Chapter 23:

“It was her. Jackie was behind this the whole time.”

Still in the palm of my mother’s hand, I closely monitored her reaction to this. She could be hotheaded at times, but she didn’t explode this time.

“Desmond. I’m so sorry.”

“Sorry?” I was confused. “Why are you apologizing? This isn’t your fault.”

“You liked Jackie. I know you did. I’m sorry she did this to you. And this is partly my fault. I should’ve known. I should’ve taken you back home away from her.”

I didn’t see this coming. My mom was the one in desperate need of consolation.

“That wouldn’t have changed anything. She has control over my height on her phone. That’s what she told me. I don’t know exactly how it all works, but I know she’s running the show.”

My mom paused, no doubt thinking about what our next move should be. She set me down on top of my desk. She was sitting on my bed.

“I think we should sue Jackie and her family for all they’re worth,” she said.

I hadn’t been studying law for too long, but even I was smart enough to know that that was not a wise course of action.

“Mom, I don’t think any jury or judge would entertain this. There’s no case law for this. It would be thrown out immediately. And besides, Jackie’s family has unlimited resources. They could buy the White House’s legal team if they wanted to. We would get crushed. Listen, I have a plan already, ok?”

“Plan? You have a plan?” she asked, sounding surprised.

“Yes. But it requires you and Amanda to keep your mouths shut about this. Jackie told me she would sign a legally binding contract that orders her to return me to my normal height once the volleyball season is over.”

Predictably, my mom flew off the handle.

“No! That is not what’s going to happen. She’s going to get you back to normal now!”

“Mom, please calm down. Can I just explain my rationale here?”

“Fine, go ahead.”

I explained once again to my mom that bringing suit against Jackie wouldn’t work. But if she signed a legally binding contract like she promised she would, Jackie would be forced to grow me back at the end of the season. For that to happen, I explained, she and Amanda would have to pretend to know nothing. I further explained that this was deal I worked out with Jackie, and she wasn’t likely to compromise past that. I told my mom that I was willing to be very small for another month or two. I told her that Maggie and/or Jackie could help me with my homework, or that I could apply to get a professional notetaker, since I couldn’t take notes on my own anymore.

After I laid that all out, my mom calmed down, and actually jumped on board with my plan. She seemed to realize that this was our best worst option. So instead of going to a doctor, we went to a lawyer.

Of course, that required me getting in the car, and my mom had no idea how to secure me in my seat. I ended up in the clutches of my sister for the whole 30-minute ride to the lawyer’s office.

Amanda held me with one hand and smugly glared down at me almost the entire trip. Occasionally, she would give my torso a little squeeze, reminding me that she could crush me into human paste if she so desired.

Her fingers were thicker and longer than my legs. I thought about what it would be like if she challenged me to an arm-wrestling match now. She could crush me entirely with only her forearm. Perhaps a thumb war would be fairer, but then I looked at her hulking thumb and concluded it would be a humiliating defeat. Even her pinky had more muscle in it than I had in both of my arms.

She could see me measuring up her hand, and I could tell that she loved how quickly I was realizing that I literally had no chance against her anymore.

“Are you sad that I can crush you with just one hand, little bro?” she said.

I nodded instinctively, not wanting to incur her wrath. But at the same time, I was waiting for my mom to jump in and scold Amanda for belittling me. No such condemnation ever came. She most likely had too much on her mind, and probably wasn’t even listening to our petty sibling squabbles, even though Amanda was sitting right next to her.

We called ahead to the lawyer’s office, which allowed us to get a meeting right then and there. Only Mom and I went into the office. Amanda sat in the lobby while we drew up the contract.

The lawyer was initially in awe of my tiny size, but we quickly got over that hump. For the next hour, we carefully drew up a contract for Jackie to sign. We made sure there were no loopholes. Mom especially didn’t want her escaping her responsibility for this.

The crux of the contract was this; provided that Maggie and I were the only ones who knew about the shrinking, Jackie would grow me back at the end of Georgetown’s volleyball season. Our lawyer was gracious and said he would keep it quiet that both my mom and sister knew about all of this.

Once the contract was drafted, printed and sealed inside an envelope, we drove all the way to Volleyball House, and stuck the sealed contract inside the mailbox.

“Whose house is this?” Amanda suddenly asked.

She was preoccupied by her phone this entire time, I thought I wouldn’t even have to lie to her. Luckily, Mom did that for me.

