Chapter Three

            Caitlin bounded up the steps of the police station. She had to report her brother Sam as missing so she could get help finding him. Maybe the police would help recover her brother. It was late already but she didn’t know what else to do. Walking up to the desk, she could see the fat, middle-aged sergeant eating a donut and drinking coffee.

            “Um... I’d like to report a missing person please.”

            The Sergeant looked up from his donut. “Sure miss, wait right here and I’ll get the detective on duty. Hey Lt. we got a missing person case.”

            “I’ll be right there Sgt. Ficus. Have them take a seat.”

            The Sgt. Walked Caitlin over to a desk and she sat down. Then he went back to his donut. The nameplate on the desk read Lt. Wilson. A minute later Lt. Wilson, wearing a sport coat and khaki pants came over and introduced himself, then grabbed a pencil and sat down behind the desk.

            “Ok now please describe the missing person. Name and connection to you please?”

            “Samuel Summers, he’s my brother.”

            “Age?”

            “20”

            “Height? Weight?”

            “Um….about four inches tall. Weights about 8 ounces?”

            “Begging your pardon ma’am?”

            “Well um…”

            “Hey Ficus, get a load of this one! Always the nuts come in late. Come on sis, who’s your brother, GI Joe?”

            “Maybe she’s kin to the tooth fairy”

            Both policemen burst into laughter for several minutes. Caitlin sat there embarrassed. There was no way they were going to believe her.

            “Hey Lieutenant, I got Peter Pan on the phone, he’s looking for Tinkerbelle HAHAHAHAHA!”

            Caitlin had had enough. She bolted from the desk in tears, heading out the door of the station.

            “Hey missy don’t go. We’ll get a couple of detectives on the case just as soon as we put the lid on the Tom Thumb disappearance!”

            Caitlin wiped away the tears as she walked to her car. She knew she was on her own but it was late. She muttered to herself “Don’t worry Sam, I will find you wherever you are…only I’ll have to start in the tomorrow. I have to meet my roommate and her boyfriend at The Treehouse in a half hour. Please be safe…”

            The morning hit me like a ton of bricks as light flooded into my purse as soon as Nadia opened her closet door. The air from the door opening caused the purse to swing from side to side, jostling me as I was hunkered on the bottom. As soon as the light hit my eyes, I clambered to one side of the purse looking at the huge female form bending over to peer in on me. It was Nadia.

            “Morning little pet. Did you sleep well?”

            “Not really” I shouted.

            “Well I’m sorry about the accommodations but I can’t have you loose in the apartment now can I?”

            “Please just let me out of here. I have to find my sister Caitlin to try and restore my size and-“     

            Nadia didn’t wait for me to even finish. In an instant her fingers had dipped into the purse and latched onto my feet. She pulled me out upside down and dangled me in front of her still sleepy face. She smirked at my helplessness, then lowered me down into the palm of her other hand.

            “I bet you’re hungry, let’s get some breakfast, k?”

            Nadia glided out the bedroom and down the hall to the kitchen. The smell of coffee and bacon assaulted my nose and created pangs of hunger in the pit of my stomach. I twisted around to get a better look but Nadia held me flat against her stomach.

            “Morning Rochelle.”

            “Morning Nads, morning little man.”

            “Mfffftp!”

            “What’d he say?”

            “He said good morning right little Sam?”

            I was set down on the kitchen counter as Rochelle and Nadia towered over me. Both of them were wearing just T-Shirts and panties and their hair was messed up from sleeping. From the sleepy look of both of them they hangovers from the night before.

            “I think I want an omelet Rochelle. Do we have any eggs left?”

            “Sure two left.”

            “Hey make me an omelet too!” I shouted up at the pair.

            Nadia snickered at me. “I doubt you could even a fourth of an egg you’re so tiny. You can have some of mine, ok precious?” I watched as she cracked a couple of eggs into a bowl, and then whipped them up with a fork and poured them into a frying pan. Soon the smell of cooking eggs filled my stomach again.

            “Please Nadia, I’m starving. Make me an omelet.”

            Nadia suddenly got a mischievous look in her eye. She whispered something to Rochelle I couldn’t hear but I heard Rochelle giggle and say “That’s so mean Nadia”. I saw Nadia stretch her arm over my head and grasp a plate. She slid the flat cooked eggs on the plate and sprinkled some cheese on it. Then suddenly I was scooped up and dropped in the center of the eggs. I screamed as the shadow of the eggs descended on me as Nadia folded the omelet over on top of me, my head just sticking out of the rapidly solidifying mass of eggs. They were firm and I was held in place in the hot eggs as Nadia sprinkled some salt and pepper over the omelet and sat down at the kitchen table.

            “Hey dammit what do you think you’re doing? Let me out of here do you understand me?”

            “Careful Nadia, don’t eat him.”

            “But he said he wanted me to make him an omelet so that’s what I did. I made you an omelet, little guy. This is gonna taste so good Rochelle are you sure you don’t want some?”

            Nadia carried her plate over to the kitchen table and sat down. I screamed as the tangs of her fork speared the eggs just below my feet and carried a large hunk to her mouth. I struggled with all my might but I couldn’t get free. The fork descended down toward me once more, causing me to scream as it dug into the egg covering my stomach. The fork split the coating of eggs from my groin to my neck. I was sure she was going to spear me and eat me but I found myself free from the egg prison as she only caught the egg covering me and carried it up to her mouth, leaving me exposed and able to climb out of the scrambled eggs.

I stood on Nadia’s plate shaking my fist in rage as she and Rochelle giggled at me.

            “Ewww Nadia that’s so mean, you got his clothes all greasy. They will need cleaning now.”

