Vera And Ash At It Again

Vera And Ash stewed over for weeks how to shrink people. Even after their failure at the mall, they were determined to be giants.

One Saturday afternoon, Ash stormed into his sister's room. "Ha!! I stole some of that perfume from the mall that they still had in the storage room. It was risky. But worth it." Ash's face became a sneer. "That Ted is going to learn the true nature of things, and who his master is."

"Oh brother," said Vera, "That perfume's effect only lasts a couple of hours."

"I thought of that, sis. I am going to try different temperatures. Whatever it takes." He took several action figures out of his pocket. "Instead of plastic action figures in my pockets, Vera, I will have live people and they shall be MINE!!"

From downstairs an adult voice yelled, "Hey, shut up you two."

For days Vera and Ash studied and experimented with the liquid until they shrank their aunt's dog, who after two days was still shrunk.

"We did it. Ha, ha!" shouted Ash. Both Ash and his sister danced around his room in glowing excitement.

The next day at school, Vera and Ash hunted down their prey. "There's Tim and Ed. Good, they're alone," whispered Vera to Ash. Vera walked past them, while Ash waited around a corner with a net he used to catch butterflies with. Once behind Tim and Ed, Vera sprayed them. Her eyes widened when she saw the two confused students at her feet. The two tiny teens tried to escape. Vera blocked Tim's escape with her foot. Ed just kept running until he saw Ash's giant sneakers slam down in front of him. Ed turned to run the other way, but Ash's net scooped him up. Ash looked down at the small wiggling figure in his net. Drool started to drip out of his mouth from all of the excitement.

In a stairwell, the two terrible teens looked at their catch. Vera put Tim in her purse and Ash put Ed in a vest pocket. Another student, Carla, was going to her next class when she came apon Ash and Vera. "Look, my sister, another pet." The girl was stunned at first by the spray. However, her stunned look was replaced with horror when she was looking up at the two giants. Vera tossed her in her purse with Tim.

At lunch time, Ash did some shrinking. He enjoyed how he chased three shrunken students around a table. He caught two with his net and the third he blew down with his mouth. He held the three of them in his hand. He watched with an unending delight how they struggled in his hand. He gave each one a tap on the head and said, "You are my pets and I am your master. Bow your heads." The three students bowed their heads in unison. "Good, good, my little pets, you learn well." He then put them in the same pocket as Ed.

After classes were over, Vera went to her math teacher's room. Seeing no one else in the room, she entered it. "What can I do for you, Vera?"

She smirked. "For one, you can call me Master."

Her math teacher wiggled his nose and wrinkled his brow and said, "I am too busy for such nonsense." Vera smiled. She sprayed the math teacher.

As Ash entered the room, he saw her put the tiny struggling form in her purse. "More pets, brother," said Vera clutching tightly her purse.

Later, up in Ash's bedroom, the two teens sat on either side of their ten shrunken captives. Vera picked up one shrunken girl and boy and moved them around and up and down as if they were dancing. Ash leaned over several captives,and blew hard on them, toppling them over. "Very good, brother," said Vera as she clapped her hands.

When their parents called for them for supper, Ash picked them up and placed them in a hamster's cage. After the terrible two left, the ten captives talked amongest themselves. They tried to figure how to get help. One boy said sadly, "I don't want to be anybody's pet."

After dinner, the two bad giants were back having "fun" with their new pets. Vera spun a couple of the tiny people on her reccord player. Ash had several shrunken students jumping from one knee to the other. He told one shrunken kid, Jeff Barnes, to kiss his finger. Jeff told Ash to get lost. Ash picked him up and taped him to a Jack-in a-Box, and several times it had poor Jeff springing up. So he kissed the giant monster's finger.

He then instructed the math teacher to crawl into his pockets and clean out all the pocket lint. The math teacher hung his head down and did what he was told. Seeing the moving figure in his pocket, Ash with nervous and excited energy ran his hands through his hair.

At bedtime, Vera placed the women in one cage and the men in another. Before going to bed, Ash picked several little people up and pressed them up against the side of his face, as he rocked back and forth on his bedroom carpet saying, "Mine, you're all mine."

The several little people looked at each other thinking the same thing, "What a jerk."

In the morning, Vera fed the little people. Just before leaving the house, Ash ran to his bedroom and got his net. "I am going to get Ted," he said, with a grin.

Ted, who had been out of school the day before because of a 24 hour flu, heard about the disapperances. He sensed trouble. Trouble in the form of Ash and Vera.

Meanwhile, back at Ash's bedroom, the little people were trying to unlock the front of the cage. The math teacher suddenly said, "Look! At the dog--- it's growing." Yes, before their very eyes the tiny dog grew back to its former size. The dog went up to cage, gave it a sniff and lay down.

"What will happen to us? I mean, if we start to grow while still in the cage," said Sara, a cook from the school's cafeteria. They all looked at each other with very concerned faces.

At school, Vera took the perfume bottle out of her purse. "Darn it to blazes. It's empty."

"Don't fret, my sister, I have more in my room. By this time tomorrow, Ted will be in the palm of my hand."

Ted called in sick and headed for Ash and Vera's house. Ash's room was on the second floor but next to a tree. Making sure no one was around, he climbed the tree. Taking a mini-telescope out of his pocket, he aimed it at Ash's window. On top of a desk, he saw the cage with the ten people.

He saw the mother leave the house for a moment and with the front door slightly ajar, sweating bullets, Ted took his chance and entered the house. When he came to the bedroom, the dog started barking. Opening the door slowly, the dog came non-aggressively but cautiously toward him. He put out his hand; the dog sniffed and licked it. He pushed the dog out and shut the door.

It was rather comical, seeing all these tiny people asking for his help. "It's ok, you're safe now." He carefully took them out of the cage, one at the time.

"I feel funny," said the math teacher.

"I do too," said the student Carla. Ted placed the entire cage on the floor and watched as the tiny people ran out of the cage.

The mother had come back into the house. She saw her mother's dog there and said, "So, where have you been?" She started to hear voices from upstairs. She went to investigate. Opening the door to Ash's room, a crowd of people came out of the small room. "What the heck is going on?" she asked.

After school Vera and Ash, feeling very superior, were on their way home when both were grabbed from behind. "Oh no not again," said Ash. "Not you again Ted."

"Not just me. Look." Ash and Vera's mouth were open. It was all their shrunken people back to normal size.

"Oh, look what I found in your room," said Jeff. He held up the other bottle that contained the shrinking perfume. He gave Ash a spray. He then sprayed Vera. Picking up Ash between his fingers, Jeff wrapped some string around Ash's little waist and attached it to a belt loop. "Well, I guess I have a new pet." He placed Ash in the front pocket of his jeans.

Carla placed little Vera in an empty Coke can. "What shall we do with them," asked the liberated, former shrunken people.

"I have an idea, to put them to good work, before they return to normal. If you call them normal," said Ted.

All the children of the St. Francis Children Hospital were gathered for the special puppet show presented by Jeff and Ted. Dressed up and made up to look like clowns, Vera and Ash entertained the eighty children, cheering children.

"I will have my day. And I will be a giant," muttered Ash under his breath.

"Oh shut up," said Vera, as she and Ash danced before the giant, happy children.

THE END
By Timothy Lacey 12-19-2000