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Wednesday, October 21 (cont.)

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True to the idea he had that morning, Marcus decided on cleaning the kitchen counters as his chore that he’d do for the day. And not just his counter and mini-kitchen space; that was easy. He actually got out a bucket, filled it with soapy water, and then carried the bucket and a mop up his little stairs that led all the way up to the main kitchen’s counter. There had been a part of him that wanted Jessie to actually see him do the mopping too, and actually witness his increased productivity that contrasted his depressed state of mind from just a week ago. So he roughly estimated how long it’d take him to clean the counters, and timed it so that when she got home in the late afternoon like usual, she’d walk in on him finishing up the last of the counter. The sound of the front door opening alerted him to his daughter’s return, and he looked up in time to see Jessie coming in—with two other guests behind her.

The first was the Hispanic girl that Jessie had brought over a couple days ago, and the other was Paris, Jessie’s best friend. Marcus had known Paris longer than any of Jessie’s other friends, along with the rest of her family too. Not that Jessie needed it per se, but Paris also was a great influence on his daughter, since she (and the rest of her family) were some of the kindest people Marcus had ever known. About an inch shorter than his daughter, Paris had curly black hair that bounced whenever she got excited, clear dark skin, and an eager set of green eyes that widened along with her smile upon seeing Marcus for the first time in a long while.  

“Mr. Tilden! How are you? It’s so good to see you again!” she said, and Marcus grinned back at the polite young girl.

“It’s great to see you too Paris,” he replied, “I’m actually kinda surprised it took this long for Jessie to bring you around.”

“I was trying to be sensitive!” his daughter defensively remarked as she shrugged off her backpack on the table. “I thought you’d want a bit more space after shrinking and stuff.”

“I know I know, I was just messing with you,” Marcus told her. “Although I do have plenty of space now. I don’t think I need any more of that.” He looked around and gestured to the rest of their house: normal sized for them, but massively spacious for the 9 inch tall man. “I think if I were to grow back again then I’d feel cramped in all the hallways and small rooms.”

Paris walked over to Marcus, her eyes more empathetic than they were pitiful. Nowadays, most people looked at him like the latter. “I’m so glad you’re OK,” she said, “I don’t think we’ve seen each other since like, a couple days after your diagnosis, right? That was kind of awhile ago.” Marcus nodded, thinking back on how long it’d been. He hadn’t wanted Jessie to bring people over while he’d been actively shrinking. “Is it OK if I hug you, or does that make you uncomfortable?” she asked, squatting down so their eyes would be level with each other.

It was thoughtfulness like that that made Paris his favorite of Jessie’s friends. Her parents had done such a good job raising her to be polite and considerate, and as a result she’d always seemed the most mature of his daughter’s classmates. There were a lot of other people with Marcus’ condition who were insecure about their body sizes, which led to seemingly half the population treating them awkwardly and different than everybody else. Or shunning them altogether. And there was another huge chunk of people that was constantly ignorant and naive about the impacts of size differences. Forgetting how weight affected them disproportionately, not seeing them on the sidewalk and bumping into them, or simply not caring about their requests for special treatment.

But Paris was one of the few people who acted the same towards Marcus as when he was normal sized—while still showing thoughtfulness to what he was going through and how he might perceive things differently. Even Jessie had been mostly ignorant of DSD’s implications for the first couple weeks that Marcus was shrunken, and though she was getting better at being cognizant of his differences, she’d still slip up from time to time (like accidentally flinging her sock onto him).

So it warmed Marcus’ heart to see Paris asking for permission to hug him, aware of how much incredibly larger and stronger she was than him. “Of course,” he replied with a smile, opening up his arms as she leaned forward so he could embrace her shoulder, while she reached a hand up to ever-so-gently place against his back in return. The hug lasted only a second, just long enough as was appropriate for a man and his daughter’s friend.

“Thanks for asking too,” he said as they pulled away. “I wasn’t very fond of people touching me for a little while. And a lot of people still don’t know how to… well, handle me.” Jessie blushed, remembering some of the times she’d already mishandled him. “So how’s the new school year been going for you?” he asked.

“Really good!” she replied cheerfully, taking off her backpack and sitting on the kitchen table to face him. “I have a B in one of my classes, but so far I’ve been having a great year. I love all my teachers, and I have like two or three classes with Jessie, that’s pretty cool.”

