“Awww Mom, can we get these ones?  Please?  Please?” a girl squealed with delight as she skipped along the shelves of stylish shrink-rider shoes in the brightly lit department store.  All along the way her hand was tucked into her pocket and wrapped snugly around the squirming body of her three-inch-tall twin sister, keeping her firmly affixed in the warm palm.  “She’d look so cute at the bottoms!”

            “Oh, Sally, I don’t know.  So many of these are just so expensive.  Are you sure you can’t be fine just wearing your sister in your normal shoes?” her parent groaned as she eyed the hefty prices on the specialized footwear and tapped the rim of one with a well-manicured finger.

            “But Moooom, that’s so booooring,” the teen droned desperately, twirling a thumb through her curly locks with the hand not holding Amanda.  “Plus she gets tired out so fast when I do that.  I tried it once and had her in there for school, and she wasn’t even moving by lunchtime!  I had to go wake her up in the bathroom.”

            “Honey, you know that’s just how it is at first.  Once she gets used to being under your foot, she’ll last longer, as long as you give her enough break days,” the woman said knowledgably.  “Why do you think I let you practice with one of my toys when we found out your sister was a shrinker?  I knew you’d want to be ready to use her once she was small enough.”

            “I know,” Sally sighed.  “But these are so nice.  They’re super comfy, and they’ll even mold a spot into the sole so your shrinker can fit!  That way, she’ll have room to sit without me standing on her too long, and then I’ll be able to feel her moving for more of the day.  Tara let me try the ones she uses to wear her cousin, and oh my gooooosh they feel so good.”

            “You know, when I was your age, I wore both of my sisters and my cousin in normal shoes for several years, and I didn’t complain once about it!” her mother insisted in a mockingly strict voice, a smile on her pursed lips.

            Sally rolled her eyes dramatically.  “Mom, I don’t want to be sporting twenty-five-year-old styles!  Besides, your sisters hardly talk anymore.  All they’re really good for is massages now.  You said so yourself.”

            “I suppose so,” her mother sighed, beginning to relent.  “And I guess you are still… attached to your sister, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am!” Sally gasped defensively.  Rummaging in her pocket for a moment, she balled up a fist around her half-naked sibling, a girl who just six months ago would’ve been considered a human with equal rights to her twin sister.  Drawing her hand out of the pocket, then, Sally allowed her tiny sibling to sprawl into her palm and get some fresh air.

            “You certainly have tried hard to keep her in one piece,” admitted her mother.

            “She’s the only one I’ve got.  And she’ll always be special to me, more than any other shrinker you or Daddy gets me!” Sally stated.  Bringing her occupied hand up to her chin, she puckered her lips against her miniscule sister’s back and pinned her into the massive palm with a loud kiss.  Immediately after releasing the pressure, then, her fingers were curling playfully back around the little writhing limbs and gently squeezing the girl’s body against her peachy palm like a stress ball.

            “Oh, all right, honey, you’ve made your point.  Let’s find a salesman and get your sister measured for your shoes,” her mother sighed, crossing her arms and shrugging.  “But I better see you taking good care of these things!  They cost even more than my shoes.”

            “I promise, Mom.  The best care,” Sally vowed, bringing her tormented sister up closer to her lips again as her fingers continued squirming over her meek body.   “Isn’t that right, widdle one?”

            Rather than waiting for an answer to what was an apparently rhetorical question, the girl buried her shrinker’s little face against her puckered mouth in another kiss, and even pressed her head between the plush threshold of her lips like a lollipop.  She savored her sister’s flavor for a few fleeting seconds before popping her back out and running her tongue up the length of her lips for the hapless pet to witness in full.

            Their mother only shook her head.  “You’re such a sweetheart, Sally.  I honestly don’t where you get it.  It certainly wasn’t from me, and you could probably confirm that with any of the shrinkers I’ve ever owned.”

            Sally giggled.  “Well, it’s easy when she’s so sweet too.”  Her tongue flicked out from between her lips a final time at this repetition.

            “She’s lucky to be yours,” her mother opined, then turned around at the sight of a passing salesperson.

            “May I help you folks with anything?” the vender asked with a pleasant grin, her eyes falling on Amanda hopelessly wrestling against her sister’s gigantic hand.  The woman’s smile widened with recognition of the situation.  “Are we taking a look at some shrink-riders today, by chance?”

            “Uh-huh!” Sally confirmed with an emphatic nod of her head.  She brandished her tiny sibling up a little higher for the woman to examine.  “I really want something comfy to wear her in.”

            “Wonderful!  I’m sure we can find the perfect pair for you.  As I’m sure you’ve heard, shrink-riders are the choice for accessorizing with shrinkers.  Their unique design allows you to keep your precious property with you at all times without causing damage to them, effectively allowing you to “wear” your shrinker as part of your outfit,” the woman said, clapping her hands softly with delight and taking a step forward.  “What kind are we thinking today?”

            “I suppose we didn’t really know there were different kinds,” Sally’s mother said.  “What are the options?”

            “Oh, there are quite a few.  We have shoes to fit just about every taste.  You can wear your shrinker below your toes, under your heel, on top of your foot closer to your ankle.  Depending on size, we can even create a strap that allows you to affix the shrinker between your toes, though I think your shrinker may be too big for that option.  To start, though, how about you just show me where you’re planning on keeping your…” the salesperson began, squinting at the shrunken twin of the young customer.  “…twin sister?”

