~

Sarah was completely lost. 

The tears had stopped, but she was still laying on her side. Her expression was one of absolute worry, as she somberly reflected on what she had just learned. Matt - her perfect, mature, and unwavering son - had been hiding an immense amount of stress and pain from her, and it had gotten to the point where he could no longer contain it. He was apparently struggling in school, and finding it hard to muster the energy to even get out of bed. Two thoughts kept bouncing back and forth in Sarah’s head endlessly in response to that revelation.

How could I not have known?! came the first thought.

Because you’re never home, followed the second thought.

Matt’s angry words flashed through her mind once again, for what felt like the hundredth time.

“How?! How are you going to make it better?! You’re never home!”

Struggling not to tear up again, Sarah reached down to her back pocket and pulled out her phone. Opening up the messages app, she selected the message chain with her son. She read her most recent text.

Sorry sweetie, I have to work late again. Can you handle dinner tonight? Exciting news today!!!

A few messages before that…

Sorry sweetie, I have to work late again. Can you handle dinner tonight?

Scrolling down the list with her finger, she saw that nearly every conversation started with her informing Matt that she was going to be late, and asking him to make dinner. A majority of the messages even used the exact same words as the first two, and she silently cursed herself for not bothering to even think of new words or apologies every time. That would have been quite the difficult task, however, considering the sheer number of instances - a fact that made her feel even worse.

Marveling at the sheer superficiality of the conversations with her only child, every single one of Sarah’s interactions with him was brought into question for her.

How long has this been going on? she wondered. Indeed, even time itself seemed to take a backseat in comparison to her single-minded focus on the shrinking project. How long had it been since she first started working at the lab? How long since she joined the project as one of the higher-level researchers? How long since she stopped caring about anything else?

These questions soon transitioned into questions about her son.

How long since I started ignoring him? she thought, as another tear formed in her eyes.

How long since he started hurting?

How long since he started needing me?

“My baby… I’m so sorry…” she whispered, as wave after wave of guilt and fear continued to shred her insides. She didn’t know it was possible to feel so afraid, to be so worried on behalf of another person. Matt had always been so mature for his age, so capable of looking after himself. She had never needed to worry about him - something that she now realized she had taken for granted. Suddenly, even his reliability seemed suspect to her guilt-ridden mind.

Was he only like that because he needed to be? she wondered. Did he have to teach himself how to do that because I’ve always been like this?

“Oh, God…” she whimpered. Her overwhelming happiness regarding the experiment had completely vanished from her mind. She was now singularly focused on her son, doing her very best to somehow make up for the lost time. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to get her emotions under control. 

I am his mother, she thought, pounding that fact into her soul.

He is MY son. My child, my baby, my cub. He is in pain, he needs me, and I am going to help him.

With that, she let out a huff and sat back up, wiping the tears away as a determined expression formed on her face. Mustering everything she knew about being a mother, she decided that it was time to come up with a plan. That big brain of hers was able to help build a shrink ray, for crying out loud. Surely, she thought, she would be able to figure out how to help her own child through a rough patch.

~

“What do I do if my son is depressed?” 

Sarah tapped the search button on her phone, bringing up a multitude of links on the results page.

“I’m such a failure…” she muttered, lamenting the fact that she was turning to the internet for help. Still, she figured it was a decent enough starting point, and began to examine her screen. Scrolling past a few advertisements and helplines, she came across a parent’s guide to teen depression. After a brief moment of hesitation, fearing what she was about to read, she tapped on the link. The page was broken into sections, including signs and symptoms, teen versus adult depression, and so on. Sarah first glanced at the signs, making sure that they aligned with her observations.

“Sadness or hopelessness… irritability… crying… loss of interest in activities… poor school performance… feelings of worthlessness or guilt… fatigue… difficulty concentrating…” she whispered, each new sign hammering in the seriousness of the situation. Her heart sped up a little as the intense worry returned, and she hurriedly scrolled down the page until she found the section giving tips on how to help. Her heart fell off a cliff as she read the very first highlighted tip.

Make face time a priority.

Tossing her phone to the side, she flopped onto her back and covered her face with her hands.