“Another lawyer. One your father happens to be acquainted with. We want as many opinions on this as we can get before we go forward,” she said.

“So, we know who shrank Desmond?”

My mom didn’t immediately have an answer at hand. But after a few seconds of thinking, she came up with something.

“We have an idea, Amanda. But it’s better if fewer people know our plans. It gives us more time to prepare a case if need be.”

This was gibberish basically. But it was enough to shut my sister up.

I felt better after serving Jackie with the contract. It felt better knowing that I’d actually done something to change my current predicament.

However, my mom wasn’t going to feel at ease until I had some normal clothes to wear. So, we went to nearly every doll store/emporium in Washington in search of doll clothes I could wear. I tried to tell my mom that I would be just an inch tall very soon, but she wouldn’t hear it. She wanted me to have respectable clothes now.

Miraculously, we found a parking spot on the street in D.C. I was in Amanda’s hands, but she handed me off to Mom suddenly. It was an odd experience getting traded from one giantess to another.  

“I lost something,” Amanda told my mom. “I’m gonna try to find it for a second. I’ll catch up with you guys.”

“Ok, sweetie. Don’t take too long, alright,” Mom said.

She shut the driver’s side door and began walking down the street with me in her hands. Just like Amanda said, she caught up with us a minute or so later.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” Mom asked.

“Yes. Yes, I did,” she said with a self-assured smile.

By the time we’d hit our fourth store (an American Girl Doll outlet), Amanda was getting on Mom’s nerves, so she gave her forty bucks and told her to explore the city. Normally, Mom was like a saint with Amanda, so it was surprising to see her explode like that.

We also hadn’t found any suitable clothes for me up to that point. My mom did buy some doll furniture though: a dining chair, a table, a few plastic plates, and a whole dining set complete with forks, knives, and spoons. We were making progress, but my mom wouldn’t quit until she found me an outfit to wear.

After Amanda left American Girl, my mom approached a saleswoman. She tapped her on the shoulder, and asked, “Do you have anything for my son to wear?”

She was holding me in her hand, and I waved at the saleswoman.

“Whoa! Where did you get that doll?” the saleswoman asked when I waved.

“This isn’t a doll, miss. Like I said, he’s my son, and he’s caught the shrinking disease. Do you have any clothes for him?”

By now, this was the fourth time I’d had to deal with this kind of thing, and I was starting to get a kick out of it. I looked at her nametag: Kelly. Kelly was probably 5’4” and had short curly hair. She was pretty for being in her mid-thirties. So, I thought I’d give Kelly a good story to tell her friends.

“Hi, Kelly. I’m Desmond,” I began in the most self-assured tone I could muster. “I’m a customer just like anyone else in this store, and my dear mother is simply inquiring as to whether or not you have clothes that would adequately cover my tiny body. Still convinced I’m a doll, Kelly?”

As I spoke, I watched Kelly’s face go white. When I was finished, I relished in her attempt to find the right words to say.

“Uh, oh my god. I apologize to both of you. It’s just that…you’re so small and…wow! I mean, gosh, I’ll try to find you something that’ll fit. How tall are you Desmond?”

“I’m a foot tall.”

Kelly’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. She put a hand to her mouth to prevent herself from blurting out whatever she was thinking.

Once she regained her composure, she brought us some bad news.

“I’m sorry to inform you, but most of our dolls are 18 inches tall. Our smallest doll in stock is 14 inches tall. But that’s, um, two inches taller than you, so I don’t know if her clothes will fit you. Also, all of our dolls have very feminine clothes, so I don’t know if that’s really your style.”

My mom, lacking patience, cut in with a terse request.

“I don’t care if he has to wear a dress or a skirt. I want my son to have real clothes instead of a washcloth. Would you mind going in the back and getting your smallest doll so he can try on her clothes? Thank you.”

Without another word, Kelly raced for the storage room to find what my mom asked for. And just a minute later, we saw her briskly walking back with the doll in hand. My mom put me down on the display table next to us, which had a bunch of dolls standing on it. I was dismayed to learn that every single doll on the table was head and shoulders taller than me. If I was lucky, I reached the dolls’ chests. More often though, I was the same height as their hips.

“Ok guys, I have your doll. I’ll take off her clothes so Desmond can try them on. We don’t have changing rooms. Would you like me to find a private place for him to try these on?” Kelly asked.

“No, that won’t be necessary, Kelly. I’ll put the clothes on him right here.”

