“Mom…” Scott whimpered as peaceably as he could, trying to make no sudden movements.  “Listen.  There’s… there’s two sides here.”

                “Oh, I’ll just BET there are… just like there always is.  There’s always a reason for you acting out, Scott.  Always.”

                “Mom…”

                “BE QUIET,” thundered Judy, filling the entire house with the fiery command of her voice.

                Scott clenched his eyes tightly shut.  Had they done enough on the PMRD to prevent it from functioning correctly?  Would it not work?

                And then the more frightening thought struck him.  What if it did work, but not as it normally did?

                What if something went wrong?

                Cursing his luck and most of all his sister under his breath, Scott’s eyes scanned across the room, and he realized his brother had quietly repacked the PMRD and placed it under the hallway table to help allay suspicion before slinking upstairs to his bedroom to ride out the maternal storm.  A small blessing.  Maybe this could work after all.  Sighing, he turned to face his mother, who by now had cheeks flushed bright red, her eyes narrowed in on him and firing daggers.

                Scott felt himself tremble around his knees, like they’d suddenly turned to jelly.  He didn’t even know if he had the will to move, let alone speak.

                “Now.  Here’s what’s going to happen,” Judy said, lowering her voice again but removing none of the venom from her words.  “I’m going to go put my shopping away in my room.  I’m going to take a shower.  I’m going to come back here.  And we’re going to find a more suitable height for you for the rest of the week.”  With that, Judy stomped off in the other direction, scooped up her shopping bags as well as the PMRD with a flourish, and headed upstairs toward her bedroom.

                Once their mother was out of earshot, Maggie rose to her feet and sauntered toward her brother, a smug smile spread across her lips.

                “She’s gonna shrink you, you know.”

                “Yeah,” Scott said quietly, trying to maintain his composure.

                “I’ll bet a lot, too.  She’s pretty mad.”

                “Yeah.”

                “And she’s gonna put you in her shoes.”

                “Yeah,” Scott swallowed solemnly.

                There was an awkward silence for a moment as Maggie came to a halt, standing in front of her brother, her arms clasped absentmindedly behind her back as she looked up at her considerably taller brother.

                “And what was it?  A week, she said?” Maggie offered with false sugar in her voice.  Scott nodded.

                “So… a week.  A week at a size probably small enough for her to fit you between her toes.  Just… just walkin’ on you, everywhere she goes.”

                “Yes,” Scott said through gritted teeth.

                “Eeeeeeverywhere.”

                “Uh-huh.”

                “She’ll probably barely let you out.  I bet you’ll faint, like a scared little girl.”

                “Maggie…”

                “And she’ll take you out and pour some water on you or something to wake you up, and then… back in you go!”

                “Stop,” Scott growled, not even looking at his sister, his anger at all things in general too great at the moment.

                “All I’m saying is, it’s gonna suck unless you do something about it.”

                “What could I possibly do about it?” Scott hissed, suddenly looking up.

                “Well… I mean… there’s a few things, I guess,” said Maggie coyly, stroking her chin, as if she didn’t already have some scheme cooked up in her head.  “Like… you know how Mom likes to keep things even?  Whenever she does stuff to us like this, she always makes sure it kinda makes sense with whatever we did wrong, just so we remember or something?”

                Scott nodded, frowning bitterly but agreeing with her words.  Where was she going with this?

                “So… I figure… since she saw you push me… maybe… she’d let me be the one who punishes you,” Maggie said, obviously relishing every word.

                “What?  No way!” Scott growled back.  “She wouldn’t do that.”

                “Well, no, probably not unless I asked… but I don’t know if I want to.”

                “Okay… then why are we even discussing this?” Scott asked grumpily, flopping down into a chair at the kitchen table to savor his remaining minutes of being able to fit comfortably into one.

                “Because it would probably be better for you.  I’d make it look like I wanted to punish you a lot, but maybe I’d just wear you until I got upstairs, and then I’d let you out once we were in my room.”

                “Why the hell would I even want to do that?  Like you’d do that, anyway…”

                “I would!  I swear!”

                “Why would you?” Scott fired sarcastically, searching for his sister’s meaning.

                “Because I’m your little sister and I WUV YOU SO HUGGY MUCH!” Maggie cooed in her best baby voice, leaning down and planting a sloppy kiss on her brother’s head where her phone had struck him.  “Well… okay, soon to be BIG sister, but same thing.”

                “Be serious, weirdo,” Scott scowled, wiping off the dampness from his temple.

                “Because I bet you’d buy me that new phone after the week was over,” Maggie relented with a smile.

                Scott stopped in his tracks, considering this for a moment.  There was a point there.  And the best part of this was that he had the upper hand in the deal; sure, Maggie would probably find a way to get back at him once the week was over, but if she was true to her word and didn’t make him camp in her shoes 24/7 like Judy was surely planning on doing for the next week, he wouldn’t even have to pay her once it was over.

                “Think about it,” Maggie wheedled.  “Mom would keep you in her shoes for the whole day, you’d be… naked… and she’d probably feed you less.  With me, I’ll let you out and just keep you in my room most of the time, and I’ll give you some doll clothes to wear if you want.”

                “Sucker,” Scott thought to himself.  He looked up at Maggie and sighed.   It was still a damn unpleasant prospect to be at the mercy of his sister and effectively let her win the day’s argument, but in this moment of oncoming crisis, it seemed like the best option.  He nodded slowly.

                “Okay, fine.  Deal.”

                “Not… quite…” Maggie said cheerfully.

