered, “Here, let me help you.”

She tilted her head downwards and rolled out her mouth’s organic red carpet. Adeel climbed onto her tongue and peered into the red, pink, and black chasm in front of him. Temporary, thin, transparent pillars of saliva-strands held the roof of the cavern from the tongue. With her tongue still stretched out of her mouth, Khrystina snapped her mouth shut, leaned back, and tilted her head up. The slipperiness of the tongue caused Adeel to slide downwards. He landed on her upper lip, and stumbled onto her philtrum (the groove above the lip, and below the nose). Khrystina’s flaring nostrils glared at the little intruder, and encased him in her rhythmic breathing.

After retrieving her tongue into her maw, Khrystina tilted her head downward again. Adeel lost his balance. He realised that he risked falling to his death. And so in a desperate bid to survive, he grabbed her columella, the cartridge between her nostrils, with both his hands. 

Khrystina joked, “I think you’d make a great nose stud.”

“Khrystina, I could really use some help!”

“I have an irresistible urge to snort you up my nose.”

“Please don’t.”

She tilted her head upwards until her face was like a flat plan. Adeel climbed onto the ride of her nose, and ran towards the temple of her head.

Khrystina asked, “How’s the view from up there, Mountaineer?”

“Fantastic. Definitely worth the climb!”

The entire panorama of the bathtub lay spread out in front of him. Both the duck and the boat looked teeny from atop Khrystina’s head. He could feel the texture and design of the multi-coloured pool with his eyes.

Khrystina said, “Now that we’ve had our fun, it is time to go.”

“Where to?”

“The kitchen. It is time to get serious, and talk business.”

She added slowly, “Plus I am hungry, and my wonderful husband has just purchased some delicious snacks.”

“Candyland” circa 2000 CE:

A young nine-year old boy races against the wind. A single ruby-red balloon flies overhead, also against the wind. The boy’s objective was to grab the balloon and prevent it from escaping. The balloon’s objective was to escape and prevent the boy from grabbing onto it. Consequently, the balloon doggedly outmanoeuvred and outraced the boy, and the boy doggedly pursued the balloon, unwilling to let it outmaneuver and outrace him. 

The duo came across a wide, mud-brown river. The current was strong: liquid particles stampeded from one end of the river to another. The balloon stopped momentarily as if it were looking at the boy. Then slowly, it drifted over the river, cruelly daring the boy to pursue it. The boy wasted no time in indecisive contemplation. He took off his torn T-shirt and dived into the river. The mud-coloured liquid tasted like chocolate milkshake. The boy attributed the frigid cold of the river to the dog-sized ice-blocks and the saucer-pan sized chocolate-chips which drifted alongside the liquid. With great difficulty, he waded across the great river- the frigid cold currents took a toll on his mobility. While stepping onto the riverbank, he lost his balance and fell head-first onto the ground. As he stood up, he clutched some grass in his hands. It felt rubbery. He had an irresistible urge to consume the grass. And so he did. The grass tasted like gummy-bears.

Upon seeing the boy make it across the river, the balloon wasted no time in indecisive contemplation and hastily floated away. The boy renewed his dogged pursuit. He chased it through a valley made of fudge, through a forest where the trees were made out of chocolates and marshmallows, and through a town inhabited by gingerbread folk. Neither the boy nor the balloon showed any signs of tiring or giving-in. He chased the balloon along a path made of chocolate-cream waffles, and through the candy-cane gates of a walled city. Then suddenly the balloon vanished. It disappeared into thin air as if it never existed. The boy was bewildered, and he searched all around him for his ruby-red nemesis. But then it was as if the balloon had never mattered. The boy was surrounded by mountains and mountains of food: platters of cake and couscous danced around him in circles; bowls of mombar and shakshouka swirled and twirled; skewers of shawarma and kebabs hopped about; an army of gummy-bears, each one larger than him, marched towards him; droplets of honey rained from above; mounds of cookies crawled towards him to greet him; and in the distance, a choco-lava cake volcano erupted to life. The boy was in paradise. The ruby-red balloon had delivered him unto the promised land where food was abundant and plentiful.

