“Lillie, Rosie, over here!”

“Eric? Is that Eric?! When’d you get back?”

“Whoa! I missed you, bro! Why are you picking us up today? Where are Mom and Dad?”

“They said I could take you two out to lunch since it’s been a while since I’ve been home.”

“Yeah! Cool, we get to ride in your car! Hurry up, Lillie. I call the front!”

“No fair, Rosie!”

“You’re both in the back. I still haven’t unpacked all of my luggage yet, so there’s no room up front.”

“Awww…”

It’d been a few months since I’d been home. Going to an out of state university, I only came back home during the long holidays. It was obvious that I was going to head home near summer, but considering I ended in May while middle school was still in session, I had decided to give my younger siblings a surprise when I flew home.

Lillie, Rosie, and I were a friendly trio. Though I was ten years older than the little sixth graders, I had always wanted younger siblings and was so happy when the twins were born. To say I spoiled them as the older brother would be the understatement of the century. Rosie, the more energetic of the two, always enjoyed getting the princess treatment from me, and Lillie, though shy, always smiled more widely whenever all three of us were together. My friends poked fun at me for doting on them more than the average person should, but I didn’t care. Even after heading off the college, I made it a point to still spend some quality family time with them whenever I came home. 

I drove my eleven year old sisters that day to their favorite burger joint three blocks away from home. I was happy to catch up with the duo as we ate. At the same time, the two of them started on their homework so they could have more time to play when they got home. As they did, I happily poked fun at Rosie’s poor eating habits almost staining her tank top and congratulated Lillie for being the student of the month for her English class.

It was when I was waiting for the two of them to finish going over their math assignment, however, that the strangeness began.

“You guys almost done yet?” I asked.

Rosie shook her head, frowning, “Just a little more… Lillie, how about this problem?”

“You multiply both numbers. It should be easier after that…”

“Really…? Oh… So then I can do this…”

Watching my sisters work together was a sight I had missed. They were an adorable pair of two opposite personalities. Lillie was soft spoken and academic while Rosie was a spunky, athletic socialite. We had spent almost an hour and ten minutes seated, however, so I was getting a little tired.

“We should be heading home soon, Rosie. I’m going to get a refill on my drink. Even if you’re not done, when I get back, we have to get going.”

“What? Okay! Okay!” Rosie scrambled to finish her work faster. “Lillie, how about this one? Argh, why didn’t we get the same math teacher?”

I saw Lillie begin packing up much to Rosie’s dismay as I refilled my cup of root beer. After taking my time, I returned to see Lillie and Rosie with their backpacks on and Rosie throwing away the trash. That was when it happened.

“Okay, you squirts. Let’s get goi…”

Before I could finish my sentence, I felt nauseous. For a split second, my vision blurred and my body felt as though it was falling. When I could see again, I found I was staring straight into Lillie’s eyes.

“Eric? You okay?” asked the shy twin.

“Lillie? What the-? Did you get taller?”

I took a step back in surprise. I was suddenly the same height as her! Looking around, I realized that wasn’t the case. Lillie hadn’t grown. I had gotten smaller.

But that wasn’t the only thing.

“Did I? Um… I guess I have. I hit 5’1” around two months ago… Oh! I’m finally as tall as you now! Yay! I’ve been wondering when I’d be able to pass my short big brother.”

Short big brother? Was Lillie not worried at all about my sudden change in height? How was that possible? I had been 6’1”, but suddenly I was level with my little sisters and they accepted that like it was nothing, like I had always been small. What was going on?

“Grr…” Rosie frowned as she joined in on the conversation. “No fair being half an inch taller, Lillie. We’re twins. I should be as tall as Eric now too.”

This was unbelievable. I couldn’t figure out how to react. The only thing I could consider that made sense was that I was dreaming. Unfortunately, I wasn’t, and Rosie brought me back to reality with a slap on the back.

“Well, whatever. I’ll get taller than you soon enough Eric. C’mon, let’s drive home and then head to the park!”

“Sounds good to me,” Lillie smiled and grabbed my wrist. I was surprised to find myself easily pulled by the eleven year old girl and dragged out the door. With my height went a bit of my strength.

Lillie and Rosie took me to my car with smiles on their faces. They had no idea I was dazed and confused. Even my car, I realized when I got in, had been changed to suit my height. The driver’s seat had been adjusted for someone a lot shorter than 6’1”. 

“What’s a matter, Bro?” Rosie asked from the backseat as she buckled in. “You’re acting a bit weird.”

Lillie chimed in as well with a light joke, “Want us to drive? If you can reach the pedals, we can too, right?”

