Walking through the mall we must have been quite a pair.  Sarah towered over everybody while moving at a snail’s pace, frequently glancing down at the floor beside her.  I, on the other hand, was dwarfed by the other patrons, including young children at this point, and was almost speed walking so Sarah could move at a speed she would not find infuriating.  At this point her pants were taller than me, and if anyone saw me at all beside it they were probably only following her gaze.  Most likely they thought I was her little brother or, if they were being particularly uncharitable to Sarah, her son.

Fortunately, we were able to make it through the crowd without incidents, a result of people giving Sarah a wide berth and me getting better at dodging them.  The store we went into was almost unbearably childish and definitely targeted at girls, but that was exactly what I expected from a store that sold dolls and doll accessories.  I let Sarah take the lead for this even though we were ostensibly here for me, figuring she would be more at ease.

Sarah waited for one of the staff to walk by us so she could get their attention.  “Excuse me,” she began, stopping a young woman with her brown hair in a ponytail, “could you help us find something?  We’re looking to buy clothes for some of my dolls, but they’re pretty small, between one and three inches.  Do you have anything like that?”

“We should, let me show you!” she replied with the fake enthusiasm that retail workers everywhere were experts in.  I was just under chest-high to her, and she looked down with her big brown eyes and flashed me a smile.  She leaned in closer to Sarah and said, in a much lower voice, “You don’t need to cover for your little brother liking dolls, but I think it’s great that you’re willing to.  He’s so adorable!”  Neither Sarah nor I knew how to respond to her aside, so we simply followed her to an aisle in the back.

When we reached the section marked “tiny dolls” the clerk gestured at the shelves then left us alone, giving me a wink as she walked by.  I looked up at Sarah who simply shrugged, accepting it as just part of the whole surreal experience.  Thankfully it was just us in this part of the store, so we would not have to deal with the prying eyes of other customers.

I reached forward and grabbed one of the dolls whose clothes I would be wearing soon.  It was a little longer than my middle finger, dressed in a pine green shirt with a perpetual smile on its plastic face.  After inspecting it for a bit I turned it over to get a better look at its black slacks, and the shirt tail falling away confirmed that they were indeed separate parts.

Sarah reached down and plucked the doll out of my hand by the collar of its shirt, letting it dangle beneath her fingers while she lifted it toward her face.  She smirked and arched an eyebrow looking at it, just a little shorter than her nose.  “This is gonna be you soon,” she declared, keeping her focus on the doll.  Her mouth opened wide and she drew the doll toward it, but stopped when its head and feet bumped into her lips.  “I hope you get smaller, though.  I want to be able to gobble you up and swallow you whole.”

“You could tilt your head back and lower me in head first while dangling me by a leg,” I suggested, playing along.  “I think it’d be really cool for you to put me in your mouth like that.  Or you could go the other way, put my legs between your lips and slurp me in, then I’d know the last thing a noodle sees.”

“Hey, you’re not half bad at this,” Sarah replied.  “Maybe instead of gulping you down I’ll just keep you under my tongue and play with you, does that sound better?”  She paused, considering the doll a little longer.  “Hm.  Not gonna put this in my mouth to check, but I’m pretty sure you’ll have to be smaller for that, too.  You just… need to get smaller in general, okay?”

I looked at the available clothes, packaged individually in shrink wrap or in larger bundles.  Holding the tiny garments in my hand, it felt ridiculous to think I would be wearing these soon.  The whole idea seemed absurd.  “Do you really need to buy these new clothes for me?” I asked.  “Like, the clothes I’m wearing are fine, they’re not baggy at all.”

“Sure, they’re fine now, but what about in a week?” she retorted.  “They’ll be all dirty and smelly, and if I have anything to say about it they’ll be ripped up, too.  Plus, your shirt’s white and I have white carpet.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Visibility!  Here, let me show you.”  Sarah bent over and placed the doll on the floor beside her shoe.  “So, this is you,” she declared, then stood back up.  The thing did not even reach her ankle and was barely taller than her foot; next to her it looked miniscule.  “I’m being charitable, of course, since you’ll be a lot smaller.”  She took several steps back before addressing me again.  “You’re tiny on the floor, and I’m going about my day.”  With a couple long strides forward her foot ran into the tiny doll, knocking it over and pinning it beneath her sole, just stopping before she crushed it.  “Squish.  Entirely by accident, all because I couldn’t see you.”

“All right, I see that,” I stated after the demonstration, “but what do colors have to do with it?”  She was beginning to habitually emphasize the word “squish” whenever she said it, and I was not entirely sure how to feel about it.

“If you stand out more you’ll be easier to see, obviously,” Sarah explained.  “And presumably you’ll be moving around trying to get out of the way so I don’t step on you, making you even easier to see.”

“But… what if we’re playing a game where you’re trying to step on me?” I countered.  “Wouldn’t I be standing still and just look like an ink spot?”

Sarah leaned forward, bowing in half so that her face loomed in front of mine.  She locked her gray eyes with mine and smiled.  “I still want you to run, dummy,” she said with a low voice.  “It’s no fun if you just let me walk all over you.”  Before standing up she gave me a quick kiss, her lips spilling over mine, and pressed on the tip of my nose with her finger.

With no valid complaints remaining I submitted and began sorting through the collection of tiny clothes with Sarah.  We immediately sorted them into light and dark piles to narrow it down, focusing on only the darkest, easiest to spot ones.  There were some, like shirts with flame or dragon designs, that I made her put back as well: if I was going to be tiny, I didn’t want to look like a tool. 

