Chapter 3

“I have to do some errands. I’ll be back later this afternoon,” my dad tells Mandy and I as he climbs inside his old pickup.

“Aren’t you gonna get a bite to eat?” I ask.

“Nope, I’ll just skip lunch for today,” he says. “I need to get those gardening supplies your mom was wanting me to get her this weekend anyway.”

Mandy and I head to the kitchen to find something to eat.

“Hey, this frozen burrito actually doesn’t sound bad,” Mandy says in jest as she pops it in the microwave. “I’m so starved that it actually seems appealing. I hope I don’t regret this.”

I head into the living room to clean up the coffee table and find something to watch.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, a strange sensation begins to overcome Mandy.

“Why am I tingling suddenly?” she asks herself as she peruses a magazine left on the counter. “It’s like a static shock to my whole body.”

As she leans back up to take the burrito out of the microwave, she notices something is off.

“I don’t remember having to lean down this far to open the microwave before,” she thinks. “I swear it was higher before.”

The truth of the matter become clear when she sees her boyfriend walk into the kitchen. Her boyfriend who she now dwarfs by a full foot.

“Oh my god,” she exclaims as she drops the burrito, plate and all, on the floor.

“Holy shit,” I mutter. 

The girl who I normally outrank by a cool nine inches or so now stands a good foot taller than me, at least seven feet tall.

“You’re Shaq-sized. What the hell happened?”

“I don’t know!” she screamed.

Her tight, super-short jean shorts seemed to make her legs go on for miles. I look up and find her chest staring back at me at eye level. The snug-fitting, stripped T-shirt she was wearing was already flattering enough to her bust before, but this is ridiculous.

“Keep your eyes up here,” she orders. It’s not often I have to crane my neck this far to make eye contact with someone. Maybe with the starting center on my school’s basketball team, but never did I think I’d look at my girlfriend this way.

“Sorry, I didn’t know where else to look. I see your clothes still seem to fit just fine.”

“Yeah, well that’s no consolation to me. I’m enormous! I can’t go outside like this. This is all because of your dad’s invention.”

“Wait, what?”

“Well, I uhh… I may have accidentally left my cell phone on the table next to the dog when the ray went off. I rushed as fast as I could to grab it. I guess I just wasn’t thinking straight. I figured I’d be OK anyway since it was just supposed to enlarge the dog’s ears for crying out loud. And then it didn’t even work.”

“Oh, I think it worked,” I replied. “I just don’t know how. And why did you grow now? We left the lab nearly an hour ago.”

“I don’t really care why. Just get me back to normal!”

“I can’t ask my dad to help us. He could lose his job. We’ll have to go back to the lab. I know where he keeps the shrink ray. We’ll get you back to your normal height.”

Before we go I decide to pop another burrito in the microwave for a quick lunch. 

Wrong choice.

Moments after I started the microwave, Mandy began to grow again. This isn’t gonna be good. At least this time I was there to witness it.

Mandy was studying herself in the kitchen mirror when she sprouted up higher and higher towards the ceiling.

“Not again!” she cried.

Before she could react, her head burst through the ceiling and poked its way through to the second floor before she stopped growing. I stood mouth agape at the sight of my girlfriend, who was now so large, her head disappeared into the second floor above me. 

Now even Mandy’s pert butt was above eye level for me. She was trying to talk to me but I couldn’t make out her words clearly. I headed upstairs.

I rounded the top of the staircase and looked down the hallway toward my bedroom. Inside I saw Mandy’s face protruding through the floorboards. She looked terrified but also angry. At me.

I walked over. Her head and most of her neck cleared the base of the floor. She was covered in dust and drywall. Still, seeing her cute, cherubic face stare back at me made my heart race.

“Nick! You little son of a…” Her eyes narrowed at me as she screamed. Mandy was pissed. 

Uh oh. My girlfriend is mad. At me. And she’s 14 feet tall.