Perhaps the worst part about being a shrinker is never being sure that when I go to sleep in my own bed, I won’t wake up flattened underneath Mom’s giant sweaty sole. I usually have a hard time drifting off to sleep, with the anxiety welling up inside me at the thought of that very real possibility.

So when I open my eyes just in time to see massive toes already closing around my miniscule, naked body, I’m mortified, but not entirely surprised. I let myself go limp. There’s no point in fighting it… as the massive folds of muscular, sweaty flesh knead me into a tiny ball. I just let it happen.  The forces surrounding me are insurmountable.

“Guess what?” I hear my little sister Wendy’s voice say quietly. “GOT-YOU!” she says in a loud whisper, as she pulls her foot around, opening her toes and wiggling them as she fills my vision with her massive mouth. I look down and can see Mom’s jewel dangling from her neck. She must have stolen it while Mom and Dad were still asleep. It’s early, the sun is just now creeping into the window. And here I am, already smashed between her toes, her massive, cute, grinning face filling my vision.

“Wendy! What are you doing!” I yell up at her as loudly as possible. I know my voice, even then, will barely register. But the house is quiet enough at this hour that she appears to hear me.  I see her massive lips begin to move. 

“I’m going outside to PLAY!” she grins, the brattiest little sister grin she could possibly muster. She then closes her massive toes around me again, squeezing me back into a tiny ball, grinding me around while quietly giggling. She opens her toes again, this time leaving me plastered helplessly to the side of one of them.  I just lay there limply, the breath already squeezed out of me.

Wendy, why? Why are you being such a giant brat!

It doesn’t take long for Wendy to walk back to her room with me still crammed between her second and third toes.  I hardly get a chance to catch my breath as a see the opening of Wendy’s massive blue sneaker approaching, into which I am quickly thrust.  And with that, that quickly, I’m in the darkness, being playfully molded between her gigantic lower digits.  Her feet aren’t so cold today, not that they usually are when she wears me outside to play. In fact, they’re already starting to sweat. I’m not even grounded anymore, Wendy. What’s the deal!

 “I finished your surprise!” I hear Wendy’s muffled voice sing from high above, outside of the stifling sweaty darkness.  Surprise? What is she talking about?

…

…

Wendy grins as she plucks me from between her giant toes.  I’m smashed a bit, but nothing compared to the punishment I’ve received from Anna and Mom in previous weeks.  But despite her usual sweetness, Wendy can definitely have a mean streak. She’s always liked skipping through the yard when she’s got me in one of her shoes.  But secretly… part of me actually likes hearing her singing happily as she hops around in the yard, even if it’s while she’s doing so on top of me.

We’re in her tree-house.  I remember it looking a lot… smaller… last time I was in here, though.

“So, I thought you might LIKE this!” she says. I look up at her freckled face, as she holds my tiny naked body between her thumb and forefinger, the ridges of her fingerprints gripping me tightly.  She thought I might like what? I don’t see anything.  But I suddenly feel that I’m headed downward.  I wince at the suddenness, but at the same time I trust Wendy not to truly hurt me.

“Ta-da!” she sings, as I find myself standing on solid ground, with Wendy’s fingers releasing me and disappearing high upward at her side.  Okay, now I’m in a box.  What is this? The ceiling is about four or five of me tall, and as I look around I can see there is quite a bit of space for me to walk around. 

Then I smell it. Chocolate. I smell chocolate, the strongest whiff of chocolate I have ever smelled.

“Go on, breakfast time!” I see her grin, as she slides the box shut. That’s when I realize this must be a large match box. But I’m not in darkness, as there are tiny holes poked out of the top of the box. The light is fairly dim.  I can make out a… huge… chocolate kiss, already unwrapped, just waiting for me.

Oh… God… YES! I’m… going to make myself so sick….

…

…

The thing about chocolate… is that it melts when outside in the heat.

So when Wendy slides the matchbox open to take a look at me and light shines in, I hear her laughter bust out from high above.  I know I’m covered in melted chocolate.  It’s all over my arms, my legs.  But oh, GOD, it is so good.  So rich, so sweet. Wendy, thank you!

“You did like it, huh?” she grins.  I know amongst the sounds of the birds and other outdoor noises, my voice will probably not reach her ears, so I just look up at her and do a sort of curtsy, attempting to nod ‘yes’ with my entire upper body so she can see. “I thought you would!” she replies, clearly understanding me. 

I actually managed to eat only a very small amount of the total chocolate. But I’m already stuffed. At my current size the entire kiss which would make about twenty of me, maybe more.  Looking up a Wendy, I see her looking at the remaining candy, then at me covered in it, and that huge bratty grin returns to her face.  “You didn’t finish it!” Wendy laughs. Suddenly my entire matchbox-house is being lifted high into the air, myself rolling to the front wall.

My stomach gets tied up in a knot, partly from vertigo, but mainly because I think I know exactly what she’s doing…

…My fear is confirmed as Wendy’s gaping, wide-open mouth appears, filling all vision beneath me as the box is tilted farther and farther toward her.  “Wendy! No!” I scream, but the box continues to shift, leaving me dangling by the corner of it, only my stronger left arm able to hold on.  I see Wendy’s massive hand pass over me, and with a well-placed tap, the giant, partly melted kiss is sent plummeting over top of me, into the darkness of gargantuan little sister’s mouth.  My tiny body was sent for a quick jolt, up and down, but somehow I manage to maintain my grip even as the giant candy is jettisoned.