A voice roared from the sky, “Adeel!”

The boy stared at the clouds in confusion.

The voice continued, “You useless, filthy bastard! Get lost!”

The boy felt a violent jab abruptly strike his belly, and his surroundings melted away. He opened his eyes. He could see a hook-nosed middle-aged man with a wooden stick standing above him.

The man bellowed, “How many times have I told you to not sleep in front of my shop? You dirty rat! You drive all the customers away.” 

He delivered a hard kick to the boy’s ribs. 

Sniffling, the boy hastily got up and started running. Tears streamed down his eyes, and he cried silently unto himself. A wrinkled hand grabbed hold of him, and pulled him into an embrace. With his eyes, Adeel traced the source of the hand to a familiar old man. His clean, chalk-white beard contrasted nicely with his coal-black skin.   

The old man scolded, “Jalaludin! You scoundrel! Is this any way to treat an innocent child?”

At first, the hook-nosed middle-aged man said nothing. The old man’s glaring eyes demanded an explanation.

The shop-vendor stuttered, “Imam-Khatib Ibrahim Farooq Hassan Gamal! I did not see you, Sire.”

Ibrahim thundered, “What has this poor child done to earn the fruits of your violence?”

A small crowd began gathering around the revered religious leader, the flabbergasted hook-nosed middle-age man, and the filthy street orphan.

“But Imam-Khatib, he was sleeping in front of my shop.”

“And that gives you the right to violently molest him?”

Jalaludin protested, “It’s business hours, sir! This smelly, lice-ridden animal was driving away my customers. As a businessman, I have the duty to do what is best for my business.”

Ibrahim roared, “I doubt that this little child was driving away your business. But let’s assume that he was. Could you not have woken him up gently? Why did you feel the need to exercise such brute violence?”

As more and more people gathered to see what the commotion was all about, the crowd began to swell in size.

Ibrahim demanded, “This child deserves an apology and a compensation.”

Jalaludin defiantly protested, “I don’t think you understand the situation fully sir. Please try to look at the issue from my perspective. I am just trying to do what is best for my business. I don’t think this rat deserves any compensation. I’ve told him multiple times not to-”

The old man raised his index finger assertively.

The Imam-Khatib threatened in a low voice, “If you want to do what’s best for your business. An apology and a compensation. Now.”

Jalaludin relented. He said softly, “I am sorry Adeel. I should not have treated you that way. You are only a child. Here, let me get you a bar of chocolate.”

Jalaludin retrieved a large bar of chocolate from his shop.

He continued, “If I give you this bar of chocolate, you have to promise that you’ll never sleep in front of my shop again. Do we have a deal?”

The boy nodded slowly and grabbed onto the bar of chocolate with both his hands.

Smiling faintly, the old man said, “Thank you Jalaludin. God bless your soul.”

The Imam-Khatib grabbed the boy and walked away from the crowd.

Chocolates were a rare delicacy for homeless, penniless children. So Adeel wasted no time in burying the bar of chocolate deep into his mouth. 

The Imam looked sternly at the boy and asked him, “Why haven’t you been going to the Madrasa?”

“All the children there make fun of me. I don’t want to go there anymore. They say I am smelly and dirty and a rat.”

Ibrahim smacked him in the back of his head. The Imam said, “Foolish boy! Don’t you see that a good education is the only way out of this mess for you? And you are willing to waste that away just because a group of stupid boys make fun of you!”

“But I don’t want to go there if they make fun of me.”

“You are a very hard-working and intelligent boy, Adeel. What you lack is ambition and resilience. Develop those two things and you’ll go far in Life.”

“Imam-Khatib, Imam-Khatib, I had a very strange dream when I was sleeping today.”

Ibrahim sighed. Here he was trying to explain something important to this young boy, and the boy’s mind had already drifted away to another topic.