“It’s nothing, you two,” I answered. Despite the situation, my pride refused to let me worry Lillie and Rosie. I forced myself to get used to my height to try and drive back home. 

I tried to wrap my brain around the situation as Lillie and Rosie chatted in the back. It was just too weird. Everything outside seemed to be the same as it always was. People were the same height as far as I knew. Was it just me? Was I just mistaken that I was tall this entire time or was the entire world changing around me?

It was definitely changing.

Reaching home, I parked in the driveway and stepped out of the car.  Rosie and Lillie grabbed their things, and I walked to the passenger’s seat to bring in the rest of my luggage. The moment I picked up the biggest box, however, I found it getting heavier and heavier in my hands. I went from putting some effort into lifting it to struggling to keep it in my arms.

“Need any help there Eric?” I heard Rosie’s voice both behind me and above me.

“Huh?”

Turning around, I realized I had to look up to look my younger sister in the eye. I was suddenly a head shorter than Rosie. My eye level was just below her collarbone. I had lost another foot, so the height difference between us was now the same as when I was taller than them.

“Let me grab that for you,” Rosie picked up the box that had held me in place and held it against her chest. It was tough for her, but she was able to manage. Her thin pre-teen arms were also now thicker and stronger than mine. At 4’ tall, even with muscle in my arms, they were smaller and weaker than Rosie’s developing arms.

Rosie wasn’t the only one either. Lillie also stepped in to help. I stood and watched as my taller younger sisters took the two of the three boxes and carried them inside. I went to pull the last box off of the car seat but not being used to my size, I needed to put it down immediately.

Needing a rest before I could bring it in, I took another glance at my car and saw that the pedals had been customized so that they stuck out more and a booster seat had been attached to my driver’s seat so that I could reach the breaks and still look at the road. That wasn’t there earlier. The world around me really was changing. I was getting smaller, but it didn’t seem like I was in reality.

Absentmindedly, I locked my car and sat down on the heavy cardboard box that was now a third of my height. I tried to give myself some time to let things sink in. I hadn’t driven in a car seat earlier… right? I would have noticed something so weird. I checked my driver’s license and it told me that my height was 4’1” instead of 6’1”. How had I been driving all of this time? How had I been living all of this time?

As I continued sulking, Lillie and Rosie had finished bringing in my luggage and saw me outside. They approached me and stood right next to me. Being looked down on by two eleven year olds was a disturbing feeling.

“Eric, you sure you’re okay?” Rosie asked, concerned. “Was college really that tough for someone as small as you or is it just jet lag?”

“Here,” Lillie grabbed my arm and pulled me up with no effort at all. She then picked up the last bit of my luggage and began to head inside. “Let’s play after I put this away. That’ll be fun, right?”

“Yeah,” agreed Rosie. “Don’t be such a downer, Eric. Splash some water on your face and wake up!”

With the difference in height, it felt like Lillie and Rosie were encouraging me like a little brother. They were right though. I needed to pick myself up. I followed Lillie inside, but I found my stride was a lot shorter than it used to be. I had to power walk to keep up with Lillie who was slowly heading in with luggage in hand. 

It was strange being kid sized again, having to look up at everything, and when I entered the house, I realized things were even stranger. Just walking down the hallway to the kitchen, I saw the picture frames that were hung up had changed. Pictures of me when I was younger had me a lot shorter than my parents and sisters. Even in elementary school, Rosie and Lillie were taller than me. In all of the pictures, I looked like their little brother.

I got to the kitchen sink and frowned knowing my head barely peaked over it. I tiptoed to reach the faucet to turn it on and then splashed some water on my face.  It still didn’t relax me. Would I still keep getting smaller with everyone else never realizing it? How would that happen? How would an even shorter me have been living life?

There was no use thinking about it any further though. I could hear Rosie and Lillie walk into the kitchen. I strained my arms to turn off the faucet and turned around to my now bigger younger sisters. The two of them had put their backpacks away and gotten changed to clothes more suitable for the warm weather, clothes they weren’t able to wear in school.

“You two… Mom’s not going to like those shorts, Rosie. And are you really thinking of playing in a skirt, Lillie?”

My sisters gave a smile at my usual concern.

“Mom’s the one who bought them.”

“It’s fine, Eric. They’re actually shorts that look like a skirt,” Lillie told me, pulling on her skirt-like shorts, or skort. There was probably an actual name for them, but I didn’t know what it was.

Rosie walked over and yanked on my arm. “Let’s go, Eric. I want to start my weekend off right. To the park!”

With Rosie pulling me and Lillie following, we left the house. The park was a block and a half down the road from our home and had a large grass field, a children’s playground, and several benches. Rosie and Lillie loved playing on the monkey bars and slides back then and it seemed they still did now. We got there in no time with Rosie leading the way.

