Claire enters her home through the back door carrying the shoebox containing five shrunken beds under her arm. She locks the door behind her and turns to walk deeper into the room.
“Claire, is that you?” A feminine voice calls out from somewhere in another room of the house and startles her. Caught by surprise, Claire's fight or flight response kicks in and she quickly places the shoebox onto the kitchen table before reaching into her pocket, preparing herself to pull out Michael's device and use it on whomever has entered her home while she was away.
Before she can even grasp the device, her mother's head appears peeking around the corner. “There you are, sweetie. Late night out with friends?”
Claire slips her hand back out of her pocket and breathes a sigh of relief. There was no intruder, it was only her mother, Amanda. “Mom! You scared me... I thought someone broke into the house while I was out!”
Amanda steps into the kitchen and laughs as she watches her daughter recover from her fright. “Sorry, dear. It's just me. No burglars have been here tonight, at least not since I've been home, which has only been about twenty minutes. Why are you so surprised to see me, didn't you see my car parked outside when you got home?”
Claire had been so full of excitement while driving home after the evening's activities that she hadn't even noticed her mother's car parked outside the house on her way in. “No, I missed it. And speaking of missing things, I've missed you, mom.” Claire walks across the kitchen and wraps her arms around her mother.
“I've missed you too, dear” says Amanda as she embraces her daughter. At thirty-nine years old, Amanda is quite an attractive woman. Essentially, appearance-wise she is an older version of her daughter in almost every way. Her skin isn't quite as pale as Claire's, but like her daughter, her eyes are a lovely shade of blue, and her face is framed with beautiful black hair, albeit much shorter than that of her child. She stands shorter than her daughter, and though by no means should she be considered overweight, her body isn't exactly in as excellent shape as Claire's. But this is acceptable and should be expected of a woman her age whom is too preoccupied with her demanding job to spend long hours exerting herself at the gym on her days off.
“How was the meeting?” asks Claire as the hug draws to a close.
“Same as the rest of them. Long and boring. And they need me to be at another one very soon.”
“Awww. How long are you home for?”
“Not nearly as long as I'd like to be. But at least I get to spend some time in my own home and see my daughter before I catch my flight in a few days! So, how have you been? Did anything exciting go on around here while I was away?”
Hmmm... exciting... well... Claire thinks to herself, Our neighbors threw a party and shrunk everyone down into tiny bug-people then came over into our yard. Then I made them paint my nails and massage my feet and I'm keeping them in the attic. Claire fights off the laughter that her own thoughts are provoking within her so she doesn't look ridiculous and have to explain to her mother what's she's finding so amusing.
“Nope, nothing exciting. Just the usual, watching TV, hanging out with friends, tidying up the attic, that sort of thing.”
“Yeah, that's what I figured. I never worry when I'm away because I know my sweet Claire always stays out of trouble.” Amanda smiles and receives a smile back from her daughter. “What's that over there?” she asks, gesturing towards the box on the table holding the shrunken beds.
“Oh, that? It's just some junk I found when I was cleaning out my car earlier. I threw it all in this box and I'm gonna just store it in the attic for now.”
“Oh, alright. Well I'm exhausted. I'm gonna finish unpacking and I know I'm not gonna have any trouble falling asleep when I'm done. Goodnight, dear, see you in the morning.”
“Goodnight, Mom” says Claire as she hugs her mother again. She watches as her mother exits the kitchen and turns to walk down the hall and towards her bedroom. She hears her mother release a long yawn before closing her bedroom door behind her.
Claire turns and faces the wall to read the time on a clock hanging there in front of her. “Hmmm... is it too late to give my little people their present?” she asks herself. “Nah!” She lifts the cardboard shoebox from the kitchen table and begins carefully carrying it towards the entrance to the attic. Luckily for her, the attic stairs and her mother's bedroom are on opposite ends of the house.
Michael awakens to the sound of the attic stairs being dropped to the floor far below and booming footsteps as someone ascends them. The other men and women around him begin stirring in the darkness as well.
“Tonight?!” yells a tired and angry Keith. “Seriously, tonight?!”
“It's the middle of the night, what the fuck does she want now?!” asks Jennifer. Though generally unpleasant and grouchy in normal situations, Scott knew all too well that Jennifer's anger was elevated to a much higher level when anyone disturbed her sleep. He could only hope that the fact that the person disturbing her sleep on this particular night was of gigantic proportions would be enough to keep his girlfriend's anger from boiling over.
Suddenly, light floods into the room as the light switch is flicked on and all of the men and women nestled inside the shoebox on the attic floor burrow their heads beneath their pillows and blankets, unprepared to face the onslaught of brightness.