“I can’t do this,” she whimpered. “This is all my fault, I have no clue what I’m doing…”

She tried thinking of anybody she could call for help, but no names came to mind. Sarah’s own parents were out of the picture, but she wouldn’t have exactly relied on them for advice anyway. Their approach to solving emotional or mental problems had been pretending they didn’t exist, leaving Sarah with virtually no examples for what a skilled, loving parent should do in such a scenario. She then silently cursed Matt’s cowardly father for running away from them, leaving her with the impossible job of raising a kid alone while she was still practically one herself.

She sat back up, positively dejected, and weakly retrieved her phone. Looking back at the guide, she continued to scroll down the list. After moving past the questionably helpful bullet points of parental advice, such as “get your teen involved” or “set limits on screen time,” she reached the section titled “know when to seek professional help.” Sarah paused and looked up from her phone, considering the possibility. 

Does my insurance cover that? she wondered. Probably, right?

She made a mental note to check, before sighing once more. Deciding that she was done with the article, judging it only somewhat helpful, she gave the screen one last upwards swipe, bringing her to the top of the page. However, one of the sections caught her eye as it rushed past. It was a section she had skipped in her frantic search for advice, but she now hurriedly scrolled back down to examine it more closely. As it set in, a sense of dread began to overtake her consciousness. She realized that it was the exact same fear she had felt when she was looking for Matt - the feeling that her child was in danger. 

Suicide warning signs in depressed teens, read the section title.

~

“I’m just so tired… I want everything to stop… I j-just want everything to s-stop…”

Matt’s earlier statement bounced around endlessly in Sarah’s head, blurring her vision and stopping her heart. Suddenly, she flashed back to when she didn’t know where he was, and was about to open his bedroom door to check. She remembered the dread that had stopped her for a moment - the fear that she would be met with something too terrible to imagine. She had been relieved beyond belief when that had turned out not to be the case, but reading those words and remembering Matt’s pained declaration immediately made it feel like a possibility again.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,” she muttered endlessly, desperately trying to convince herself that something like that could never happen. However, she found it impossible. In the span of one hour, everything she thought she had known about her relationship with her son had been flipped around, and nothing felt certain anymore.

For the briefest of moments, she allowed herself to imagine a life without him. She imagined how lonely, how empty she would feel. Matt was her only family left, and the one thing outside of work that made her feel happy and loved. Just for a moment, she tapped into the guilt she would feel if she let him slip through her warm and loving fingers, into the darkness below. Never to return. 

One moment was enough. She was never going to let that happen. 

Once she recovered from the shock, she turned off her phone and finally stood from the bed. Her expression, although still carrying traces of worry, was now fierce and determined. She had discovered the one thing in the world that she wanted to happen less than anything else, and now knew that she had to figure out how to make sure that it never did. However, her lack of experience again made it difficult to know what to do, and she found herself struggling once again.

“Okay, Sarah, time to be a mother,” she whispered to herself. “I should, um… I should start by… making him some food…?”

Her eyes lit up a bit as the idea formed in her mind.

Yes, right! He was probably too upset about the test to make anything for himself, which is why there were no dishes.

Her expression fell as she came to another realization.

If I didn’t expect him to make food every day in the first place, then he would have had enough time to study…

Shaking her head, in a futile attempt to drive away the guilt, she decided to keep moving.

A-Anyway, he needs to eat. My boy needs a home-cooked meal from his mom.

She nodded to herself, and began to march towards her door and out into the hallway. She approached Matt’s door, and reached out in preparation to give it a few soft knocks. However, just as had already happened several times that day, she found herself paralyzed by fear and guilt.

Looking down, she could see from under the door that his bedroom light was off, suggesting that he had gone to bed. Even though she was well-aware that he was almost definitely still awake, it indicated to Sarah that he was asking to be left alone. This then reminded her of his angry outburst right before he ran away, further making her feel like he didn’t want to see her at all.

All of the determined energy in her body faded away, and Sarah slumped over. Her fist weakly dropped to her side as she closed her eyes dejectedly.

“I’m so sorry, Matty. From now on, I promise to do better. I love you more than anything,” she whispered, hoping that he was somehow listening. With that, she shambled back towards her own room, before quietly closing the door behind her. For the moment, she had given up.

Sitting back down on her bed, she decided to simply wait. She wanted to wait and see if Matt would eventually come out of his room on his own, perhaps to seek out some food. Or, even less likely, some comfort. In such a case, she wanted to be awake for him.

So, she waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited some more. 