“C’mon, Lillie, Eric, race you to the top,” Rosie grinned and took in a deep breath of fresh air. Lillie and I were both reluctant.

“You always beat me at sports. Can we not make it a race?”

“I’m almost 22, Rosie. Don’t you think I’m a bit too old for a playground?”

“Old, maybe, but you’re so little, Eric. Nobody would be able to tell the difference between you and the other kids here.”

I did not like the age comparison my little sister made, but she had a point. It was the reason why I hadn’t sat on one of the benches, but it was also the very reason why I was nervous about being seen by the other people at the park. I spotted a few mothers sitting on the benches watching their 8 year old daughters play on the playground and also saw a pair of high school girls playing Frisbee in the grass. I didn’t want to know I was indistinguishable from a third grader in height and I definitely didn’t want to compare my height with more mature girls either.

“C’mon, Eric,” Rosie pouted, “Don’t be such a spoilsport. You’re back after so long. Shouldn’t you be playing with us?”

“I’m fine just watching,” I shook my head. Even though I was 4’1”, I still was confident enough to tell her no.

Unfortunately, when I blinked, it happened again. Before, I was level with Rosie’s chest, but when I opened my eyes again, I found myself staring at her stomach and having to crank my neck further back to look her in the eye. A chill went up my spine when I saw her smirk. Unlike earlier, she wasn’t going to accept it.

“No use arguing, little bro,” Rosie grabbed my wrist and pulled me close to her. My face landed on her stomach and she kept a hold on me so I could breathe nothing but cotton fabric. “You never could say no to me so why start now?”

Never say no? While it was true that I spoiled the two of them, being 3’ had made Rosie’s words carry a different meaning. I couldn’t push myself away even with all of my strength. She was bigger than me and stronger than me. In fact, both of the two girls were. If I had always been this small, there was no way I would have ever been in charge of my two sisters. By the time they hit elementary school, they would’ve already been taller than me.

“Fine, I’ll join,” I told her, muffled from being pressed against her stomach. “Just let go already.”

“Okay,” Rosie complied and let go... for a moment. I was able to breathe again but found myself on the opposite end of a headlock.  Rosie dragged me towards the monkey bars with Lillie giggling and following behind. “C’mon. If you two don’t want a race, let’s just play then. I’ve missed having all three of us hang out.”

“No, you just missed picking on Eric, Rosie,” I heard Lillie mumble. Hearing that did not fill me with hope.

Rosie stopped in front of the ladder that led up to the monkey bars. She smacked my butt with enough force to both sting and to knock me forward. I climbed up the ladder and looked back at my sporty sister. It took being two ladder rungs higher to be able see eye to eye with her again.

“Hurry up, Eric. Climb over to the other side,” Rosie told me.

I was aware Rosie was teasing me. I stretched my arms as far out as I could, but my 3’ tall body couldn’t reach the monkey bars that were high above. If I tiptoed, my fingers could just barely brush the bottom of the metal bars, but it was impossible to reach the bars unless I jumped. 

“Wow, so you’re still not tall enough to reach them on the ladder,” Lillie giggled and stood in the middle of the bars. She jumped up to grab a middle bar, pulled her whole body up, and then climbed through the top so that she was sitting on the top of the monkey bars.

“You should’ve tried learning about how to get bigger in college,” Rosie approached the ladder and stood directly behind me. “C’mon, jump, Bro! Don’t tell me you’re scared.”

Rosie was always an aggressive type of girl. At this size, it seemed a lot of that forcefulness was directed towards me. It was difficult to argue with her when she was breathing down my neck, so I opted to comply. I jumped forward and was able to grab the first bar from the ladder. I began to climb from bar to bar as quickly as I could so she could no longer ‘bully’ me as the shorter sibling.

I passed Lillie who was sitting on the side of the monkey bars and made it all the way to the other side, but my arms quickly dropped to my sides. It was more of a strain than I thought. “Haaah… Urgh…. I made it…”

“Good job, Eric,” Lillie climbed down from the top of the bars and landed next to me with a heavy thud. She began to ruffle my hair, patting my head like she would a pet. “Looks like you’ve still got it in you. Rosie’s probably happy about that.”

“What are… you saying?” I asked Lillie between breaths.

“She was worried you weren’t getting any exercise since she heard you were really busy with school,” Lillie honestly answered. I saw that she was glancing in Rosie’s direction as she began to climb the monkey bars in an original fashion by inching across the sides. “She didn’t want her little big brother to get weaker and play with her less, y’know?”