            “So what’s the problem? Its Saturday, laundry day anyway.”

            “I can’t believe how cute he looks on your plate.”

            Just then the apartment door burst open. A girl with shorter length blonde hair burst in.

            “Hey you guys got any coffee? I got a huge hangover from last night and I have to be at work in an hour. I can’t believe you made me drink all those Margaritas.”

            “Don’t you ever knock Dallas? And it’s not like we twisted your arm or something last night. You were sucking them down even before you were sucking –“

“Hey shut up!”

“The coffee jar is here on the table.”

            I watched with horror as this new girl strode in, making a beeline for the kitchen table. I froze in terror as her hand shot out. My eyes instinctively shut as I prepared for the inevitable but all I heard was the girl chirp “Thanks, followed by swift footsteps. I will see you guys later.”

I opened my eyes to see Rochelle shutting the door behind Dallas. She scurried back to the kitchen table as Nadia continued to eat her eggs around me. I grabbed a loose chunk off the plate and stuffed it in my mouth.

            “God he’s so tiny, she didn’t even notice he was there.”

            “I know it’s kind of cool. I’ll have to show him to her later.”

            “Hey! I will not be shown off to your friends.”

            “I think someone needs to mind their manners.”

            Caitlin got to work early Saturday morning. She was due to work only till noon but she had other work to do. She unlocked the front of the clothing store and was relieved to find she was the only one there. In a fit of absurd optimism she ran to the back of the store and looked around for Sam in the faint hope he was still hiding somewhere, but he was nowhere to be found. So Caitlin walked into the back room and found the box with the receipts from yesterday and started to go through them. She took the roll of register tape and unspoiled it, checking the timestamp on the transactions until she got to the general time that Sam came in until she got off work. Fortunately it was slow at that time and there were only four or five transactions. She didn’t remember anybody coming in to browse and leaving without buying anything so hopefully she could track the customers down through the cash register tape which would have the credit card names and copies of the signatures. The first one she found was from the mother and daughter who came in right when Sam was shrunk, she could rule them out because they never made it to the back of the story. That left three names who paid with credit card; a Melissa Fuente, an Aimee Bradshaw, and a Rochelle Martin. Unfortunately all had bought the same thing, one of the purses from the back of the store. Caitlin wondered if Sam had somehow gotten trapped in one of the purses and been sold with the purse! She would have to track down each of them and ask about the purse they bought with out being too obvious about it. She decided to make up a story about her wallet being left in the purse when she was trying it on. She would take the names down and when she got off work she’d look up the addresses on her PC. Then it was just a matter of figuring out which one had her Sam and bringing him back. Caitlin put the register tape back in the box just as she heard Dallas coming in. She hurriedly went out to greet her and help open the store.

            “Help! Lemme go! Lemme go!”

            “Oh hush you big baby. Look at him struggle Rochelle.”

            “Stop this at once dammit. I can undress myself. I don’t need any help from you.”

            I was being held above the bathroom sink as the two giant girls crowded around me. Nadia had me firmly in her grip as she undressed me. Below I could hear the rushing of running water as Rochelle filled the sink with warm water. Nadia grasped my shirt and ripped it off me, throwing it on the countertop.  I started to squirm but her fingers completely covered my upper torso, leaving just the top of my head sticking out as she pinched my leg between her thumb and forefinger and popped my shoe and sock off, then doing the same to my other foot. That done she pulled my pants down, taking my underwear with them. I was totally exhausted and humiliated as Nadia triumphantly enclosed my nude body within the confines of her fist, held between her and Rochelle’s beaming faces.

            “Sure you do little man. You need us big girls to survive now. If not for us, you would be-“

            “With my sister Caitlin now take me back to her now!”

            “Silly you haven’t had your bath yet.”

            “Geez Nadia listen to him bitching up a storm. Maybe we should help him. After all he is a person, only tinier.”

            “And lose my little man? I think not. At least not yet ok? We just found him so what’s the hurry? This is kind of cool. You are so cute. You are so much better than any pet.”

            “I  am not some pet put me down!”

            “As you wish.”

            I felt Nadia’s grip relax, and I lost contact with it. I saw at once the water rushing up to greet me as I was dumped into the sink.

            Caitlin are you OK? You’ve been acting kind of weird for the last couple of days. Is everything all right?”

            “I’m fine Dallas thanks for asking. I’ve just trying to get a hold of my brother and I can’t seem to find him anywhere.”

            “Oh well I am sure he will turn up. You should hang with me and my friend Nadia  and her roommate sometime. You would like them. They are great to go out and party with. Want to go clubbing with us tonight?”

            “Thanks, Dallas, but tonight I kind of have some stuff to do. Some other time maybe.”

            “Ok fine, but ya gotta cheer up. You will scare away the customers. It’s a good thing we are only open a half day today. I don’t really feel like being here either.”

            I had been sitting in the darkness for about two hours now as Nadia and Rochelle we off in the apartment laundry room. I languished in Rochelle’s lingerie drawer, shifting in and out of sleep as I waited for the girls to return. It was better than being trapped in the purse, that’s for sure but still I wish I had light, and something to do. At least I felt clean after the bath Nadia and Rochelle had given me. Nadia had also made me a toga out of one of her handkerchiefs while she washed my clothes. Even though I was being treated as an amusement they at least fed me and clothed me and bathed me. I guessed it could be worse. Suddenly I heard the door to the apartment open up. There were footsteps coming down the hall, closer to Rochelle’s room. As they neared the dresser I was shut up in my heart sank as an unfamiliar female voice rang out.

            “Rochelle? Nadia? Are you home? The door was unlocked”           

Then the dresser drawer shook and light flooded in. We both gasped at the same time.