However, after a couple hours of silent contemplation, it seemed more and more clear to her that nothing was going to happen. Furthermore, she began to feel traces of exhaustion creep up on her, the result of a true emotional rollercoaster of a day. Her eyes began to stick together for longer periods of time when she blinked, and her sitting posture on the bed began to lean backwards. Soon, without even realizing it, Sarah had fallen asleep. She had terrible dreams.

~

Sarah’s eyes flew open, a distant noise having startled her awake.

“What…?” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes sleepily. She then frowned and brought one hand to her stomach.

“I’m hungry…”

Trying to remember what had happened prior to her falling asleep, she stood from the bed and checked the time on her phone. It was only six in the morning, which was a bit earlier than she normally woke up, even when aiming to be the first one at the lab. A moment later, her silent ponderings were answered by the sound of a car driving away. Realizing who it must have been, her consciousness was zapped back into full awareness, and everything came flooding back to her. With a racing heart, she dashed out of her room and down the stairs, before eagerly peering out the front window. To her dismay, Matt’s car was gone.

“Damn it,” she muttered, closing her eyes in sadness. She figured that he must have been embarrassed about his outburst, and had woken up extra early to avoid her. Now feeling even more like a wedge had been driven in their relationship, she quietly made her way towards the kitchen to grab some much-needed food and think about her next moves. She hoped that Matt was doing the same.

~

An hour had passed. After breakfast, Sarah had spent a long while deliberating what to do next. She considered taking the day off, but she knew that doing so would only lead to her wasting around the house all day, waiting for her son to come home. This would do little for her anxiety, so she eventually decided to try going into work. This was despite the fact that she was in no mindset to actually do her job, making her unsure as to how it would go. Nonetheless, she figured it was better than stewing in her own misery. With that, she rose from her seat and moved to get ready for work.

~

Pulling up to the facility, a sense of nervousness began to creep up on her. She remembered just how hectic the lab had been the day prior, and she knew that she was nowhere near focused enough to keep up with that. So, although she had recently taken to offering her help to the engineering and testing departments, she hoped that she could instead find a quiet research-related task to focus on throughout the day. To that end, she would need to ask her supervisor, the head researcher: Heather Langley. She took a moment to compose herself, trying to mask any traces of her internal torment, and finally exited her vehicle. She was ready to begin a day of work.

After making it past the front desk, she entered the main hall of the facility. This was where the experiment had taken place, and served as a central hub that connected to all the other departments of the building. Giant machines of varying purpose were strewn about, with stray whiteboards littering the area for good measure. It was quite the mess, actually, with only the central stage serving as a moderately clean workspace. This was undoubtedly due to the chaos caused as a result of the previous day, as everybody suddenly found themselves having fifteen extra tasks to complete and not nearly enough time to complete them. Now that the most important test had concluded perfectly, the facility was now in the final phases of testing and research before they could officially reveal their experiment to the world, which was undoubtedly the best part of the entire process. As such, even at only 7:30 in the morning, the place was hectic.

“S-Sorry!” stammered one nervous-looking scientist as he stumbled past Sarah, almost running into her. His vision was currently being blocked by the giant bin that he was hauling from one end of the building to the other, at a pace that suggested it was very urgent.

“It’s fine,” Sarah quietly replied, the man having already hurried off before he could hear her. She then looked around the room, trying to catch a glimpse of her boss. After a moment, she decided to try checking Heather’s office. Pushing past the occasional panicked looking scientist, or the even more panicked looking intern, she eventually reached the humble door that she was looking for. The door in question was slightly ajar, and the visible light indicated that someone was inside. Just to be sure, Sarah gave the door a few knocks.

“Come in!” Replied a breathy voice, one that Sarah was all-too familiar with. She then entered the room, finally coming face-to-face with her supervisor. Once Heather caught sight of her, her slightly wrinkled face broke into a relieved smile.

“Sarah!” she exclaimed joyfully, setting aside her mountain of documents and rising from her seat. Sarah smiled back, although her troubled heart made it difficult to muster anything too genuine. Not noticing this yet, Heather came forward to greet her.

“Thank goodness, I was starting to get worried,” she said, before checking her watch. “7:30, huh? I gotta say, I was incredibly surprised to see that you weren’t the first one in today.”

“Yeah, I-”

“Of course, there’s no expectation to come in early, and 7:30 is perfectly on time, I’m just saying that it’s unusual for you. Especially after yesterday, I would have thought that you’d be more excited than anybody to get started,” Heather hurriedly continued. Already, Sarah was having a hard time keeping up with the type of fast-paced conversations that she was used to, and she decided to just skip to the point before she got dizzy.