Out of the remaining choices we spent a surprisingly long amount of time appraising them.  Sarah wanted me to look good, she said, and that required me to dress well too.  She jokingly held shirts up to me, trying to imagine how they would fit, but until I was actually that small there was no way to tell.  Her eye was a lot better than mine though, and she managed to get an assortment of clothes that would last me a week at each size.

Sarah put our – her, rather – selections in a small bag and patted me on the head.  “I’m gonna go check out dollhouses real quick, you stay here and see if anything catches your eye.”

“Shouldn’t I come with you to pick out my house?” I offered, but she only chuckled.

“No, I want it to be a surprise!  Don’t worry, I’ll be back in just a sec.”  With that she left, my eyes following her gyrating butt until she turned the corner.

When she was gone I looked back to where she was standing, and to my surprise the overly curious girl from earlier had apparently materialized where Sarah had been.  She began walking toward me, and I picked a random doll off the shelf and acted like I was suddenly very interested in it.  “Hi.”  I could feel her standing next to me, but I pretended she wasn’t there.  “I’m Sam.  I saw you earlier but you were bigger then.”  My focus remained on the doll.

Sam reached in and snatched the doll away, easily tearing it out of my grip.  “Hey, give that back!” I demanded, to which she responded by raising it above my head.

“No, I don’t have to!” she replied.  “I’m bigger than you, so that means I can do what I want!”  When I finally looked at her I gasped.  She was bigger than me by a lot.  I came up to about her chest, and when I finished slowly craning my neck back and looked at her bright blue eyes she smiled.  Sam lowered the doll a little, but when I leapt for it she raised it again, keeping it just out of reach.  “I’ll give it back when I’m ready, I want to talk to you first.”

Unwilling to be further humiliated by a literal child towering over me I gave in.  “Okay Sam, what do you want to talk about?” I asked.

“Why haven’t I seen you at school?” was her first question, and I expected there to be a lot more.

“I think we go to different schools.”

“Oh.  Are you in first grade?” Sam replied.  “’cause I’m in fifth grade.”

“No,” I answered with a sigh.  “I’m a senior in high school.”

“I thought seniors were tall, but you’re not.  I’m a lot taller than you.  Why are you so short?  Are you getting smaller?”

I groaned.  If I walked away it wouldn’t be that hard to find Sarah, but I didn’t know if my ego could handle getting beaten up by a little girl, even one that was gigantic to me.  “No, I’m not getting smaller.  Everyone grows at their own rate, Sam,” I explained.  “How old and tall are you?”

“I’m nine years old, four-foot-six and a half,” Sam proclaimed, exceptionally proud of that half an inch.

“See, when I was your age I was only four feet tall,” I responded.

“You're smaller now,” Sam shot back.

“How do you know?”

“’cause my friend Kelly’s four feet and she comes up to here!”  Sam held a hand against her chin, significantly higher than my head.  “I’m like a foot taller than you and you’re getting shorter!”

“Well, I’m not getting smaller, because people don’t do that,” I replied.  “Not until they’re a lot older.”

“You are.”  Sam stepped forward until she was less than an inch from my face.  I looked up and saw her blocking the light fixture overhead, and suddenly felt very afraid.  “Just ‘cause I’m a kid doesn’t mean I’m stupid.  You’re not as big as you used to be, so you’re getting smaller, that’s how it works!”

I backed away, raising my hands defensively.  “Look, Sam, I didn’t mean to-“

“You’re getting small-er, you’re getting small-er!” Sam chanted.  Unable to believe I had just been interrupted by a fifth grader I stood there in silence.  She leaned in, and when I bent away from her she kept going until her face loomed in front of mine.  “You’re gonna get small enough to wear these clothes and then someone’s gonna stomp on you!”

I was aghast.  This was a lot less fun without Sarah.  Suddenly Sam stood back up and gasped.  “You just did it!  You got smaller!  You’re gonna do it right here and then I’m gonna stomp on you!”

“Sam, leave that man alone!” a voice shouted from behind her.  A face crested over Sam’s head, then a much larger hand seized hers, forcing her to drop the doll she had taken from me.  “He can’t help how tall he is!”  The woman, presumably her mother, jerked Sam away from me and dragged her out of the aisle.  “When we get home, I am going to give you such a talking to!”

I exhaled, not even realizing I had been holding my breath.  My hands were shaking, and my blood felt cold in my veins.  That was terrifying.

“Alright, let’s – Are you okay?” Sarah asked, coming back around the corner.  She placed a hand tenderly on my shoulder.  “You don’t look well.”

I looked up at her towering over me.  She made me feel even smaller than Sam had, and I was definitely smaller than when she had left, but it was different with Sarah.  Looking at her made me feel comfortable and secure, and when I saw her concerned smile and gazed into her gray eyes I began to feel better.  “It’s nothing,” I said, not willing to tell my girlfriend I almost got thrashed by a child.  She might even feel guilty about it.  “I just missed you, is all.”

“Aw, that’s sweet!” Sarah replied, engulfing my hand between hers.  “Kinda pathetic, but sweet.”  She let my hand go and gestured with her head toward the door.  "C’mon.  I know you’re looking forward to dresses and skirts for some reason,” she gave me a sly wink, noticing I was almost shorter than her legs, “but these shoes are killing me.” 

As we left the store we passed Sam and her mother.  The kid stopped and glared down at me, and I stuck my tongue out at her.  With Sarah around she wasn’t so scary after all.