He asked softly, “What was this dream about?”

The boy said excitedly, “In my dream, there was food everywhere Imam-Khatib. I was surrounded by mountains and mountains of food. I had never seen so much food in my life.”

The Imam smiled compassionately at the boy.

The boy continued, “Wouldn’t it be great if this could happen in real life!”

Ibrahim sensed an opportunity. He said, “I’ll tell you what- if you attend the Madrasa regularly and work diligently, one day, you’ll be able to buy Mountains and Mountains of food.”

“Imam-Khatib, Imam-Khatib, you are the most learned man in the entire Masjid, and perhaps in all of Cairo. Can you buy mountains and mountains of food?”

“My boy, I am an Imam. And we Imams are not so fabulously rich. We are simple people who are only interested in serving God. In order to be rich, you must become a businessman.”

“A businessman, Imam-Khatib?

“Yes, a businessman. Like Nassef Sawiris, you have heard of him?”

“No, Imam-Khatib.”

“Nassef Sawiris is the richest man in all of Egypt, and one of the richest men of the world. He is wealthy enough to buy mountains and mountains of food.”

“Can I also become like Nassef Sawiris, Imam-Khatib?”

“Adeel, my dear child. Of course you can. But in order to do that, you must complete your education. Attend the Madrasa regularly and frequently. Then go to a University, and get a degree.”

“One day Imam-Khatib, I’ll be so rich that I’ll be surrounded by mountains of food. And I’ll sleep in the softest, most comfortable bed. And I’ll live in the most beautiful house. And I’ll drive the fastest car.”

Ibrahim smiled softly. He said, “Someday, Adeel, someday. Be persistent, diligent, hard-working, faithful, and focused. The five ingredients of success.”

Adeel beamed happily as if he could taste the fruits of his future.

The Imam continued, “Be faithful to God, Adeel. He’s your friend. Talk to him like a friend in your prayers. Confide in him.”

Life is a struggle for all people, but some people struggle more than others. Ibrahim gently patted the boy on his head. He felt bad for him. He did not know why Adeel’s parents had abandoned him and left him in such a pitiable state. And so he refrained from judging them.

The Imam mumbled, “Mektoub.” The phrase ‘mektoub’ can be roughly translated to “it is written.” Its connotation is that ‘God has written how things will turn out, and things turn out in that manner.’ In other words, things happen the way God wants them to happen. Ibrahim could see why the boy struggled in school. He was very vulnerable and had nobody to support him. His psychological needs were not being met. Life on the streets was rough and brutal: It hardened the softest of hearts, corrupted the most innocent of souls, and turned domesticated sheeps into wild wolves.

The boy radiated an aura of greatness, and something told the Imam-Khatib that he must be a stepping stone and help the boy attain his destiny. The 80-year old Ibrahim knew that his days were numbered. The doors of Death had set their sights on him, and were ravishing the sight of his frail, old body. It was only a matter of time. A chill ran down his spine. Realising that he had nothing to lose, the Imam decided to make a life-changing decision which would change two lives. He decided to adopt Adeel.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _

London circa 2016 CE:
A dream from many years ago had manifested into reality. Adeel Ibrahim Farooq Hassan Gamal was literally surrounded by heaps and heaps of food. To be more precise, he was in the midst of a dessert epidemic. An abundance of a diverse-variety of delicious diabetes and obesity inducing carbohydrates. When he was a young boy, he had believed that were he to be surrounded by mountains of food, his soul would know true happiness. But today, he discovered that this premise had been incorrect. Despite being surrounded by heaps of food, his soul did not know true happiness. The abstract, intangible emotion eluded him like a ruby-red balloon from a dream long gone. Instead his soul was burdened with the crushing weight of complete helplessness, willpower-shattering terror, and strong bouts of disillusion. He wondered to himself, ‘Did I ever truly know this woman?’