Hearing that concern gave me mixed feelings. I was happy to hear that my sisters were very loving and caring of me, but it was odd to be told that by Lillie. Certainly, she was in middle school, but she sounded a bit too responsible and mature, like she was used to being in charge. Had my being smaller affected how they also grew up?

That was a stupid question, I realized. Lillie had to have been used to being in charge because Rosie was a wild child and I was shorter than both of them. Even if Rosie hadn’t matured much, someone in the family had to.

“Alright! Nice one Eric! Now let’s keep playing!” When Rosie arrived, her beaming smile told me that what Lillie had told me earlier was the truth. I gave her a glance and she gave me a wink in return, telling me to keep it a secret. I nodded with a sigh. My sisters were definitely my sisters even with my own change.

After the monkey bars, Rosie and Lillie dragged me over to the slide. Though she pushed me into going first, Rosie quickly followed after down the spiral slide and ran into me on the way down. I was caught by her much heavier body and then held tightly by her legs and arms. I tried to argue with her that it was dangerous, but she simply placed her hand on my head and began pulling it around in a circle until I was dizzy enough to stop.

Lillie then proposed heading onto the balancing beam. To my surprise, my lighter weight and smaller body made finding my center of gravity easy. While Rosie was struggling, I earned Lillie’s praise for going from one end to the other without falling off. I wanted to protest getting another head pat, but it was oddly comforting to receive it from her.

The swings were the next stop that my sisters wanted a go at. To my dismay, the two of them chose not to sit on the swing. Actually, they both agreed that I was the one to go on. Not willing to go against the taller twins, I obeyed, but I already knew it was a bad idea from the start. The moment I sat on, the girls pulled the seat back as far as they could. With my reduced weight, it wasn’t an issue for them to get it to budge. In fact, it was too easy. They used their full force and pushed me and the swing. I quickly flew up high. While exhilarating, I hadn’t been on a swing in years. This was a height that was now unfamiliar to me and far too high. I wanted off, but the moment the swing got back to the ground again, Lillie and Rosie were ready for another strong push. No matter how much I asked them to stop because I was too high, the two of them merely laughed it off and continued.

The fun half hour of play finally ended with me on the bench, my legs dangling above the ground. Lillie had seen how tired I was after the swing and suggested they stop. While Rosie had wanted to keep going, she relented after seeing my heavy breathing. I sat between the two bigger girls, and as I did, I realized they could easily lean over my head and chat without even seeing me. They weren’t looking at me, but they were still involving me, though. Both girls kept ruffling my hair like a kid.

“So what next then, Lillie?”

“I guess we should go home. Eric’s probably tired from the long trip back. Mom’ll be mad if she hears we kept him out for too long.”

“Home, huh? Well, Mom left us dinner in the fridge, so let’s go home and eat.”

“Eh? Isn’t it a little early for dinner? Besides, we just ate didn’t we?”

“I know we did, but I’m still hungry.”

“Rosie…”

I opened my mouth to try to insert my own two cents into the conversation but another odd feeling came over me. I didn’t even have time to feel shock or concern as the world around me grew again. My legs retreated up the bench, no longer able to even stick out while I was sitting. I found myself in the shadow of my two sisters who now towered over me like a multi-story apartment complex. I had lost another foot in height, reducing me to 2’1”. There was definitely a pattern to how I had been apparently shrinking, and it worried me. Just how would my sisters be treating me now when according to them, I was always the size of a baby?

Like a baby was the answer I should have expected. As the conversation between my sisters came to an end, the two of them gazed down at me. I flinched, intimidated by their size.

“Okay, Lil’ Eric. Let’s go home. Ready to go?” Lillie kindly asked me. For some reason, her hands were coming closer. Was she trying to pick me up?

“I-I’m fine with walking, Lillie,” I protested. It looked like Lillie was more or less the one in charge of caring for the two foot me.

“No complaining, Mister,” Lillie shocked me with her assertiveness. Her hands immediately grabbed both sides of my torso and lifted me up. I was surprised to be so easily lifted up and held in front of her. “Mom said I have to take good care of you so you don’t get hurt.”

In defense of my pride, I struggled to break free of Lillie’s grip, but just the light grip of her hands was enough to hold me in place. Rosie saw my struggles and spoke up in support. “Hey, don’t be such a nag, Lillie. If Eric wants to walk on his own, just let him. He’s the size of a baby, not a real baby.”

“But-”

“Put him down. If you’ve got to keep an eye on him, we can just hold hands, right?” Rosie stood up and turned to her sister. I was glad to know she had my side, though I wasn’t too keen on the fact that the way she was arguing with Lillie sounded like a spat between how to raise a kid.

