For a while things died down. We went back to some boring, relaxing days idly passing time through one thing or another until we got tired and decided it was time to sleep. School took up most of the time and usually once Kristen got back she wasn’t in the mood for much aside from lounging around. Though we did try a few things. Nothing got nearly as creative as our little dollhouse episode or our chess game (But I did get a rematch where I won) but they were a fun few days all the same. That’s not important though. What’s important is what came near the end of my week with Kristen.
The majority of the day was spent with her at school, relaxing in her ear while she went to her classes (I even got to go to that media one I helped her with). After her last class we stopped for lunch and I was put onto the table to stretch my legs out and eat a bit. Not even five minutes after we started a stranger walked up and handed Kristen a flyer.
“Here you go mam. Hope you’ll attend!” She had a fake smile plastered onto her face as she forced a paper into my friend’s hands.
“Huh? Oh sure. Thanks.” Kristen accepted it just so the pushy lady would leave. The second she was out of sight she took a lazy glance at it. “Hey. This actually looks kinda interesting.”
“What is it?”
She turned it around so I could see.
Tomorrow at 7 P.M! Come to the Library to enjoy our guest speaker, Size Relations Expert Warren Stewart.
“Size Relations Expert?” The name rang a bell but it took a moment before it fully registered. “Oh! This is that activist guy right? The one who’s always talking about size discrimination?”
Kristen nodded. “Yeah. He’s on the news all the time talking about it. He gained a lot of popularity since he shrunk.”
To those unfamiliar let me quickly explain. Warren Stewart was a politician who was…well a politician. He had nothing really of note other than being Senator for some state I can’t remember. But one day he shrank, a lot. To like, my size. And once that happened he lost his next election and started campaigning about size-based discrimination. At first he just seemed like a really bitter victim but over time he demonstrated to people that he was actually pretty serious about it. He even went and gained a degree in psychology just so he could better analyze interpersonal relations between those shrunken and those not. These days he appeared on all sorts of shows and at any number of places to share his story and research with the world. I got to learn all about him during all that TV I was watching. But to be fair he was legitimately interesting and I was honestly curious about what he’d talk about.
“Wanna go to his presentation thing?”
She shrugged. “Sure. It’ll be a nice way to end our little week. Don’t you think?”
Fast forward a couple hours and we went to the library and found a seat near the front and awaited our speaker. I wasn’t in my usual spot in Kristen’s ear this time. I wanted to see the show so I was perched on her shoulder just high enough I could see the stage. The room quickly filled up with people of all ages, eager to hear Stewart’s words firsthand. That all began to die down into welcoming applause as a middle-aged woman walked to the center of the stage behind the podium with her hand outstretched in front of her. Although no one could see him we all knew Stewart was standing there and quickly welcomed him to our campus library.
The woman lowered her hand onto the podium as the screen behind them came to life, showing the older gentlemen I recognized as Warren Stewart climbing from her hand. A mic was connected to his ear so once he cleared his throat we all heard it.
“Thank you all for coming. As you are probably aware my name is Warren Stewart and here I’m going to talk about what it means to be a Micro-sized citizen. I’m not one for small talk so I’ll jump right into it if that’s alright.” As if on cue the screen behind him split down the middle, with his recorded image on one half and a power point on the other. The first slide of the power point was a picture of him prior to shrinking beside the woman currently behind the podium with him.
“This is me. As you can all tell. Prior to shrinking I stood at an even six feet tall. Now.” The slide changed to him standing on top of an office desk. “Now I am half an inch tall. A full-fledged Micro citizen. Now I ask. How is such a thing possible?” He paused for a moment to let the silence speak for itself. “As of right now we have no conclusive evidence as to how and why this epidemic affects our people. There is no distinct marker or common element between every single shrinking case. So why, do I ask, that we treat people differently due to their sizes?”
A hand raised up from the crowd. The voice was distinctly young, probably belonging to a guy my age. “We need to accommodate for their sizes. Once a person hits a certain size they can’t take care of themselves anymore.”
On the screen I saw Stewart smirk. “You’d be surprised what a person could do. If nothing else humans are known for their resilience and adaptability. Just because I shrank doesn’t mean I lost my ability to think. But this young man helps me to my next point. It is true that it is only natural to adapt society in such a way so that those at risk of being hurt are looked after. Plus as people we cannot simply shun them from society. In concept this makes complete sense. However in practice what it has led to is a rudimentary modern-age caste system.” The slideshow moved on to a side-by-side arrangement of people by size going from average height to micro-sized. “There is a lot of wordplay at work whenever this subject comes up but one cannot deny that a person’s stature in society seems almost entirely based in their size. All the world leaders and politicians are what we refer to as “Normal Sized” whereas household assistants, something of a working class, are made up of the smallest our world has to offer. Why? I would think that, as those who are physically incapable of manual labor, shouldn’t the smallest be the ones put in the more mental positions? Or better yet, strive for some sort of balance between all the sizes. But instead over 90 percent of all people below a foot tall find themselves in manual labor positions. Why?”
An uncomfortable silence hung in the room. Everyone knew what he was getting at but no one wanted to go right out and say it. If they did they’d be acknowledging it.
