Mia walked in the front door of her house. She had put her necklace back on and her tiny brother was dangling around her neckline once again. “Hey mom,” she said, kicking off her flip flops. “Hi Aunt Audrey,” she smiled as she walked into the living room. She plopped down on the sofa chair. “Ugh, sorry that took so long,” she sighed, “traffic was a pain.”

“You’re just in time,” her aunt Audrey said, “in fact, your cousins just got here.” 

“Yeah, I can see that,” Mia said, looking down at the living room table. Her mom and aunt had their bare feet on the table with each of her tiny cousins tending to them. Her aunt Audrey had little Nick furiously filing away at her nails, while her mom had tiny Brittney polishing hers. 

“Oh boy…,” Behr said from his sister’s locket. From his vantage point, he could see everything going on. This was not how he was hoping to spend his evening.

“Everything go okay with picking up your brother?” Mary asked as she sipped on her wine glass. She absentmindedly wiggled her toes, causing Brittney to fall over, but Mary didn’t notice.

“Yeah,” Mia said, suppressing a smirk.

Mary noticed her daughter's face and paused. “Mia…,” she said, “what did you do now?”

“Mom, it’s not a big deal,” Mia said, propping her bare feet on the table. “I don’t know why you care so much.” Mia’s feet towered upright, showing off her smooth doughy soles to her tiny cousins.

“What’s the drama now, hmm?” Audrey asked, raising her brows at Mary. 

“Mia…,” Mary said with an annoyed groan, “am I going to get an angry email from the school? How bad was it this time?”

Mia was thinking of a reply when her Aunt spoke up. “Mia,” Audrey said, noticing something, “is there something on your foot, dear?” she asked.

“Huh?” Mia said, looking down at her foot. She saw something stuck between her toes that she couldn’t feel. “Well…, what are the odds of that?” she laughed, leaning forward and plucking out a tiny car from her toes. She held it up to her face and beheld a barely moving, but still alive, tiny family inside. 

Mary and Audrey knew what it was. Audrey snickered but Mary was dismayed. “Mia, just put them in the-”

SQUISH!

Mia pinched her fingers together, grinding the tiny car and its occupants to dust. “Gross…,” she said with a frown as she flicked it away. “They must have gotten stuck when they were picking up their kids from school.”

“Mia…,” Mary sighed again.

“So I had a bit of fun,” Mia scoffed, “so what?”

“Well now I’ll have to deal with a strongly worded email from the school, probably from the city, and their stupid fines,” Mary facepalmed and shook her head. “Just thinking about the bureaucracy is giving me a headache.”

“Just let me deal with it,” Audrey said, waving her hand, “after all what the point of being a Bowen if you can’t use the name to your advantage every once in a while?”

“I guess that’s one of the perks you get from being the governor, huh?” Mary chuckled. “But Mia can’t just keep disregarding the rules of our society. That’s what makes it work.”

“Oh let the girl have some fun, Mary,” Audrey said. “You remember what we were like when we were kids, don’t you?”

“Yeah, then we grew up,” Mary emphasized.

Audrey just shrugged and took another sip of her wine glass. Just then, Chloe, Mia’s normal sized cousin, came into the room.

“Hey Mia,” Chloe said excitedly. “I just got here. I didn’t hear you come in.”

“Yeah,” Mia said, getting up, “I just got back from picking up Behr from school.” Mia reached around her neck and took off her necklace. She lowered the locket, and her brother, to the table. She unclasped the locket door and let her brother fall on the table.

“Careful with him, Mia,” Mary said, with a slightly irritated tone.

“Now he can spend some quality time with his cousins,” Mia laughed, completely ignoring her mother. “Meanwhile, me and Chloe are going to get our nails done and go out tonight with some friends”

“Okay girls, sounds fun,” Audrey smiled. “But I’m afraid your cousins and brother are already busy doing mine and your mom’s feet. I doubt they’ll be done in time. You know how slow tiny people can be.”

“I totally get how slow they are,” Mia chortled, looking down at her tiny brother and cousins, “but we’re going to order one of the in-home packages from the MiniSpa downtown.”

“Oh, good thinking,” Audrey nodded and took another sip of her wine, emptying her glass.

“Well, have fun girls,” Mary said, “be safe.”

“And no boys!” Audrey added.

“Thanks mom!” both girls said simultaneously as they left the room excitedly and went to Mia’s room.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with her,” Mary said, also finishing off her wine glass. “She’s so disobedient sometimes.”

