--- ONE MONTH LATER --

Allison hummed contentedly to herself as she dumped a huge pile of cooked spaghetti into her colander. She wondered how long it had been since she’d had pasta--6 months maybe? Spaghetti was Allison’s favorite food but *Big JIm* never let her have it--Pasta & noodles grossed him out. But *Pipsqueak* however, had no say in the matter--he had no say in anything at all anymore, obviously. So Allison thought it might be nice to cook up a classic Italian dinner to welcome Morgan back from her three week trip to London. After shaking out the excess water over the sink, Allison took a taste. 

“Mmmm! Al dente! So, so good!” She looked over her shoulder & asked, “Sure you don’t want to try some, Pipsqueak?”

Jim gave no reply. He just sat there on his little “stool”--an empty Nutella jar that Allison had given him--silently staring at Allison through the glass wall of his little prison on the kitchen table. Pasta was, in fact, only one of several of Allison’s favorite dishes that Jim had forced her to go without the entire time they were together. Now that Allison was again free to cook whatever she liked, she was making up for lost time. For the past few weeks, Allison had been cooking up all her old favorites--And since she knew Pipsqueak would find it disgusting, she always placed him nearby so he could watch & wonder whether she’d force him to eat some or not. 

“Suit yourself, dude...Yum,” she said as she gulped down a second piece. She turned around and noticed that he still hadn’t even touched the little chunk of dry pizza crust she’d given him for breakfast. 

“Not hungry, Pip?  What are you... on a diet or something? Hunger strike? No….that’s not it... I bet I know what it is...you’re just too *excited* to eat--Aren’t you, Pip! Well I can’t say I blame you--Tonight’s a big night for such a little guy! Not only are you going to get some long-overdue quality time with your favorite witch, tonight’s *also* the night you get that big surprise-present we’ve been hinting about! Wait till you..” 

She was interrupted when her back pocket started playing the Wicked Witch theme from Wizard of Oz. “Hey! Speak of the devil,” Allison plucked out her phone and started stirring sauce into the spaghetti as she answered. She noted JIm seemed to be trying hard to listen in. 

“Hey, girl! Make it back ok? Flight good?.........yep………..yep……...” 

Jim could hear that it was Morgan on the line but he couldn’t make out what she was saying. 

“.…..yeah, just making some Spaghetti actually. Hope you’re hungry…...He’s fine. A bit sour-faced & pouty, but what else is new right? …...Yeah. Right now? He’s just sitting here under that glass planter-thing watching me cook.” Allison shot Jim a quick smirk & a wink.

“And what about our little--surprise? Were you able to………...Oh, yay!! Hahaha holy shit, little Pip is going to be SO surprised! “ Jim kicked lazily at his uneaten pizza crust chunk as Allison laughed at whatever it was Morgan was telling her. He had no idea what she was talking about and he didn’t care. “Yeah, yeah I know. ….ok, cool. So where are you now? Baggage claim? Ok well hurry up and pick up your brooms & cauldrons and get your skinny little ass over here!.........yup. Will do--see you in a bit!” Allison rammed her phone back in her pocket and noticed Jim was looking very sullen, sitting slumped on his little stool-jar with his head in his hands. 

“Awwwwww…..is little Pipsqueak down in the dumps about something? Hmmm?...... Don’t want to talk about it?.....” She put her face near the glass & tapped on it with her nail. She stared at him for a few seconds and when he didn’t even look up at her, she sighed. “Well. If you’re just going to sit there feeling sorry for yourself, go right ahead, Gloomy Gus, but I don’t have to watch.” Allison grabbed a kitchen towel & draped it over his cylindrical glass cell.  “Just try not to cry TOO much in there, ok?--you don’t want to *literally* drown in your own tears, do you!” She giggled when she heard a couple of little muffled squeaks come back. Then she checked the time on her phone and twirled back around to finish preparing dinner. 

At 8pm exactly, Jim woke up to the sound of the doorbell. He rubbed his eyes, realizing he must have nodded off. Slowly got up off the placemat he’d been sleeping on and rubbed his eyes. He was still stuck under the same stupid, futuristic-looking glass cage that Allison had started putting over when she didn’t feel like keeping an eye on him. The “cage” was actually a very expensive glass planter--one of Allison’s favorites in fact. She was only willing to use it as a Pipsqueak container temporarily--just until she could find a better solution (Morgan mentioned that she had some ideas). But she had to admit that when she flipped it upside-down and set it down over her tiny captive it made a pretty good jail cell--The glass was crystal clear so it was easy to see what he was doing in there, the drainage hole that would normally be on the bottom became an oxygen hole on the roof, and when she stuck one of her aluminum placemats underneath it, she could move Jim around the house easily without needing to take him out first--the way one does with a cockroach trapped under a cup. Jim still couldn’t see out but he noted the kitchen towel Allison had draped over him earlier had been replaced by some kind of silky red cloth. Though he was fully dressed in a casual Ken Doll outfit he felt a bit chilly. He could hear cicadas chirping quite loudly and figured Allison must have moved him to the table on her backyard deck while he was asleep. Suddenly he heard the unmistakable squeals of female friends meeting up after not seeing each other for a while. He could hear them chatting excitedly but couldn’t make out any words. 

