It was the following morning and Arthur had been forced to sleep in a vacant office. When he woke, there was a freshly pressed pair of pants and a brand new shirt hanging on the doorknob. A coffee pot was making coffee and a tray of muffins rested on the unused desk.

Arthur stared at the array, before getting up. It was clear that Beth wanted him to have convenience within reach while he stayed at school. He didn’t fully understand everything that was going on, but it seemed that he was eventually going to move into Beth’s house. He’d overheard that it had to be renovated in order to accompany him, but wasn’t sure what that meant.

Arthur turned to the mirror on the wall and draped the pants against him to see if he looked any smaller. He didn’t thank goodness. He climbed into the pants and to his great relief, they fit perfectly. All night long he’d dreamt of waking to find himself five feet tall, but now he could rest assured that he hadn’t lost any height. Even though his future size was very much in question, Arthur was relieved that nothing had changed overnight. Arthur put on the new shirt as well, looking himself in the mirror as he combed his hair. Maybe they’d let him see his wife today…

Someone knocked on the door. “Mr. Spence?”

Arthur walked to the door, pleased that whoever it was didn’t just barge in. He grabbed a muffin and opened the door.

Shawna was there, standing in the doorway.

Arthur’s heart rate immediately accelerated. Shawna seemed taller than he remembered. He saw from the twinkle in her eyes that she too noticed the change. Much like yesterday, a small smirk crossed her mouth.

“Nice clothes”, she said.

“But they fit perfectly, Arthur snapped, how could—“

“How could I seem taller?” Shawna asked “Every night your clothes are custom made to fit what we project to be your height to be the following day. Last night I saw that you’d already shrunk to five nine and I forecasted that by morning—“

“How tall am I?” Arthur shot out.

“You’re five seven and a half” said Beth, suddenly appearing from behind Shawna.

Beth was dressed in khakis and a sleeveless blouse. This was far more casual than anything he’d seen her wear before. She stepped towards him with new found assurance, her eyes darting up and down his body as if he
were a fashion accessory hanging on a sales rack.

“Wow. It’s really started, hasn’t it?”

Arthur watched as Beth approached him, her small frame and slender body seeming slightly bigger than he remembered it. He was still taller than her, but not by as much as he remembered. There was no denying it any longer, he was actually getting smaller. And these two girls…these two women…looked to be getting bigger.

“It’s so weird, isn’t it?” Beth said to Shawna, as if Arthur wasn’t even there. Their eyes danced as they regarded his altered size.

Shawna nodded. “Yes it is”

Beth walked behind Arthur and was now looking at him from behind.

“How do you feel, Mr. Spence?”

Arthur turned back to Beth, glaring at her. A thought crossed his mind. The thought of lunging forward and strangling her.

“Did you sleep okay?” she asked.

His glare was obviously affecting her. Second by second, he watched as Beth backed away, her confident look slowly melting away. He was still her elder. He was still taller than she was and he still held the cards.

“I have class, so if you two don’t mind…”

Beth interjected, “But I wanted to talk to you about tonight”

Arthur headed to the door. Shawna took a step forward.

“Things are going to keep changing, Mr. Spence. You may well wish you’d been nicer to her”

Arthur pushed past Shawna.

* * *

The last thing Arthur wanted was to parade through the halls of the campus, so he waited until most classes were in session to quickly run to his own classroom. A few people saw him, but failed to take notice. This is a good sign he thought to himself.

But when he entered his classroom, it was a different story. Every female eye in the room looked at him when he walked in and many of them instantly began smiling. Arthur promised himself that he would act like nothing had happened, but this seemed like an impossible task.

“Hello everyone” he said, walking into the class. “Where did we last leave off?”

He glanced out to the various students and noticed that all the female students were staring at him now, while the majority of male students looked down to their desk or at the floor. They looked anywhere they could look except at him. Beth was front and center of course, looking like a
proud parent.

“How do you feel, Mr. Spence?” one young lady asked.

“I feel absolutely fine” he answered quickly. “Now where did we leave off?”

The female faces continued to beam at him, some of them smiling, others gazing dreamily at him, like he was made of chocolate.

