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Her name was Jennifer. She’d lived upstairs from me in this small apartment complex for several years now. We were friendly to one another, a couple times hanging out to watch movies, and once grabbing a drink at the neighborhood bar down the block.

And she was gorgeous, 23 years old, blond, tall with a great body. I thought that I could never have a chance with her. She was a bartender as a popular college bar and was hit on all night long by dozens of guys that probably had more to offer than me. I was afraid to make a move on her because I didn’t want to ruin our friendship. But, my God, I would love one night with her. But I’d better not, but I’d love too, but....sigh, I was never a good decision maker.

So one afternoon, as my story continues, I look out my window and notice that Jennifer’s car was parked out in front of our building. Nervously, I walked up the stairs that led to her apartment door, expecting to simply say hello to her, check out what she was wearing (God, her sun dresses!), and then stumble back to my quiet apartment and wish I had flirted more. Outside her door, I fixed my hair and sucked my belly in, and then knocked. No reply. I knocked again and waited 30 seconds. Nothing. Hmmm. I turned the door knob and her door opened. What the hell was I doing, I thought, maybe I shouldn’t just barge in like this. If anyone asks, I’ll say the door was open and I was worried about her, yeah, that’s what I’ll say.

In her apartment, her living room was lit brightly by the afternoon sun streaming through the windows. Her place was very clean, hardwood floors shiny and furniture neatly arranged, with some women’s magazines on her coffee table, and a pair of flip flops next to her couch. I heard a sound coming from her other room, clearly the noise of the shower running. She was showering. That thought scared and excited me. I turned to leave and come back later, but but but, I wanted to stay, I wanted to hear her singing in the shower. I wanted to get the hell out of there so I wouldn’t be a pervert, too. But, I slowly inched forward to the sound of the water splashing, splashing all over her, dear God. And that’s when I saw the red light.

Suddenly, a box on the wall similar in appearance to a fuse box or a thermostat shined a bright red light onto my body. I froze, not knowing what to expect, before the box spoke to me.

“You are not permitted to be here, please exit as swiftly as possible.”

Oh, a motion-sensitive alarm system. Top of the line, obviously. Jennifer made a ton of money working at the bar. Drunk guys were more than happy to tip a beautiful girl five dollars for a beer. She could afford something this fancy. Slowly backing away, the machine gave me its final warning.

“If you do not leave immediately, you will be shrunk. The authorities will be notified, and you will be apprehended.”

Is that, wait, is that real, I thought. I couldn’t even imagine that such a technology existed. A home alarm system that can also shrink you? To what size? Much like my desire for Jennifer, I was afraid but overwhelmingly tempted, I was much too curious to simply walk out the door. So I stayed. After five seconds the light grew brighter and enveloped my whole body, and suddenly I was on the ground.

Oh God, the alarm had not lied to me. I was small, maybe ant small, who knows, maybe smaller. With nothing around me it was hard to judge my actual size. I stared up at everything around me, looking for somewhere to run, somewhere to hide. I was guessing that Jennifer would be out of the shower soon, and at my size, she could easily step right on me without even knowing I was there.

Wait, I thought, didn’t the machine say that the police were to come and arrest me? As I pondered an officer standing over me with a pair of tweezers, trying to arrest me (somehow), I suddenly began hearing a loud buzzing noise. I looked up and noticed a fly, a giant housefly headed, right towards me. Well, that’s the end of me, I figured, as I sprinted away from the incoming insect. I can’t believe I didn’t even consider the possibility of insects being able to eat me alive. How sad. I really wanted to see Jennifer come out from the shower. And to live.

The creature slammed in front of me, easily overtaking me. But this wasn’t a housefly. It was metal; it was only designed as an insect. The metallic monster towered over me, and I fell backwards onto my rear, unable to figure out what was happening to me. I was the size of a flea staring at a machine shaped like a bug. While saying my prayers using a few too many swear words, the metal fly leaned forward over me, its tube-shaped mouth positioned above my head, as it sucked me into its body. I flew up into a small grey room, three meters by three meters. Well, great.

The room started to shake heavily as the great buzzing sound of the mecha-fly returned. I sat holding my ears, desperately trying to hold onto my ability to hear in the future. Luckily, seconds later, the shaking and buzzing ceased, and my tiny prison was eerily quiet. Maybe the fly is taking me to the police station, I guessed. But how would it get out of the apartment? A alarm system just shrunk me to the size of speck, so I can assume that anything is possible.