Lillie seemed to take Rosie’s advice. With a sigh, she stood up and lowered me to the ground. She let go of my waist but immediately swooped in to grab my right hand. She raised it up high. “Fine, but you’re holding hands with me the whole way, Mister.”

I frowned as my arm was held firmly up. Standing up now, I got a good glimpse of how small being 2’1” was. Lillie held my hand as low as she could, but I actually had to tiptoe to not have to stretch my arm. Actually, I was certain that even though I was trying as best as I could to reach up, Lillie was actually bending down for my sake.

I was barely taller than Lillie’s knee after all. To put it in perspective, I had become roughly a third of the height I was yesterday. Lillie and Rosie, as a result, looked to be three times taller, 15 feet tall to me. Forget being just tall siblings, my siblings looked Amazonian. I starred, stunned, looking up Lillie’s long, thin legs as she held my hand and spoke to Rosie. She tightened her grip around my hand unconsciously as she did. The strength she wasn’t even putting in hurt. I felt she could easily break it if she wanted to.

“You tease Eric all the time, but you’re always such a softy for him, aren’t you?”

“I am not! You’re the one always babying him. He’s already an adult, so why don’t you treat him like one?”

“An adult would be in college. He’s so small he didn’t. Mom left me in charge for a reason.”

“Yeah. Yeah. It’s not fair you always get to be in charge when we’re twins…”

The conversation my enormous sisters had went over my head both literally and figuratively. I heard them. My brain attempted to process what they meant but I just refused to believe it. I didn’t go to college? While I was definitely small at this height, what had the past few years of my life been then? I was so lost in thought, I was caught off guard when Rosie grabbed my left hand and pulled it high up. I was lifted off my feet for a brief moment by my little sister’s strength.

“Well, whatever. Let’s go home, Eric,” Rosie grinned as she lowered her arm so I was back on the ground again. “You must be bored of the park now, right? Let’s play at home.”

“Err… Right…” I struggled to speak.

Lillie led the way and pulled my right arm forward. Rosie followed suit and matched her pace. Their steps were longer than mine, much to my dismay. While the two walked at a slow pace to their middle schooler selves, every stride they took was twice the length of mine.  Both Lillie and Rosie kept an eye on me as I tried to keep up. I could see in their eyes that they were watching with amusement. Their grips on my hands meant I was being dragged into their pace, so I had no choice but to run. 

It was embarrassing to be struggling to keep up with my younger sisters. It was even more embarrassing to know I was outside in public. I could see a few of the other park-goers turn in our direction and laugh when they saw my predicament. Lillie and Rosie were in perfect sync as they swung their arms forward and backwards, forcing me along with them. My legs desperately tried to stay on the ground, but I was either dragging behind or being yanked off my feet wherever the two of them swung.

I was a bit more relieved when we got onto the sidewalk and continued our trip home because there were fewer people on the road back, but my energy was spent.

“Hey, Lillie… Could you slow down? I can’t keep up like this,” I swallowed my pride and asked my bigger sisters.

“You were the one who wanted to walk, Eric. See? I knew you were too small to handle it.”

Lillie seemed to hold a grudge from earlier.

“It’s not my fault you’re moving so fast. Your legs are longer,” I argued.

“My legs are normal. You’re just short,” Lillie countered.

Rosie chuckled at our spat. She stopped walking for a moment, forcing Lillie to do so as well. “They both kind of mean the same thing, guys. Lillie, Eric’s a shrimp so of course your legs are longer. I mean, they’re almost twice as tall as he is.”

“That’s why I said I’d carry him,” Lillie mumbled.

I bit off more than I could chew by thinking I could still keep up with the two girls at this height. I was thankful Rosie was actually being the more reasonable one. Lillie was being too overbearing, something I supposed came with the territory of being in charge of a 2’1” tall brother like me.

 “I’ve got an idea,” Rosie proposed. “How about we just do this?”

“Whoa!”

Suddenly, Rosie swung her arm up high, taking me off the ground with it. Lillie saw where her sister was going with her plan and did the same. I was lifted up so that my feet could no longer touch the ground by my two sisters holding my hand.

“H-Hey! Put me back down! I’m getting mad here!”

“Just pretend you’re walking, Eric, or else Lillie’s going to be sulky,” Rosie told me. “C’mon, I want to go home already.”

The two carried me home without listening to my complaints. I had no say in the matter. I was powerless to back up my words with my actions. My sisters were deciding precisely what they wanted to do with me. I was like their baby brother now. How was I going to live at 2’1” with Lillie and Rosie in charge of my baby-sized self? Lillie’s and Rosie’s hands easily covered mine and squeezed them tightly without any bit of effort. 

