Chapter 3:

When Maggie and I got back to our dorm, she and I talked into the wee hours of the morning. I obviously talked mostly about Jackie.

I told her everything that transpired between us, of course, leaving out some embarrassing details. When I told her that I thought I was falling in love with Jackie, she laughed in my face.

“Are you listening to yourself? You’ve known her for a day. You can’t be in love with her already.”

I couldn’t explain the emotions brewing in my heart. I’d never felt this way about anyone before Jackie. And I never thought I’d be the guy to so quickly fall in love with a girl. I was weak physically, but I was fairly certain I had a level of mental fortitude to prevent a girl from burrowing her way into my brain.

Through all of Maggie’s questions, ‘Is this lust or love?’, ‘How much do you really know about this girl?’, ‘When are you gonna call her?’; every single thing I thought I knew about myself weren’t obvious anymore. None of her questions really mattered to me, which was scary. All that mattered was Jackie, and that I ended up with her, no matter what. Quite honestly, I forgot my supposed reason for being at college: learning and eventually becoming a lawyer to satisfy my old man’s expectations. Now, Jackie was completely overtaking that objective, and it wasn’t even the first day of classes.

Her utter takeover of my mind made me question how strongly I even wanted to be a lawyer. If she was able to totally divert my attention over the course of one day, was lawyering even my true calling?

Something Jackie had said to me the first time we met kept echoing in my head. “You have to get a dream in your head.” I had a dream in my head now. I didn’t before.

My dream went like this…

Jackie and I lived in a small bungalow deep in the rolling meadows of Virginia. I had a garden that I tended to, and since I was too small and timid, Jackie would come out to scare the deer when they came to munch on my plants. She was dressed in a frilly red skirt that exposed her gorgeous, milky white legs. In the dream, her legs were as tall as me, even taller perhaps. Despite the bungalow appearing small from the outside, when I approached it, the house grew and filled my whole field of vision. When I got to the door, there was a door within a door. It didn’t take a fool to realize that the smaller door was for me, when my door wasn’t even half the size of Jackie’s door. In vain, I tried to reach for Jackie’s doorknob, but she ushered me into the house by nudging me with her legs through my doggie door. Inside, the first room was the kitchen, and to me, it was a like being in a spacious air hangar. Jackie’s voice echoed; my voice echoed. She kneeled down in front of me, still far taller than I was, and held out her hand. The room grew, just like the house did when I was outside, but this time, it was more sudden and pronounced. I fell over from the dizzying disorientation, and I when I stood back up, Jackie’s hand was still held out in front of me. Only now, she expected me to climb into her hand. And I did, with no problem at all. I vaulted up onto her palm as if I was climbing onto the top of a wall. I grazed my hand along her palm creases, and she giggled. She got up off her knees, and I soared through the sky in the palm of her hand until we reached our destination: the kitchen counter. She put her hand down to the counter, and I walked off her finger as if it were a ramp. She began rooting through the cabinets. Unsure of what she was looking for, I walked closer and that was when I realized that the counter was at least a mile long. I started a brisk jog, not wanting to break a sweat. Jackie’s arm finally came out of the top cabinet holding an empty mason jar. A piece of tape stuck to it had the words, ‘Desmond’s Place’ written on it. She slammed the jar inches from where I was, causing me to shoot backwards. She picked me up by the leg and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll furnish it,” and proceeded to gently lower me into the mason jar.

I shot awake in my bed, not remembering how I got there. I sweated through my clothes (well, Jackie’s clothes. I refused to take them off). I felt something on my chin. It was a sticky note. I ripped it off and tried my best to read it in the dark.

Des,

You fell asleep in my room. I carried you back into your bed. I even tucked you in.

Don’t be embarrassed, I do this for all my guy friends.

-Ya girl Maggie

P.S.- You felt a bit lighter. I’d start eating some more.

Girls dominated me at every waking and sleeping moment apparently. It was getting harder to distinguish my dreams from real life.

I imagined her lifting me all the way from her room, balancing me on her hip as she unlocked my door, and somehow getting me up into my lofted bed. Even amidst my absolute infatuation with Jackie, I marveled at how much Maggie had done for me that day. Sure, she busted my balls for being a weakling—but she was always there to help me—even when I was too stubborn to accept it.