“U-Um, Heather, can I ask you something?” she said, trying to keep her voice steady. Heather furrowed her brow at her underling’s unexpected behavior, but sensed her distress and decided to soften her tone.

“Yes, of course. What is it?” she replied.

“Is there, well… are there any quiet, boring tasks that I could complete today? Maybe something research-related?” Sarah sheepishly asked, looking down at the floor.

“Something quiet?” Heather repeated, completely caught off-guard by the unexpected request. Sarah nodded in response.

“Yeah… I’m just not quite myself today, so I don’t know how helpful I would be to the engineering or testing people. If it’s alright, I think my time would be better spent elsewhere,” she continued. Heather frowned in concern, and moved around Sarah to close her office door.

“Yes, I’m sure we could find something,” she gently replied, walking back around. “In terms of the shrinking project, the research part is pretty much over, but… perhaps we could dust off one of our other ongoing projects for you to look into today.”

“Thank you. I’ll go take a look,” Sarah said, before starting to turn away. Before she could, though, Heather spoke up again.

“Sarah, you know I have to ask,” she said, causing Sarah to close her eyes in defeat.

“What’s going on? Considering what happened yesterday, and your wonderful enthusiasm over the project, I would have thought that… well, that you’d be acting differently right now. Is everything okay?”

Still with her back turned, Sarah lowered her head and thought for a moment. Out of all people, she really didn’t want to turn to the slightly nosy Heather for relationship advice. Plus, breaking down crying in front of her boss was something to be avoided at all costs, and it seemed like a real possibility at that moment. On the other hand, though, Heather was also a mother. A much more experienced one at that, with multiple grown children who were off leading successful lives. Out of everybody Sarah knew, it was very likely that her best chance at advice rested within her supervisor. With that, born out of pure desperation, Sarah decided to be honest.

“N-No,” she finally replied, turning back around. Heather’s frown deepened once she saw her underling’s downtrodden face.

“Nothing is okay.”

~

“It’s about Matty.”

“Oh?” Heather replied, before locking her office door and double checking that the blinds were closed. She then guided Sarah over to a chair, and sat down in an adjacent one. With a crossed leg and hand on her cheek, then, she was in “advice” mode. Although she would never admit it, Heather always relished at the opportunity to flaunt her motherly experience.

“I don’t want to go into specifics, but… he’s really going through something right now, Heather,” Sarah continued, debating how best to word it. She already felt like she was violating Matt’s trust by confiding in her boss, so she decided to keep the information vague.

“He’s apparently been going through it for a while, and it’s starting to really affect him. And the worst part is… he doesn’t even feel like he can talk to me about it. He was actively trying to keep it a secret from me, and I only found out because he simply couldn’t keep it in anymore. He apparently did badly on a test, and it just destroyed him. He broke down in front of me, and he acted like he was… like he was committing a crime, or something.”

“Why doesn’t he feel like he can talk to you about it?” Heather asked softly, studiously absorbing every piece of information. Sarah grew quiet in response, and looked down at the floor.

“It’s my fault,” she eventually whispered, trying not to cry again. “You were right, I’ve been neglecting him and spending too much time here. At this point, he might as well view me as a stranger.”

“I see,” Heather sighed, lowering her eyes a bit. This hardly came as a surprise to her, given her repeated warnings about Sarah’s excessive devotion to the project, but it was still nonetheless saddening to hear.

“He… he said it wasn’t even my problem,” Sarah continued, letting out a small, angry scoff. “He apparently thinks that, because I’m a scientist working on important projects, his problems don’t matter and aren’t worthy of my attention. I just…” she trailed off, unable to continue due to the ever-increasing sense of helplessness within her.

“I am his mom, and he thinks that his problems aren’t my problems…” she choked out, burying her head in her hands. 

“Oh, honey…” Heather murmured sympathetically, never having seen Sarah so vulnerable before.

“What am I supposed to do?” came Sarah’s muffled voice. “How am I supposed to help him if he doesn’t even think that it’s worth telling me about?”

“Well… think about it from his perspective,” Heather softly replied, causing Sarah to look back up at her.

“He’s a very responsible, self-sufficient guy, right?” Heather continued, which elicited a nod. “So he’s obviously used to dealing with things by himself. It must be hard to ask for help after being that way for a long time, don’t you think?”

