Beep beep beep.
I leaped out of bed to the sound of my alarm clock going off, everything was hazy and if I keep going unconscious like that I'm bound to start developing memory lapses. Still, the sound of that alarm clock means only one thing, that it's time for work.
I groggily rolled out of bed and noticed instantly a shocking abnormality, my room felt more spacious than it ever had been before, and mind you that didn't mean I was suddenly living in a bigger more luxurious space. The only other conclusion means, that I had shrunk again, the only question being by how much this time. The idea of only losing a few inches in height in exchange for my wish sounded like a great trade-off in hindsight, but how long would this go on for?!
More weirdly at the edge of the bedroom door there's a measuring chart that I never had setup before, it's odd, but convenient. Walking closer, I noticed there were a few benchmarks, they must serve as an indicator of my previous heights at the highest one was at 5'8 which was my former tallest height, another one at 5'6, at 5'4, and one more at 5'1. My stomach began knotting up in anxiety, most people use something like this when they're growing up as kids and marking how much they've grown. In my case it's the opposite, they're marks of how much I shrunk. I'm already 3 inches shorter than I remember being yesterday, even worse, I was looking UP at the 5'1 mark. A part of me didn't want to know how I measured up now, but I have to know. Straightening up to the best of my ability, to delude myself that I appeared a bit taller than I probably am, I totaled in at 4'8.
One foot . .I was an entire foot shorter than I was before I met Dana!? Now I have to go to work in the public! This wasn't like before while jogging with Christina, there's no way people won't notice how much shorter I am! I would love to call out of work, but at this short notice I know Candace will have a fit, I'm already on thin ice with her, there's no way around it, I've got to bite the bullet and go.
The strangeness didn't end though, my apartment was already accommodated with stepping stools, closet shelves were lower to better suit my height, and even my clothes which should be hanging off me fit perfectly as if I bought them for my current height, I wonder if that was Dana's doing.
Every moment I spent getting ready was full of paranoia on how I will respond when the inevitable question is asked, the only way to avoid that is to just stay here all day, which isn't an option and on the other hand nothing on Earth would whimsically explain an apparent loss of height, so working up some courage I slowly exited the apartment. I felt far better out here the world did seem bigger than I recall which is to be expected, but at least there's a greater degree of normalcy out here. I managed to get to my car, so far so good, until I caught the sight of Christina doing her daily jog.
“ Good morning Matt! “ She said waving as she jogged past me. Mind officially blown, it was only for a fleeting few seconds, but that's all I needed to realize how short I am now. Christina stood a full head and shoulders above me, another two inches and it'd be a clear foot! How in the world, will Amelia or Candace look by comparison? These thoughts lingered in my mind for the entirety of my drive to work, like my room the car seat was already adjusted and books were even in place to help me see above the steering wheel.
Upon reaching the store, I zipped in with the tact of a reconnaissance specialist finding the shortest possible route into the store, and navigating the aisles to the back so I can punch in all while avoiding contact with people. That was the easy part though, now I had to complete an 8 hour shift and I wouldn't be able to shift and dodge my way out of that, interaction with people is inevitable.
“ Come on, keep it together Mat you can do this.” I said to myself, to reassure my confidence.
“ Talking to yourself short-stack?” I heard from behind me, no doubt in my mind that it's Amelia.
“ Who you calling short-stack sho-” I began to reply without consideration on how things may look from her perspective. I turned around and one of the last things I ever thought I'd have to do was look up to the 5'3 Amelia.
“ I'm calling you short-stack silly, you make even me feel tall.” She teasingly regarded, there was truth to her words, but. . . she's not surprised. Not asking “ WHAT THE FUCK, WHY ARE YOU SO SHORT?!” Not a word about my height, no inquisition, just a normal interaction on her part.
“ I guess so.” I tried to respond naturally, not going to bring up if she noticed what I thought would be glaringly obvious if I didn't have to. “ So do you need anything?”
“Oh don't mind me, Candace wanted me to stick close around you today to make sure everything goes alright with your shift today.”As always, Candace is keeping her damn hawk eyes on me. Whatever, I'd rather deal with Amelia than her and luckily I got here without having to see her.
After punching in, it was time to go to work helping whatever customers needed help locating anything or suggestions. Amelia always lurked nearby to see if I needed any sort of assistance I found it borderline creepy the way she loomed over me and acting like I could do nothing on my own. Whenever it got slow, we ( mainly her) chatted away about school, work, or other occurrences in her life, the one topic that I prepared to be the main focus of the day didn't come up. When it did, it came in the form of poking jabs calling me names like half-pint, little dude, etc. While she poked fun at my height, never once did the question arise on how I became this height.
During the instances where it became busier I felt far more conscientious than normal at the thought of approaching and interacting with customers who were all much larger than I. It is my job to stop and ask them if they need help, only now though I felt like I would be an annoying little pest to them that they in turn will peer down and shoo' me away. Most of them ended up brushing past me and went straight to Amelia with questions they need answered and while I did welcome her taking on the brunt of the customer service. I guess I did prefer before to not have to deal with many customers, but the lack of acknowledgment from customers bothered me. Seeing one young woman and her daughter who seemed no older than 8 walking, appearing lost I decided to approach her to see if I could help.
“ Excuse me, miss, can I help you look for something?” I asked, respectfully enough. The mother in response though stared down at me wordlessly. “ Um, can I help you little boy?” She asked, not hearing my previous question at all, her words hit me like a stone, is that how the rest of the customers view me?
“ N-no, I'm asking if I could help you..” I said. Blinking her eyes a few times, the mother noticed my uniform and laughed softly in embarrassment at the awkward situation she created.
“ Oh, I'm sorry! I um . . didn't think you were an employee here, because . .you know.” She lightheartedly said hovering her hand low over the ground to indicate my height didn't give her the impression. I can tell she was trying not to offend or upset me so I tried to take it in stride. That didn't mean her daughter had the same reservation.
“ Hey mom look! I'm almost as tall as he is!” The young girl said, standing side by side to me for her to notice the comparison of our heights. It's true, she probably only 3-4 inches shorter than I am. She even got onto the tips of her toes a few times, and appeared even more excited to see in doing so made her a smidge taller than me. It beyond freaked me out, and I felt worse when I heard her mom stifle a laugh at what was a humorous sight to her that a young working adult is almost shorter than a girl who is in elementary school.
“ Okay, young lady you can stop, it's not you he's just. . . .not very tall. Apologize.” She said, noticing her poor choice in wording, but still tried to avoid the use of the word short or small. The young girl finally went back to her mother's side. I felt relieved, however the bothered expression on my face apparent.
“ I'm sorry little boy.” The young girl said, and the mother immediately covered her mouth and began to escort her away with an apologetic look on her face. “ Sir, she means.” Even though she tried her best not to mend the situation the damage was done, and I waited for them to be out of sight.
That was the worst, and sadly based on both their reactions to the rest of the customers I probably think I was a kid who strayed off from his parents, rather than an employee. It was all becoming too weird for me, I needed a break.
Waiting for another slow moment, I scurried into the back aiming to head to the break room. It only had been 2 hours, but it felt like I had already did a full 8 hours, I felt far more depleted than I should for only having done a fourth of my shift. It must be the stress of this all, I gotta clear my head. Now all I have to do is get by Candace without her noticing. I'll just sneak by and its home f-
“ Mr. Valon!” I heard straight from Candace's office.“ Can you please come here for a moment.” Fuck. I'm done for.