Unable to sleep, I stayed up to look at my phone for a couple of hours until I had to get ready for class. Usually, my phone was able to distract me from my life, but not this time. My dream about Jackie kept replaying in my head. Each time, it got hazier and hazier. Realizing I was going to lose the dream, I clicked into my notes app and wrote down all the key points.

I looked at the note I wrote all throughout all my classes for that day, trying to remember the rest of what happened. I cursed myself for not writing it down as soon as I woke up.

On the way back to my dorm after my last class, my head was spinning. To onlookers, I probably appeared drunk. I felt drunk. But I wasn’t, and that scared me. I wasn’t scared long though, because everything went black in a matter of seconds.

…

I woke up in an all-white room with fluorescent lights burning my eyes. I raised my head a bit and saw a box full of used syringes and an open cabinet with first aid supplies.

Then a voice piped up, “Desmond Tracy?”

I turned and saw a nurse holding my University ID. My confusion prohibited me from responding.

“I’m Pauline. I’m a nurse here at Georgetown University Clinic. Some people found you collapsed on the sidewalk. We brought you into the clinic. Are you feeling ok now?”

“My head still hurts a bit. But otherwise, yeah, I’m fine.”

“Can you stand?”

I swung my legs down from the gurney, and said, “I hope so.”

“Here let me help you,” Pauline took me under the arm, and eased me onto the white tiled floor.

Standing, I was a head shorter than her. She looked to be somewhere in her mid-twenties, with a narrow face and pointed chin. Her golden-brown hair was super long judging by the massive bun she was sporting.

She looked down at me, examining me. I didn’t know what she was looking for, but her pensive look seemed to suggest she had something to say.

“Have you or do you currently suffer from migraines or severe headaches of any kind?” she asked.

“No. Never.”

“Have you been diagnosed with epilepsy or seizures?”

I shook my head.

“Have you ever felt anything like what you felt tonight? Or is this the first time this is happening?”

“This is definitely the first time.”

She looked over at her clipboard as she held me up. “Let’s get you weighed and measured.”

Pauline took me by the hand as if I were a child and dragged me over to the scale. I weighed just 82 pounds.

“82 pounds?” I said in disbelief, “I’ve always been just under 100 pounds!”

“Sweetie, don’t freak out. I believe you. Have you undergone a radical change in lifestyle recently? Maybe you haven’t been eating as much, or maybe you’re exercising more and burning more calories?”

“No! I’ve been eating the same amount, and I barely, if ever, work out! Explain what the hell is happening to me!”

“Listen, Desmond. Try to stay calm and trust me; we’re going to get to the bottom of this. Alright? Now let me measure you.”

She had me stand under the tape measure and began writing on her clipboard.

I broke the silence, “Five feet?”

“No,” her eyes on me now, “I recorded you at four foot nine.”

I clutched my hair and curled my head into my body, muttering, “What the hell is happening to me?”

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I’ve been five feet tall for the last four years of my life! How am I three inches shorter now? Does this happen to people?”

“If you’re asking me if people shrink, then no. There could be a bunch of explanations for this. Your posture could have worsened, or perhaps you’ve been rounding up your height, and maybe there’s a range of 1 to 2 inches difference in your stature. That has been documented in people. It is a large range, but it could be possible.”

“So, I’m not shorter?”

“I don’t think so, Desmond. But for the next week, I want you to come to the clinic and let me take your measurements. We need to make sure that your height and weight stays consistent, and if they don’t, then we’ll have to contact some specialists.”

“Pauline, I don’t think you understand. If my weight and height stay consistent, that means I’ll have shrunk three inches and lost almost 20 pounds! I don’t want to stay consistent! I want to go back to normal!”

My head was spinning. In spite of Pauline’s rationalizations about my height, I was fairly sure that somehow, I was getting smaller. And she didn’t even attempt to explain how I could be nearly 20 pounds lighter than I usually am.

“I understand that you’re angry, Desmond. I would be furious if I were in your situation. All I’m trying to do is help you.”

“Well, you aren’t in my situation,” I snapped at her, “Listen, I don’t want my parents knowing about this incident. It doesn’t make sense to worry them.”

