‘Two-foot-three,’ Maddie said, taking the task of measuring me upon herself this morning. She had to sit on the floor to see the number better. ‘I gotta say, you’re getting positively tiny.’

‘Thanks. I wouldn’t have noticed if it weren’t for you.’ I crossed my arms and looked up to meet her face. I was wearing a scrap of one of my old shirts, which Justine was kind enough to fashion into a tight tunic. Or at least something resembling one and, most importantly, covering most of my body, from the neck to the knees.

‘Aw, I didn’t say that’s a bad thing.’

‘I wish I could say the same.’

‘Cheer up, will you?’ She reached out and patted me on the back, thankfully doing so gently. ‘We talked about it, remember? You’re not dying. You’re just getting more compact.’

‘Excuse me?’ I asked, surprised and amused. ‘How do you mean, compact?’

‘Well, right now I could smuggle you into Mexico in a backpack, for example.’

‘Why the hell would you do that?’

‘The weather, the beaches, the drinks. You’d love it.’

‘If you ever let me out of that backpack.’

‘Exactly. If.’ She grinned. She always enjoyed messing with me.

I shook my head. ‘By the way things are going, soon you’ll be able to do smuggle me anywhere inside your pocket.’

‘I know. Isn’t that exciting? I actually have a shirt with a breast pocket. You’ll fit in there when you’re about,’ She put her hand in front of my face to demonstrate, with her thumb and index finger, roughly two inches of length. ‘This small.’

‘Well, I’m glad at least one of us is having fun with my predicament.’

‘Must you be so sarcastic? Think of the fun we could have.’

‘You mean, you could have. At my expense.’

‘Wow, aren’t you a grouch. You could really use some entertainment. Not for the grouchy part, I’m afraid that can’t be cured. But at least to take your mind off things. Help you relax, you know?’

‘Well, I still got some chapters to go.’ I pointed to the book lying on the bed with my thumb. ‘I want to finish it while I’m still big enough to turn the pages.’

‘Boring. But if that’s what you want.’ She stood up, rising over me. ‘Swing by my room when you’re done with your book. We could watch some series or listen to music. Or even just talk. What do you say?’

‘Sure.’

I watched her leave, the tape in hand. I was surprised at myself of how quickly I was adapting to the notion of seeing these two tower over me. As well as the inevitability of me getting even smaller, thus seeing them being even more imposing. I couldn’t shake the picture of myself tucked inside Maddie’s breast pocket, knowing it was probably only a matter of time before I really get that small.  I sighed and turned towards my bed. I stepped on the shoebox Maddie gave me earlier, then climbed onto the sheets. Finally, I grabbed the book, determined to finish the story and spent the next hour or so reading. Eventually I was done with that and I realized, to my annoyance, that I had nothing better to do, other than lying on my back and staring at the ceiling. This got boring sooner than later, so I once again left the comfort of my now spacious bed and crawled down to the floor. I went to the toilet, climbing a few boxes stacked in the form of stairs to reach the seat, another courtesy of my roommates to make my life a bit easier, then headed to the kitchen to grab a quick snack. It took a considerable effort from my part to even open the fridge, let alone browse through its contents while being exposed to the freezing air. Lucky for me another courtesy, another box, was lying nearby but even then it didn’t help me much. Sadly, the idea I had the previous night was short-lived. I was still getting smaller, making using boxes as height support unnecessary.

Going back from the kitchen I glanced inside Justine’s room and noticed her on the couch, her sewing kit by her side, as well as a small pile of clothes – my clothes, to be exact.

‘At least you don’t seem to be bored,’ I said, coming closer and smiling at her. ‘What are you making?’

‘Stuff that you will wear,’ she replied, exchanging the smile. ‘I took the liberty of using your old shirts as raw materials. I hope you don’t mind.’

‘Not at all.’ I glanced over her work, seeing a few tunics like the one I was wearing right then, some smaller than the others. ‘I see you took my further shrinking into account.’

‘Yes, at this point I had to.’ She momentarily stopped working and looked at me. ‘Are you scared?’

‘No,’ I lied.

‘Then I guess you’re braver than me. I would be.’ She resumed her activity, her eyes fixed on the needle.

‘I hope I didn’t give you too much trouble last night,’ I said. ‘I didn’t have time to properly apologize.’

‘No need,’ she smiled at me once again. ‘Those things happen. But since we’re at apologizing, I wanted to say sorry for my earlier outburst. I just…’ Her eyes wandered to the side and they had a sad look about them. ‘I just got overwhelmed. And I panicked. I’ll try to keep a tighter grip on my emotions.’

‘Don’t worry, I understand. Oh and,’ I pointed to the clothes that were finished ‘Thanks for doing that, I really appreciate it.’