Of course our presenter had no problems diving right into it with one direct word. “Morality.” He let the word sink in for a minute before proceeding. “As human beings we naturally judge people based on their character. Those who are upstanding, good citizens who act friendly and towards the betterment of others are those we deem with good character. Those who break the law, cheat any system they can, and act hostile or violently are considered to have poor character. While this system did have its faults it was a system that encouraged people to decide their opinions based on physical evidence of a person’s actual personality. I can safely conclude that a person seen killing another has poor morals and that someone donating time at a charity house has good morals. Of course there are exceptions to these situations but for the sake of brevity let’s look past them for a moment. This system for character evaluation, the system I grew up on, is no longer in effect.
The uncomfortable air seemed to tighten. Everyone in the room felt like they were leaning forward, hung on every word Stewart said. Most of all me. I was fully entranced by this point.
“What we have now is a system that places a person’s actions second towards another supposed indicator of a person’s character: their size. An interesting theory that started to float around in the late 80’s was that a person shrinking was determined by their morals. There was a great deal of circumstantial evidence to back it up and over the years it has been more or less considered fact by many, though they wouldn’t admit it.” He waved a hand over the entire room. “Studies show that if I were to ask you if you believed a person’s size was based on some sort of inner morality or sense of right or wrong over three fourths of you would claim otherwise. Yet these same studies say that only a measly ten percent of those who denied it actually mean it. Now, I cannot claim to be a scientist so I don’t know all the logistics behind why some people shrink and some don’t. But I do have common sense. And I find it hard to believe that something associated with personality can evoke a physical change that had never happened before in the thousands upon thousands of years humans have existed. Though, for the benefit of the doubt let me ask you this then. What is morality? What is a good thing versus a bad thing? Where are the lines?”
He shrugged with a derisive smile. “You would think these questions would be easy to answer but morals are relative. Stealing is wrong but what if you steal because you’re trying to feed your starving family? It’s never right to use violence but what if it was in self-defense? Or perhaps the hardest question…” His voice grew low and more serious than it had been the entire presentation. “If there were two groups of people and one of them claimed to always be the morally and physically superior ones and the other, while having more than a few bad moral and physical examples, were all treated the same and forced to integrate as a rudimentary work force subservient to the “Superior” people. Well…which side is the wrong one there?”
The uncomfortable air felt like it was choking me. Sitting in this room with all these people listening to this, it was severely uncomfortable. I saw several people flat out get up and leave. No one said anything or blamed them for it either.
The silence was broken by hearty, cheerful laughter from Stewart. “Of course that’s the beauty of these things isn’t it? There is no real black and white when it comes to morals. And this is all not even delving into different cultures and customs and how what we perceive is right is not how another culture views it. These are purely questions from a Western mind. But perhaps you still aren’t convinced. I’m throwing a lot of fancy words at you but I’m not providing anything to disprove that immoral people are the only ones who shrink am I? Well…” The slide changed to a young girl I’d never seen before, a plain-looking blonde who looked to be in her mid-teens.
“This is Melissa Williams. She was four foot five inches tall. Now she stands at an astounding four inches tall. She was a straight A gifted student who was well on her way to graduating early from grade school. Was being the key word in that sentence. Upon shrinking she was immediately placed under the jurisdiction of the Depart of Shrunken Businesses and Services where they immediately pulled her from school for her “wellbeing”. Currently this model student now earns minimum wage as an assistant to her older sister. She wanted to become a Biochemist. Now she’s a maid with next to no chance of achieving her dream.”
This example really hit home for me. I too had to stop attending my classes for these reasons. It was like looking into a possible future for me, and it didn’t look good.
“What did Melissa do to deserve this? She did beyond excellent in school. She was beloved by all her peers. She was an active leading member of several clubs. Not even so much as a detention was on her record. Everyone who knew her could only say nice things about her. So why does her story have such a sad ending?” Stewart let the oncoming silence speak for itself.
“Perhaps another example is in order.” The slide changed yet again, this time to a middle-aged Hispanic man. “This is Carlos Estevez. While he was no genius like Melissa was he did well in school and finished college with a Master’s Degree in Engineering. He attained his dream job and started earning over 60,000 a year with benefits. Not long after he met the woman he would marry and start a family. His life was going fantastic. Until, of course, he shrank. Despite being a picture perfect example of the American Dream Carlos found himself three inches tall one morning and what would follow is simply appalling. He was almost immediately released from his job. His family became distant, even to the point where his wife filed for divorce. And of course, he was placed in the care of a nearby resident who took him in as an assistant. What was once 60 grand is now less than 10 grand a year. Simply because of his size.”
“I could go on, but I think my point has been made. Melissa and Carlos’ cases are not uncommon. Despite all the talk of protecting and caring for our smaller brethren the system that is currently in place is destroying people’s lives. I for one am not going to let it do that to mine, and I urge you to do the same. I say this knowing many will turn a blind eye or rationalize what I’m saying. But if this brief presentation has succeeded in convincing even one of you…Then I can take pride in that. I hope you enjoyed my discussions and maybe even provoked some interesting thoughts in our oncoming generation. If you have any questions I will be happy to take them momentarily in the main lobby.” The lights came back on, telling us to leave.
I could tell many didn’t try to think much on what he said. Preferring to simply put it in the back of their minds for comfort’s sake. But while they actively tried to suppress those thoughts I embraced him. He was throwing a lot of stuff people didn’t think about much but it made a lot of sense to me. I agreed. I didn’t want to end up like those people he talked about; and most of all…
I wanted to meet him.