Apparently, I did not have to think too hard about that question because my feet began to rise higher and higher above the ground as we approached our house. My eyes widened as my Amazonian sisters doubled in size. Their faces grew as distant as the tops of buildings, which for all intents and purposes, they were. My thirty foot sisters’ closed hands wrapped around my forearms like they were twigs.

“W-Whoa! H-Hey! Rosie! Lillie! Too high! Too high!” I panicked upon looking down. I was now just over a foot tall, and a drop from their waists was now a 15 foot drop.

The giant girls holding onto me responded to my struggles by stopping. My heart skipped a beat when Rosie let go of my arm, suddenly leaving me with one less thing holding me up.  While it was simply because Rosie had heard my cries, I was terrified of falling onto the sidewalk below.

“Oh, sorry, squirt,” Rosie apologized for holding my hand. “I guess it’d be better if Lillie was the only one holding you in her hand like always, huh?”

“I told you that I’m the one who takes care of Eric,” Lillie boasted, completely ignoring my dangling body to talk to her twin sister. “It’s not like he can take care of himself. Why do you think Mom’s let him be our pet?”

Pet? I froze. Had I heard Lillie right? Sure, I was a foot tall now, but I was still a person. Hadn’t I gone to college? Hadn’t I been their older brother?

Lillie put me down on the porch as she rummaged through her pockets for the house key. As she did, I turned to the driveway to find no sight of my car. It couldn’t have been moved without my keys... Wait, I couldn’t even feel my keys in my pocket any more. Searching my pockets, I realized they were definitely missing. Had I just lost them while at the playground earlier?

I continuously tried to deny the truth, but it was hard to do so with the legs of my younger sisters towering to my left and right. I couldn’t even hope to reach the doorknob, so how could I have gone to college?

It was even harder to deny when Lillie opened the door and bent down to pick me up. Her massive hand wrapped around my torso. To be picked up with one hand, I was a doll to my younger sister. I couldn’t even get my arms loose in her grasp let alone break free of her fingers. I had to wait before we got further inside before she put me down.

“Okay, let’s have some more fun inside before we eat, what do you say, Lillie?” Rosie asked.

“I thought you said you were hungry,” Lillie quipped. “How about we start heating up what Mom cooked and then go from there?”

“Ooh, nice idea. I can see why you’re the responsible one.”

“… It’s only because you’re so careless. You could at least take care of Eric every now and then,” sighed Lillie. 

“But you’re the one who keeps backseat pet-sitting and telling me what to do. You’re no fun, Miss Student of the Month.”

“Hey, don’t be mean, Rosie!”

I listened to my giant sisters talk as they walked away from me and headed towards the kitchen. Pet-setting, they said. I mean, I couldn’t even get Lillie to put me down, so I would have considered myself more of a toy at my current height. It was some relief to know my sisters at least treated me as a living being despite my stature. If I got any smaller, however, I wasn’t sure if that would still be the case. Still, to say that I was happy with just that proved just how hopeless I felt getting back to normal was. 

Looking around, I found the pictures I had looked at before had changed again. It was tough to get a good view from several stories below, but I saw that instead of being like the little brother to them, Lillie and Rosie were holding me in their hands like a doll. Actually, there were some shots where I was just dangling in the air in their grasp like a rag doll. There were even shots of me in doll clothes. I was definitely a pet and a toy to them at this height.

That was when I saw it. Out of the corner of my eye, in the kitchen where Rosie and Lillie were rummaging about, was a bowl and cup on the ground with my name on it.

“Just like a doggie dish, huh?” I frowned, realizing they weren’t kidding when they said pet. I couldn’t really argue at my height. It was very fitting. Being at the feet of my towering sisters, they pretty much were my owners who would have to take care of me. It took me a full minute to get from one side of the kitchen to the other where the bowl was. All the while, my sisters were getting dinner ready around me, meaning I had to avoid their steps as they nearly kicked me and knocked me over. I could hear them talk up above, but it was clear to me that they weren’t paying attention to me. They probably didn’t notice me unless they tried.

Stomp!

“Waah!”

I fell over when a bare foot landed right next to me. The sheer force of the foot as it hit the floor was enough to shake me off my feet. Rosie had taken a step a bit too far to her left as she tried to get the dishes from the cupboards. She was making so much noise rummaging through the plates and bowls that she didn’t even hear me scream. I remained on the ground, still stunned from the fall, until she walked away.

I really felt small. I had almost been stepped on by my little sister’s foot. Seeing Rosie cover in just three steps what took me a minute to travel and having my wail go unheard of by her was very humbling. I couldn’t even see the top of the tables and countertops from so low. This was not good. I was starting to forget what being the bigger brother was like. How much worse were things going to get?