With her feet still in her black flip flops, Claire steps over the shoebox and kneels down in front of the opening. She sets the other shoebox with the tiny beds inside down and off to the side on her right. Her body casts a shadow over the box, blocking enough light that the people inside can manage to open their eyes and keep them open without so much exposure to the illumination that they weren't ready to face.
“Hello, little ones” Claire says softly as she peers into the box and looks over the tiny men and women. “Awww, you're all so cute in there, it's like you're having an itty bitty slumber party!” She giggles and watches as the tiny people rub at their eyes and toss and turn beneath their blankets. She can clearly tell that they're more than a little frustrated with having been woken up and made to endure bright light and a colossal younger woman. “Sorry for waking you, little people, but it's not even midnight yet, I didn't know you'd already be asleep up here.”
“Yeah, well, hard to keep track of time when you're the size of a bug and held like a prisoner in someone's attic” snaps Keith.
Claire rolls her eyes. “Oh, please, little man. Don't start with that tonight.”
“Don't start? Don't start!? You-”
“Well” begins Claire, cutting off the tiny man below her. “Since you all seem to just love sleeping, I think you're really going to enjoy the surprise I have for you.”
Michael and the others shift their gaze for the first time to the box Claire had carried into the attic with her, no doubt it contained their “surprise.” They begin to grow nervous as they ponder just what it could be.
“Okay, little sleepyheads. I need you to all get out of the box.” She watches as their tiny faces stare up at her, most with looks of nervousness. “I promise it's just for a few minutes, then you can go back to sleep. Come on, don't make me have to pick the box up and dump you out.”
Slowly, the men and women rise and emerge from the box. They stand on the wood floor between their cardboard sleeping chambers and the massive feet of Claire. Though they've been around her for a considerable amount of time now, the sight of her body and its sheer enormity relative to their own diminutive forms as they gaze up at her kneeling over them still evokes within them intense feelings of fear and wonder. Her gigantic feet lay before them, resting upon her black flip flops. The same flip flops that unbeknownst to the group on the floor had extinguished two lives less than an hour earlier, effortlessly crushing them out of existence beneath the thick foam soles.
The group is startled as Claire leans in and reaches over them as she places a hand inside the shoebox they have just emerged from. She gently places her hand down onto the bottom of the box, and with one swift movement she swipes the dish towels along with all of the tiny blankets and pillows out from the box and onto the floor in front of her feet.
“What are you doing?!” yells Michael.
“You'll see” replies Claire as she reaches to her right and removes the lid from the other shoebox. She reaches inside and the group watches on as she very carefully begins lifting an object into the air.
“A... bed?” asks Brandi as she watches in curiosity with the rest of the group.
Claire carefully moves the tiny furniture through the air and gently sets it down inside the shoebox in front of her. “Yes, a bed. Surprise!” She repeats the process four more times, carrying the shrunken beds to the box and neatly setting them down inside. “Well go on, try them out!”
Cautiously, the group wanders back inside the shoebox and they begin to inspect their new furniture.
“This isn't like... doll furniture” says Scott as he looks over one of the beds. “These are real, but they're tiny... like us. Where did she get them?”
Jim climbs up onto one of the beds. He begins jumping up and down on the mattress. Claire giggles as she watches the tiny man's actions. “This thing's pretty comfortable, check it out, babe” says Jim, calling the attention of his girlfriend.
Brandi shakes her head as she approaches the bed her boyfriend is currently jumping up and down on like a child. “You're such an idiot.” She presses her hands into the mattress. “Oh wow, that's actually really soft.”
“So...” says Claire, bringing the group's attention away from the beds and back once more to the presence of the gigantic girl in the room. “I hope you enjoy these, little ones. I went through a lot of trouble to get them, it will really hurt my feelings if you don't.”
“You won't be needing these for padding anymore.” Claire tosses the dish towels into the empty shoebox and picks it up after placing the lid back on and rises to her full height. “Goodnight, little people, see you tomorrow!” She smiles down at them before walking away off towards the stairs. She flicks the lights back off for the night before making her descent.
In the darkness of the attic, each tiny couple gathers pillows and blankets from the floor in front of the cardboard box. They choose a bed of their own and after placing the supplies onto it, they climb in and return to sleep.
Downstairs, Claire closes her bedroom door behind her and steps into her room. Exhausted, she drops the shoebox to the floor and slips her feet out of her flip flops before climbing into her own bed. She pulls the covers over her body and works on getting a good night's sleep of her own.