Over the next few days, I returned every morning to Pauline’s office so she could measure me. Everything remained consistent. You’d be surprised how much losing three inches in height can do to a person. Just walking around on campus, I noticed how every single person dwarfed me. In all my walks to class, the dining hall, or to my dorm, not once did I come across a single person close to my height.

On Thursday, walking to my law ethics class, a girl bumped into me. Apparently, I didn’t reach her eyeline because she didn’t even know she hit me until I was on the ground. She was perfectly gracious and friendly and overly apologetic. But it didn’t change the fact that I felt more vulnerable than ever. She yanked me up from the ground effortlessly and brushed me off with her hands, as if she were a mother wiping the dust off her son. The girl was barely above five feet tall, and she was absolutely manhandling me.

After that exchange, I couldn’t wait any longer. I had to see Jackie and talk to her about my shrinking problem. I trusted her completely, but more importantly, I needed her more than ever.

I called Jackie twice, to no avail. It kept going to voicemail. So, I texted her.

 ME: Jackie I need to talk to u ASAP

        Something is very wrong with me and I’m getting scared

        Please call me when u get this

I hated sounding so urgent with her, but this was an urgent situation. I was keeping the fact that I was shrinking secret from everyone I cared about. I felt myself edging ever closer to a severe nervous breakdown, and I needed to unbottle my emotions.

After my class, there was still no response from Jackie, and I was beginning to lose it. I had to tell someone in the next 30 minutes and the only person that came to mind was Maggie. I practically ran back to Darnall Hall, hoping to god she was in her room.

Before I ran back into my dorm, three towering girls stopped me in my tracks. They looked as though they were ready for a night out on the town. And these girls, trust me, they could easily get into the exclusive D.C. clubs.

One girl wagged her finger at me, and another tisk tisked me. Obviously, I was beyond confused, but then they introduced themselves as members of the girls’ volleyball team. I still didn’t know what they were doing waiting for me outside Darnall Hall. I also didn’t know how they knew I when I was coming back either. Fear and dread were meshing together in my stomach to produce a poisonous sickness in me.

Vicky was the volleyball team’s captain and the tallest one of the three. Her outfit consisted of a tube top that left little to be desired and denim short shorts. Her long, red hair cascaded down her shoulders, obscuring her beautifully tanned chest.

From the look on Vicky’s face, I could tell she meant business. She stared down at me with an eyebrow raised and a legendary smirk.

“I bet you wanna know why we’re here, don’t you little guy?” she said.

“Um, sure. Yeah.”

“We’re here to invite you to Volleyball House, tomorrow night. Can you make it, shrimp?”

I ignored her thinly veiled insults about my tininess because there was no use confronting her. She would just kick my ass and embarrass me even further.

I considered asking them if Jackie would be at the party, but I smartly decided against it. The girls would most likely think I was being rude. I took a calculated risk and decided to go. I assumed that Jackie would be there.

Faith was the next tallest and the fairest of the three. Her dirty blonde hair was scrunched up in a messy bun, which drove me mad with lust for some reason. If I wasn’t already dating Jackie, I probably would’ve acted on my sophomore crush.

She bent down slowly and whispered in my ear, “We knew you’d say yes. And I thought you might want to know; Jackie is going to be there.”

Her breathy voice sent shivers down my spine. Not the frightened kind, of course, more like the—excited kind. While she was bent over, I was able to gaze down into her black crop top. Gorgeous milky white tits gazed right back at me. And the way she was exposing herself to me almost seemed intentional, but I could smell alcohol on her breath.

Vicky noticed what was going on and put her hand on Faith’s shoulder telling her to stand up. She shook her head in disapproval. I focused my perverted brain back on the topic at hand.

“I’m glad Jackie’ll be there, but I’ve actually been looking forward to meeting all of her friends,” I gestured at the girls, trying to be friendly.

Sadie, the freshman in the entourage, who from what I could tell just barely cracked six feet, spoke next.

“That’s good to hear, little guy. I’m sure you didn’t think that you, especially a guy like you, were going to be able to date a girl like Jackie without running into us, right? I mean, we’re going to see each other all the time! And on weekends, you won’t be able to get away from us!”

Sadie was the worst of the bunch: the most passive aggressive, the most venomous. And fittingly enough, she was the least attractive.