Wendy’s massive lips close around the chocolate, leaving me dangling alone by the corner of the box.  I reluctantly look down, watching her massive mouth move as she makes quick work of the candy, sucking the melted chocolate, and commences to reopen her mouth, treating me to a view of the chocolate chunk, in moments reduced to a saliva soaked oblong ball floating on her now chocolate-covered tongue.

I can’t help but notice how much of the chocolate has already travelled down her throat.

“COME ON!” Wendy’s massive voice booms, her chocolaty breath washing over me, as my tiring left arm feels like it’s about to give out.  “ALISA, LET GO!” she laughs, her bratty grin filling my vision, as she opens her mouth, extending her huge tongue out below me.  “AH-HHH-HHH…!” reverberates all around me, as she sticks out her tongue out as if it’s been requested by the doctor.  Using her hand, she gives the box a quick shake, and I suddenly find my left hand holding to nothing but open air.

It doesn’t take but a moment for me to land with a bouncy thud on the huge squishy pink muscle known as my little sister’s tongue.  I’m immediately enclosed in darkness, as her massive lips close from the surreal view of the inside of her mouth. As small as I am… I'm sure she can barely feel me.

But the giggles I hear around me are deafening.  I have a sudden, sharp, painful realization, as I remember my poor Aunt Sarah’s horrible end.  Was this what it was like for her?  Was this what she saw, what she felt, when my own chocolaty spit engulfed her tiny helpless form and then took her away, into the darkness of my belly forever? At least I'm pretty sure Wendy doesn’t intend to swallow me.

Now there’s suction.  Suction.  Rhythmic suction. I feel like my arms and legs are being pulled in every direction at once, splaying me out impotently as the huge bumps of Wendy’s tongue press into me and run along every part of my tiny naked body.  “MMMMM!” I hear her voice reverberate all around me, as my chocolate coating is removed.

This is crazy…  Wendy, please… let me out of your mouth… please…

I begin to pull, fighting the suction with every ounce of my strength.  No. STOP!

Please… STOP!

…

…

…

I see blurry light.  Where am I?

Looking up, I see a giant face hovering above me.  I reach up and wipe my face clean, and the face takes clearer form.  It’s Wendy.  We’re still in her treehouse, just like before.  And I’m lying helplessly in her palm.  I’m so tired… I’m clearly no match for the enormity, power, and precision of her gigantic mouth… and gigantic tongue.  I see the violet jewel dangling above me, from her neck.

“Sorry, I’ve sorta… been wanting to do that for a while,” Wendy grins down, with bright eyes.  “Oh, here, I don’t think you ever got to see your box from the outside!” she adds, and I see her hold up the matchbox above me, into my view.  It’s pink, covered in plastic beads and glue… with my name written in bubble letters on the top.  And beautiful hearts drawn lovingly all over it.

“I was thinking this might be nicer than wearing you in my shoe all the time, y’know?” she says. “I mean, we still gotta do that…” she adds, “But lemme know what kinda candy you want next time, I’ll get you whatever!” she grins. “You think you could help me make a tiny little bed for you to sleep in, too, for when you hafta stay that way for good?”

…Hafta stay that way for good?

It only takes a moment for me to put two-and-two together.  There's only one thing that would make Wendy say such a thing: Mom must've let it slip in her presence that I'm going to be shrunken permanently in the near future.

…My days of waking up in my bed as a normal-sized girl are coming to an end.

God… It wouldn’t be so bad if Wendy got to keep me, as she seems to think she will… but I know better. 

Oh yes, I know better. Mom will have me buried underneath her sweaty, enormous feet for weeks… no, months on end, if this comes to pass.  The last glimpse of light I ever see will probably be from between her giant toes as they slide into her sneaker overtop of me for the thousandth-thousandth time, with no end in sight. And if I get to see Anna at all… I’ll be the size of an ant.  Demoted to toe-jam…? I’ll be a permanent resident between her toes.  There will be no hope of any sort of friendship if I’m permanently shrunken, I’ll be nothing.  Nothing to Anna at all.

“I better take this back before Mom wakes up,” Wendy says, taking the violet jewel in her hand.  “You think Mom’ll even keep this thing?” she adds, further confirming my suspicions that soon, in the future, the jewel will have no purpose. Yes, clearly I'm right.

“Alright! Back in my shoe,” Wendy grins, her face taking on that obnoxious-little-sister, Imma-make-you-smell-my-feet look I know so well by this point.  Without a moment of hesitation, I find that I’m plummeting along with Wendy’s hand, and as she tilts her palm, I fall with a thud to the insole of her blue sneaker.  I get just a quick glance at her freckled face looking down at me before her foot eclipses my view and enters. It quickly smashes my tiny body into the filthy insole, as she lets her weight stand upon me. I hear her giggle as she takes off for the house, her massive footfalls smashing me under her smelly sole with each step, as she loves to do.  Oh God… shrunken… permanently.

I'm in big trouble.