Chapter 10

The assembled crowd began screaming and running away from Mandy in panic. But why?

Bounding down the Strip came a chihuahua. One more than 50 feet high. It’s Marie. My dad’s test dog from the lab. Oh shit.

I’d totally forgotten about the dog that had also been exposed to the growth ray. It was supposed to just enlarge Marie’s pointy ears, but as evidenced by Mandy, the ray wasn’t as concentrated as my dad had thought. Somehow Marie must’ve been exposed to electricity and began growing the same way as Mandy.

Marie was wreaking destruction across Vegas. If Mandy felt bad for crushing a few cars, that was nothing compared to what Marie was guilty of. You couldn’t blame her, of course. She’s just a dog suddenly grown to enormous proportions.

Trailing behind the dog flew two military choppers with searchlights and megahorns. Inside one was my dad.

“Turn all the lights off on the Strip!” he bellowed through the megahorn. “Proceed with the plans as detailed by Sterling Labs and the U.S. Army. Shut down all electricity immediately!”

They couldn’t let Marie get any bigger, so their plan made sense. It also suddenly made sense why Sterling Labs and the military had seemed to forget about Mandy. A giant woman was not as much of a concern once they discovered the test dog had chewed through some wiring, ballooned in size and escaped from the lab. My dad and company were a bit distracted by that.

“Mandy! You’re even larger now!” my dad said through the speaker of a helicopter that had come to a stop hovering near the 448-foot tall college freshman.

“You watch what you say, Mr. Szalinski,” Mandy smiled.

“Sorry, you know what I mean,” dad replied. “We need your help. We can’t seem to corral that stupid dog and she’s just going to get bigger if we don’t catch her soon. Can you please track her down for us?”

Ever the animal lover, Mandy couldn’t refuse. She also didn’t want to see any innocent lives lost.

“I’ll do it,” she said. “What’s your plan after I catch her?”

“I have a portable, handheld shrink ray right here in my pocket,” dad said. “I’ll need you to hold onto Marie until this chopper is able to land and I can get a steady aim on you and the dog. Then, I’ll return you both to your normal size. I hope you’ve enjoyed being big, but…”

“It’s time,” Mandy finished for him. “I’ve had enough being skyscraper sized for one night.”

Mandy then took off down a side street where Marie had wondered off. It seems she’d tracked down the scent of a 24-hour donut shop just a block off the Strip. Marie was nibbling on a giant donut sign.

“Come here, Marie!” Mandy boomed. She got down on her knees and beckoned the dog to come to her. Marie was startled to see a human in the proper proportions to her again. She began to back away from Mandy, before recognizing the friend she’d made earlier that morning.

“You remember me, Marie. I know you do. Come here,” Mandy said, slapping her enormous thighs. Marie stood still. Mandy reached for the donut sign and yanked it out of its base. Like the rest of the city, the shop had followed the Army’s orders and turned off its electricity, so there were no sparks and no more growing this time. Mandy held the plastic donut out in front of her, dangling it before the eyes of Marie. Finally, Marie relented and went for the donut, allowing Mandy to scoop the chihuahua into her lap as the dog chewed into its new toy.

“Good girl, Marie,” Mandy said. “It’s time for you and I to go back to normal. We’ve had enough fun to last us many more Saturday nights.”

My dad’s helicopter quickly descended to the mostly deserted street. He hopped out, adjusted the knobs on the portable shrink ray (a relatively new invention of his he’d perfected just a few months earlier) and pointed it at the two oversized girls.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Just do it already,” Mandy replied.

He hit the ‘Go’ button and a blue beam of light enveloped Mandy and Marie. Within seconds, they were back to normal size. Their adventure was complete.

“Great job getting Marie to come to you like that,” my dad said as he walked over to Mandy. “Using that donut was genius, I do admit.”

“I like to think I know dogs pretty well,” she said. “They’ll always go for a good chew toy, especially if it looks like food.”

As she stood next to my dad, Mandy was jarringly back to looking up at another person when they talked to her. It was a weird feeling for both of them.

A panic suddenly coursed through my dad.

“Where’s Nick?!” he yelled.

Mandy momentarily looked as if she’d seen a ghost. She then glanced down into her bra and breathed a sigh of relief. Her face reddened as she looked back up at my dad.

“Why are you blushing?” he asked.

Mandy looked sheepish and tried to avoid eye contact.

“Don’t worry. I, uh, know where he’s at,” she said. She reached down into her cleavage and fished little old me out from between her breasts. She dropped me down onto the palm of her still giant hand, though it was only giant to me now. I was the size of an insect.

“My god,” my dad exclaimed, lowering his face down to my level. His face had also turned beet red. I think mine had too, come to think of it. “Nick, uh, are you all right? You’re probably not even quite an inch tall.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve been this height before,” I said. “Remember? The backyard? When I was a kid?”

“Oh right, that’s a good point,” he responded. “Well, I’ll bring you back to normal size in no time. We’ll take you straight over to the lab right now to use the growth ray. I wish I’d invented a portable version of that, but I’m still working the bugs out. Let’s get going.”

“You know…” I said, looking back up at my enormous, gorgeous girlfriend behind me. Mandy flashed a smile back at me. “I’m not sure I’m ready to return to normal just yet.”

THE END