“Welcome back!!!!” Allison squealed, as she bear-hugged her best friend as hard as she could. Morgan winced and grunted under her squeeze & said, “Ouch! Thanks??” Allison put her hand on Morgan’s shoulder and stretched her neck scanning the yard. 

“Where is she? You didn’t drive over together?”

Morgan interrupted, “Relax! Took a cab--She’s paying the driver. After we dropped our bags off at my place, we realized we probably wouldn’t want to drive back after...wink win--OH!! There she is.” Allison looked up to see a very thin, gorgeous woman waving to her cheerfully as she walked up her driveway. 

“Hello-Hello-Hello!” She chirped in a thick Australian accent. “Allison? Hi, I’m Samantha--but please never call me that. Call me Sam.” Morgan made a funny face & stepped back a little to let Sam charge past her to shake Allison’s hand. 

As they shook hands, Sam jabbed her thumb towards Morgan and said, “Please forgive the smell Allison, I know I stink. It’s because this one here wouldn’t let me shower first---said there wasn’t enough time! Not enough time?? for a shower??? I mean...YOU don’t care if somebody’s a few minutes late to dinner, DO ya? I know I don’t! Does anybody but HER???” Allison and Sam both laughed and Morgan stuck out her tongue. Allison ushered them all inside and took Sam’s coat. 

Morgan shouted “Who wants a drink before we eat?” as she threw her jacket on the floor and marched to the liquor cabinet. 

Jim’s hunger finally got the better of his pride. He sat down on his fancy aluminum-placemat-floor, leaned back against his Nutella jar-stool, & started picking lazily at the only food he’d seen in days--the tiny, stale chunk of pizza crust on the floor of his makeshift cage. Though it was muffled, he could hear the women laughing together in the living room. He could only assume they were laughing at him...or worse, maybe some new way they’d planned to toture him. Jim knew what day it was--he knew it had now been over four weeks since the night Morgan showed up for dinner & destroyed his entire life in 15 minutes. Jim’s previous life hadn’t all been roses but nothing--NOTHING he’d ever experienced helped prepare him for the levels of humiliation Morgan and Allison had been inflicting on him since then. The first week was the worst. It got a little better once Morgan flew to London but of all the dumb magic rules that govern his life now, the one he hated most was the one Allison couldn’t seem to get enough of. Any time Allison wanted to force Jim to do something he really didn’t want to do, all she had to do was start her command with the words “Ok, Pipsqueak,” -- And then JIm would do it. The insidious part though--the part that drove Jim insane--the insidious part was that Morgan’s magic never actually compelled Jim to do anything whatsoever--That’s not how it worked. If Allison said, “Ok, Pipsqueak, kiss my toe,” or something like that, Morgan’s magic doesn’t do anything at all to Jim. He’s free to decide if he wants to kiss that toe or not---totally still up to him. But when Allison says, “Ok, Pipsqueak, kiss my toe,” Morgan’s magic does something else--it starts a timer and thus forces Jim to make a decision--If he decides to obey, if he just kisses the toe, all’s good. Morgan’s magic literally leaves him untouched. But if he decides to disobey he immediately loses another precious half-inch of height. He can’t simply ignore it either--no matter what, if 15 minutes pass and he still hasn’t obeyed the command--another half-inch gone. The fact that every time Allison forced him to do some shitty thing for her amusement...the fact that every single time it was actually HIS free decision….it was so beyond humiliating he felt like he was losing his mind every time she did it to him.

For the first couple of days, when the girls were first testing it out, the commands they gave him were incredibly cruel. He desperately didn’t want to lose any more precious height so Jim did his best to grit his teeth and go with it until he could figure out a way out of it. Allison made him feed her grapes on command from a bowl on her belly as she reclined on the couch watching shows she knew Jim hated. They forced him to entertain them on the tabletop as they ate, dressed in rediculous dall clothes Morgan found in a thrift store--one night he danced as a balerina, another he tried to juggle frozen peas as a jester. He spent the whole of an afternoon standing motionless in the garden as a gnome.