What she managed to do with her words was cut into my core. Being forced to deal with a gaggle of divas every damn day was going to be tough.

But for Jackie, I would trudge through a hurricane of divas to be with her. She was the underground shelter protecting me from the 150mph winds Vicky and her friends would undoubtedly spawn in my life.

But for right now, Jackie wasn’t around for shelter. So, I walked the fine line between grueling sarcasm and docile obedience.

“That sounds fabulous, Sadie. And I can’t wait for the party tomorrow. How will I be getting to this very exclusive affair?” I asked.

“I will be picking you up,” Vicky said, “I’m sure that won’t be a problem, right?”

“No, of course not! Me, getting to spend time alone with the senior captain of the girls’ volleyball team? I’m honored.”

“Good. But don’t come on to me. If I’ve learned anything from my time as a tall hottie, it’s that all men have trouble being monogamous.”

Was she toying with me for the fun of it? Or was she actually flirting with me? It was likely the former, but it didn’t change how I felt. I was the it-kid. Despite the fact that I was rife with anxiety over the possibility of me shrinking, these beautiful volleyball girls were on my doorstep.

What was I to do? My only real option was to be a good sport and play along with Vicky’s little game.

“Monogamy is tough for me, especially when I’ve got three beauties standing in front of me, on my doorstep.”

“Wow, this kid’s got more guts than I thought,” Faith said.

Hearing my sophomore crush say that gave me all the confidence in the world. I never thought I had the guts to act this way in front of girls who could probably use me as a volleyball if they wanted to. However, my mouth seemed unable to refrain from saying exactly what I wanted to say.

“Kid?” I feigned offense, “I’m eighteen.”

“Age is just a number,” Sadie said.

She rested her arm on my head to drive her point home, and then said, “I thought a quick-witted guy like yourself would understand that.”

Not keen on letting that stand, my so-called quick wit came to the rescue, “You’re right. Age is just a number, but so is height. And what I lack in height, I make up for in character. It’s why Jackie and I hit it off.”

Sadie got her arm off my head, and her disgruntled countenance proved that she had met her superior in verbal sparring. I trained myself in the art of stinging people with words once my sister Amanda surpassed me in strength. Sure, when I pushed her far enough, she would freak out and try to smash my face in. But it’s what she deserved, and it’s what Sadie deserved for being a bitch.

It didn’t take long for Vicky to throw in her opinion, “Has anyone ever told you that you’re too smart for your own good?”

“I’ll take that as a compliment, and yes, people have told me that.”

Vicky’s arm shot down and her hand clutched my shoulder. Startled, I jumped. The girls giggled. Whatever tiny amount of control I had over this interaction was now slipping through my fingers like a fistful of sand.

“Careful, Desmond. I usually play nice, but no woman appreciates a guy who acts like an arrogant asshole.”

Still a bit startled, and wanting the ordeal to be over, I quit being sarcastic altogether and apologized.

“I apologize. It won’t happen again, Vicky.”

“You know what? Call me Captain from now on.”

“Yes, Captain.” I thought about saluting her to make fun of her ridiculous request but considering how she damn near broke my clavicle with bare hand, I suppressed the urge.

I could handle Sadie. Faith distracted me with her assets quite easily. But Vicky was a seasoned leader at least three years my senior, and she wasn’t about to take my shit without any pushback. I was stupid not to expect her to bury me with her dominance. I had no hopes of leveraging a girl with her height and confidence.

“I’ll be here at 9:30 tomorrow night, tiny. Wear a collared shirt,” Vicky said.

Whelp…looks like I’m gonna have to buy a collared shirt.

The girls bid me adieu, but before they could leave, I shouted one last desperate question at them.

“What is Jackie doing tonight? I called her before, and she didn’t answer.”

Vicky told Faith and Sadie to walk ahead without her, and she walked back over to me.

“You really do like her, don’t you?”

I sheepishly nodded as I looked down at the ground.

“Ok, I’ll tell you. Jackie’s going through a freshman trial at the moment. That’s why she’s not available right now.”

“’Freshman trial’? Is that what I think it is?” I asked.

“I have no idea what you’re implying, but Jackie and other freshies are having a blast.”

