Being Found

It was to my distress...no, horror, when I found myself reduced in stature. I hate to say size. Why, you say? Just think for a moment, then you may know why. Give up? I'm talking about pride and yes, maybe vanity. I hate to think I, an adult, who had worked hard all my years, am now the size of an action figure. The wheel of a skateboard, the bottom of a shoe can create a great menace for me. For me. And why me?

If you are looking for some rational answer to this position I'm in, all I can tell you is I don't know.

When it happened last Saturday I was watching a football game with a group of friends. My home team won. I was feeling good. No, better than good for I had won a bet with my friend. He made a bet that his home town's team would win. No, he was wrong. And I won a nice sum of one hundred dollars.

Before leaving Arkham High School my friends wanted to get something to drink at the concession stand. I went and took a long drag on my cigar. I felt dizzy. The next thing I knew I was covered in dirt. I was confused. And yeah, scared. You would be, too finding yourself in a land of giants.

There weren't too many of these giants around when I came to. When clarity of mind came back I tried looking for my friends. I thought I had heard one of my pal's voices when a ruckus began. A group of players all full of excitement from the game and winning were coming my way. It his hard to describe the sight. A dozen of more of these truck size sneakers coming barreling down towards me. They were kicking up dirt and bits of debris. I just stood there. I didn't know what to do. I just stared up at these teens, who now looked like some mighty race of Gods. Their shoulders looked miles wide under all the padding. I had to cover my ears from the roar of their mighty voices.

I thought for certain I would be crushed under a sneaker. What a way to go, I thought. No one would known what would have happened to me. I would just be a moist dark stain on the ground. And a small ugly mass of flesh between the rubber treads of some stranger's sneaker.

I survived.

I don't know how but I did. Two more of these giant Gods appeared. I heard a deep rumbling coming from above me. A giant with a crop of wavy wet brown hair flopping over his brow like storm clouds said, "Hey, give that back to me." I turned to look at the other giant straining my head back all the while to observe this fantastic sight.

From the sky fell a large red object. It fell and covered me. I heard a loud muffled voice. It sounded annoyed. I found myself tumbling around in this red material. There was a scent of body odor to this material. I figured it must be the giant's jersey. The material pressed in all around me. I thought I was going to be smothered. I tried to yell for help. The material was just pressing too much around me. All I got from my yelling was bits of lint in my mouth. I just shut my eyes and hoped. What I hoped for I did not know.

The lack of air made me dizzy. I lost all sense of time. When I came to again I found the material was no longer pressing in around me. However, I had a new problem. How the hell do I get out of this frabric prison?

I pushed and shoved the red fabric. When the fabric gave, I tumbled out into a large red cavern. Nuts! I was still trapped in the sports shirt.

I started to feel cool or fresh air moving about me. No it wasn't cool it was fresh. I got on to my hands and knees and started to make my way over the folds of material and started to search for the opening where the fresh air was coming from.

I came across a dark gray division in the material. And I found my hands were on something wet. I saw a large white tag. It had the words. MACHINE WASH WARM. I was at the neck of this shirt. No doubt the wetness was from sweat. I pushed my way throught the massive neck opening. I stood up.

I escaped my shirt prison only to be staring at....

A giant hand! It was a shock. Why anything at this point should shock me was a mystery. Staring with open mouth at the hand twice my size I wondered why? Why did I shrink? Why me?

I wondered if I should wake this giant? As I was trying to gain strength to perform some action, I noticed a wall of gray beind the titantic hand. I went up and around the hand. The fingers of this hand was the same width as I. It seemed part of a God than a mortal youth. But I must keep in mind this giant is simply a teen. I continued to the wall of gray. I wanted to know what this gray material was. There was no real reason to my action, other than it gave me the false sense I still was in control.

It was warm to the touch. And it was soft. I figured it must be the material to a pair of sweat pants. This teen must have decide to take a nap after his big game.