“But… acting like it isn’t my problem, or that it doesn’t matter…” Sarah quietly replied, shaking her head in frustration.

“Sarah, be honest. Have you talked about the shrinking project with him?” Heather asked, adopting a small smile. Sarah’s eyes darted up at her, suddenly afraid that telling the truth would get her in trouble.

“I’m not talking as your boss right now, just as a friend. You can be honest,” Heather continued reassuringly. After a small hesitation, Sarah spoke up.

“N-Nothing specific,” she nervously answered. “Nothing about shrinking specifically, just the manipulation of matter. But… but yes, I’ve talked about it on occasion…”

“So, he knows then about your passion for it? And the potential it has to change the world?” Heather asked, to which Sarah nodded once again.

“I see,” Heather sighed, leaning back in her chair a bit. “So, knowing all that, is it really a surprise that he might feel like his issues don’t mean much in comparison?”

“But they mean everything to him,” Sarah earnestly replied. “They’re having a devastating effect on him, and I simply need to know about stuff like that! Regardless of what my job is, how can he not know that being his mother is my first priority?!”

Heather turned silent for a moment, debating how best to word what she wanted to say next. Soon, she began to speak in a gentle tone.

“Sarah… can you honestly say that you feel that way?” she asked, gazing at her underling with sympathetic eyes. Sarah almost recoiled in shock at the words, her heart starting to speed up with anger.

“…excuse me?” she whispered, practically hissing.

“Honey, this is what I’ve been trying to warn you about,” Heather continued, placing one hand on her chest. “Regardless of what you feel in your heart, every time you chose to work late, every time you chose to skip dinner at home… you were sending the message that you valued your job more than your son. You only have so much time in a day, and you clearly expressed that you preferred to spend time at work, and not with him. Even if he fully understood logically that you were doing so because of how immensely and genuinely you loved your job, I have no doubt that he eventually started to feel like it was because he wasn’t important enough. Again, please try to think about it from his perspective. Kids are so fragile, Sarah. And even though Matt is 18, he’s still just a kid. Can you honestly say that you don’t understand why he would feel that way?”

Sarah had nothing to say to that. 

“What do I do?” she eventually whispered, desperately trying not to break down in shame again.

“Right,” Heather replied, moving away from the “scolding” part and towards the “advice” part. “Well, look. I obviously don’t know the specifics here, and I’m no doctor. I can just tell you what I’ve done when one of my kids has gone through a rough patch.”

Sarah nodded, silently begging her to continue.

“First, I would strongly recommend that you get him in therapy,” Heather started, pulling a clipboard and pen from off her desk to take notes.

“He’s, um… he’s currently on my insurance, does it cover that…?” Sarah asked, to which Heather nodded reassuringly.

“Oh, absolutely. I can email you a list of local practices that we cover,” she replied.

“Thank you, I would appreciate that,” Sarah said, letting out a small sigh of relief.

“You might want to consider therapy for yourself, while you’re at it,” Heather continued. “There’s no shame in it, and you’re obviously dealing with a lot of stress right now.”

“I-I’ll think about it…” Sarah murmured, to which Heather nodded.

“Next, I think it’s extremely important to set aside a period of time each day where you are completely focused on him. It could be a game night, family dinner, watching a movie, anything. The most important part is that it’s just you and him, and he knows that he has your full attention. You have to make it clear to him with your actions that he is your highest priority, and that you’re committed to making a change,” she continued firmly.

“O-Okay…” Sarah replied, a little intimidated.

“Now, obviously for this to work, you simply need to spend less time here, honey,” Heather said, a small smile on her face. “That’s not to say you can’t ever work late, but I firmly believe that it would be best for you and your boy’s mental health if you tried to go home on time for the most part. At the very very least, aim to share a meal with him at least once a day. Sound good?”

“Yeah, that sounds reasonable,” Sarah answered, looking down at the floor as a fresh wave of concern began to drown out her other thoughts.

“It’s just…”

“What is it, Sarah?” Heather asked, looking up from her clipboard.

“Both of those are slow, long-term solutions. I can obviously get started right away, but… isn’t there anything bigger that I can do right now? Something that would help him right away?” Sarah asked. Heather studied her underling’s face, trying to discern what she was getting at. 

“Sarah… what exactly are you afraid is going to happen?” she asked slowly. Sarah did not respond, she just continued to look down at the floor with an extremely troubled look on her face. After a moment, Heather’s heart fell off a cliff as a possibility entered her mind.