Thud! Thud!

To answer my question, dinner was ready. I was greeted to a view of Lillie’s towering legs as she leaned down with a pot in her hands.

“Time to eat, Eric,” I heard Lillie’s voice from high above as she brought out a ladle of mixed mashed potatoes and gravy from the pot. I stood up and watched as my skyscraper of a little sister knelt down to pour Mom’s homemade cooking onto my plate on the ground. A gush of gravy fell from the sky and landed on the plate with a loud plop. I was hit with a single drop of brown gravy right in the face. That drop felt like a splurge of water from a hose.

“Yuck,” I kept my eyes closed to avoid getting the slop of gravy and potatoes and tried to lick and wipe it off, but as I did, a familiar feeling overcame me. “Oh no.”

I was getting smaller again. I just knew it. The mess on my face thankfully didn’t stay the same size as I shrank or else I’d be completely covered in gravy and mashed potatoes. Even then with my eyes closed, however, I could feel everything around me get further and further away. I didn’t want to know how small I became. I didn’t want to turn around and see Lillie had doubled in size again.

“Oops, let me wipe that off for you, Eric,” a deafening voice echoed in my ears. The blood immediately drained from my face when I realized just how small I had gotten. Before I could react, however, my entire body was surrounded in darkness and lifted high up faster than a jet plane. A thick white napkin completely covered me and Lillie’s hands began to rub the napkin onto my face. I could feel powerful fingers squeeze down on my body as Lillie tried to rub the gravy off my face. I couldn’t fight back as my body was completely overwhelmed and dominated by Lillie’s normally petite fingers that were now the size of tree trunks. “There. All clean.”

With my face cleaned up and the napkin finally off my face and body, I was free to open my eyes, but the feeling of falling hundreds of feet as Lillie lowered me to the floor was too intense to ignore. I fell to my knees when she tilted her palm to make me slide off of it. I was not put on the floor, I realized. The ceramic floor I was on told me I had been put on the plate.

I had lost my last foot of height. From being 6’1” to 1”, I had lost six feet in height. As I stood on a plate next to a mound of mashed potatoes twice my height, I looked out in the distance. Though Lillie’s bare feet were only nine inches away from the plate, they looked yards away and were equally as long. I really did not want to look up when just one of Lillie’s toes was as big as I was, but I was compelled to. My eyes drifted up as they tried to follow Lillie’s legs up into the sky. Higher and higher she went. With 200’ tall legs that stretched into the distance, Lillie was a 400 foot tall colossus. Even the Statue of Liberty would be humbled by her. I stood in her shadow as she balled up the napkin she had used to wipe me clean and tossed it on the countertop that I couldn’t possibly hope to see over.

This was too small. Way too small. How were Lillie and Rosie going to behave around me when I was only an inch tall? Judging by how I had been manhandled so easily, I didn’t like it. Being on the dinner plate that had been my pet bowl earlier didn’t fill me with confidence, but I didn’t have any way or time to find out as Lillie quickly bent down and lifted the plate off the floor. The rapid acceleration forced me to the plate as the platform rose.

“Okay, Rosie. I got Eric his meal. Let’s eat.” 

“It’s about time… Err… Isn’t that a bit much for him?”

“I can finish it if he doesn’t. I always have to finish his meals, don’t I Eric?”

I got my bearings back and stood up just in time to be questioned by Lillie. It was incredibly intimidating to be directly among the gargantuan dinner plates, cups, and food. Her spoon could pick me up if she was so inclined. I felt like an insignificant bug that wouldn’t even fill her up. Seeing Lillie take a bite of meatloaf and mashed potatoes bigger than I was made me tremble knowing I could easily fit inside her mouth.

I didn’t need to respond to Lillie’s question as my voice was too light to carry up to her ears. It seemed the girls already knew that however and continued on eating without acknowledging any bit of response from me. The clanging and clattering of Rosie and Lillie’s silverware were loud enough to make me want to cover my ears. I could hear the girls chew their food as I stood on the plate that was as big as a stage.

“So, y’know, during lunch, Linda…”

“Really? Oh- That reminds me. I have to…”

Listening to Lillie and Rosie talk, I could barely make out their conversation. Each word was a thunderous boom that caused the very air around me to vibrate. Just one of them sounded like being right next to a concert speaker set on the highest volume, but together, I felt surrounded by deafening noise. It wasn’t like hearing girls talk anymore. They were more like storms – forces of nature to me.