At a mere whim, Khrystina had indefinitely sentenced her husband to being suspended from, what was to him, some 390 feet above ground. He served this sentence on a beautiful china plate with his fellow inmates: a pile of choco-chip cookies, a throng of gummy-bears and gummy worms, and a large slice of a red velvet cake.

Khrystina exclaimed excitedly, “Oh my God, Adeel, you look so delicious! I bet you’d make a mouth-watering topping! I could just eat you up! Nom nom nom!”

She loudly chomped her teeth at him in a playful manner.

Khrystina said, “Now, let’s get down to business.” 

She turned the plate so that it faced a massive white board.

She asked, “Can you read it?”

“Yes, but I find it difficult to read because the board is too big.”

She offered kindly, “I’ll read it for you. Don’t worry.”

She ran her index finger along the title which was neatly aligned on the top-center of the board. It was perched on a straight blue vertical line which divided the board in two equal halves.

Khrystina read, “Plan for stopping domestic violence in the Kuznetsova-Gamal household.”

Adeel protested, “Let’s not call it domestic violence. That just sounds wrong.”

His wife obliged. With a blue marker, she crossed out ‘domestic violence’ and replaced it with ‘incidents of physical violence.’

Khrystina read out the correction, “Plan for stopping incidents of physical violence in the Kuznetsova-Gamal household.”

“That sounds better.”

Khrystina moved her index finger to the left section of the board. She read, “causes of violence.”

She wrote under the new heading, “#1. Adeel was seriously physically abused as a kid.”

Adeel asked, “What does that have to do with anything?”

Khrystina explained, “Individuals who experience frequent physical violence as children tend to emulate it.” 

She wrote, “#2. Unhealthy manifestations of unresolved problems,” and “#3. Anger issues.”

Adeel added, “Number 4, I think we should take a break.”

Khrystina glared at him. She asked, “A break from what?”

“From our relationship.”

Khrystina thundered, “Adeel, we are married!”

“I still want a break.”

Khrystina said in a menacing tone, “Sweetheart, you aren’t thinking straight. Why exactly do you want a break?”

“To contemplate the status of our relationship.”

“Where is this coming from?”

“This is coming from being shrunk, and not knowing that my wife had the powers of a sorceress.”

“Adeel, if you are still concerned about whether your current predicament is a result of witchcraft or black magic, let me assure that it isn’t. I didn't use black magic or witchcraft or sorcery of any kind. There, does that address your concerns?”

“I didn’t know that you had the power to shrink me! The power-dynamics in our relationship have shifted dramatically. I can’t spend the rest of my life worrying about whether or not my wife is going to shrink me. You went too far. You crossed the line. I need to think about whether or not this is workable.”

“Adeel, you aren’t thinking right. We are so close to resolving our problems. You know what? You need a time-out. I am giving you a time-out until you come to your senses.”

“You don’t have the right to give me a time-out.”

“And you don’t have the right to hit me! If you hadn’t hit me, none of this would have ever occured!”

“Habibi, you almost fucked me to death today. I think that more than evens it out. Doesn’t it?”

“But you were having so much fun in the bathtub! What changed?”

Khrystina picked up the red-velvet cake-slice and shoved it into her mouth.  

“Khrystina, it is just that-”

Khrystina brought her lips closer to the plate and Adeel stopped speaking. With her mouth held wide-open, she started loudly chewing the piece of cake. It was an implied threat. The cake was many times larger than him. It was as long as Khrystina’s palm, and as tall as a one-storey building to Adeel. Khrystina’s teeth repeatedly crushed the soft, spongy dessert into a pulp. At the end of the process, a huge, moist, velvet-coloured bolus lay curled up in the middle of her tongue. With a simple oral motion, Khrystina sent it plummeting down her throat. Adeel watched in terror as the bolus slipped past her uvula and disappeared. His eyeballs shifted their focus from her mouth to her neck. A large downward-moving bulge in Khrystina’s neck confirmed that the bolus had in-fact been dispatched to its destination. Her message was clear. She was reminding him that he was powerless, and that she could do whatever she pleased with him. Adeel shuddered. 

