Chapter Six:

“We come nearest to the great when we are in great humilty"

“So Mrs. Preston what is your son’s name?” the police officer asked as he took a sip coffee while looking over the panic-stricken face of an obviously worried mother.

“Jacen, his name is Jacen Preston. He is five foot eleven two hundred and ten pounds. He has short straight brown hair, with brown eyes.” Mrs. Preston sputtered out while visibly shaking as she tries to calmly sit on the sofa.

“When was the last time you saw you son Mrs. Preston? This is very important so take your time.”

“Well it was when he came yesterday from school. He came home somewhat late and went up too his room. No one ever saw him leave his room but he just isn’t there. It’s not like my son to do this. He didn’t show up for any of classes, he didn’t show up for work. None of his friends has seen him. His room looks like he just vanished, the television is on, and his laptop is on. He had a game on that new 360 machine that was paused. I just can’t imagine him up and leaving all that.”

“Okay settle down Mrs. Preston we have a few more questions to ask you.”

I had no idea the level of anxiety and fear my parents, especially my mother were going through. I find myself in a very humbling situation. As I looked around the bag at the seemingly endless wall that is wrapped around me and then what might as well have been a million miles away was the opening of the bag. I was trapped in a bag of Doritos. I had labeled my sister the junk food junkie because she was always snacking on the something. I never thought that I would find myself trapped in one of those snacks. I hadn’t ever felt so humiliated and hopeless. The idea of being trapped in a bag of Doritos is sickening. At that time, I couldn’t imagine anything worse.

I heard and felt my sister return to her room and then a squeak of her desk chair. It sounded like it was real close by. I realize that the wall this bag is propped up against must be the side of her desk. The grinding of her wheels as it rolls over carpet, clothing and god only knows what else sends chills down my spine. All I can think about is what if I happened to be caught under those wheels. As I was trying to push those thoughts out my head, I feel the bag lurch forward. I am tossed against the side of the wall as the bag is lifted up higher and higher into the air, then it is dropped a few feet. I realize right away, what happened as I have seen it a thousand times. Whenever Alyson is at her computer, she will sit Indians style on this big office style chair, then in the middle usually sits some kind of junk food, this time it’s Doritos.

I look up at her as she casually types away at her computer, I hear the annoying bing of a instant messenger program go off every couple of seconds. I still can’t believe how huge my younger sister looks. Al has always been a lot like me only female. She plays many sports; she has something I don’t however. She has a high degree of natural talent. She is great soccer, she is great at basketball, and she can run like the wind in track. She was always just my dorky younger sister though. I never really thought of her as a person. She was someone I would give a hard time every chance I got, I would always beat her in any kind of sport we played just because I was bigger and it bothers her so much. She is a very competitive person. Now, I look at her like this and I can’t even wrap my head around the fact that this is my sister.

My walk down memory lane is interrupted as I hear the bag start to rustle; I look up and see her hand once again lowering. I can’t believe how huge her hand looked, before I was buried beneath chips and I was frantically fighting to escape but now that I have no where to go, I really get the sense of how big her hands are now. They cover a good portion of the bag; I look up and see several bracelets dangling around her wrists. I start to wonder if I could possibly grab onto one of them but that is cut short by the bag being swatted free from Alyson’s lap. I hear her shout bangles as the bag and me free fall a bit and then crash onto the floor. I spill out of the bag along with a slew of chips. I pull myself out from the pile as I see my sister stand up, holding Jenni’s cat bangles. I look up in awe as she crosses the room with ease and sets the cats down and then closes her door.

The floor starts tremble and shake once again as she returns. I watched as a shadow loomed over the chips and me. My little sister started to reach towards the bag and then paused. I look from right to left to see what is going on and then back at my sister.

“Al!! Yes!! Its me Jacen!! Thank god.” Relief washed over me as I saw my sister staring at me. It can’t even put into words how great I felt. This hellish journey was about to be over.

“Buggie, come here buggie buggie” The words cut through me like a hot knife through butter. It was as if I was watching my best friend stab me in the back and then the last thing I see before I bleed to death is him making out with my girlfriend. I couldn’t even react at first as I saw Al’s hand shoot down towards me. I don’t know how but as if my body had a mind of its own I had leapt out of the way just in time. I watched her hand grab onto a chip and toss it to the side. I took off running, in the distance, I could see an overturned sneaker, and there was a blue shirt that was to me just a few yards ahead. I figured that if I could climb into the sleeve of the shirt, I could sneak over and into the shoe. As I was thinking how great this plan was, everything lurched to a halt as her foot crashed down in front of me.

Everything at that moment happened in slow motion. I never thought that it actually happened. It was just like in those television shows where they recount near death experiences and the person is saying how everything slows down. This was just like that.

I was running full speed, and watching my sister’s blue t-shirt get closer and closer to me. I thought I was home free, but out of nowhere a long shadow appeared just in front of me. The shadow was huge; it was unlike anything I had imagined. I never even had time to look up as one of the most powerful gusts of wind I had ever felt sailed past me sending me to a near halt. In fact, if it wasn’t for that wind I would be dead. A white blur was all I saw then the next thing I knew I hit a wall. My face slammed against the white wall, I staggered backwards and fell onto my back. As I propped myself into a semi crabwalk position I saw my sister’s foot in front of me.

I for the first time realized my true size, and how naive I was to think I could get easily get help, I must look like nothing in comparison to her. She is expecting her brother to be someone over a foot taller then her, not dwarfed by her foot.

“Oh buggie” Alyson called out from above. The statement made my blood turn to ice as I slowly looked up at the gigantic being before me. The only thing running through my head was god help me, please help me. A new kind of fear and terror overwhelmed me and I realized for the first time just how much trouble I was really in.