I could drown in her thick sarcasm. She obviously wasn’t taking my concerns seriously.

“Promise me no freshmen will end up dead by tomorrow morning,” I said.

“You have some balls telling me how to run my team. Remember who I am?”

“You’re the captain.”

“That’s right. I’m touched that you care about your little girlfriend, but let me assure you, she’s no novice. She partied in high school. Surprised that didn’t come up in any of your conversations.”

“I’m not going to question you anymore; you know what you’re doing. Just keep an eye on her. That’s all I ask.”

“Favor granted. We’ll talk about how you can repay me later.”

And with that, Vicky turned her back on me and caught up with her friends on the sidewalk. After a single conversation with her, I somehow already owed her something. I was genuinely afraid of her. And she was a double threat: brawns and brains. Only Jackie could protect me from her.

Back inside, I headed straight for Maggie’s room to talk to her about my crisis, but all I found was her roommate Blair who said she was out. That was all the specificity she would offer me. She was ‘out’.

I barged back into my room, and luckily Greg wasn’t there either. I thought to call Jackie again, but remembered that she was probably in no place to talk right now.

A wave of nausea hit me, and I nearly fell to the ground. There was something very wrong with me, and it seemed as though no one in the entire world was available to simply talk to me.

Jackie was all I could think about, and it wasn’t long before my dick was out. I stroked and stroked, thinking about the remnants of my dream. It was perfect. Just me and her, no Vicky, no mean girls, no one else to stand in the way. I may have been short, but I was well endowed. I began to double crank it.

“Jackie, I’m your college boy,” I muttered to myself with closed eyes, desperately trying to transport myself back into that perfect dream.

I felt myself getting close and I slowed down, wanting this masturbatory distraction to last as long as humanly possible.

I edged for what seemed like hours, but there was no way I had that sort of discipline. Eventually, I sprayed what could’ve been a pint of my jizz on my roommate’s closet mirror. The moment it all shot out of me, a wave of nausea hit me, just like the first time, and it was lights out for me.

Thankfully, this time, I awoke in the same place I had fallen, and I dashed into the bathroom to grab all the paper towels I could find to clean up the mess I’d made.

I knew I couldn’t run away from my problems any longer, so I was going to have to open up to someone. I racked my brain thinking of anyone on earth who I could talk to about my predicament. I wanted to keep the circle of people of who knew small. And what better way to do that than to tell nobody else?

I called Pauline, and she reluctantly agreed to have dinner with me. I practically begged her because she was the only one who knew, and I had nobody else to talk to at the time. Sometimes groveling does the trick.

She picked me up at 6:30, and since she lived in the area, I deferred to her judgement and we headed off to a place she knew.

One thing I noticed was that when I was sitting in the front passenger seat, the seatbelt beep didn’t go off when I didn’t put it on. That freaked me out. Pauline was quick to explain that the sensor in her car was broken.

“Well, if you’re sure of it,” I said, “switch sides with me for a sec.”

She scoffed, but sure enough, when she plopped her big ol’ butt in that passenger seat, there was beeping.

I was definitely losing it now because I was pretty damn sure that I was big enough to register on a car sensor.

I put our dinner plans on hold and said, “Pauline, we need to go to the clinic. I’m really afraid that I’m getting smaller.”

She didn’t argue, and as she drove to the clinic, I silently thought about what would happen if I was truly shrinking and it never stopped. My brain flew fast into a million hypothetical scenarios of me getting eaten by household pets or getting stomped on accidently like an ant.

As we walked into the clinic, I didn’t know if I was just seeing what I wanted to see, or if what I was seeing was real, but I could swear that Pauline looked taller. Her shoulders were above my eyes now, and for the last three days it hadn’t been that way.

Like clockwork, she began reassuring me that everything was fine.

“Desmond, you’re going to fine, ok? Trust me.”

I didn’t trust her, and I think I made that clear by saying nothing. I did my best to calm myself down because nothing was for certain yet.

When she measured me, though, my calm demeanor disappeared. I was two inches shorter and ten pounds lighter.

“Desmond, I just—I just measured you in the morning. I’ve…never seen anything like this. You seem to be…shrinking.”

“I ‘seem’ to be shrinking? I’m five inches shorter than my normal fucking height! I call that SHRINKING!”

