Michael bounds through the grass, moving as fast as his feet can carry him towards where his wife was standing when she vanished, the others following not far behind him. Had anyone been looking on when she’d shrunk, they’d have thought the woman simply disappeared, dropped off the face of the earth, or was teleported away just as Jim had thought happened to his truck when its size was altered only a short while ago. But everyone down on the lawn knew otherwise, Amy was still among them.
“AMY! AMY, WHERE ARE YOU?!” Amy can hear her husband calling out to her as she begins to lift her body from the ground and into a seated position. “MICHAEL?! I’M OVER HERE” she responds. As she looks at her surroundings she cannot fathom where she is no matter how hard she thinks about it. A moment ago she was walking into her home, now she is sitting in a dense jungle-like environment that extends far further than the limits of her vision.
Michael follows his wife’s voice as he continues through the grass. Soon he can see her form seated in front of him. He runs up to her, kneels down and wraps her in his embrace. “Amy! Are you okay?” he asks, standing up and offering her his hand. She takes it and Michael helps her to her feet.
“Yeah, yeah, I think so. Where… where are we, Michael?”
Michael scratches his head thinking of a good way to relay the information on their situation to his wife but nothing comes to him. “We’re… we’re uh… still home…”
“What do you mean we’re still home? Where the hell are we, Michael?!”
“You see these tall plants all around us… that’s our grass… we’re still on the lawn, honey.”
Amy still looks puzzled. “What are you talking about… what do you mean? What are you trying to tell me, Michael?”
“Right now, we’re… we…”
“Spit it out, where are we?!”
“We shrunk! We’re on our own lawn and we’re the size of bugs! Honey, I am so sorry!”
“Wait a minute… I remember now! I was heading inside and I saw it on the side of the porch, that… that MACHINE thing you’ve been building. That has something to do with this, doesn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“But YOU told ME that it only worked on objects, that it couldn’t work on living things.”
“I know, and I’m so sorry that I wasn’t completely honest with you but I knew you wouldn’t let me keep it in the house if you knew what it could do.”
As they continue to talk, the rest of the group begins to come into view.
“Everyone’s here? Our friends… YOU SHRUNK US ALL?”
The group begins to gather around the two. “Amy, please, it was an accident, everyone wanted to see what the machine could do and after a successful demonstration it just went haywire. You know I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
“But still” begins Jennifer, “it DID happen, and YOU need to fix it.”
“I’m still working on devising a plan, you must understand that I need time.”
Everyone looks at Amy. They’re all slightly amused at how the titanic woman towering above them moments ago has once again become the shortest member of their group of friends.
Jim quickly walks up to Amy, Brandi trying to keep up without breaking into a sprint behind him. “Hey Giganta, did you have fun rubbing your disgusting feet all over my ride? If we get out of this, you’re paying for me to take at least 10 trips through the carwash.”
Amy thinks back to the little blue truck she found on the lawn, her face turning red as she remembers playing with it between her feet. “Oh my god, Jim… that was ACTUALLY your truck?” She doesn’t wait for a reply, she already knows the answer. “I’m SO sorry! I thought it was a little toy car!”
“It’s okay, Amy” says Brandi, “ We all thought it looked like that too. Jim let Michael shrink it while we were waiting for you to get home.”
Amy begins to put the pieces together. “So… you guys got here for the housewarming party, Michael showed you the machine while you waited for me to get back from the store, he shrunk Jim’s truck and you guys looked at it… then the machine shrunk everyone before you could get the truck back to normal?” Everyone nodded. “WAIT… that would mean… NO!” Amy’s eyes begin to tear up. “Is everyone okay! Did I step on anyone?! PLEASE tell me everyone is okay!"
Michael comforts his wife. “Everyone is fine, we’re all here, count us if you’d like.”
“You did come close though” says Isaac.
“Yeah, more than once, too” adds Alexia.
“Guys I am SO sorry! I had no idea you were down there!” Amy is still visibly upset as she looks down to her feet.
“It’s alright Amy, you had no way of knowing. It was all an accident and we’re all safe, everything is okay” says Isaac, finally beginning to calm the woman down.
“We were trying to get you to see us,” says Keith, “It didn’t work.”
“We were hoping you’d notice us and then you could get us back to normal” explains Michael.
“Well,” begins Keith, “we’re gonna need a new plan. And fast. I don’t want to be out here at this size any longer than I need to be, and I’m sure the rest of you feel the same. Any ideas yet, Mike?”
Everyone looks to Michael, hoping he’s finally come up with something to get them out of this predicament. “Well… I do have one idea.”
“Okay, let’s hear it” says Keith.
“Let’s get to Jim’s truck first, my plan depends on the vehicle being undamaged so let’s check its current state.”