But the whole thing took an even darker turn when Morgan said, “Ok, Pipsqueak, I want you to please legally transfer all your funds from all your bank accounts, every last one of your possessions and all other assets over to Allison here. Shrinking or no shrinking that was just too far. Jim balked--and instantly dropped to 11.5” tall. Morgan just gave him the very same command a second time, and suddenly he was down to 11.”  It wasn’t long before JIm had the pleasure of discovering that 9” was his limit--Jim was 9” tall when he decided he’d hit absolute rock bottom--that there no longer was anything he wouldn’t do or give away to save what little size he had left. Since then, Jim has obeyed every single one of their commands. It hadn’t been easy, and the costs had been high but here he was, one month on, and still standing tall at 9” flat. 

Just then Jim heard a glass break, followed by a very boisterous laugh that he didn’t recognize. Over the past month, both Morgan and Allison had laughed at him so much, so often that Jim could easily identify their distinctive laughs. He was sure there was a third woman in the house with them. He started wondering if he finally might have a chance to get help from someone. He felt his heart racing as he pushed his ear against the glass, trying to hear the mystery woman’s voice, hoping to learn something about her that might help him but a sound startled him. He was already edgy and he even jumped a little when he suddenly heard the “Vshoooooot” sound of a heavy sliding glass door being slid open. The women’s laughter was suddenly loud and near--he couldn’t see them of course but they had obviously joined him on the deck. 

Suddenly he heard the Australian mystery-woman shout, “Where?” Then, after someone knocked on the top of his cage, the same voice shouted  “NOOOOOOO. Come on, now.” Jim thought he heard something familiar in her voice. The way she said “Come on now.” He was sure he’d heard this very woman say that very thing many times. His heart started racing again. Whoever this woman was, he was sure she’d recognize him. “The bitches fucked up,” he thought. “I can’t fucking believe they were this stupid! They actually invited someone over for one of their cruel torture parties without making sure we didn’t already know each other. Whoever she is, I *know* she knows me from somewhere. When she sees me, she’ll help me.” Jim cracked his neck and shook out his arms like he was getting ready for a fight. 

  Allison said, “Trust me, we get it--it really is the kind of thing you just really have to see with your own eyes. It really is. So…….”

Allison was reaching for the Jim’s covering but Morgan grabbed her hand. “Wait...let’s let her do it.” Allison nodded at the Australian & gestured towards the cloth-covered object in the center of the beautifully-set dining table. Sam stepped up to the table and took hold of the tip of the cloth with her fingers.

“Like this?” she asked and turned around to see both Morgan & Allison standing behind her with their arms folded. They grinned & nodded. Sam turned back toward the table, pressed her face up to Jim’s container and then dramatically ripped the silk fabric away. She started to shout “PEEK-A-BOO!!!!” but the sudden sight of the shrunken man stopped her at “PEEK” -- she dropped the cloth and gasped. Jim stared up at Sam’s enormous face. There was no question about now--he and this woman definitely know each other--but he was having trouble remembering how. Her face wasn’t just huge to him, it was a bit distorted by the glass so he took a couple steps backward. 

“Steve?????? Is that…. Is he? That’s really STEVE?  Hey! Steve, is that really YOU??????”

 Steve blinked a couple times and then it hit him. His jaw fell open and he dropped the little pizza crumb he’d been holding. He felt his new tiny little ember of hope get obliterated in an instant by a sudden tidal wave of terror. He tried to say, “Sam. Sam Walker. Oh my fucking god,” but instead he just said, “Squeak!”

“Hahahahahaha! MY GOD. It IS you! Hahahahahahahahahahhaha..” Sam turned to look at Allison & Morgan who each gave her a “told you so” look. Sam couldn’t stop grinning as she turned back to face the man she thought she’d never see again. 

 “Wooooow, you look great, Steve! Did you lose some weight or something?” Even if Jim had the power to speak at that moment he still would have been speechless. He was trembling a little as he tried to assess how much worse his situation had just gotten. He tried to say “Fuck” and said “Squeak!”

“You know it’s weird steve--I never noticed your accent before! Where are you from originally? Munchkinland? A toy store at the mall?” 

Allison finally moved to take her seat and said, “I was about to introduce you two but it seems you know each other already? Wonderful!” Sam sat down very slowly, unable to wipe the grin from her face or her eyes from JIm’s little body. Jim finally fought down his fear enough to turn his back on Godzilla-Sam only to find himself looking straight at Morgan. She opened her mouth wide in a parody of the shock Jim was obviously feeling, then narrowed her eyes & hissed,

“Surprise, motherFUCKer. We’re done when I say we’re done.”