Chapter 1

From the moment of its founding, Alden Smith University had been run by men named Alden Smith. Check that. It had been dominated by men named Alden Smith. Alden Smith Sr. founded the university as Alden Smith Bible College in 1926. He wanted a place that prepared young men for the ministry, or to prepare them to live a Christian life. Alden Smith, Jr., who took over after his father's death in 1967, decided to upgrade the school's name to "university" and add a few secular disciplines. He also decided, in the face of a titanic struggle with the board of trustees, to make the school coeducational. But he insisted upon a strict separation of the sexes.

That separation expressed itself in many ways. A line was painted down the middle of each classroom. Men sat on one side, women on the other. Modesty in dress was demanded. Men had to wear trousers to class, and women had to wear dresses that came down to calf level. High heels and makeup were discouraged. Visitation of the opposite sex's dorm was not permitted at any time. No touching, not even holding of hands, was permitted, much less a hug or a kiss. Dancing was forbidden. The only time this rule was relaxed was during Friday night "visiting time", when male and female students gathered in the courtyard (or the cafeteria during the colder months) to socialize. Then they could hold hands. Anything farther was forbidden, and might earn one a squirt of ice-cold water from the spray bottle of the grandmotherly lady assigned to oversee the proceedings. Further infractions could be cause for demerits, suspension or expulsion from the school. If the Princeton Review had been aware of the school, it surely would have topped its list of "Non Party Schools." The Smiths knew that the secular world, not to mention many Christians, would view these proscriptions as somewhat extreme. They were prepared for that. They believed they had authority, based on their understanding of holy scripture, to do what they were doing in the way they were doing it.

The students of Alden Smith were also shielded from the media -- a jarring change for those who grew up in more permissive surroundings and had computers, iPods and in-room TV. Any and all electronic media were forbidden.  In its one concession to modernity, the school allowed students to download lectures, sermons, and music with a religious orientation to their IPods through specially approved servers in the library. Needless to say, the student body at Alden Smith was not immersed in the sensationalized world of 24-hour cable news.

Only the faculty and administrators were allowed to watch cable tv, and then only the news and "family" channels. Alden Smith III, the university's current president, age 44, was an avid watcher of news, as he was often called upon to state his university's position on moral issues, usually debating some psychiatrist, pop psychologist, secularist, or moral libertine. Thus his attention was focused on the TV set in his living room one Tuesday afternoon, when the female anchors began reporting the mysterious disappearance of men, followed a few hours later by word that men -- and only men -- were shrinking after sexual intercourse with women.

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Clarissa shifted uncomfortably in her chair. It was not because of her "dorm room zoftig" figure. The 21 year old junior (5'6") was in the library, engaged in her normal study period before dinner. She had just thought about her boyfriend, Stan, also a junior. She had never so much as kissed him, and if the school administrators heard her describing him as a "boyfriend", there would have been a sit-down with a female counselor at the very least. Yet her thoughts about him had been very explicit and graphic. They seemed just to jump away from her for a moment. When she blinked and focused again, she found that her nipples had responded, and her nether regions had become moist. She also noticed a strange odor in the air. Did someone bring honey into the library? The aroma was so strong that she found it impossible to apply herself to her studies, and returned to her dorm room. Perhaps a cold shower would help things, she thought.

Twenty minutes and a shower later, Clarissa found that her powerful lusts were unquenched. She had held on to her virginity despite temptation, but this urge was more powerful than any she had known to this point. On this campus, there was only one answer immediately at hand. Clarissa sat down at a study desk and began to pray for help.

---

"Goddess of Love!" Alden Smith III snorted at the TV. "Neo-pagan baloney! A hoax by some New Agers hoping to promote their vision of female dominance." For Smith, his understanding of Scripture made clear which sex was supposed to have dominion over the other. He had his doubts about the greater story. Men shrinking? Nothing
in current science makes that possible. Honey aroma? How sensationalist, to associate this plague with a food mentioned in the Bible. Smith began to wonder if the news networks were cooperating in a plot to increase their ratings with tabloid circus stunts.

Smith was skeptical until he received a phone call from his sister, Darla Jones, in Iowa with disturbing news about her husband.

"I don't know what I'm going to do, Alden. John is five inches tall now! I've been carrying him with me everywhere I go."

"So it's real?" Smith shot back. "People really are shrinking?"

"Men are the ones shrinking, Alden. No women. Three of my neighbors had the same experience overnight."

"Let John know that I'm praying for both of you." Smith hung up. He reared back in his chair, and for a long time he sat motionless. Could there be a "goddess"
shrinking men? Of course not. But this wasn't explainable by science either. The doctors asked for their opinions on TV said there was no sign the shrinkage was cuased by disease. Certainly those dreadful evolutionists would try to call this some mutation in the human form, but Smith would call them on it the next time he was called for cable TV news. That perhaps meant the strange reduction of men to a size small enough to be held in the hands of their women was somehow the work of God. Was this a sign of the approaching Apocalypse? Smith pulled out his huge KJV with concordance, the same Bible copy that had seen his father and grandfather through the tough times of building the University.

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Robin, a 5'7" sophomore with a slender figure, auburn hair and green eyes, heard a strange sound behind the door of her dorm room at Alden Smith. She opened the door very carefully. She could then see clearly the source of the noise. Clarissa, her roommate, was seated at the study desk sobbing. Robin wondered if Clarissa had brought in some honey from the school cafeteria, for that was the smell filling the room.

"What's the matter, Clarissa?" Robin asked her dormmate.

"You wouldn't believe it", Clarissa answered through tears.

"Try me."

"I've been having thoughts about Stan, and I can't stop them."

"You mean.... sexual thoughts?"