The group begins the walk towards the picnic table. Michael stops and points to his home stretching into the distance. “Hey, wait. Amy, did you want to give the grand tour first?” Everyone looks at him with serious looks planted on their faces. “What? I just thought I’d contribute a little comedic relief.”
After a few moments they have reached the truck beneath the table, Jim arriving at it first, of course. He inspects his vehicle. The vehicle again appears massive to the men and women, they remember not much earlier they had watched as Brandi’s toes cast shadows down onto the vehicle. Now the vehicle was casting the shadow, and they were standing in it.
Remarkably, it appears that Amy’s play dealt the vehicle no damage, although it smells of feet and is covered in smears no doubt applied by her toes. Amy blushes again at the sight of the truck and at the thoughts of what she had done with it.
“Jim, please tell me you’ve got the keys” says Michael.
“I do” he replies, pulling them out if his pocket.
“Alright then, get in there and see if she starts up.”
Jim nods and opens the door to his truck, climbing up and into it before placing the key in the ignition and turning it. The engine roars to life, the sound bringing smiles to the group’s faces.
Amy explores the grass a few meters behind the truck underneath the picnic table. She finds a shallow trench dug into the ground, created when she had lifted her foot on its heel and pushed it forward to reach Jim's truck and play with it beneath her toes. She stands staring, mesmerized by the fissure in the earth before her. "Did I...I...I did this? My foot made this?!" she asks herself in a whisper.
“Okay” begins Michael, “here’s my plan. When I was checking the mail today I noticed the TV was on in the house across the street. I know Amanda Knight’s not home, she’s away on some sort of business trip or whatever again, she left a couple days ago. However, her daughter Claire is 19 and still lives there, apparently she’s home today. My plan is this: Half of us get in Jim’s truck and we make the long drive over to the house, and we do everything we can to get Claire’s attention.
“How do you propose we get her attention? Especially if she’s inside. Can’t really ring the doorbell, now can we?” asks Keith.
“We’ll wait for her to come out then, and like I said, we’ll do whatever we can to get her to notice us.”
“Yeah, because that worked so well for us last time” says Jennifer.
Isaac steps forward. “Anybody else have a plan?” Everyone stands still and silent. “That’s what I thought. Amy’s home now, and not only that, she’s just as small as the rest of us. Mike only has this one neighbor. We’re going to have to face it, this is our final hope of being returned to our full sizes.”
Keith sighs. “He’s right. We really don’t have any other options. Here’s hoping this plan works.”
“Okay” begins Michael, “Keith, I want you and the women to find someplace safe to stay. Don’t argue with me on this. You’re the biggest guy here and I want you keeping them safe. When we get Claire’s attention we’ll send her over to retrieve you and the hand-held device inside that she can use to restore everyone. Isaac, Scott, pile into the bed of Jim’s truck.”
The men begin climbing into the vehicle. “Wait!” Yells Amy. “I feel terrible about almost stepping on everyone. I want to go with you, I need to do anything I can to help!”
“No, it’s too dangerous, I need you to stay with behind with Keith and the others.”
“I’m not taking no for an answer.” Amy climbs into the bed of the truck with Isaac and Scott.
“Fine” says Michael, defeated. “Alright, let’s find a place for you guys to wait. I need to know where it is so I can tell Claire where to find you once we get her attention.” Everyone wants to say “IF you get her attention” but nobody can bring themselves to actually do it.
Michael watches as Keith helps the women scale a rock that is to them very large to the right of the bottom porch stair. “GOODLUCK” Keith yells to Michael as he and his group wave. Michael waves back and begins his walk back to Jim’s truck.
Michael climbs into the passenger side of the truck. “Good to go?” asks Jim. Michael nods. The engine roars to life once more and the group begins their trek across the lawn.
A few moments have passed by and the group is still driving through Jim’s lawn towards the home of their nearest hope of rescue, Claire Knight. The roof of the truck is barely higher than the tips of most blades of the grass, some of them are even slightly taller than it. The terrain is manageable for Jim’s massive vehicle to maneuver, but it does force the group to travel at a slower pace than they would have liked.
“This grass is so high, don’t you ever groom it?” asks Jim, laughing.
“Hey, I mowed the lawn this week for the housewarming party. How tall it is… this is just a testament to how small we really are.”
Amy, Isaac, and Scott are still seated in the bed of the truck as it progresses through the grass. “I hope you guys know how sorry I am for everything. I hope I didn’t frighten anyone too badly. I really do feel terrible.”
“Amy, relax, please. You had no way of knowing what happened to us. You have nothing to feel sorry about, right Scott?” asks Isaac, Scott nods in agreement with what Isaac has said.