Khrystina asked with a smile, “You were saying?”

Adeel answered, “I think you just proved my point.” 

She asked with feigned innocence, “What point?”

“I can’t be with you anymore Khrystina, because I am not sure if I will be safe with you. I don’t want to be shrunk and abused at your whim and fancy. I am not happy being in this relationship. And I can’t live in constant terror and fear. So while I do enjoy our shared cherished memories, I am afraid that we must now part ways. It is for the best.”

“I thought you wanted a break. Now you want a divorce?”

“Yes, I am afraid that your actions have compelled me to take this course of action.”

“So let me get this straight. You want to leave me because you don’t feel safe, and you aren’t happy with the current situation?”

“Yes.”

“Adeel, when you beat me all these years, I didn’t feel safe. Each of your blows made me more and more unhappy. But I didn’t use that as an excuse to abandon you. I tried to find a mutually-workable solution and make it work.” 

“While I appreciate that Khrystina, it was still a choice that you had made of your own volition. I never forced you to be with me. You could have left. You chose to stay- that was entirely your decision.” 

A single tear-drop rolled down Khrystina’s cheek. This wasn’t what was supposed to happen. Maybe she had pushed him too far. Maybe she shouldn’t have tried to terrify him.

“Adeel, please. I’ll make you a deal. If you and I can agree on a workable solution to this problem, I’ll never shrink you again. We’ll finally be happy together.”

“Khrystina, that would just be a waste of time. I do not wish for this arrangement to continue any longer.”

“But I am all you have. You have no one else to turn to.”

“I think that’s part of the problem.”

Khrystina couldn’t believe her ears. She had always assumed that he would never abandon her because she was all that he had. Streams of tears poured out of her eyes like a herd of wildebeests stampeding down a dried-up gorge. She wanted to plead with him, beg him to stay, but something stopped her. 

“Everytime you hit me, I made excuses for you. I tried to rationalise your violence. I always tried to make it not your fault.”

“I am sorry about all of that. I really am.”

“But now I realise that it was all your fault.”

Something was not right. Adeel could sense it. He decided that silence was the best course of action. There was a strange tension in the air. Khrystina placed the plate on the kitchen counter. He had to crane his head all the way back to see her face.

She said slowly, “I had told you that I would unshrink you when we resolved all our relationship problems.”

He blurted, “And in a way, all our relationship problems have been resolved.”

“How is that?”

“Because we aren’t in a relationship anymore?”

“We aren’t divorced. Yet.”

“But we are getting divorced.”

She said with a vindictive smile, “You’ll have to call your lawyer for that. Why don’t you call him?” 

“Khrystina, you are scaring me.”

“I said that I would unshrink you once we resolved all our relationship issues. You tried to wiggle your way out of this mess the easy way- by demanding a divorce. Well, I hate to tell you this, but as long as the divorce procedure isn’t finished, our relationship issues remain unresolved. Which means that you’ll remain shrunken.”

“Ok Khrystina, I concede! I am willing to resolve our relationship issues.”

“You are too late. I am no longer interested. Which means that our relationship issues remain unresolved, and you, my dear Adeel, remain shrunken.”

“Khrystina, don’t be so vindictive.”

“Vindictive? I’ll show you vindictive.”

She lifted him up and dropped him into her ice-cold glass of chocolate milkshake.

She said sadly, “You made me cry twice today, Adeel.”

Adeel yelled in desperation, “Khrystina! You promised not to hurt me! You promised to protect me! If you leave me in here, I’ll die of hypothermia!”

“Let’s just say that I have decided to revoke my promises.”

“Khrystina, this isn’t funny! I’ll freeze to death! This is really bad!”

“Would you like some warmth?”

“Yes, please. Get me out of this freezing nightmare!”

She flashed her pearly white teeth at him and said, “Your wish is my command.” 

The pale humanoid mountain raised the glass of milkshake up to her lips, and chugged,  dispatching it down her gullet.