“That’s good to hear,” he replied, and then noticed her eyes quickly glance at the mop that he’d set aside. He turned around, “Oh, I was just cleaning off the kitchen counters with this thing,” he explained. “Even though it’d probably be a lot faster for Jessie to do it, I like to help out a bit around the house since she’s taken over so many chores. Plus it’s a good to be on my feet a little bit!”

“Aw, that’s really sweet of you Mr. Tilden,” Paris replied, looking between Jessie and her dad.

Yup, the two of us make a great team!” Jessie grinned, pretending to rest her elbow on her dad’s head, like how tall people do with shorter people sometimes. Except she made sure not to actually put any weight on him, of course.

“Aaaaand Camila, right?” Marcus spoke up, turning to the girl who’d been quietly watching the three of them interact. “How was your day at school?”

A smile grew on Camila’s lips from him having remembered her name. She didn’t have a lot of friends, and was too shy to talk to very many people, so people seemed to forget her name a lot when they first met her. It wasn’t a big gesture—he didn’t even consider remembering someone’s name a gesture at all—but it gave her a surprising amount of happiness.

“I had a good day,” she replied quietly with a smile and a bit of a blush. “Thank you for asking.”

“Hey, can Paris and Camila stay for dinner?” Jessie asked her dad, who glanced at the clock and chuckled.

“My mama would probably be glad if she knew she didn’t need to cook for me when she got home,” Camila added earnestly, her smile faltering a bit.

“Well if I said no, I’d be making you girls leave just after getting here,” he joked, looking back and forth between Paris and Camila. “But Jessie’s gonna have to do the cooking!”

His daughter rolled her eyes, “I always do the cooking. If you had to cook for four people you would’ve had to start hours ago,” she said, referencing how much harder it was for someone his size to cook for multiple fully grown people.

“At least it’d give me something to do with my day though,” he shrugged.

Camila tilted her head and wrinkled her nose, “Do you not have a job Mr. Tilden?” She wasn’t sure if shrunken people really had jobs.

Jessie glanced at her dad, knowing it was a bit of a sore subject with him, and he took a deep breath in. “Well… no, actually. Not as of last Thursday.”

Camila looked more shocked than the reply probably warranted. “Oh… I’m sorry I asked,” she said, looking down in embarrassment.

“No, no no no no no,” Marcus laughed, trying to reassure her. “You didn’t know, don’t feel bad. It’s just life, right? I could’ve shrunk down to an inch and then my life would really be crazy, like I can’t even imagine. But there’s still some stuff I can do at my height.” He smiled, as if trying to be optimistic for his own sake rather than convince Camila. “Between our savings, and the disability benefits, and soon the unemployment ones too, I had a pretty good financial safety net. And the one upside, which is a really, really big upside…” he trailed off, reaching his hand out towards Jessie’s arm, who was standing next to him. “…is that I get to spend a lot more time with Jessie. She’s had after-school sports for the last year or so, so she’d get home a while after I did, and sometimes we’d get less than an hour together before I had to go to bed since I woke up so early.”

Saying it out loud, Marcus realized that their situation actually hadn’t changed that much in regards to how much time he and Jessie spent together. Even though he was home way more, she still had school and sports and her social life. It seemed like things should’ve changed, but it felt like they hadn’t. I wish I could spend more time with her, he thought. Especially since she’s only got a few more years before she’ll be old enough to head off to college. And then what’ll I do? I’ll be all alone, and if I could never find a new girlfriend or mother for Jess for the last 13 years, I definitely won’t find one at this height. 

Suddenly he was in a despondent mood again, just from his own words and thoughts. He fantasized about a future where he might live with his daughter beyond her college years, like how some parents did with their children after they became adults. Although most of the time that wouldn’t happen straight out of high school.

He took a deep breath and sighed, telling himself to move on. A lot could change in the next 6 years before she moves out, so no use in worrying about it yet. For now, he’d simply try to spend more time with his daughter.

Unbeknownst to Marcus, his words had also triggered nearly the same kind of guilt with Jessie, but in reverse. She was all that he had, which she figured was an even bigger statement now that he’d shrunken and lost his job. She wasn’t sure what her dad would do after she left for college—or would he have to keep living with her after she moved out?