Apparently, I was so small that nobody cared if I was nude in public. Kelly didn’t object to my mother dressing me up right in the middle of the store. I was like a baby, only the average baby was much bigger than me now.

As my mom stripped the clothes off the doll, she noticed Kelly was still standing behind her watching this unusual thing play out as if it was a reality show. My mom turned around to Kelly and said, “Don’t you have a job to do?”

Kelly got the hint and left us alone, her heels clicking and clacking as she walked away.

The outfit that the doll had was feminine to say the least. The doll had a pink, polka dotted dress with lace hem lining the outer rim of the sleeves and the neck. It was also wearing thick, white stockings with black shoes. The whole ensemble was definitely not ideal.

Without warning, Mom stripped away my washcloth, leaving me nude in the middle of this doll store. Luckily, there weren’t that many people around.

“Arms up,” she said.

Fuck, she actually wants me to put on this dress.

I raised my arms and allowed the frilly doll dress to float down onto me. When I thought things couldn’t possibly get any more embarrassing, they did.  

The dress adequately covered my body, but it was noticeably too big for me. On the doll, the dress fit snugly around the neck and the bottom went to its knees. For me, the neck hole was almost as wide as my shoulders, and the bottom of the dress almost went down to my calves. It got more humiliating when my mother acknowledged it.

“It’s a little big, but it’ll do for now,” she said.

She slipped on the stockings for me, but we found they were much too wide for my pencil-like legs. The fabric simply wasn’t tight enough to hug my thighs.

“Don’t worry, Desmond. We’ll throw these in the dryer on high and let them shrink.”

She then slipped the shoes on to see if they would fit. Once they were on, she asked me to walk. I almost tripped in them they were so big. 

“Well, shit,” she said.

I looked up at her from where I was standing. She was stumped. But I was grateful that I had a mother like her. In the face of any problem, she never gave up. I would’ve been content with a washcloth for the foreseeable future, but she had standards for me. Even if the best she could do was American Girl doll dress.

“Do you want to buy this, Desmond? I know this isn’t ideal, but I’m sure you don’t want to go to another store.”

She was right, I didn’t want to go to another store. If I had to wear a dress until my mom left, that was fine by me.

“Yeah, we can buy this.”

She stuck her hand out in a ‘C’ position. I stepped back and allowed her fingers to close on my body. She walked over to the register with me in one hand and the naked doll in the other. My mom explained our predicament to the lady at the register, and she was less than sympathetic. She said we couldn’t just buy the clothes. We had to buy the doll as well.

“This doll is 100 damn dollars! And I don’t need the doll, I just need the dress and the stockings!” my mom said emphatically.

“Miss, I’m sorry. This is store policy. We can’t just give you the clothing off the dolls. No one’s going to buy a nude doll. That’s why we have that policy.”

My mom slammed the doll on the counter, nearly breaking it. I was still in her hand, and I detected some sweat emanating from her palm. She was livid.

“Listen, I realize that you have rules. Let me give you $50 for the clothes.”

“I’m sorry ma’am. We can’t do that.”

“Offering you half for these doll clothes is pretty generous. Just give us a break. This is a hard time for our family.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, miss. I really can’t do that.

“Go get Kelly.”

“Miss, Kelly’s not going to be able to help you. She’s going to say the same—"

“Go. Get. Her,” said my mom.

Two minutes later, Kelly came to the register. And predictably, she said the exact same thing. My mom then asked for the manager. The manager said the same thing.

“All of you have not a shred of empathy for what we’re going through here! Here’s your damn money!”

She slapped a $100 bill on the counter and left without the doll. Once we were out on the street, my mom found a restaurant she liked and called up Amanda.

“Come meet us at the Japanese place near the American Girl Doll store. I’ll shoot you the address if you need it,” she said on the phone with my sister.

In no time, I was whisked over to the Japanese place my mom spoke of. I didn’t catch the name of the restaurant as we walked in through the double doors. Not surprisingly, it was a bit hard to read signs when I was in Mom’s hands as she pumped her arms back and forth.

The restaurant had an open concept, with regular tables in the middle of the floor and booths lining the floor-to-ceiling windows that made up the perimeter of the building. Like any Japanese restaurant I’d ever been to, this one had a fancy bar. It almost made you want to drink.