It was then when the bottom of my jail cell flipped open, forcing me to slide down onto a clear glass surface. I screamed as I slid down, completely unaware of where I was, and where I was headed. I looked around me and saw that I was in a giant glass, like a test tube. As soon as I had noticed this, I slid onto the bottom. I glanced up just in time to watch the metal fly’s bottom door close and it take off. As the buzzing of the fly disappeared, I reasoned that with enough time I could climb my way out of this glass prison I now occupied. As the manged to crawl for a few seconds on the glass surface, the great test tube suddenly shifted so that it was upright, and I slid back down onto the bottom.

I was stuck, there was no escape from this. I walked over the edge of the glass tube and looked out, figuring from my point of view that the mechanical fly had scooped me up and dropped me off into the alarm system on the wall. Well, at least I wasn’t stuck on the floor anymore. But now what? Am I teleported to prison? It sounds crazy, but, hell, that technology might exist. God forsaken shrink rays do. Or maybe the police will come and capture me, unshrink me at the police station, and book me for breaking and entering. Or does Jennifer find me like this?

Oh dear God, I completely forgot the fact that Jennifer was still home. I was a tiny little speck, and Jennifer was in the same house as me. I can still hear the shower running in the other room. But then, the sound of the flowing water stopped. I can’t, shit, I can’t let her see me like this. Maybe she won’t know I’m here, I guess, but just as I think that, I look up and notice on the alarm box my test tube is attached to that a red LED light is blinking rapidly, as if to say, “Hey, Jennifer, I captured a little man that broke into your house! Here he is!”

I have no choice but to sit and wait and stare at the bathroom door. Soon, Jennifer will emerge, spot the blinking red light, and, well, I don’t know. While pondering the possibilities, the door creaked open and out she walked. She quickly hustled to her bedroom, right next to her bathroom. Oh, the torture! She didn’t even see the alarm. She didn’t even see me, in her house. I suppose she went into her bedroom to dry off and put on clothes. It was getting later into the afternoon; she would soon need to prepare and head out for her night shift at the bar.

Still stuck sitting in my glass prison, I remembered once when Jennifer and I were hanging out in my kitchen. I was making dinner after a long day at the office, and she had stopped by to pick up a DVD she had let me borrow a couple days before. As I was stirring a pot of pasta on the stove, Jennifer quietly said, “Ugh,” and twisted her finger on the counter. I asked her what she was doing, and she replied that she was crushing an ant that had just crawled by.

Embarrassed because I didn’t want her to think that I would have a pest problem, I jokingly responded, “Hey now, that ant was a buddy of mine. Please don’t squish any more of my friends!”

She looked down at the flattened ant and noticed another tiny ant crossing my counter top a couple feet away. Leaning over the insect, she said, “Oh look, one of your friends is looking for you.” Jennifer lifted her hand above the creature and gave a thumbs down gesture. Slowly she lowered her thumb onto the ant. I went to mouth off another quip but was too taken aback by her demeanor. Her incredible domination of that insect shut me up completely.

Jennifer dropped her thumb onto the poor ant and twisted the life out of it. Neither of us said anything. Smiling, she grabbed her movie and walked out my kitchen, glancing at me and nodding goodbye on her way.

What I learned from this is that my beautiful upstairs neighbor was sexy as hell. Also, she might be crazy. But what I’m gleaming from that earlier event now is that she can crush the life out of a tiny being with no remorse. Those two ants she squashed were probably larger in size than me. I started to panic and hopelessly claw at the sides of my test tube, but then, I heard her bedroom door open.

Out she came, into her living room. Even across the room from me, she was enormous. It reminded me of when I’d drive home from work, down the road that follows the river, and see the giant oil tankers and cruise ships standing in the harbor. I’d wonder, how can they be? So large and stable and, even from miles away, impossible. Thus, it was here, as Jennifer walked out into the middle of the room, wearing a blue and white dress, her blond hair done up, barefoot, no makeup. God, she was gorgeous. Her beauty let me temporarily forget that I had been shrunken. That changed when I saw her eyes turn toward the open front door to her apartment, and then to alarm system I was in. Oh my God, her face seemed to say. She walked towards me.

Within two seconds Jennifer’s face was my world. I could see nothing but her. Her eyes darted around me, as her hand pressed buttons on the alarm system. I screamed her name, but it was of no use. Clearly this was new to her as well. After a minute of button pressing, the alarm finally spoke, saying, “One intruder, entered 15:45, shrunk 15:46. Detained in tube. Call authorities or follow instructions for regrowth in the case of accidental shrinking.”

I uncovered my ears to the maddeningly loud message, to see Jennifer’s face retain its “Oh my God” appearance. Her eyes moved to the test tube I was in and slowly down to me. Jennifer was finally looking at me! But was I “me” to her, or an “intruder,” as her alarm system would lead her to believe. She leaned in towards me with one eye, squinting at me attempting to discern what was contained at the bottom of the glass. I was jumping up and down, screaming, “Jenny, Jenny!” Her massive eye pulled away from me as her hand lifted to the glass chamber I sat within.