“Well it was nice catching up with you,” Paris told Marcus, cutting everyone off from their thoughts. “I’m gonna try and finish tomorrow’s homework before dinner,” she told her friends, heading to Jessie’s room

“Oh yeah,” Jessie said, sighing as she thought about all the stuff she still had to do that evening before she could have some free time. “I’ll make some dinner for us later in a little bit, Daddy,” she told her father, who nodded, before she went to go join her friend.

Camila, the last of the three still standing in the kitchen, nervously smiled at Marcus. It was only her second time, but she liked being at Jessie’s house; her dad seemed to be really caring, Jessie was fun, and her best friend Paris was really nice to her too.

“Um… thanks,” she told the man awkwardly, then hurried down the hallway to join her classmates in Jessie’s room.

For what? Marcus wondered, raising an eyebrow in confusion. But he just shrugged, and went back to mopping up the kitchen counter to get it ready for his daughter.

*       *       *       *       *

Camila went home not long after dinner, but Paris stuck around since Jessie hadn’t had her over in awhile. But since it was still a school night, Marcus figured he should ask what Paris’ plan to get home was. He was about to knock on Jessie’s door and ask if her mom was coming to pick her up when the door suddenly opened, with the two girls about to step into the hallway. “Oh!” Paris gasped, immediately seeing her friend’s dad standing at their feet and stopping herself. “Sorry,” she blushed; ‘walking into someone’ took on a different meaning when that someone was less than a foot tall.

“That’s OK,” Marcus chuckled. “I’ve kinda learned to stop worrying about what could happen and just focus on what actually does happen. You didn’t run into me, so neither of us should feel bad.”

Paris smiled, impressed with the man’s positive attitude. “That’s a great way of looking at things!”

“Thanks,” he replied, and turned to his daughter as she spoke up.

“Were you coming to get us for something?” the giant teenager asked, and he nodded, looking back at Paris.

“Yeah, I was just checking up to see when you were planning on going home, Paris. I mean you’re free to stay as late as you want, you know that. But since it’s a school night I just thought I’d check.”

“Oh, my mom was gonna come pick me up,” the girl explained.

“But we were gonna watch a movie before she did,” Jessie added. Marcus glanced over at the clock, seeing that it was a little after 7pm. Is there enough time for them to watch a movie before Jessie has to start getting ready for bed? But his daughter was already one step ahead of him. “Paris said she goes to bed normally at 9, and the movie’s only like an hour and a half, sooooo… I mean we probably should’ve started like 15 minutes ago, but every minute we spend talking about it makes it even worse!” The two girls pretended to freak out in unison and ran past Marcus towards the living room. He was a little hesitant about letting them start the movie, since he knew that that Paris’ parents would probably want her home by 8:45 at the latest, which meant her mom would be there around 8:30. Only getting to watch part of a movie was annoying, but getting to watch 90% of it and then having to leave in the last 10 minutes was even worse. But he also didn’t wanna tell his daughter no, since technically she’d be able to finish it, even if her friend couldn’t. Worst case scenario, they’ll just learn to start a little earlier next time, he decided. Time management skills.

Jessie jumped up from the couch and hustled her way back to where her dad was, still standing by her door. She dropped to the floor all of a sudden, breaking her fall with her hands for a split second before putting her elbows on the ground and resting her head in her hands, her feet kicked up behind her and swaying back and forth. It all happened so quick that Marcus was caught off guard, taken aback by something so massive moving so quickly. Her face had gone from being 50 feet above him to at his eye level in barely two seconds. She was purposefully being goofy though—not that Marcus expected anything less from the 13 year old. It was typical Jessie behavior.

“Paris wanted to know if you wanted to watch the movie with us?” she asked, tilting her head back and forth.

“Depends what you guys were gonna watch,” he answered. He didn’t think it’d be something he’d wanna watch, but at least her movie picks nowadays were a lot more appetizing than they used to be. Even to this day, he still knew every line from “I See the Light” because Tangled was the only movie Jessie picked for family movie night for at least a year when she was a little kid.

“Mmmmm, do you remember that one we watched about the girl who wrote a bunch of letters to her crushes and freaked them out, but then one of them fell in love with her?”

Marcus had to think for a moment, but it sounded familiar. “The one with Noah Centineo?”

Over in the family room, Paris suddenly burst out laughing. “Oh my God, I love that your dad knows who Noah Centineo is.”