“I’d like everyone to stop staring at me first off”, he said, “It’s bad enough what’s happened to me without all of you eyeballing me”

Some of the female stares drifted away, while others were too entranced with him, as if they didn’t even hear his request.

Beth, on the other hand, was ready to get to work. Her books were open and she was staring attentively like she always had. Arthur didn’t know what to make of this.

“Look everyone. There’s no one in this room that doesn’t know what’s happened. I can’t say I’m happy about it, but there’s not too much I can do, so I would appreciate it if everyone paid attention to the course work in the coming weeks and not my size”

For the next hour, Arthur lectured how he always did, occasionally feeling a tingling feeling in his back, like a drip of sweat was sliding from his neck down to his waist. It wasn’t sweat though, so what was it?

Was it the shrinking process? He didn’t know.

The class ended and students filed towards the door. Once again Arthur noticed that the male students avoided looking at him and hurried towards the door. The girls, however, were another story. A group of four of them lingered at the doorway, watching him, looking for an excuse to approach.

They looked to Beth, who was just now getting up.

Clare, one of his longtime students, put an apple on his desk, sneaking him a brief, happy looking smile. Arthur couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Thanks Clare” he said.

The girls eventually filed out of the room, leaving him alone with Beth.

“I thought that went well, she said, didn’t you?”

“Beth, just so you know, I intend to contact my lawyer and we’ll be looking into this entire charade of yours. Before you know it, this will be over and I’ll be back with my wife where I belong”

Beth laughed innocently as if what he had said was totally absurd. Then she started to approach.

“And another thing, Arthur continued, I’m not sure I can continue being pleasant, since none of this would be happening if it wasn’t for you”

Beth was closer to him now and for some strange reason, she was smiling.

“Has it happened again, Mr. Spence?”

Arthur felt that strange trickle sensation again and immediately looked down to his shirt cuffs, which had extended to the fleshy part of his hand. Arthur could feel the sweat gathering on his forehead. He looked up at Beth helplessly. She stared at him compassionately and gently touched his back.

“It’s okay, she said, you’ll get used to it”

“Don’t touch me”, Arthur shot out.

Beth withdrew for a second, and then embraced him in her arms, trying to hug him. Arthur couldn’t believe her boldness. He pushed himself backwards and pried her arms from around his chest. To his surprise, this was harder than he imagined it would have been. Beth was certainly stronger than he would have guessed. After a second, he corrected that thought. She wasn’t stronger. He was weaker.

When he had successfully freed himself from Beth’s embrace, she looked a little hurt.

“I was just trying to be supportive,” she said.

“Supportive? Beth, you make it sound like I have some disease. Truth is, you’re the one in control here. I’m the one under your control”

Beth nodded. “That’s one way to look at it I guess”

Arthur turned away.

“I wanted to talk to you about tonight, she said, they’re renovating the house and recommended that I don’t take you home until Friday, but seeing how upset you are, maybe you should come over starting tonight?”

“What are you talking about?” asked Arthur, as if he only now was realizing how truly insane this was sounding coming from a twenty year old girl.

Beth grinned a small grin. “I’m talking about you coming to your new home.

To begin your new life. You’ll need protection and that’s me. I want to protect you”

“Protect me from what?”

Beth paused. She tried to be delicate.

“Well, she said, starting to blush a bit, when you get, you know, smaller, you’ll be more vulnerable to situations…and people”

Arthur grabbed Beth by the shoulders, again noticing that the gap in their respective heights had changed since last night.

“Beth, look at me”

She did.

“How small am I going to get?”

Beth tried to look to the floor. Her cheeks were in full blush.

“How small!?!”

Beth turned away, wanting to avoid the question. She headed to the door.

“Maybe we should wait until Friday before you come home with me, Mr.

Spence. Sorry for the wait. But I promise, once you get to know me, it’ll be worth it” Beth exited the room.

Arthur sat on a desk, again feeling the sensation of sweat trickling down his back. His hands shot out in an effort to confirm whether or not he was imagining it, but his back was dry. He hoped off the desk and again, his balance was off as the drop was a bit bigger than he anticipated.

* * *