I didn't know how the giant would react to finding me. I needed help. I was just too small to do anything myself. I started my journey over the ruffled brown surface. I had thought of climbing up his hand and his arm. A fear grasped my imagination. Feeling movement, he may act without thought, swatting the annoying sensation. I opted to continue my trek toward the front of this city block long bed. I passed his well shaped arms that at my size looked to have the strength of several land movers. Each muscle on this arm formed a smooth mound. A mound I could stand on. I moved on. I started passing the white tee-shirt that expanded and retracted with each massive breath the giant took.

After a few minutes I was approaching the edge of the pillow that rose up like a white hill. I could see the side of the teen's head. I leaned up against the pillow debating with myself what next to do. Or if I should just wait.

I didn't have to wait long. Coming from above me was a loud deep yawn. I looked up toward the gargantuan head. He lifted his mighty arm and ran a hand over his face. This was followed by another deep rumbling of a yawn.

I backed up a few feet when he started to lift his head up...

-2-

I gave out a shriek at the mere size of this giant's face. I covered my mouth and cursed myself for that cowardly out burst.

I had to strain my head back to continue to gaze upon the rising face of this titan of a teen. Crowning his head was a fortress. Long brown and pink spikes shot majestically up in the air. The side of his cliff size head was shaven. Hanging off his ear lobe was a brass ring. It looked, to me, more like the rim to a truck's tire.

I stood silent and tiny. He turned scratching his head in my direction. His two huge black eyes were staring down at me. He kept scratching. I was starting to think he was still to groggy to have noticed me.

When a giant hand preceeded by a, "What the?" I knew I was spotted. A smirk appeared on his face. His black eye brows came together to form a questioning look on his face. My face was pushed into the warm hard skin of a finger. I could feel the pressure of another finger on my back. I felt an upward movement.

In the openess of his mighty hand I tried to speak. I couldn't, as my throat had gone dry. A finger came and lightly poked me. I backed up into the shadow of a finger that curled over me. "Stay cool dude. What are you?" asked the teen. I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted up to him. My feeble attempt at speaking must have amused him. For a smile many feet wide appeared. I continued as best I could. I told him how I found myself shrunk and trapped in his shirt. "Sorry about that, " he told me. "I was fooling around with a pal with my shirt." He asked if there were more like me. I told him not that I know of. And couldn't see what would have made me shrink.

"You have any family," he asked thoughtfully.

"No," I shouted back.

"I'm going to get something to snack on," he said. Before I could respond, I found myself lifted up to his head of spikes. "Jump off and hang on." I slowly climbed off and walked onto the moist surface. I grabbed hold to a spke that I could hang onto. I wondered what he used on his hair to make it so hard. Soon blurry giant shapes passed by as the teen took his huge lumbering steps. I heard gunfire. I soon realized those were the sounds of his steps. -3-

Two tree size fingers removed me from his head. I was placed on a table. It had to be the kitchen table since I was standing next to a salt shaker that was several feet taller than me. The teen had gone off to put together some food. Coming back I had a brief glimpse of the teen's face. He looked to be fifteen. He had a slightly round face. He had a pair of rose colored cheeks when he smiled appeared wider than his forehead.

He set down before me bits of bread he had ripped with his fingers. By the un-uniformed character of the pieces I assumed that is how he made the pieces. The bits of bread were covered with peanut butter. He placed a cap to a bottle of aspirin down with milk in it.

Between bites of his food, the teen told me he had plans on going to the library to look some information up on a computer. Drops of milk followed his words. I had to move away from the rain of milk.

He wanted to take me with him. I had fears about being taken to a public place.....

-3-

It was all so much--first the shrinking, and now, being in the hands of this teen. I thought about protesting. I thought what do I really know of him. So far he has been respectful. And I in a way invaded his home. I let my self go. My life was in his hands.

When the teen was done eating I shouted, "I don't know your name." I wish I had thought of this earlier.

"What?" he asked.

"Your name. I don't know your name."

"My name?" He a look of confusion ran across his face. I wondered if he was fooling with me.

I cleared my throat and tried again, "Your name. I have to call you something."