She was taken aback.

“You’re going to be—”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” I cut her off, “I’m NOT going to be fine, get that? I feel my clothes getting bigger on me, my shoes are at least two sizes too big, and I passed out again today!

“You passed out again? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“What would’ve changed if I told you I passed out? I’m still shrinking, and it’s not showing any signs of stopping.”

“Desmond, it matters because we need to find out what’s causing these shrinking episodes. Each time you’ve passed out, you’ve woken up smaller, correct?”

“That’s right.”

“So, we need to figure out what’s causing these blackouts. You wanted to talk to me about this, so you need to tell me everything that you’ve been doing for the last week. No more secrets, ok?”

I couldn’t believe the words that were coming out of her mouth. She thought she was my therapist or something.

“I’m entitled to my secrets, Pauline. If you can’t fix my problems without knowing every single detail of my personal life, I’ll find an actual doctor who can help me.”

After the attack on her character, I saw something snap in her, behind her eyes. Now, she was taking the gloves off.

“How dare you insult me like that! I’m bending over backwards to help you, and all I get in return is a nasty attitude! And yeah, I’m a nurse, but do you know what a doctor is going to say when you tell him that you’ve been shrinking? He’s gonna ask the exact same questions I’m asking you right now. There are no recorded cases of men shrinking, Desmond. Every doctor in the world knows as little as I do about this, so nothing is going to change if you go to one.

“I’m going to give you ONE more chance to tell me what you’ve been doing for the past week, Desmond.”

“There has to be some other way. I don’t feel comfortable with this, you understand that, right?”

“I do, Desmond. But you have to decide which matters to you more: your pride or your height. If you’re concerned that I’m going to tell people about intimate details of your life, you have no reason to worry. Whatever you’re trying to hide, I bet it’s not as embarrassing as you think it is. If you tell me nothing, there is little to no chance of me reversing this. And let me be clear, reversing this is all I care about.”

I had a newfound respect for Pauline. Now, instead of talking to me like I was a child—telling me everything was going to ok—she was giving me the reality of the situation. Or perhaps, she was masterfully manipulating me. I wasn’t sure, but her overarching point was correct. If I didn’t open up to anyone, nothing would ever change.

So, I told her everything, omitting the sexual stuff, of course. By the end of my recounting of events, Pauline understood that I had a girlfriend named Jackie and a friend named Maggie who I spent most of my time with.

“Does any of that help?” I asked once I was done with my long-winded retelling of the last week of my life.

“I’d like to know more about Jackie.”

Of course, I thought.

“You said she’s tall?”

“Yeah. She’s 6’8” or 9. One of the two, I forget.”

“Why did she go for a guy like you? I don’t mean that to be an insult, but it strikes me as a bit odd for a leggy blonde to go out with a guy half her size.”

“I don’t know, Pauline. Maybe I just have amazing game, and I’m just discovering that in college,” I said.

“Has it crossed your mind that she might be using you?”

“You know what? No. It hasn’t crossed my mind that my girlfriend who I voluntarily choose to be with is using me.”

“Don’t you think it’s odd that basically as soon as you got to campus, you became smaller? There’s something causing this, and it’s something on this campus.”

“What are you suggesting?” I asked.

“You aren’t going to like this, but I think you should go home for a week or two.”

“No, no, out of the question! I can’t go home.”

“Desmond, listen. Do you agree that something here is causing you to shrink?”

“I mean, I guess. But it could be a coincidence.”

“Yes, it could. There is a small chance that your shrinking just happened to coincide with you starting college. But if you go home, or somewhere else away from this campus, we can be sure.”

“So, if the shrinking stops when I’m away from here, then it means that something on campus is causing it?”

“Exactly. And the only way for you to find out is to leave for a while.”

“But what could be causing it? What?! Is there an evil mad scientist sneaking into my room at night to conduct experiments on me? Is there something in the water? Am I losing my god damn mind?!”

I had reached a breaking point. I was hyperventilating. The walls were closing in, and instead of those walls crushing me, like it would a normal person, I would simply shrink away before they could crush me.

As a child, I had nightmares. Nightmares of werewolves hunting me down in the night. Nightmares of crows pecking at my flesh until my skeleton was all that remained. Those were scary, but they had nothing on this. I was awake for this and it was really happening to me. How long can you live a nightmare before you go insane?