It was past peak lunchtime, and there weren’t many people in the restaurant. Mom, still keen on having privacy, chose a booth. As she scooched in and got comfortable, she put me down onto the table and reached down into her purse. She pulled out my doll chair, my doll table, and my doll cutlery all with one hand. Once the table was set and everything was in place, she pulled out the chair for me. I sat down in it, lifting up my stupid petticoat, and she pushed me in.

I was genuinely amazed sitting down at this doll table though, because if I blocked everything out, it felt like I was normal sized again. I even felt a bit bigger than I used to be sitting at tables. All of the doll stuff was perfectly scaled to my new size, and there was a sinking feeling in my stomach knowing that I would eventually have to abandon all of this. I would eventually have to shrink down to an inch tall, and I would be too small for doll items.

When we were all settled, the server came to our table and asked how many menus to leave (he was confused about how to handle me).

“Just leave two menus. One for me and my daughter. She’ll be here soon,” Mom said.

“We can make your son a small portion free of charge, ma’am. If that would be satisfactory,” he offered.

“Oh, that won’t be necessary, sir. He’ll eat off my plate. I’ll get something he likes.”

And with that, the server smiled and walked off. That whole exchange served as a brutal reminder that I was totally insignificant. Mom didn’t even let me choose my own meal. I was so tiny that the server could offer me scraps for free. And now, like a little kid, I was eating off my mother’s plate. She might as well have said, “Only big boys get to have their own dinner.”

My sulking was cut short by the arrival of Amanda. I was looking down at my empty plate when the impact of her ass slamming into the booth caused the whole table underneath to rumble like it was an earthquake.

“Cute outfit, lil’ bro. It really suits you! If you ever grow back, we should get you a full-sized dress and enter you as a contestant into the local beauty pageant!”

I hated her. I hated how ugly she was, and I hated how she could hide that ugliness with her outward-facing beauty. There was no denying it. Her emerald green eyes were that of a succubus. Her light brown hair was that of a princess. Her pink lipstick made her intimidating somehow. It seemed like I was the only one who could always look past the mirage into the evil center. My mom could sometimes see it, and so could my dad. But they forgot a lot of the time, and it was always on me to remind them how she tormented me day in and day out.

Her pink lips formed a giddy smile after her demeaning comment. Her eyes were hungry— hungry for my reaction. But in that moment, a strange enlightenment washed over me. I was no longer going to give my sister what she wanted. If she wanted to give me backhanded compliments, I would simply pretend they were straight up compliments.

“Thank you, sis!” I said sarcastically, “You know, maybe I’ll take you up on that offer! Maybe it’ll help us bond.”

When she didn’t get the angry reaction from me, she stirred in her seat. Her smile faded, and she looked down at her phone.

“Phone away, Amanda. You know we don’t use them at the table.”

This lunch was going wonderfully so far. My sister had been thoroughly put in her place. Her little act wasn’t working anymore. It was driving her crazy by the dirty looks she gave me throughout dinner. Amanda even got scolded by Mom for giving me dirty looks! It felt good to feel untouchable for a little while. But if I knew Amanda, the next time we were alone, she would get back at me. That gave me shivers.

The conversations between the three of us consisted mostly of Mom asking questions about school, and Amanda and I answering them like robots. It was not particularly pleasant, and I was already longing for the weekend to be over so I could be back in Maggie’s custody.

My mom ordered a heaping plate of sashimi, which she cut into tiny little pieces for me. She then dripped a couple of drops of soy sauces on my microscopic pieces of raw fish.

I picked up my fork for the first time, and what a great feeling it was. I was handling a fork like I’d never shrank. I felt normal for the first time in a long time. That sense of normalcy was quickly ruined when I ate my first piece of soy-drenched fish. That was because I reached for a glass of water that was nonexistent. My mom forgot to buy a glass for me, and I was reminded that I was shrunken freak.  

“Mom, um, can I have some of your water?” I asked.

She looked over and realized her error. She put her hand up to her forehead and cursed herself.

“Shit! I totally forgot to get you something to drink out of. Hold on, I might have something in my purse that you can use.”

She rifled through her purse for a few seconds before pulling out something. She seemed to be washing it in the palm of her hand, and once it was clean enough, she placed it in front of me.

It was a thimble.

That’s right. I had shrunk down to a size where I now had to drink out of a thimble.

I tried to convince myself that it was better than nothing, but honestly, it was such a painful reminder of my current lot in life that I couldn’t look past it.

“I don’t wanna drink out of that!” I cried, “Can you see if they have smaller glasses?!”