Marcus rolled her eyes but Jessie laughed, agreeing with her friend. “Yep! I’ve taught him well,” she giggled, gently patting him on the head. “But anyways yeah, that one. It’s the sequel to that.” Her dad looked hesitant, but Jessie wasn’t buying it. “Oh come on, I know you liked it. You literally told me when it was over that it was better than you were expecting.”

“I was just trying to be polite,” he shrugged with a laugh.

“Yeah, sure,” Jessie said, rolling her eyes and picking her dad up before hopping back onto her feet. “He said he loved the first movie and can’t wait to watch the second with us,” she jokingly lied to Paris, carrying her dad to the family room and sitting to the right of her friend on the couch. She set her dad down between the two of them, and then tucked her feet beneath her on the opposite side. Paris pulled a blanket off the ground and was preparing to drape herself with it when Jessie scooted over suddenly, the side of her leg bumping into her dad as she reached for the other side of the blanket. “Ooooh, we can get all snuggled and cozy too,” she commented, and scooted even closer to Paris, trapping Marcus between their legs. Then she threw the blanket open to its fullest and draped it over her and Paris’ laps, teasing her dad by covering him in the process. “OK, everyone ready now?” Polite as she was, Paris couldn’t keep from laughing along with her friend a little, while they both felt Marcus sandwiched between their legs and trying to push his way up and out. She budged to the side just a tiny amount in order to help him out a bit, and it proved enough for him to climb out. Having successfully escaped being squeezed by the teenage girls, he pulled the blanket down so he could climb on top of it, and then plopped to a seat in the middle.

“OK I changed my mind, I’m not actually cold enough for a blanket,” Jessie declared, and scooted back over to her original position, causing her dad to tumble fall a couple feet onto the couch again as the blanket fell from beneath it. She turned onto her side instead, her legs curled up away from Marcus and Paris, and set her elbow onto the cushion so she could prop her head up.

She glanced down to the side to see her dad marching over to her before taking a seat and using her arm as a backrest. “I don’t care how many times you try to get rid of me, I’m still gonna wanna sit with you,” he stated. She smiled and decided she’d had enough fun, and they all got relaxed as Paris started up the movie.

Marcus didn’t think the movie was as good as the first one (Jessie had been right about him enjoying it), but it wasn’t really that bad. Early on into their watching, Jessie had commented that she’d be content if the movie had “just one scene that’s half as good as the hot tube one from the first.” Marcus couldn’t remember which scene she was talking about, but it wasn’t hard for him to guess what might be so appealing about a “hot tub scene.” Since his seat was a little in front of Jessie’s face, he was able to glance up at her face to gauge her reaction a few times throughout the movie. She seemed moderately interested for most of it, although there was one occasion where he looked up and realized she suddenly looked far more engrossed than at any point before. She was even biting her lip from how entranced she was, and when she shifted her body slightly her eyes stayed glued in place like an owl.

After sitting in the same spot for a while, Paris changed positions too, adopting a similar one to Jessie’s, but instead had her head laying on the pillow against the couch’s armrest. She curled her legs onto the couch like how Jessie was laying, but she forgot that Marcus had been sitting there, so her feet nearly ended up blocking his view of the TV. Having been best friends with Paris for so many years, they were naturally completely comfortable around each other and Jessie didn’t care when Paris’ feet rubbed up against her elbow. But Marcus cared. Even though he could still see the screen, there was now a wall of socked soles bordering his view. Her feet were laying on the side, one on top of the other, and the combined width of them both ended up being taller than Marcus’ height sitting down. Paris was obviously a clean and hygienic girl, so it wasn’t like her feet smelled bad or anything… but he could still smell them. And just the regular smell of faintly used socks was worse than not having to smell them at all. Every once in awhile, his daughter’s friend would wiggle her toes or curl them without even realizing, which were also a tad distracting. But considering how quickly Paris was to apologize for even the most minor inconvenience she might’ve caused, Marcus simply felt too polite to say anything to her.

After the movie ended and Paris had gone home, Jessie didn’t say anything as she carried her dad to the bathroom so they could both brush their teeth. “So… what’d you think of it?” Marcus asked, looking up at her.

Jessie sighed as she set her dad down on the bathroom counter. “They literally made the hot tub scene from the first movie… worse. Like I don’t know if I’ll even wanna rewatch it now,” she grumbled. Marcus didn’t say anything, but he chuckled a little on the inside. At least that means I probably won’t have to watch the third one.