“She’s young, Mary,” Audrey said dismissively. “She’ll grow out of it. But we’ve got more important things to worry about,” she said, pouring some more wine into her glass, “like our empty wine glasses!”

Mary couldn’t help but laugh as she held her glass out for Audrey to fill it. Then she scowled as she looked down at her teeny son. “And more importantly, why isn’t Behr doing anything?” she said contemptuously. 

“You haven’t said anything,” Behr shrugged. “So why would I volunteer for that on my own? I don’t really want to be working on your feet on the weekend anyway.”

“Why you little…,” Mary said, raising her foot and hovering her heel over him, “do you want to spend the weekend in my slipper instead?” The shadow of his mom’s colossal foot made him regret saying anything. But before he could even utter a response, his mom’s foot started coming down. Behr shut his eyes and flinched as her heel slammed down hard onto the table. He opened his eyes slowly to see a wall of flush skin just in front of him. It was the bottom of his mom’s giant heel, just mere inches away. He shakily looked up the length of her towering sole looming over him. He breathed a sigh of relief and his heart started to beat normally again. “No, I don’t think you’d like that,” his gigantic mom boomed, “now why don’t you go over and help your aunt and cousin before I do something that makes you regret your words.”

Behr backed away and quickly made his way to his aunt. Her toes were laying down directly in front of him. Her nails shined so brightly that they almost didn’t look real. Nick was studiously filing every imperfection out of his mom’s nails, making them as smooth as he possibly could. Behr looked up and saw his giant aunt arrogantly smiling down at him.

“Hi there Behr,” she said with a high and mighty smirk, “you really set your mom off, huh?”

“I guess…,” Behr admitted. He didn’t really know how to respond to such a remark.

“Well, it’s nothing that filing my nails can’t fix,” she said, giggling and looking back at Mary who also started laughing in return. Hearing his giant mom and aunt laughing at him enraged him, but he realized that there was absolutely nothing he could do about it either. So he picked up a file and got to work.

“Hey cousin,” Nick said, working on his mom’s pinky toe. It was massive, but he was nearly done.

“Hey,” Behr responded, starting to file the jagged imperfections of his aunt’s fourth toe. 

“Don’t worry,” Nick said, “my mom said that once we’re done with this, they’ll leave us alone the rest of the weekend.”

“God, I hope so. That would be so nice!” Behr said, fantasizing about it.

“I’ve switched my main in Smash Bros,” Nick added, “I’m excited to play later tonight.”

“Me too,” Behr said, panting with each stroke of the file. Each time he ran it across his giant aunt’s nail, tiny little shavings of the hard keratin grated off, smoothing it outl. The imperfections were probably imperceptible to the giants to begin with, so Behr didn’t really understand why they had to do this anyway. But it did make their feet even more immaculate, he had to admit. 

“I’m glad you’re helping though,” Nick admitted. “It’s a slow process by myself.”

Aunt Audrey’s toes were big and impressive. Behr understood how it could take a long time. “How are we going to reach your mom’s nails on her other toes? Her big toe is twice as high as her pinky toe and it’s already difficult enough to reach that one.”

“I don’t know, we usually have a scaffold at home, but mom forgot it,” Nick said.

As the tiny cousins worked together below, the giants above continued in their conversation. The bad thing was, while Audrey could keep her feet still, Mary was horrendous at moving her feet absentmindedly. Oftentimes causing tiny Brittney to fall down. 

“Aunt Mary!” Brittney would call out each time. But Mary either couldn’t perceive her niece's tiny voice or simply assumed it wasn’t important. But Brittney was polishing her Aunt Mary’s toenails, so that required her to climb on top of her toes in order to do the work. So each shift, wiggle, or flex of Mary’s toes was a big deal to the tiny girl.

After Brittney had finished her Aunt Mary’s big toenail it shined like a mirror, she could even see her reflection on the surface.. She walked up her aunt’s toe, toward the top of her foot, and crossed over to the next. It was far safer than jumping across. If she fell between the crevice of her aunt’s massive toes and her aunt didn’t feel her, there’s no telling how long she could be stuck there. She walked down the length of Mary’s second toe and got on her knees to start on the nail.