The vehicle approaches the pavement, the group looks on as it appears to them as a black plateau. Jim hit’s the brakes. “We can’t get up there. What now, Michael?”
“Drive around along it until we find a spot of ground level with the pavement, it will serve as an isthmus onto the road.”
Jim understands and begins driving parallel to the edge of the pavement.
Eventually a spot like Michael has mentioned pops into view and Jim drives the truck up and onto it. The vehicle’s tires soon touch pavement. Everyone looks around at the scenery, everything around them at such an incredible scale. The view is as beautifully impressive as it is frightening.
“Alright, Jim, head towards the house.” The truck continues its journey across the ocean like expanse of pavement. Soon the group is at the other edge of the street. “Alright, let’s look for another isthmus and get onto the lawn.”
“Screw that, I’m getting’ some air. Everybody hang on!”
Jim speeds up and drives the truck off the edge of the pavement, the jump is small but the group still wasn’t prepared. After soaring 15 feet or so (their scale) the truck lands on the grass and everyone is okay.
“Sorry guys, just wanted to have a bit of fun.”
The vehicle approaches the front of the neighbor’s house and stops in front of the stairs. “Anyone wanna knock on the door?” asks Jim.
“We have no way of knowing when Claire will leave her house next. Guess we’ll have to sit here and play the waiting game.” says Michael.
A loud slam startles everyone in the truck.
“What do you think that was?” Jim asks.
“I don’t know. It came from the backyard. Let’s check it out, maybe Claire’s out there.”
The blue truck drives and drives, along the side of the house and then back into and through the lawn. Eventually something large and black appears on the horizon.
“What’s that, there?” Michael asks, pointing to the object on the lawn in the distance. “Drive up to it.”
The truck approaches, everyone inside staring. As they get closer an identical object comes into view next to it. Jim drives the truck towards the objects, positioning the vehicle in the middle so he can drive between them.
Amy realizes what the black structures are first. “They’re… they’re flip flops…” They’re massive. She looks down to her feet and wonders if her own flip flops were this big compared to the truck before she was shrunken. Isaac and Scott cringe as the truck continues driving between the footwear, thoughts rushing back to them of Amy’s pink sandals soaring above them and crashing back down near where they were standing when she casually tossed them in their direction, oblivious to their presence.
The group drives out from between the enormous black sandals and continues forward through the grass, some of them still looking back at them, admiring the markings at the front of the shoes, color had faded and imprints were created by the toes and sweat of whomever wore them. A few moments of driving later and there was again something big on the horizon.
“Claire! That’s Claire, straight ahead!” yells Michael, pointing into the distance.
The truck drives closer. Claire is laying on her stomach atop a white beach towel on her lawn. Jim hits the brakes and the group stops at her bare feet.
“So we found her, now how do we want to try getting her to notice us? Anyone brave enough to go up and touch her?” asks Jim.
“No.” says Michael. That’s too dangerous, she might think we’re insects, we’d be likely to be crushed. Let’s drive up to her face, she’s low to the ground, she’ll HAVE to notice us.” Jim agrees and begins driving again.
Everyone stares up at the pale soles stretching to the heels high above them as they drive by. Claire’s feet gently twitch and the tiny actions cause her pale skin to wrinkle, appearing to the tiny men and women like rippling waves on a creamy, silky body of water. Though none of them would admit it, some of them find themselves wanting to reach out and touch the skin as they pass by.
The truck continues traveling along the left side of the girl’s body. It passes her long legs before reaching her light blue jean shorts, followed by a small black T-shirt, a fair amount of skin exposed between the 2 articles of clothing.
The group is soon directly in front of Claire. She has her arms in front of her, left wrist laying on top of her right arm, her head resting on top and facing the right. She is wearing large black sunglasses, still oblivious to the truck and its occupants.
Jim brings the truck to a stop in front of her arms with her head resting atop them. “What’s the plan, Mike?”
“Get noticed. Come on, honk the horn”
Jim starts honking the horn. A few seconds later the gargantuan head begins moving, long black hair moving with it. Claire rests her chin on her wrist where it sits above them. “Keep it up, Jim” says Michael. Jim continues to honk and the 3 three people in the bed of the truck begin jumping up and down, waving their arms and yelling “CLAIRE! CLAIRE! DOWN HERE!”
The group watches as Claire moves her right arm out from under her left and raises it to her face, taking fingers with nails coated in deep black polish and lowering the sunglasses from her face with them, revealing the 2 beautiful big blue eyes that had been trapped behind them.
The group watches as Claire moves her head closer to them. The three people in the back of the truck continue jumping, waving, and yelling up to her. The blue eyes widen at the sight they’re taking in and everyone on the ground begins to cheer.