            “Yep!” Sally said.

            “Thought so.  The resemblance is remarkable,” the woman answered knowingly, lowering herself onto her haunches near a black bench adjacent from the mountainous shelf of shoes.    She patted the surface of the seat invitingly.  “Why don’t you have a sit-down here, and show me where you’d like your sister to be when you’ve got her in your shoe?”

            “Okay,” Sally agreed happily.  Lowering herself onto the bench, she braced her feet against the carpet, and with her unoccupied hand began undoing the buckles of her strappy maroon sandals, kicking them off a few seconds later.  Her bare feet newly freed, she scrunched her doughy toes against the floor for a relaxing moment, then crossed her right ankle over her left knee to prop it up.  With Amanda pinched between her thumb and index finger, then, she brought her in closer to her peachy, wrinkled sole and pressed her flush against the wall of warm flesh.

            “Ahh, I think I see.  Is this where you’d like her to be in your new shrink-riders as well?” the saleswoman said as she observed the miniscule teenager thrashing uncomfortably against her sister’s titanic foot, her face buried in what could be surmised as a particularly pungent fold of skin, raw from several hours of walking around the mall already.

“Uh-huh!” the Sally answered.  As she nodded, she adjusted her grip to be more comfortable by wrapping her fingers around the side of her foot, which immediately sandwiched Amanda between the pad of her palm and the meaty surface of pink sole.  The smell was beginning to become apparent.

“Sorry if they’re stinky…” she apologized to the vender, wrinkling her nose at the musty scent.  “I don’t think I washed ‘em real well this morning.”

“Oh, don’t be silly, you’re perfectly all right,” the saleswoman said with a chuckle.  “Now, from what I’m seeing, I think you’ll want a pair of shrink-riders with a custom sole that we can mold to your sister’s body, allowing her to be integrated directly into the base of the shoe.”

“Yes, yes, that’s it!” Sally said excitedly.  “I’ve tried on a pair before and I really liked them.”

“I’d say that’s the best bet, then.  Mam?” the woman said, cheerily addressing Sally’s parent.

“If it’s what she wants,” Sally’s mother said with a smile, leaning against the bench.

“Excellent.  Now, you have the option of making several molds, so that if you own different shrinkers, you can change them out and have a custom fit each time you want to wear someone else inside.  Is that something you’re interested in, or do you just want the one of your sister?”

“Nope!  These are gonna be just for her,” Sally said lovingly, cooing downward at Amanda loudly enough that she could hear.  Of course, she kept her sibling plastered against her sole just as firmly as before.  “Something special.”

“I understand completely,” the saleswoman said.  “You know, back before they made all these custom shrink-rider options, I got my neighbor when she became a shrinker and carved out a spot for her in the bottom of my track shoes.  Those were just for her, too, and I still think of them that way.”

“That’s so sweet,” Sally’s mother said genuinely, some nostalgia flashing in her eyes.

“Tell you what.  If you’re set on this style of shrink-rider, I’ll go ahead and grab a piece of the mold material from the back to make a custom insole for your sister’s body.  How does that sound?”

“Awesome!” Sally enthused.  At last she released the pressure on her sibling and allowed Amanda to tumble into her palm.  Her little body heaved a few times, obviously deprived of fresh oxygen after being plowed for several minutes straight into the plump sole.

“You bet.  By the way, my name is Joann,” the saleswoman said with a wink before turning and heading for Staff Only door near the back of the store.

“Aren’t these gonna be so cool, Mom?” Sally gushed, kicking her bare heels rapidly against the carpet in eager anticipation.  She balled her sister back into her fist, though ensured not to squeeze too hard, only closing her fingers tightly enough that Amanda was pressed in on all sides by cushy flesh.

“They do sound awfully fancy,” her mother responded, obviously impressed.  A sly smile crossed her lips.  “Who knows?  Maybe I’ll want to borrow yours sometimes.”

Bugging her eyes, Sally pulled her hands protectively against her chest, ironically tightening her hand around the three-inch Amanda.   “No!  Mom, your feet are sooo big, you’d probably break the back of the shoe trying to put it on.”

“Watch your tone, honey.  I haven’t paid a cent for these things yet,” the woman said with a raised eyebrow, though she was clearly just being facetious at her daughter’s extreme reaction.  “I may eventually have to look into getting my own custom sole, though.  I’m sure that would be just the thing to give me some more quality time with my own sisters.”

“Back!” Joann called as she approached with what looked like a thick pad of white foam in one hand.  “I have a new piece of the material here that we use to create the mold, as well as an ID card so we can pair it with your shoes.  Mam, maybe you can fill it out?  All you have to do is press your sister into it as well as your foot and we should have an insole made for you within the week.  Do keep in mind, though, that this material is meant to simulate the base, so you have to decide: when you’re wearing him, do you want your sister facing the insole or facing your foot?”

“Facing my foot,” Sally said without hesitation, a smug grin on her face as she opened her palm for just long enough to glance at Amanda before trapping her between her firm fingers again.  “Definitely.”