Then, as if on some ironic cue, there was the startling sound of thunder as the giant woman bellowed with laughter from above. Mary flexed her toes absentmindedly, shaking Brittney off her balance. She tumbled into the crevice of her aunt’s second and third toes. She frantically tried scrambling back on top but it was hopeless. Brittney fell deeper and deeper between her aunt's toes and became stuck. Each movement of the massive toes rubbed Brittney’s tiny body against the hot sweaty flesh. She tried calling out to her aunt, but Mary couldn’t hear her muffled cries. She tried yelling for her mom, but Audrey was even further away and had even less chance of hearing her tiny daughter.

“Oh my, what’s going on down there?” Mary laughed. Brittney thought maybe her colossal aunt had noticed her after all. But instead, she was looking down at Audrey’s toes.

“What is it?” Audrey asked with fascination.

“It looks like Nick is on Behr’s shoulders, trying to reach the nail on your big toe!” Mary chuckled. “How cute!”

“Oh yeah,” Audrey said, stifling a giggle as she looked down at her toes. “I forgot their little manicure scaffold setup.”

“Why didn’t you bring it? You knew we were going to use the kids for this,” Mary said.

“I meant to,” Audrey admitted, “I just totally forgot!”

“Oh well,” Mary muttered, “seems like they’re doing a fine job without it.” She lifted her toes to inspect Brittney’s work but couldn’t find her. “Britney?” she called out. “Where did you go?” Then she splayed her toes and saw the tiny girl stuck to the side walls of one of her toes. “There you are! Laying down on the job, are we?” she joked. But Brittney didn’t find it funny at all. Mary reached down and gently grabbed Brittney and held her up. “Are you okay, sweetie?”

Brttney managed a stifled, “Mmm-hmm,” and nodded her head.

“Wonderful!” Mary beamed, lowering the girl back down to her toes. “Now which one were you on? The third or fourth, right?”

“The second,” Brittney responded.

“The second?” Mary asked and cocked an eyebrow. “Well you’re not very fast are you.” She dropped the tiny girl on her second toe. “You better pick up the pace, I don’t want to be here all night.”

“Yes ma’am,” Brittney responded, and quickly got back to work.

Mary smiled. “Your kids are so well behaved, Audrey,” she said. “I wish I knew how to get my kids to be like that.” She looked down at Behr with a frown. He was still helping Nick reach the nails on Audrey’s towering toes, but didn’t look too happy.

“Aww, thanks Mary,” Audrey said. “But it helps when they are the height of your pinky toe!” She laughed and gave a little smirk. “They are disinclined from disobeying you.”

“That must be why Nick tries so hard to finish his work,” Mary nodded, looking down at him and Behr still working hard to reach Audrey’s nails.

“That’s exactly right,” Audrey smirked. “He knows what will happen if he doesn’t.”

“I do punish them for being bad or disrespectful,” Mary said. “I’ll put Behr in my slippers for the night, and for Mia I usually just take her phone away.”

“Ah, yeah,” Audrey nodded, “we’re at a disadvantage when it comes to the normal sized children, aren’t we?”

“I feel like Mia is a lost cause, she is who she is, but what can I do about Behr?” Mary asked. She looked down to see Behr and Nick tumbling away from Audrey’s towering toes.

“Do you want me to give you a suggestion?” Audrey said, flexing her toes to admire the fine finish work that her tiny son had done for her.

“Yes please!” Mary replied. “I’m all ears.”

“Looks like you boys are done,” Audrey smiled, wiggling her massive toes over them.

“Yes, ma’am…, uh, mom,” Nick said. He felt a sense of relief having his work done. He was told that when he was done, he would be able to go play games with Behr. He looked up at his giant mom expecting to hear her compliment his work and release him from his duty. But instead, she was looking down at them studiously.

“Nick, why don’t you go help your sister with your aunt’s feet,” she called down, “it looks like she is having a bit of trouble. I’m going to spend a few minutes with your cousin here.” Nick was disappointed for sure, but he knew better than to say anything back, so he obediently made his way to his aunt Mary’s toes where his sister already was. Audrey turned her attention to Behr, who was still hanging around her toes. “As for you, young man, you have been giving your mom some attitude lately, haven’t you?”

“No…?” Behr said awkwardly. He was slightly nervous as his aunt looked down at him with what he thought was excitement. 

“Um, I believe I heard it myself a little bit ago,” Audrey scrunched her face in mock bafflement. “Was it not you that said, and I quote ‘I don’t want to touch your smelly feet’, referring to your mom?”

“Why does that matter?” he asked tepidly.

“Well, little guy, let me show you what would have happened if one of my kids would have said that.” Audrey snickered with enthusiasm. 