“A-Are… are you afraid Matt is going to hurt himself?” she whispered, afraid to even speak the words. Once more, Sarah did not respond. However, the expression that formed on her face and the tears that formed in her eyes were all the information Heather needed.

“Oh, my…” she murmured. “Sarah, if you truly believe that… that might happen, then you need to take Matt to the hospital. End of discussion.”

“N-No, it isn’t like that,” Sarah hurriedly replied. “I have no real reason to believe that he would try to… but, he said something that… that I can’t stop thinking about. I just can’t help but think that… i-if things don’t get better, then…”

“I understand…” Heather replied, closing her eyes and thinking for a moment. After a little while, an idea popped into her mind that instantly perked her up.

“Sarah, what day is it?” she asked, causing Sarah to frown in confusion. She pulled out her phone to check.

“Um… Friday,” she replied, looking back up at her boss with a befuddled look.

“Alright, I know what you both need,” Heather continued, adopting an excited smile.

“W-What is it?” Sarah asked, leaning forward in anticipation.

“A mother-son weekend!”

~

“This is something that I loved doing with one of my kids if they were feeling left out. Simply put, spend the whole weekend with Matt. It doesn’t matter what you do, so long as it’s fun and you do it together. You could go on little ‘dates,’ maybe to an amusement park or the movies, go to a nice restaurant, stuff like that. Or you could spend the whole weekend watching TV and eating ice cream under a blanket, if that’s what sounds best to you both. The point is that you both get the break that you seem to need, and you get to demonstrate how things will be different from now on. Doesn’t that sound fun?” Heather explained, practically vibrating in her chair due to second-hand excitement. Sarah’s eyes softened in appreciation as the explanation continued, although she was still a little skeptical.

“That does sound fun, but… don’t you think it’s a little childish? I don’t know if my 18-year-old is going to go for it,” she replied sheepishly, to which Heather grinned even wider.

“Honey, sometimes the best course of action is to get a little childish. We try to pretend that kids get easier as they grow up, but don’t you think that everything was better when they were small?”

Sarah was stunned speechless, as that statement unexpectedly resonated down to her soul. Her heart started to beat a little faster as she recalled memories of Matt as a small child, and all she could do was slowly adopt a warm smile.

“…yeah, I guess it was better,” she eventually replied, causing her boss to nod triumphantly. She then finished taking notes of her advice, and held out the piece of paper for Sarah to take.

“It’s decided, then. Long term, try to get Matt in therapy and work on spending dedicated time with him every day. Short term, scoop him up this weekend and shower him with as much love and affection as he can handle. Dote on him like there’s no tomorrow, my dear,” she recapped, as Sarah took the piece of paper with a grateful smile.

“Ok. I’ll do my best,” she quietly replied, unbelievably happy to have a real plan of action. “Heather… thank you so much. I can’t tell you how much this means to me, and I’m sorry for burdening you with my troubles.”

“Nonsense, don’t be sorry,” Heather said dismissively. “Moms have to stick together, after all.”

“Right,” Sarah replied with a giggle. “Well, I’ll go have a look at what other projects I can look into today. Thanks again.”

“Oh, hold the phone on that,” Heather said, before Sarah could rise. “What time does school get out for Matt?”

“Oh, um… 2:30, I’m pretty sure,” Sarah replied, a tad embarrassed that she didn’t immediately know off the top of her head.

“Right. Well, I guess that means you’re clocking out at 1:30, then,” Heather continued with a firm nod.

“Heather, come on…” Sarah began to whine, but her boss was having none of it.

“Nope, no complaining. Get an early start to your weekend, and give him a nice surprise when he gets home.”

“But… I’d feel bad if I’m not contributing in some way…” Sarah continued, her workaholic brain still uncomfortable with the idea of taking a non-required break.

“Honey, there’s nothing wrong with taking a mental health day. Or a partial one, at least. Besides, you literally have the maximum amount of vacation hours saved up. You simply have to use them at some point!” Heather replied exasperatedly. Sarah began to protest again, but she was cut off.

“Look, just work as much as you feel comfortable with today, and go home early. If anything comes up before then that you can help with, I’ll let you know. Easy as that, okay?” she asked kindly. Finally, Sarah relented and let out a sigh.

“Fine,” she muttered. “Thank you, Heather. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help.”