He leaned over me till his face filled my vision. He placed his arms down behind me. I felt penned in. He moved his face in even closer until his mouth was only a few yards from me. In a very deep and slow voice he replied, "Why don't you call me master." This was followed by one of his smiles, up to know, I found very engaging. He pressed the tip of his nose up against me and pushed me back. I fell into two waiting fingers. I was lifted up before his huge clear eyes. I could see my puny form reflected in the dark pupils. "Ha-ha-ha. You are but the beginning of my tiny army-ha-ha-ha."

He placed me down again. He moved back from the table. He threw his arms up in the air. "I will be master of the planet." The teen then made motions with his hands if playing the drums. He spun around. He stopped. He came back over to the table. "Pretty cool huh? It's a song by the "Demented Baby Sitters."

I was starting to feel relief. This was from a song. "Vince," he said.

"Vince, " shouted back.

"Yeah, Vince. Your ears clogged or something?"

"No, they're fine. Vince I'm Howard. Howard P. Wentworth."

"You a fighter, Howard?"

"Me? No, why?"

"With a name like that you must had a few fights in school." Vince had one of those bigger than his forehead smiles. The dimples that were created by that small were big enough for me to crawl into which reminded me how small I was compared to this youth. Anyway, I replied, "No, not too many fights."

He scouped me up. "I better get to the library..."

-4-

On the way to the library he dropped me into the pocket of sweats. I hung on in the warm darkness to the seam at the base of the pocket. He had a few coins in his pocket that kept banging into me. I wanted to shut my eyes but I found it hard as I was constantly banged up against his leg as he walked. I did think he took the finding of a tiny man pretty much in stride.

A few times during the walk he took me out of his pocket and held me tight between his fingers. He would keep repeating, "Man you are so cool. And this is so unreal." This would be followed by a poke in the stomach or the passing of a finger over the top of my head. Then once more I would find myself gliding down the inner-material of his pocket. The third time I kind of enjoyed the slide. I guess his zest for life was getting to me.

When we arrived at the library, Vince pulled up a chair and placed me in his lap. I tried to stand up, however Vince was always moving around in his chair and moving his legs. I was on a wavy sea of gray fleece. I felt kind of funny in his lap. Here I was close to twice his age yet I was left on his lap like a prized pet or tiny child. In one way I felt like a child. I was dependant on another. And Vince had eased into the role of caretaker.

He worked busily at the computer. I looked up at him. His eyes from what I could see were fixed on the task at hand. Sensing my tiny stare, Vince would look down at me and try to tickle me with the end of his index finger. Once he petted me on the head.

I heard a new giant voice, "Hey, what's up."

-4-

A blue form landed with a thud close to Vince. I slowly crawled up a rather large fold of material. I saw a few dozen yards from me a wall of blue denim. "Whatcha doing?" asked the booming voice.

"Just looking up some information for Mrs. Miles class Lou." Vince brought his legs together again I rolled sharply for a few seconds down into a gray canyon.

There was all sorts of talking for a while. Vince talked about his girl friend Mary Sue. He talked about a wicked new song by the, Demented Baby Sitters. And how his team had won the football game.

When the faceless giant left, Vince reached down and removed me from the gray fleece canyon. He placed me on the keyboard. One single key was more than enough room for me to sit on. He brought his face close to mine. He whispered, "I was tempted to show you to my friend. And I do want to show you to my girl friend. But I think you had enough excitement for one day."

I replied, "Yeah, I think so Vince. And well..."

Vince giant face softened , "Yeah."

"Well, thanks for thinking about me." "No problem."

When he was done I was placed back into the black abyss of Vince's pocket. I learned in time to get use to travel by pocket. And travel by hanging around in his spiked hair. Vince did a few times attach me to his ear ring.

And to your question, yes I'm still shrunk. And from time to time I can help Vince, even at my tiny size . I helped him, with much shouting, on a history assignment for school. And I learned a new love for life. Strange as that may sound. I have found something I almost forgot existed. You see there were many hands or shirts I could have found myself in. But instead, I was a tiny human being found and saved. A human being found and saved in another human being's hand.

Oh, I did meet his friends and girl friend. That is however, another story.

THE END-Being Found.