Almost immediately, Behr was engulfed in the shadow of his aunt’s foot as her vast sole sailed over him. It lasted only a split second, but he could vividly see every crease and wrinkle in his aunt’s foot. Her skin looked soft and doughy, but Behr knew that was deceiving, he knew the reality was far worse. Then the ceiling of flesh came down and Behr yelped as one of the soft looking wrinkles pushed him down to the ground. The wrinkle folded and smoothed out over him as the rest of her skin engulfed his body. 

“Oh, be careful Audrey,” Mary said with a grimace. She had just watched her sister’s foot steamroll over her tiny son and it made her a bit skittish.

“How long have you known me, sis?” Audrey asked.

“Exactly,” Mary said overdramatically. “I’ve known you my whole life. And I know just how many tinies you have squashed!”

“Really?” Audrey said with a mocking tone. “How many then?” Audrey asked with a smug grin.

“Thousands, probably,” Mary said with a sigh as she propped her face up with her fist.

“Thousands, definitely,” Audrey grinned. “But uh,” Audrey raised her eyes, “just how many tinies have you squished, dear sister?”

“Okay, that’s fair,” Mary sighed, “but you’ve squished plenty by accident.”

“Yeah, that’s true. But you and I both know you’ve squished your fair share too,” Audrey shook her head, “even by accident.”

“I’m just asking you to be careful,” Mary said. “I just don’t want Behr to be another ‘accident.’”

“Relax, will you?” Audrey said, rolling her eyes. “Behr is just fine.”

The two tiny siblings at their aunt Mary’s feet felt sick. It wasn’t easy hearing the giant women talking about squashing and killing tinies like them so casually. It was especially difficult since they were busy polishing the toenails of their aunt…, the same toes that more than likely squashed untold numbers of tiny people. Luckily, or unfortunately depending on the way you looked at it, the scent of her giant toes around them snapped them back to their immediate reality. The work at hand was a distraction from the atrocious conversation happening above.

Behr was in a whole different world of hurt than his cousins as his aunt Audrey’s feet weighed down on him. The pressure was unimaginable and it was so incredibly difficult to breathe. But at least the conversation above was just a muffled mess of noise to him. The heat of his aunt’s foot caused him to sweat profusely, creating a musty stale air for him to breathe. Even her own foot began to sweat and smell intensely to his little nose. The salty perspiration coated his face and clothing, the foul air permeating his mouth.

“Really Mary,” Audrey said, pressing down on Behr’s tiny body, “he’s fine. He just needs a good old fashioned smothering of a foot big enough to crush him a hundred times over. That should be enough to set anybody straight.”

The two giants laughed and snickered gleefully. 

—

Meanwhile, Mia and Chloe were both sitting on the floor of Mia’s bedroom, enjoying the service of having their toenails painted by a professional crew of tiny painters. The little workers were busily crawling on and in-between the massive toes of the two teenage girls, applying paint and a coat of resin.

“Wow, you’re right,” Chloe said giddily, “these tiny nail services are awesome!” She couldn’t help but wiggle her toes in delight, which scared the tiny servicemen and women. 

“I order them all the time,” Mia giggled. She also wiggled her toes, causing some of the tiny service people to fall between her fleshy toes. She laughed with amusement as she watched them struggle to escape their predicament.

“How can you afford to buy these services?” Chloe asked in amazement. “My mom would never let me spend that much money on them.”

“Really, why not?” Mia asked, confused. “But she’s the governor…,”

“Yeah, one that hates spending money,” Chloe sighed as her toes crawled with tiny people putting on the finishing touches. 

“That’s so messed up,” Mia said. She watched with intense interest as the tiny people between her toes squirmed in fear. Just when it looked like some of them were about to escape, she clenched her toes tightly, her bulbous flesh holding them in place.

“You must have a lot of money then,” Chloe said, watching the little people squeezed between her cousin’s toes. “I think that’s why my mom uses my tiny siblings instead.”

“Nah,” Mia chuckled, “I’ll show you.”

“Huh?” Chloe said.

“Just wait,” Mia said. She watched as the remaining workers feverishly finished up. Some tried to help their fallen co-workers, but most just ended up stuck like them. That made Mia laugh. But the rest started to pack up the equipment. “Are you guys finished already?” she asked with a smile. Most of the tiny workers didn’t acknowledge the giant teenager, they just kept cleaning up and trying to help each other.

“Yes, ma’am,” one of the tiny people said, “we are finished. May I kindly ask that you please spread your toes so we may retrieve our workers? I’m sure you didn’t notice, no offense taken.”