“Desmond, you’re not losing your mind. Unfortunately, as you suspected, you really are getting smaller. It’s amazing and horrifying at the same time, and we need to do everything we can to stop it.”

“I know you think I should go home, but I really don’t want to do that. My mom will be worried sick and will probably never let come back to college. But the worst part is that my sister will torment me endlessly. Me shrinking, you don’t understand how giddy that would make her. Christmas would be coming early for that devil.”

“Do you have anyone else to stay with beside your parents?”

“My entire family is from Massachusetts, and they all live close to each other. There’s no way I could go stay with someone else.”

Pauline didn’t immediately respond. She appeared to be thinking. She was considering something.

“If you have no other options, then you can come stay with me for a week. I have a pull-out couch.”

“No way. I wouldn’t want to burden you like that.”

“Skip the nicey-nice, Desmond. Do you want to stay with me?”

“I mean, I—”

“Stay the night and see how you feel in the morning. If you want to go back to your dorm tomorrow morning, I won’t stop you.”

Unable to argue anymore, I acquiesced. We skipped going out to dinner and went straight back to Pauline’s place only 20 minutes away. On the way back to her apartment, she ordered a pizza on the phone. When we arrived, she got me settled and then went out to pick up the food.

I wandered around the living room, surveying the place. Pauline had a bookshelf that reached all the way to the ceiling off to the side of the room. It was so tall, in fact, that there were four shelves I had no hopes of reaching. I looked through the bottom shelves, pulling out random books and thumbing through them. Each one I took out had clearly been read through, unless Pauline liked to wrestle the spines of books. I had no idea she was an avid reader.

Then I caught a glimpse of a book I had always liked as a young adult: “The Fault in Our Stars”.

It didn’t click with me at the time, but I had cancer in reverse. Instead of having cancerous growths, I had cancerous shrinkage. The only difference was cancer was a worldwide phenomenon. People shrinking wasn’t.

The fact that likely no one in the world knew how to reverse my shrinking, snuffed out all hope in me. The optimism I had just days earlier was gone now. I wasn’t a naïve child. I knew then and there that if I lived through this ordeal, I would always remember this moment as the calm before the storm. Sure, I was 4’7” now, but how long would that last? I can still function in normal society, but how long would that last?

It was the uncertainty that was killing me. I wished I could know my fate, even if it ended in misery and tragedy, because then I could at least prepare for it. I didn’t know what I was up against, and that was the most terrifying part.

I reached for “The Fault in Our Stars”, but in typical shrunken man fashion, I was unable to reach. The book was on the top shelf in a room with eight-foot ceilings. I may not have been optimistic about my condition, but something in me created a deep need to get that book off the top shelf.

I dragged over a stool from the adjacent kitchen counter, which proved more difficult at my new size. It felt twice as big and heavy as stools normally were. I clambered up the stool quickly, only to find that the book was still out of my reach. Then, I stacked books under my feet to give me extra couple of inches. And just as my hand was about to grab my prize for all my hard work, the door flew open.

“Hey, I’m back with the food!”

The combination of Pauline shouting and the front door suddenly flinging ajar, caused me to flinch, which in turn caused me to lose my balance. I plummeted off the stool and hit the hardwood floor with a sickening amount of force. I managed to turn over and see that “A Fault in Our Stars” was still in the bookcase, untouched.

“God damn it!” I screamed in frustration.

Pauline rushed over to me and helped me up, asking me a million times in the process, ‘are you ok?’ No amount of me saying ‘I’m fine’ stopped her from worrying though.

Once I was settled on the couch and eating a slice of pizza, she finally asked me what I was doing. I didn’t want to have to explain because I felt pathetic for not being able to get a book off the shelf without pain and hardship being a part of the process.

She walked over to the bookshelf and asked, “Which book did you want? I can get it for you.”

“It’s fine,” I said, desperately wanting her to drop it.

“Desmond, you were balancing on like four books and a stool to reach for whatever you were trying to get. Let me get it for you.”

She started pulling random books off the shelves.

“How about ‘Jane Eyre’? I hear that’s a favorite among guys your age.”

I shook my head.