                “What?  You just said…”

                “I want the phone, yeah, but you’re gonna have to work for it a little so I know you’re not kidding.”

                “What the hell does that mean?”

                Maggie paused for emphasis, grinning widely enough so that Scott could practically see every pearly white in her mouth.  She shrugged, pretending that the words were being spoken as they came to her rather than being planned out ahead of time.  “Why would you rather go in my shoe than Mom’s?”

                Scott blinked a few times, not entirely understanding.  “What the… what are you even asking?  Because we have a deal, why else?”

                “No, no… I mean…” Maggie said, clearing her throat and standing up a little taller as if showing herself off.  “I mean why would you rather go under my feet than Mom’s?”

                Scott groaned, but knew he had little choice.  He could hear the water running in the upstairs shower, but knew his Mom would be out soon.  He had to act if he still wanted in on this deal.  He sighed.

                “Because yours aren’t as heavy.”  Regrettably, Scott knew this from personal experience, not just because he was trying to appease his younger sister’s insane demands.  On at least four occasions before, his mother had to leave the house wearing open-toed shoes during one of his punishments, a prospect which would have threatened to strand the inch-tall boy somewhere miles from the house.  So, Judy had taken it upon herself to bestow her son on his 5-years-younger sister, who gleefully stuffed him into her favorite pair of pink bunny rabbit socks and spent the rest of the day grinding him into her doughy sole the moment she had him in her treacherous fingers.

                “That’s not good enough.  Why else?”

                “They’re softer.”  This, too, was true.  Judy took good care of her feet (at times, Scott suspected for his benefit alone), but there was no denying that in her mid-forties, her feet had undergone some wear and tear.  Despite usually carrying a stench powerful enough to knock out the least choosy goat at the garbage cans, Maggie’s feet were practically as soft as baby skin.

                Maggie nodded, grinning.  “They are, aren’t they?  What else?”

                “You… usually don’t walk as hard.”

                “Uh-huh.”

                “So it doesn’t hurt as much.”

                “What about… breathing?” Maggie insinuated.

                “Oh… um, yeah it’s easier to breathe,” Scott lied.

                “Why?”

                He groaned.  “Because it doesn’t smell as bad.”

                “AS bad?”

                Scott sighed, gritting his teeth and biting the metaphorical bullet, speaking robotically.  “They don’t smell bad.  They smell good.”

                Maggie giggled riotously, taking a seat herself at the table, and looked absolutely beside herself at this as her fingers stealthily fished down into the opening of her furry gray Uggs. 

                Scott felt hopelessly degraded.  He only hoped this was all worth it in the end.

                “Show me,” Maggie said quickly, swinging her boot up in the air.

                “What?”

                “I said show me.  Stick your idiot nose in there and show me that it smells good.”

                “Maggie, there’s gotta be a freaking LINE…”

                “Scott, I don’t know if you forgot, but if you want this deal to happen, you’re going to have to go in there no matter what.  And… and not just your nose, your whole body… under these…” Maggie cooed softly, wriggling her freshly freed, light blue-painted toes in the cool air of the kitchen, and moaned with pleasure.  “Ohhhhh… God, it feels good to get that out of there.”

                Scott could already feel the rank stench of his sister’s feet, which had just spent the better part of the day cooped up in her worn out, fur-lined Ugg boots, creeping up to his nose.  He sniffled a little, hoping to avoid the stale, moist flavors reaching him as long as possible.

                “You better start getting excited for that, too,” Maggie said snidely, chuckling warmly at her brother’s expense.  She arched her sole and wriggled her toes again, extending her leg across the short distance between them before placing the heel of her foot gently on her brother’s knee.  Scott stared blankly at the pale, soft appendage of his teenaged sister resting idly on his leg.  “You’re going… under it…” Maggie whispered joyfully, knowing full well the impact she was having on her older brother.

                He felt like he was going to vomit, having to stare at it.  Any minute it now, he was going to be small enough to be smothered by its immense weight and equally overpowering scent of sweat.  Any minute now, his sister’s humongous fingers were going to closer around his nude body before releasing him into the bottom of the boot.  Any minute now, she’d showily slide her foot in, allowing her wrinkled sole to brush over his back, just to spook him.  Any minute now, he was going to be nestled in the tip of that boot, with his sister’s toes hugging themselves disgustingly around his cold naked body, spreading her slimy toejam across his entire body like a signature of her victory in their personal sibling war.

                Any minute now.

                “So… you gonna smell this boot, or am I gonna have to make you smell the actual thing?” Maggie threatened under her breath in a voice that bordered on seductive, sliding her bare foot further up her brother’s thigh and pressing it against his stomach.

                “What?” Scott exhaled, his eyes bugging.  He could hardly believe how deeply his sister was becoming embroiled in this mad power fantasy his mother had been indulging in for years.

                It was like looking at the teenage version of his mother.  What kind of untold damage had Judy done to her children by ruling with the kind of iron fist that she did?  Had she just created a little clone of herself?

                “I’M DONE WITH MY SHOWER!” called Judy from the top of the stairs, still sounding just as tense and ready to deal her brand of justice.

                Disappointed, Maggie pulled her foot off her brother’s lap and jammed it roughly back into the boot.  Scott breathed a sigh of relief.  He was off the hook for now.  Now, he just needed Maggie to follow through on her promise.  Knowing her, though, Scott had a darkly sinking, subconscious feeling that by putting any trust in his sister to make good on a promise, he had effectively tried to win a lottery by tearing up his own ticket.