“Oh, I see. So you must be the foreman then?” Mia asked.

He nodded.

“Are you done with my friend's toes as well?” she asked.

Again, he nodded.

“Wonderful!” Mia smiled brightly.

Then she lifted her foot over the tiny foreman and brought it down on him, squishing him instantly. His blood spattered everywhere. The next part was one of Mia’s favorites, the few seconds of disbelief from the other tiny people as they processed what just happened. Then the screaming and pandemonium broke out. Mia grinned. She lifted her foot over a group of tiny workers in shock and squashed them as well. Their tiny bodies splattered noisily against her smooth sole.

“Whoa!” Chloe exclaimed. “What are you doing?”

“Hurry!” Mia said excitedly, pointing toward her cousin’s bare feet. Chloe looked down and saw tiny workers scrambling around aimlessly, they were so scared they didn’t know where to even run. “Chloe, hurry!” Mia called again. Without even thinking, Chloe stamped one of her feet on a few of the workers. “Nice! That was like 5 with one stomp! I bet I can do better!” Mia stood up and watched the panicked people run around. Chloe was wide eyed with anticipation as she watched her older cousin. “Aha!” Mia called out and brought her foot down on another terrified group of workers. Their bodies popped and blood and guts exploded everywhere. Mia lifted her sole to Chloe’s face. “How many was that?”

Chloe counted 5 blood smears on the bottom of her cousins otherwise clean foot. “Uh, that’s 5. So it’s a tie I guess?”

“What? No way!” Mia said, twisting her foot so she could see her sole for herself. “Dang, I thought there were 6!”

“Oh there he is!” Chloe giggled, pointing to the ground where Mia had just stomped.

“Ah, there you are, little guy!” Mia giggled. “You must have found some refuge under the arch of one of my toes, huh?” She put her hands on her hips and smiled. “Well I can easily fix that problem! Now hold still.” She lifted her foot over the tiny and aligned her toes over him. The dazed and confused worker looked around in every direction, but all he could see was another pair of colossal feet and his coworkers, at least those who were left, screaming and running. When he looked back up at the giant teenager that was threatening him, she had already lined up her big toe over top of him. The pad of her bare toe was many times bigger than him, and he could easily see every print and line in it as it hovered above him. 

“He’s so scared!” Chloe said, barely containing her laughter, she still couldn’t hardly believe what her cousin was doing. 

Mia brought her toe down. There was a tiny shriek that was instantly squelched as the tiny person was callously crushed under the giant toe. “Squish!” Mia said, biting her lip.

Not to be outdone, Chloe looked for her next victim. This was fun! She had never been allowed to do this before. She saw one tiny woman, a woman with blond hair. She casually tracked her down with her toes and brought her big toe down on her. Her body squished super easy. “It feels like I’m stepping on a pea!” Chloe chuckled.

“Nice work, little cuz,” Mia grinned. 

Chloe popped a few more people under her toe before setting her foot back down. Mia caught the last few people running away under her sole. They splattered loudly against her heel and squished against the skin of her sole.

“Is that everybody?” Chloe asked, almost disappointedly.

“Yep, I think so,” Mia smirked. “So you see what I mean? I can afford them, cuz I never pay them.”

“What does the MiniSpa say?” Chloe asked.

“Nothing, I just tell them they never came,” Mia shrugged.

“Uh, Mia, you’ve still got…,” Chloe said, pointing at her cousin’s toes while laughing and putting her hand over her mouth. 

“Huh?” Mia said, looking down at her toes, “oh yeah, I totally forgot about you guys! You could have totally escaped when I wasn’t paying attention! You know, because I can’t feel you because you’re so tiny. Oh well, maybe the next group will have better luck!” Mia then squeezed her toes together and wiggled them. She smiled cruelly as their little bodies popped and grinded against the skin of her toes, bloodying them and getting them dirty. “Ah, okay, now we’re all done,” Mia said casually. “So, are you ready to meet my friends at the movies?”

“Aren’t you going to clean your feet first?” Chloe asked.

“Nah,” Mia said, slipping her sandals on. “Cuz if I run into any tinies when I’m out, I like to show them my handiwork.”

“Holy crap, that’s mean!” Chloe chortled. “That’s, like, almost sadistic.”

“More mean and sadistic than what we just did?” Mia cocked an eyebrow. Then she shook her head and laughed. “You got a lot to learn about these ‘tiny people’, Chloe. They are insignificant.”