She sighed. ‘My pleasure. Though to be honest, I wish I wouldn’t have to do this. As in, I wish this didn’t happen to you. But we can’t turn back time now so if I can help you out somehow, I will.’

‘Thanks. I won’t keep you, then. I still need to pay Maddie a call.’ I turned my back and left the room. The girl had a good heart. I wondered when, and if, I could repay her kindness as I strolled through the apartment to my next stop.

I found Maddie sitting on the floor with her back to the wall and her laptop in her lap. She was wearing jean shorts and a white tank top. She didn’t seem to notice me at first and looked surprised when I entered and said hello.

‘Wrong time?’ I asked, approaching her. The carpet in her room felt good against my bare feet, much better than the hardwood floor in the hall.

‘No, not at all. I was wondering when you’re gonna show up.’ She curiously glanced me over. ‘Hold on, I think you’ve gotten smaller,’ she noted, taking the measuring tape out of her pocket and checking me up. ‘I was right, you’re two feet tall now. Three inches less than in the morning.’

‘I kind of suspected I might’ve shrunk during the day,’ I said, shrugging.

‘You seem to be taking the news rather well lately.’

‘Yeah, I guess I’m through with panicking. How did the rest of the phases of grief go?’

‘Oh, don’t you start. You better come here.’ She put the laptop on the floor and patted her thigh.

 I looked at her, baffled. ‘Uh. I mean, I can sit on the floor just fine.’

‘Sure, but this,’ she smiled and pointed at her lap ‘Is way softer.’

So I did sit in her lap and crossed my legs, while she, in turn, wrapped her arms around me. I was now face to face with her chest. She was much better endowed in that area than Justine and seeing it from this close and at this height only magnified the experience. In a matter of seconds I began to feel the warmth emanating from her body. While I felt good, at ease, I also couldn’t help but feel awkward at the same time. And judging by Maddie’s smile she knew about it and enjoyed seeing me like this.

‘You’re like a teddy bear now,’ she giggled.

‘I am?’

‘Well. Not really. Teddy bears are usually soft and cute, and you’re not.’

‘Okay, that definitely did not hurt my self es-‘

‘You’re kinda bony’ she continued. ‘You should eat more. We’ll need to come up with a diet for you.’

‘You just implied I’m too thin.’

‘A diet to round you up, dummy.’

More like fatten me up, I thought, and then throw me into the pot. But I didn’t want to enter a debate regarding my weight with a woman so much bigger than me. ‘Alright, now that I’m here, what did you have in mind?’

‘There’s this new show I wanted you to see.’ She clicked the touchpad and brought a video up. ‘You feel like watching an episode or two?

‘Sure, why not,’ I said and turned towards the screen.

The show in question was a generic sitcom, no different from the ones that were popular at the time, with the similar (if not outright the same) type of characters and gags. Apparently, it was funny, if Maddie’s giggling every few minutes could be believed. As for me, my immersion was restricted to an occasional chuckle. Maybe the humour did not speak to me. Maybe being surrounded by her warmth distracted me. It made me sleepy, that one was certain. After a while it became hard to stop my eyes from closing and my head from leaning back. Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep. I must’ve had quite the nap, as by the time I woke up it was already getting dark and the room was silent, the laptop being turned off.

‘Sorry I didn’t wake you,’ Maddie’s voice reached my ears ‘But you looked so adorable sleeping there.’

And then I realized that the soft surface my head was resting on was her chest and I jumped up, turning instantly awake. ‘Jesus! I’m sorry, I didn’t realize-‘

‘Oh, it’s fine,’ she said, giggling at the same time. ‘I don’t mind.’

‘Right. Thanks. I mean, sorry.’ I looked up towards her amused face. ‘Can you let me go?’

She said nothing, but moved her arms away, releasing me from her embrace. I awkwardly stepped onto the floor and walked out of the room, hearing her muffled giggle behind me. Once I was out of her sight, I ran into my room through the slightly ajar door, feeling ashamed again. All I wanted was to hide, which at my current state seemed rather easy to do. Speaking of which, the moment I entered the room I realized I must’ve gotten even smaller during the time I was with Maddie. Judging by the proportions of the furniture and other objects around, I was already past the two feet mark. A foot and seven, maybe eight inches was my quick estimate. I was quickly approaching the height where just leaving the room would be a risk. I sighed, not willing to deal with such thoughts at the moment. All I wanted was to lie down and rest. Reaching the top of the bed took me longer than I’d like to admit. This time I could not just pull myself up, I had to grab onto the sheets and climb up this way. I knew it would only get worse from here as I walked through the vast surface of my bed towards the pillow, which was in itself almost as long as I was. As I positioned myself on it, I decided to ignore the anxiety of how small I was getting and the troublesome question of how would I even get out of bed in the morning, at least for the moment.