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“What are you doing with that?” she asked the inhumanly tiny person, slowly pushing a crumb across the table. Her question got no answer. The speck simply kept on pushing the slightly bigger speck, inch by inch, across the vast wooden waste. The girl sat staring, bemused by the tiny person’s ignorance, or arrogance. Without a sound, at least to hear ears, she dropped her hand in front of the speck, lightly curving her fingers to form an impenetrable mountain range.

The speck stopped dead. Spinning around, nothing the faint outline of a head, arms, and two shaking legs was clear to the girl. One edge of her lips twitched into a smirk and the tiny person staggered a few steps away. She slid the paper plate and her half-finished coffee to the side, making the table quake and sending the tiny tumbling to their backside. She snickered a little through her nose.

“I said,” she repeated, deepening her voice a bit and pausing for effect, “What are you doing with that?” The girl darted her eyes to the scone crumb, then back to the human crumb. She possibly got a response, it was impossible to hear. She gave a theatrical sigh and gently tapped her fingers against the table, each land making the smallest slap. Down there, it must have been a roaring tremor as the tiny stumbled over again and slammed their hands to their ears.

“That’s not yours,” the girl said. Her voice was soft and mocking. She changed to tapping her nails against the wood and she smiled when the little person struggled to their feet and waved wildly for her to stop. She cocked her head and pretended not to understand, still tapping.

“You should really learn to ask first,” she whispered. By now the speck must have been screaming but she still couldn’t hear, so she leaned a little closer to make out a word or two. Despite the strain, she barely made out the word ‘need’.

“What?” the girl asked at a volume more suited to someone her own size. After the tiny person’s hearing recovered, they continued to shout and again she made out ‘need’.

“So,” she replied, “You need this? And I don’t?” The tiny stopped shouting. Silence fell and she quickly knew how to respond, but she let the anticipation stew. It was a struggle to stop herself from smiling. Eventually she said, “I don’t need it. But I bought it, it’s mine. I decide what to do with it, little friend.”

With that, the girl lightly pressed her finger onto the scone crumb, crushing it hard and flat. She flicked it away onto the floor, then she carefully swished any remaining crumbs off the side of the table. Turning back to the tiny with a faint smile, she got no response. The speck stood there staring back, motionless, looking up with an expression that the girl could never register.

As she stood up to leave, she leaned over and gurgled from the back of her throat, hacking up spit that landed mere inches from the tiny onlooker. The foaming viscous spread and settled and the girl winked.

“Didn’t think I was going to leave you with nothing,” she chimed, “Did you?”
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