“Ooooh, here’s one you’d like,” she said holding up “Pride and Prejudice”.

Again, I shook my head.

“’The Notebook’?”

I turned my head away from her.

“Hey, I’m gonna keep guessing until you tell me. ‘The Book Thief’, no. Hmm, maybe ‘Of Mice and Men’, no. Maybe—”

I cut her off, “Oh my god, you’re driving me crazy! ‘The Fault in Our Stars’. That’s what I was trying to get.”

“Oh, I see. Quite a climb.”

Even she had to use the stool to get it, but she didn’t have to use have to get on her tippy toes on top of four books and a stool.

She put the book down on the coffee table, and thankfully, she let me eat in silence for a while.

After we were done, Pauline told me she had a night shift at the clinic, and that she would be back in the morning. She also told me that tomorrow she would drive me back to campus if I wanted her to.

Finally, she went into her bedroom to take a nap before she had to leave for work, and I could crack open the book she had so gracefully picked off the shelf for me.

I was more tired than I thought because after only three or four pages, the book was on my face and I drifted off into a tranquil slumber. And to my delight, I was transported back into my dream.

My consciousness shot into the dream version of myself, and I awoke inside the mason jar Jackie had put me in. Only now, the inside of the jar was furnished, just like Jackie had said. A cut out piece of carpet was laid over the glass floor. I was so small that my legs kept getting tangled in the carpet fabric as I walked. There was a sort of wallpaper that covered the cylindrical wall. It had cut out parts that served as windows to let light in. But there was also artificial light coming from balled up Christmas lights at the top of the jar.

I soon noticed that Jackie had supplied me with many things to do inside my new home. There was a mini pool table, a dart board, a golf putting station, a little treadmill, and a desk with mini writing utensils. Since it was a dream, I didn’t question how any of it came together, but I sure was grateful to her. I checked out the dart board first. It was a delight to throw these perfectly weighted darts at the board.

Suddenly a piece of yarn fell through the hole in the top of the jar. I could see Jackie’s gigantic hand holding it. I instinctually knew to grab onto it, and she pulled me out. It was quite scary because to me, I was going hundreds of feet in the air, even though it was only six or seven inches.

I was set down gently on Jackie’s hand, and her voice boomed, “I have somebody for you.” I wondered who it could be. Her other hand whooshed next to me, and a tiny person just like me was in it. Jackie angled her hand downwards, and the tiny person tumbled down into the hand I was standing in. The person’s face was still obscured, because whoever it was, they were wearing a hoodie. I walked over close enough to put my hand on the person’s shoulder, and as soon as I did, the person turned around at an inhuman speed.

“Maggie?”

I woke up in a bed, and for a solid five seconds, I had no idea where I was. The dream was still in my head, and I was delirious. Then I put two and two together. Pauline carried me into her bed before she left for work. I leapt out of her bed, not knowing who had been in there before, and left the bedroom.

Pauline was in the kitchen making breakfast.

“Scrambled eggs and bacon?” she offered.

“Why do people keep carrying me off to bed? I’m not a damn child. I was fine where I was,” I said.

“Honey, you looked very uncomfortable sitting up on the couch. I was going to pull it out, but the squeaking would’ve woken you up, so I put you in my bed.”

“Even tucked me in…”

“You said ‘people keep carrying you off to bed’?”

Shit, why did I say that?

“Uh, yeah, uh, my friend, Maggie, carried me out of her dorm room and put me in my bed. She even left me a note.”

“Awwww! How cute!”

Now, I was fuming. How would she feel if she was carried off to bed every night by some strapping young man—eh, probably not an apt comparison. Most women would like that, I would assume. But men weren’t supposed to be carried off to bed, even if they were shrinking.

“Listen, just because I’m smaller doesn’t mean you can treat me like a child, ok? I’m an 18-year-old man. I can be drafted to go fight and die in a foreign country. I can drive. I can vote."

She stopped tending to the food and looked at me from the kitchen. She appeared genuinely contrite.

“I’m sorry if I belittled you. It won’t happen again.”

I walked into the kitchen and approached Pauline. Now, her shoulders were like high above mountain ranges to me. I was getting really small.

“Pauline, this is gonna surprise you, but I think I need to go home.”