“Of course, honey. Off you go, now,” Heather replied, gently waving her underling away with a smile. Soon, she was once again alone in her office, reflecting on everything she had just learned. Sarah, meanwhile, began her search for something quiet to work on until 1:30.

~

Later in the day, Sarah was peacefully working away in her office when she suddenly heard a knock on the door. Looking up from her computer, she saw that Heather was standing right next to it.

“Hey, Sarah. Whatcha workin’ on?” she asked cheerfully.

“Hey, Heather. I was looking at our other projects, but I realized that there was something related to the shrinking project that I could research. So, I’ve been looking into that,” Sarah replied.

“Oh? What might that be?” Heather asked, walking forward and taking a seat on the opposite side of Sarah’s desk.

“When shrinking living beings, we currently need to have them ingest a pill first. Since we don’t need to do that to shrink inanimate objects, I’m curious if it’s possible to eliminate the need for the pill altogether,” she explained.

“Oh, I see. Thinking ahead, are we?” Heather replied, impressed at her diligence. “Yes, that certainly seems like the first big improvement to our design. Any luck?”

Sarah shook her head, a small smile on her face.

“No, not really. I’ve spent the whole time basically just getting caught up on the literature,” she sheepishly admitted.

“That’s completely fine. Like I said, just do what you’re able to,” Heather reassured.

“Thank you. Anyway, is there something I can do to help?” Sarah asked, perking up a bit. At that, Heather’s eyes lit up as she remembered the reason for her visit.

“Oh, right, of course,” she said. “Yes, actually, there is. Now, feel free to say no if you don’t feel up to it, but I thought of something easy and mindless that could occupy a bit of your time before you go. Would you mind taking inventory in the toy-bin?”

“T-The toy-bin?” Sarah repeated incredulously. “You mean… the room where we keep the inventions? Aren’t you the only one allowed in there?”

Heather chuckled, looking down at the floor as a small, embarrassed blush formed on her cheeks.

“Technically, yes, this is me attempting to shirk one of my more boring responsibilities onto you,” she muttered guiltily. “It’s just, well… I’m supposed to take inventory once a week, which takes about half an hour, and… I’m kinda stretched thin at the moment. Thirty minutes is harder to find than you’d think. Pretty please?”

Sarah blinked, still in mild shock at the unexpected request.

“I mean, I guess… but, are you really sure it’s okay for me to be in there by myself?” she asked, to which Heather waved her hand dismissively.

“Of course! I trust you, after all. It’ll be our little secret,” she replied, whispering the last part with a goofy grin. Although still apprehensive about the whole thing, Sarah smiled back as she came to a decision.

“Okay, sure. After how nice you’ve been, it’s the least I can do,” she responded, letting out a firm nod. Heather’s smile widened, and she lightly clapped her hands in excitement.

“Thank you so much! Here’s the key,” she said, taking it out of her pocket and placing it on the desk. “Everything you need will be on a small table to the left of the door - just count the items, and mark the document accordingly. When you’re done, just put everything back on the desk and come find me afterwards. Once I get the key back, feel free to head home.”

“Okay, sounds good,” Sarah replied, grabbing the key and giving her boss a thumbs-up. With that, and another round of thank-yous, Heather hurried off to her next responsibility. Taking a moment to admire the shiny, gold key in her hand, Sarah turned off her computer and began to make her way towards the “toy-bin.” It was time to count.

~

40 minutes later, Sarah was bored out of her mind. What had sounded like a cool opportunity - being able to privately examine every invention the lab had to offer - had amounted to minutes upon minutes of manually counting flasks, microscopes, and dozens of other types of scientific equipment one by one, writing the final number on a document, and moving on to the next thing. Heather had even downplayed how long it would take, which seemed to explain her decision to let Sarah go home when she was done. After all, it was getting dangerously close to 1:30. Regardless, Sarah moved on with diligent meticulousness.

“Almost done…” she muttered to herself, having taken to talking out loud in order to stave off the silence of the toy-bin. “Next is… oh, the shrinking stuff.”

Indeed, laid out before her on a shelf was a collection of various odd-looking remotes, along with a small box containing a multitude of small, white pills. Suddenly, Sarah realized something that caused her heart to skip a beat.

“Wait, am I supposed to count every pill as well?” she mused, before sighing in defeat. “I suppose I did ask for something boring…”

With that, she grabbed the box of pills, sat down at a nearby desk, and dumped them all out on the surface. Groaning in annoyance at the small mountain in front of her, she dutifully began to group the pills into sets of five before moving them off to the side.