And honestly, that was how different our sizes were. I couldn’t hope to get their attention on the plate. Their every motion, on the other hand, completely overwhelmed my senses. My ears throbbed from their voices and my body trembled from their slightest movements. I didn’t bother eating from the house sized helping of mashed potatoes because of how stunned I was. I just kept my head up high, looking up at my sisters who were as big as the tallest skyscrapers to me.

After finishing her meal, Lillie did as promised and was careful when grabbing the plate I was on so she could eat what I couldn’t. Careful for her, at least. I was still knocked back down to the ground as she brought it over in front of her. I was beneath the gaze of one hungry, growing girl.

“You full, Eric? You really should eat more,” my concerned, giant sister asked and scolded with a smile. She didn’t wait for an answer, however, as her spoon descended and scooped up half of the mountain of mush and gravy. I was stupefied seeing something bigger than me disappear so quickly behind Lillie’s lips.

“Heh, looks like our bug bro’s star struck,” I could hear Rosie chuckle. “C’mon, Eric. You’ve been watching Lillie eat your food for ages. Don’t tell me you’re starting to enjoy it.”

“R-Rosie!”

Lillie and I were both appalled by our sister’s words. Where had Rosie learned to say something like that?

“I’m just kidding,” Rosie laughed off Lillie’s red face. She then opted to change the subject. “C’mon. Just finish up already. I’m already done you slow eater.”

“Sheesh, alright already.”

To my dismay, Lillie’s embarrassment caused her to rush. I was quickly pulled down to the surface of the plate as it rose up high at breakneck speeds. Lillie had picked it up to push the last bit of mashed potatoes into her mouth. I balked when I saw the giant chasm that was her mouth completely dwarfing the pile. That wasn’t the only problem however. While I was shaking my head at Rosie’s casualness and trying to recover from Lillie’s lifting up the plate, a chill ran up my spine. All of the blood left my face as everything around me began to expand.

No. It couldn’t be. I was shrinking again.

Just what was going on this strange day? I had been shrinking this entire time and both Rosie and Lillie never realized anything had been different. With each burst of shrinking, how I was treated by them changed as well. I was getting to view them in an entirely new light, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Lillie and Rosie both completely forgot where I was with how things were going. Losing a foot each time, I was already down to my last inch. How much more could I lose?

I didn’t have time to think as the mound of mashed potatoes grew into a mountain. The thin film of gravy that had pooled onto the plate became a swamp. The plate I was on quickly grew from a platform to a city block to an entire city, and it just kept getting bigger. All the while, my skyscraper-esque sisters grew even further beyond comprehension. The cave that was Lillie’s mouth was now a black hole that seemed to swallow up the sky. 

Swallow was probably not the word I would have liked to use. Lillie at least knew I was on the plate. She wouldn’t eat me, but she was going to eat the mashed potatoes.

At least, that would have been the case when I was still an inch tall and noticeable. The insurmountable steel wall that was Lillie’s spoon slammed onto the plate with cataclysmic speed, and I was between it and the mashed potatoes. 

“Lillie, wait!” I shouted, but it was to no avail. I was too tiny – hardly a fraction of an inch and still getting smaller. Lille couldn’t hear my voice which was quickly covered up by the sound of her inhaling. The suction force from her mouth pulled me off my feet and into the gravy swamp. I found myself trapped as her spoon began to push everything, including me, into Lillie’s mouth. “No, stop! Lillie! It’s me!”

It was already too late. The metal spoon scraped across the plate and pushed me into the growing mountain of potatoes. Along with it, I was shoved into Lillie’s damp, gaping maw. I landed onto her tongue with the rest of the mashed potatoes on top of me, pinning me down. It didn’t struggle. I couldn’t.

Gulp!

It was sudden. Had Lillie eaten me on purpose or did she not even realize I was there? How Lillie and Rosie would have treated the even smaller me, I wouldn’t know. Lillie didn’t bother to chew. She simply swallowed. I was too small and weak. Whether it was from the impact of the fall or the stomach acid, I wasn’t sure what the last thing that happened to me was. Eaten by my little sister and still shrinking as I fell down her gullet – that was how that strange day ended for me.

That was the strangest day of my life. No other day was as abnormal as the day reality changed as I shrank. 

If you’re wondering how I can still tell you this story, however, as suddenly and out of the blue as it had happened, I woke up the very next day with my sisters none-the-wiser of anything that went on. I would have liked to consider it all a dream, but it certainly wasn’t.

Why do I say that? Well, let’s just say that wasn’t the only day the same thing happened again. This being the first of those days and the time my adorable little sisters effectively killed me; however, I can easily say that this was the strangest of them all.

At the very least, I think I can at least boast that I’ve gotten a bit more experienced since then.