Mom tried to console me by running her finger down my back. “Honey, this is the best we’ve got right now. I’m sorry I forgot to buy you a glass, we’ll do that right after we’re done here, ok?”

“I will not drink out of that!”

Her sympathy for me ran out.

“Fine, Desmond. It’s either you drink out of that, or you stay thirsty. What do you want?”

I sat there in silence for a minute, pouting. I couldn’t bear to look up at Mom because I knew she was looking at me with that disappointed look.

“Don’t act like a little kid, Desmond. Do you want me to pour you water into that thimble or not?”

Relenting, I decided to give up my pride.

“Ok, I’ll drink out of it,” I said, barely audible.

She took her glass and poured for less than a second to fill my thimble. And the messed-up thing was, I probably wasn’t going to drink all that water. For my mom and Amanda, that amount of water wouldn’t even ameliorate cotton mouth, much less quench their thirst.

For the rest of the time, we silently ate. Embarrassingly, both girls finished 10 minutes before I did. And I never even finished. I was stuffed with two pieces of fish left.

Eventually, my mom stood up and told us she had to go to the bathroom.

“Can I go with you?!” I blurted out.

Both Amanda and Mom looked at me like I had three heads. What I meant to say was that I didn’t want to be left alone with Amanda.

Without addressing my odd request to join her in the ladies’ room, Mom asked Amanda to watch me.

Fucking perfect.

As soon as my mom was gone, my sister took out her phone and began tapping away angrily. She didn’t say a word, but I had a feeling whatever she was doing on her phone had something to do with me.

And sure enough, when she was done typing, that fear was confirmed when she turned her phone around to show me what she was about to do.

On her screen was a draft of a tweet that read…

The mystery behind the incredible shrinking man has now been revealed. @Dessypoo is getting shrunk by his girlfriend and D1 volleyball star @Vballjackie. She’ll deny it. But she’ll be lying if she does. If you see her, go ask her about it!

I was reminded of two awful things. Jackie changing my twitter handle to the embarrassing “@Dessypoo”, but more importantly, I was reminded how evil my sister was. Her finger was hovering over the blue ‘tweet’ button. With a tap of a button, Amanda could trap me at an inch tall for the rest of my life.

“Have anything to say before I tweet out the big news?” she asked.

How the fuck did you find everything out?

That’s almost what I said. But I didn’t. I needed to deny first.

“None of that is true.” I kept my cool and didn’t snap at her.

She gave me a teasing tap with her finger that nearly made me fall out of my chair. Her growing smile indicated that she saw through my denial.

“Let’s not dance around the real issue here, Desmond. Your girlfriend shrunk you. And personally, I think that’s hilarious!” she barely finished her without laughing.

That was it. I couldn’t hold back anymore, I stood up out of my chair and angrily pointed at her. Unfortunately, my vigorous finger wagging at my sister wasn’t at all intimidating judging by her reaction: more laughter.

“No one’s going to believe you!” I shouted at her.

“First of all, this is an anonymous account. And second of all, there’ll be enough people that will believe it. And even if only a few believe me, I’ll still be raising questions that your prissy little girlfriend will have to answer. Your shrinking story already has some traction in the national media in case you didn’t know. And if this tweet goes viral, like I think it will, Jackie is never going to make you big again. And when she leaves you for betraying her, I’ll be home waiting for you. Ah, I can already picture it! You, tending to my feet, painting my toenails, rubbing sunscreen all over my body. You’ll be my shrimpy slave forever!”

There was no doubt anymore. She knew somehow that Jackie shrunk me.

“How did you know Jackie did it?”

“Are you serious, Desmond? Mom was screaming about it in your room! I also found the other copies of the contract in Mom’s glove box. That pretty much confirmed it.”

It all made sense now. I remember thinking it was weird that Amanda stayed behind to look for “something.” She must’ve seen my mom put the other copies of the contract in the glove box and read them as we were walking away.

Not knowing what else to do anymore, I fell to my knees and clasped my hands together. Begging was the only course of action I had left.

“Please don’t send that, Amanda. Please! I’ll do anything! Please!”

What I didn’t realize at that moment was that Amanda had already made up her mind. She tweeted it right in front of me and made me watch it load up onto her home feed.

She took a finger and tussled my hair. “I can’t wait until you’re smaller than my pinky.”

That was it. I would never be normal again. And it was thanks to my evil sister.