“5… 10… 15… 20…” she counted, making a small mark on the document to indicate each set of five. As it went on, the autopilot part of her brain began to tune out the process, while the conscious part of her brain once again began to worry about Matt.

What if he keeps avoiding me? What if he doesn’t let me do this for him? she wondered, remembering that he had woken up extremely early just to avoid her. She began to ponder what she could do to prevent him from leaving, but nothing came to mind. Grounding him or taking away his car felt counter-intuitive, so she simply hoped that his nerves had faded enough to where they could have a real conversation. She had to have faith that their relationship hadn’t been permanently damaged.

“115… 120… 125… 130… oh, 132,” she said, finally reaching the last pill. With that, she erased her earlier markings, wrote ‘132’ in the appropriate spot, and started to return every pill to the box. She then walked back over to the shelf, and began to eye the collection of shrinking remotes. For the most part, they were all very simple. A basic, small, brown, and rectangular box with an antenna at the end. On the “face” of the remote, only two buttons could be seen. A green one with a downwards-facing arrow, and a red one with an upwards-facing arrow. Unassuming as they may have been, these were indeed the machines that were capable of reducing living and nonliving matter to mere fractions of their original sizes.

For simplicity's sake, every remote had a pre-programmed size reduction coded into them. There was a “master” remote that could be altered, but that one must have been in use at the moment. For the remotes in front of Sarah, all one needed to do was press the green button to shrink, and the red button to restore. Underneath the buttons, there was a small label with a decimal written on them. This indicated the extent to which an object or creature would be shrunk. Sarah reached out and grabbed the one closest to her, bringing it up to her face to admire.

“0.04…” she read aloud, thinking about what that would mean for whatever she pointed it at. She was half tempted to shrink something right then and there, but ultimately decided against it. Still, she couldn’t help but adopt a small smile as she pictured it in her mind.

“6 feet is 72 inches, so…” she mused, doing some quick internal math. “Wow… 2.88 inches tall. That’s amazing.”

Giggling to herself at the idea of a big, tall man reduced to a little 2.8-inch bug, she put the remote back on the shelf and began to count. As she went, she also examined the size reductions listed on each remote.

“0.005?!” she exclaimed, stifling another laugh. “That would be, like, a centimeter tall! He would be nothing but a little speck on my fingernail.”

She playfully blew on her fingernails, imagining a little, squealing dot flying into the distance. With that, she pulled up the document and began to record her count.

“26,” she stated, letting out a huff as she finally finished her task. There was still a bit more paperwork to fill out, though, so she sat back down at the desk and let the autopilot take over. Despite her desire to keep brainstorming about the upcoming weekend, her thoughts had now been taken over by tiny, shrunken men. Thinking back to the day prior, she recalled the moment she had held the test subject in her hand as she quickly transferred him from one workstation to another. She practically squealed in delight as she remembered the sensation of his little, skittery movements as he crawled into her hand. It was just like holding a bug, only much cuter.

He was so cute… she thought. Almost as cute as my Matty. I can’t even imagine how cute Matty would be if… 

She stopped. Silence descended upon the room as her pencil stopped moving.

…if he was… 

Sarah stood from the desk.

…an itty…

She walked back to the shelf.

…bitty…

As if in a trance, she picked up one of the remotes.

…little shrunken man… who couldn’t go anywhere in his normal-sized car… who would need me to do everything for him… who would be forced to relax and let me take care of him… who wouldn’t be able to hurt himself if he tried… 

She gulped, breathing heavily. She once again recalled holding the test subject, but this time replaced his older, stern features with those of her son. She imagined her baby boy peacefully sleeping in the palm of her hand, cuddled against her fingers as she cooed over him. By this point, her heart was racing. She came to a decision.

After all, wasn’t everything better when he was small?

~

Later in the day, long after Sarah had hurried out of the office, Heather entered the toy-bin. She picked up the nearby document, giving it a quick glance to make sure Sarah had done everything correctly. It looked like she had, and Heather made a mental note to thank her once again for doing such a great job. She hoped that everything was going well for her with Matt, as she came to the end of the document. What she found was the record of their shrinking pills and shrinking devices, and she examined the numbers with a curious eye. The record was as follows:

Pills: 130

Remotes: 25