Chapter 11 - James - Realization: The bad news

It has to be a nightmare Ethan thought. 

Yesterday he had begun reading silly news about men that claimed to be shrinking since the meteor crashed. During the day, he saw as more and more news appeared claiming it to be true. 

It became trending by noon, many hashtags as #ShrinkingFake #ShrinkingReal started appearing. 

But today, as he had turned on the TV was when he started to worry. 

Ethan saw that every channel was covering that subject. He put one of the channels in which he still relied on. One reporter was conducting an interview to a biomedical doctor.

“Thanks for being with us today” The reporter greeted her guest..

“Thankful to be here” She said

“So you specialize in biochemistry of the human body, could you explain if the rumours that we are hearing lately about men shrinking are real?” He asked

“Well, I can assure that these rumours as of today are facts” She said professionally “Me and my team have been studying human mutations over the last years and I have never seen something like it before” She sounded genuinely excited about her discovery. 

“What do you mean?” He sounded kind of lost

“Mutations on humans are very rare and never reply from one person to another in the same way that this does.” She explained “We have a focus group of 200 men and 200 women across the country. And we found out that everytime men sleep at night they find themselves being smaller the next morning while women are exactly the same height. Another curious thing is that taller men usually shrink proportionally more than lower guys. We believe that if this goes on men will have the same height when they reach around  4 and a half feet.” She concluded

“Wait, wait, wait” The reporter shaked his head incredulously “You are telling me this could shrink the whole human race to 4 and a half feet?” He asked

“Well, the male population, not the human race.” She clarified “It might sound weird, but it could even go beyond that. So far there are no signs that would make us believe that the shrinking will stop until men reach a height of 3 or 4 inches.”

“3 inches?!” He leaned forward on his chair

“Of course, it is too early to conclude anything. But we believe that the chemical reaction wouldn’t take place anymore when men cells become that small.”

“And do you know what unchained that awful mutation on men” He asked

She grinned a little bit.

“Most likely the meteor that impacted our planet a week ago had some kind of substance or element that has been filtered to the air and water of our planet” She seemed to debate herself between saying something or not. “And by the way, I don’t think the mutation is awful, men have always been taller than women and that is not bad, it's just...the way it is. Nature is wise” She smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

“Excuse me?” The reporter said visibly shocked “How a mutation that will potentially reduce the whole male population will be good for the economy, the society and foremost for the own guys being shrank into dolls can’t be bad?” He was visibly angry on air.

“I think i misexplained myself” She said, and for one moment it seemed that she might apologize “Ken dolls are on average 8 inches, I told you before that men potentially could go down to 4 or 3” She chuckled trying to release some tension from the conversation.

Ethan heard the feminine laughs of the public on set and he turned off the TV. How could someone laugh at that? How couldn’t they see the gravity of the situation if this was true. A part of him refused to believe that any of this could be happening.

He was grateful that Lauren was on a basketball trip with her team the whole day. Even the possibility of Lauren laughing about all this made him furious. He didn’t think that she would laugh about it. Lauren wasn’t that mean, right? 

Ethan went to the basement and grabbed the meter. He hesitated, once he measured himself he would know for sure that all this was bullshit. On the other hand, what if it was true? 

It is true that he felt that Lauren was taller on Thursday... 

He threw the meter to the rubbish. As if doing that, his problem would disappear.