It was everywhere in the news. SH-02 was real and could affect us all. We all turned our heads towards the WHO. Was there a vaccine? If not when would it be available? No one wanted to shrink. It became scary for many as they realized what it meant.  People realized that size was important. That it was bringing balance to society and allowed everyone, naturally, to be almost equal to everyone else. Experts were invited on TV channels to talk about “the Shrinking Virus” even though they didn’t really know anything. 24/7 News Channels were playing with our fears to increase their audiences. Nobody knew anything but everybody acted like they did.

After watching CNN for hours, I became fed up with it. I couldn’t bear it anymore. The news loop with the same interviews and the same information all the time was annoying me. I stopped listening and went in my room. There I thought about what it would mean to be tiny. I immediately imagined myself 3 foot tall. But then I realized that this Korean guy lost 3ft. If I got the disease, I wouldn’t be 3 foot tall. I would be more like 3 inches tall. I felt afraid. I took a ruler and measured three inches with it. It felt minuscule. People would become so powerless against everything. They could be crushed like bugs, eaten by cats. If I knew what I know today, these thoughts would be very naïve and innocent.

I wanted to know what people thought about that. I didn’t contact any of my friends since the news spread. I went on Facebook and Twitter. There I could see what my friends and strangers thought about SH-02. My Timeline was all about that. The Hashtag #SH02 was the most trending topic in the world. Some persons were scared, other laughed saying it was only a short buzz, and others were pretty excited about what was about to come. Men and Women from the entire world were debating about the future. A tweet from a certain “Brittany Sharzman”, a blonde girl in my university, was saying:” I’ll finally be able to crush you Josh #Blessed #Farewell”. Another one from the Dr. Maxwell was trying to reassure: “For the moment, we don’t know a thing about #SH02. You should keep calm. This has a great chance of disappearing fast.” How wrong he was when I think about it now.

I received a message from my good friend Emilie. She was studying with me in The Netherlands:

“Did you hear about SH02? It seems pretty serious now. When I think we laughed about it only two days ago. Damn I kind of regret now. It happened in Korea, with some chance it won’t arrive in The Netherlands.”

Emilie was a petite cute girl. She was French like me and seemed a bit scared. I didn’t really know what to answer. After searching for a bit I came up with a bit of humor to lighten the mood:

“Well now you get a chance to be bigger than me.”

I thought about adding “if you don’t contract it before me” but I preferred to stop my sentence where it was. She could have not liked it. I waited for her to answer. She had seen my message and was typing back. Meanwhile I continued to search the web to know more about the virus. Breaking News were constantly updated on Facebook. As I was just beginning to read the last one, Emilie finally replied:

“If I don’t get it before you”.

It made me laugh. That’s why I liked this girl. She was honest and franc. No middle grounds with her friends. I closed the message window to continue reading. My heart sunk. They had found two new cases: Another one in Seoul and one in Berlin. That wasn’t good news at all. Berlin was close. I knew it was everywhere now. I sat back for a second to evaluate what was happening. How the fuck did we get from a mini monkey to a two inches tall German girl. That was truly insane. I reopened the message window:

“Something tells me you’re gonna be a tall girl, at least for some time and some people.” Seen.