Jennifer grabbed the tube with two fingers and pulled it from the alarm system on the wall. I could see her two fingers a little above my head pressed against the glass, making me feel smaller than I’d felt so far in this ordeal. What was she doing with me, I again wondered. Finally, an answer came when I felt the tube shift as it was turned onto its side. I tumbled from the bottom of the glass onto the side as it slowly leaned and then slipped and fell downward to outside the tube, onto a ridged pinkish surface, four giant towers behind me, dear God, I’m in Jennifer’s palm. There’s her thumb, to the left of me.

Okay, fuck. To recap. I went up to my beautiful neighbor’s apartment a few hours ago, to say hello, how are you. But now, instead, I’m 1/16th of an inch and laying in the palm of her hand. Some days do not always end up as you’d imagine.

“Oh, hello, little thief! Whatcha doing in my house?”, she said to me. I tried again to stand up and jump up and down, pleading my case, but, I’m simply too small for her to hear me. She watched me, having a joking pity on me. Eventually, she brings up her other hand and extends her pointer finger, placing it gently before me. Her long fingernail, unpainted, stands in front me, at a 45 degree angle. I walk up to her nail. It’s white in front of me and then as I look up at it, becomes a pinker hue. I finally feel even smaller when I realize I’m shorter than the weekly growth on her fingernail.

Why is she doing this, does she want me to crawl up her nail? Why not, what else am I to do? I look up at her face, noticing her earlier confusion has turned into a smile. So I place both my hands on her gigantic fingernail and work my way up, maybe 20 feet my scale. Jennifer then levels her finger out and brings it up to her eye. She just stares at me for what was only a minute or so, but to me, an eternity.

Lord knows what horrible things she has in her mind. Or maybe wonderful things, like how she can unshrink me and PUT ME BACK TO NORMAL!

With me still standing (well, cowering) on her fingernail, Jennifer slowly lowered me down to the middle of the living room. She tilted her finger, making me slide slowly onto her hardwood floors. I landed with a thud on my rear, and stood up to see Jennifer pulling her finger away to stand straight up.

Now, being as small as I was in someone’s hand made me feel insignificant, but on the floor, with Jennifer’s toes briefly towering over me, and then, higher to her knees, then belt, then breasts, then face...there is no comparison. I am a bug, I am a nothing.

I fell to my knees in helplessness. However, Jennifer’s loud foot stomps shook me back into conscience. She headed back over to the shrinker alarm system. After pressing a few buttons, I was covered in a red glow and, pow, grew to two feet tall.

I was elated and began to run over to Jennifer to hug her leg and apologize to her for going into her apartment.

“Oh, fuck, it’s you,” she said, walked towards me, still towering over me. She walked back over to the box on the wall, and the red light returned me to my normal height. I continued with my original plan and hugged her, squeezing and squeezing, until she asked me to calm down. “I bought this shrinker alarm system to protect me from crazy drunken guys that liked to follow me home from my bar. Actually, you are the first person I’ve ever seen get shrunk. I can’t believe I was just holding you in my hand! Like a little fucking ant!”

This quickly reminded me of my crushing those two ants, and how several minutes ago, I could have experienced the same fate. But that didn’t matter, I was normal again! To think of how small I just was, a speck on the floor. I looked down at where I was several minutes ago and shuddered at the thought of what had happened.

Afterwards, Jennifer and I hung out in her living room for an hour or so until she had to leave for work. I told her the story of how I was miniaturized and carried by the metal fly to the glass tube, and then being held in her hand and crawling up her fingernail. To her, it was unbelievable, as I’d guess it would be.

“Well, kiddo, you’re lucky I didn’t squish you in my hand today. Try to stay at least bigger than an ant from now on, okay? I’d hate to step on you, even though I’d probably never know it!”

I smiled to make it seem as if I appreciated her jokes, but mostly I was terrified. It was as if she was waving the shrink ray in my face. She giggled as we walked out her front door. We both walked down the stairs, and as I put my key in the door, I looked back at Jennifer heading towards her car. Looking down at her feet, I imagined myself shrunken again as her massive form walks over me without any knowledge I was even there. I swallowed and stepped inside my apartment.

She had total control over me before because of her beauty, but now that I see her as a gigantic goddess, the thought of her shakes me to the core. Even though it was only six at night, I took two shots of whiskey and went to bed.


I didn’t see Jennifer for a few days after that. All I could do I think about the incident though. Who would be able to get such an experience out of their mind? Every day at the office, every night at the movies with friends or home alone watching television, my mind would turn to Jennifer’s apartment, my muscles would twitch, I’d begin to breathe heavier. Something was different about me.

 

I had to go back.

 

 

 

 

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