Clarissa looked up for a moment in silence. In a weak voice she answered... "Yes."

"Have you prayed about them?"

"Yes,  I have. But I still keep having them. They're stronger than anything I've ever felt before, Robin. I just" -- Clarissa's voice dropped to a whisper -- "I just want
to rip all of Stan's clothes off his body and take him inside me RIGHT NOW!"

Robin blushed at Clarissa's frankness. Such language was never heard inside the campus of Alden Smith University.

"Remember everything you've lived by since I've known you, Clarissa. You're saving yourself for marriage, hopefully to Stan. Don't ruin your future and your marriage.
You've held on this long. If you break down now, where will it stop? If they find out about it, you won't be allowed to stay at Alden Smith."

"This feeling is so powerful I can't worry about that. I feel as empty as a vacuum in space. I feel so empty and vacant, I think I could take Stan in from head to toe.
I need to be filled up, Robin. I need love."

"All right, Clarissa. Where have you been hiding romance novels?"

"I swear, Robin, I didn't sneak any romance novels in here."

"Then I don't know where you got the idea to start talking that way."

"I feel like a dam with water building up on one side, Robin. If I don't find an outlet, I'll burst.

"Clarissa, you need to see the female counselor. I'm taking you to her office after first class tomorrow, girlfriend."

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"So why's your head buried in the big Bible?"

As Smith looked up from in the huge bound KJV Bible that was the centerpiece of his university president's office, he saw the face and upper torso of
his 41-year-old wife, Janet, standing at her full 5'7". They had met while Smith attended college -- at Alden Smith, of course. Their twin daughters had scandalized the family by going elsewhere for their higher education.

"I've been trying to reach the girls on their cellphones, but they don't answer. I'm afraid for them", Janet sighed.

"Perhaps we should be afraid", replied Smith, "that our daughters have gone into a demonic frenzy and are making men tiny themselves."

"Alden, I don't think our babies would do that." Janet had kept her figure well, aside from some obvious stretch marks earned by those twins. She liked how she looked, and had she not spent much of her life in the rigidly modest world of Alden Smith University, would have shown that figure off a little more. She turned to her husband. "Do you really believe that this shrinking business is of the devil?"

"I do not call the devil the author of this phenomenon. I think it could be a sign of the end times. I believe he's taking advantage of conditions, to be sure. The chaos caused by the reduction of men could be a cue for the Antichrist to move to center stage."

"The Antichrist would have to be a she. Or gay. Or a celibate male."

"That leaves The View, Cape Cod and the Vatican as likely sources", Smith quipped, causing his wife to playfully smack him with a rolled-up newspaper.

"If it is not the work of the devil," Janet said, "and there's no known natural cause, then why couldn't this be the work of God? For whatever reason, perhaps the Lord has decided that this will help relations between the sexes."

Smith raised his eyebrow at the direction Janet's thoughts were taking. "This cannot be of God, Janet. I remind you of 1st Corinthians Chapter 11, verses eight and nine: 'For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.' Man rules over woman as
Christ rules over man. A man cannot do his job as "spiritual cop" of the household if his wife and children are several times larger than himself. This is another sign of
the social unraveling described in prophecy for the "end times."

"I know it's different for you because of how you were raised", Janet replied, "but usually it's the woman who manages to drag the man off to a church. That's the way it was with my parents. A lot of men neglect their spiritual duties to their wives and children. Sometimes they're so consumed by work they forget they have a home and a family to tend to." Janet left unsaid that she thought at times that last sentence could apply to her husband. "I don't think it would be so bad for the world if all the men were tiny. I think it would be kind of cute." Janet laughed, but her eyes rolled upward, as she was considering possibilities that were heretofore unimaginable.

"I hope you're not serious. I'm calling a prayer service tonight for the students and faculty to pray for an end to this pestilence."

Janet walked over and rubbed Smith's shoulders. "I didn't mean to understate the seriousness of this. It's a major disruption to have men becoming tiny. What happens
to all the construction and manual labor? Who fights the wars? I hope they find a way to stop whatever it is. By the way," she cooed, "after the prayer service, do
you think we could spend some time together alone, as husband and wife?"

Smith blustered an answer. "I -- I just don't think it would be appropriate on a night like this", and got up and walked toward the door, leaving a disappointed Janet to lower her head and sigh. Alden had another reason for rejecting  her request. He had noticed a slight honey odor in the room, and since he didn't like honey, he didn't allow
Janet to keep any in the house. I'm starting to believe those sensational TV shows, Smith thought to himself.

At his prayer service, Smith did not describe the mysterious situation in depth, saying only that "a dramatic wasting plague" has affected certain members of the population. Students were confused, but as their obedience was expected, they prayed for the people of the world. Because the service went on till nearly eleven o' clock, dorm supervisors skipped the usual bed check. Robin and Clarissa were walking across campus, back to their rooms. Off to their right, off the quadrangle, was the men's dorm.

"How are you doing," Robin asked, "with your desires?"

"They've only gotten worse", answered Clarissa, "and I can't stand it! I'm so wet, I think I left a puddle back in the pew!"

Robin had felt a strange tingle come over her own body during the service. She noticed a sexual response of her own, and wondered if whatever bothered Clarissa was contagious.

"You spent a lot of time at the women's laundry this afternoon", Robin answered.

"It was the only way I could work it down!" Clarissa whispered. "I--". She looked at the men's dorm again. "There's no bed check tonight! I'm running over to the men's dorm, and as soon as lights are out, I'm going to climb into Stan's room and make love to him like nothing he's ever seen!"

"No, don't do that!" Robin answered. She saw Clarissa had a serious look in her eyes. Clarissa took off running toward the men's quarters. Robin ran after her, half trying to stop her, the other half wanting to do the same thing.