She’s Getting Smaller

I am writing this to share with you the most amazing three days I have ever had in my life! I have been asked to relate my experience in detail and to share all of my feelings. Even though this was an experiment to discover the new frontiers of Science, my emotions have also played a role…

My name is Cindy Howard; I’m a seventeen-year-old intern at the American Institute of Miniaturization, AIM for short. It’s a thinktank of various public/private interests, specializing in nanotechnology, electron microscopy, and quantum studies. I became the personal assistant of Professor Shrinx, a man who had accidentally discovered a shrinking serum.

Of course, it didn’t come without a price to pay; the professor’s son became the first human being ever to shrink, only he shrank by himself and became very very small and disappeared into the floor, leaving only the shrinking serum as a momento for his father. Professor Shrinx was able to discover the ingredients of the shrinking serum without contaminating himself.

Three months after the death of his son professor Shrinx told me he had began applications of the formula to lab animals. One day he demonstrated by injecting a cat with the shrinking serum. Within three hours the cat became smaller than a mouse (he hadn’t told me at that point that the cat continued to shrink after I left that day…). I was so absolutely thrilled with the professor’s discovery I just had to tell him:
“Do you realize what this means? What a boon for science this will make? We can make ourselves small as amoebas and enter into another person’s body. Or we could set up our own flea ranch, people who wanted to could go hunting ants and fleas for sport!”

“Yes, well I know you think this is great, Cindy, but this shrinking formula is still in the very early stages of testing, it’ll be years, even decades before the Institute will begin tests on humans.”

“What if someone volunteers?”

“Cindy, you’re not serious. This is very risky. The formula isn’t stable just yet. I’ve already lost my son to it, I don’t want to lose my lovely niece, too.”

“What if I am serious. What if I’m able to shrink real small and be restored again? We’ll change the way we think of size forever; nothing will ever be the same! Think of it as having vengeance for Peter’s death, he told me he was working on something really ‘small.’ Now I know what he meant. Professor, your son would have wanted you to perfect the formula he worked so hard on…”

When the professor heard this he said, “You realize you could suffer the same fate that he did. I lay awake at night and wonder just how small he must be, whether he’s still alive and still shrinking? Like that story ‘He Who Shrank’?

“Yes, I understand the risks involved. Professor, I’m young and have no family except you and mom. I’m also very fit and I feel up to the challenge,” what I didn’t tell him was that I had always had a secret desire to be shrunk. Heck, Peter and I were the first to discuss whether it could actually be done, he’s the one who got his dad to look into the idea, and that was three or four years ago.

“All right then, we have to do this discreetly. If we tell AIM about it they’ll want to know all about it and they’d probably clamp down hard on my lab. I’ll prepare a dose for you to take in the morning; this will give you a chance to change your mind. Cindy, I want you to consider this very carefully, I’m not sure I can enlarge you after you shrink.”

That fateful night I did lay in bed, if only I had known what adventures lay ahead, how many times I had given up hope, I don’t think I would have gone through with the shrinking experiment. But now as I write this safe and sound I probably would have done it all over again, just for the thrill of facing the unknown. Of course, I had a strong desire to become small, anyway.

“I have extrapolated from the size and weight of Fluffy as compared to your 5’ 8” frame, and have produced a syringe for you that will hopefully have the desired results.”

“Oh uncle, I trust your abilities as a scientist. I wouldn’t volunteer to do this if it wasn’t you,” (or would I?)

“I really admire your bravery, Cindy. It’s almost like you want to become small. I’m ready for your arm now.”

The professor took an ordinary syringe with a blue liquid and stuck me in the arm.

“Let’s just say this is a dream come true, uncle.”

“OK, you shouldn’t feel a thing as the formula begins its process of molecular reorganization. By my calculations, you should be able to ‘manage’ for the first 24 hours. Thereupon you must return to the lab here so I can monitor your progress. You may want to bring a few ‘little’ things to make yourself more comfortable as you get progressively smaller.”

“You mean like doll clothes, stuff like that?”

“You have the rest of today, I leave it up to you and your imagination. You seem to know what you are doing on this project. I myself would be mortified to know I was shrinking. I’m about 86% through the calculations needed to reverse the shrinking effect. I don’t think I’ll be getting any rest over the next few days. You can go now but phone me here at the lab if there are any side effects. This is something that has only been tried on a cat, Cindy. We will have to monitor your progress closely. And one more thing, don’t tell anyone you’re shrinking, it’ll only raise everyone’s suspicions, Ok?”

That’s how my journey into smallness began, with me leaving my uncle’s lab with nothing more than a cotton swab band aid on my arm. I didn’t feel any different, I didn’t tingle or anything, but I must admit I did have total butterflies. I was so excited that I began shaking as I walked along.

I went home to my room and lay down to rest. What if my uncle is just playing a joke on me? Maybe he was just playing along with me, maybe he’d say he’d never in a million years let me shrink, and that he would lock the shrinking formula away so that no one would ever be able to use it. I kept mulling it over as I imagined myself being less than an inch tall walking around on my dresser amongst a giant lipstick, hairbrush, and Teen People magazine. I realized there was only way to find out. I grabbed a marker from my dresser and stood against the wall marking my height.

I found a tape measure and…hey, the tape is only 5’ 4”, I’m 5’ 8”!! I started shaking again with excitement as I did it again trying to stand up perfectly straight barefeet on my floor. The second and more squiggly line was just below the last one. I’ve lost four inches in let’s see, it’s about 1:30, the last five hours! I was so excited I dropped the phone as I dialed my uncle’s lab. He told me he thought hard about just putting water with food coloring in the syringe, but then he told me his son’s wishes would be honored if we did this successfully. I told him I had lost 4 1/2 inches already and he reminded me again to make preparations now because the professor wasn’t going to leave the lab once I had arrived the next morning. I had the afternoon to go and get what I needed. Where does one go when one is shrinking in size? Why, a toy store, of course, where else would you find small stuff!

Thinking back now, that visit to the toy store was surreal. It was mid afternoon when I left the house (sneaking is more like it). I was a tad under five feet when I last measured myself. I got in my car and I could barely see over the dash! I went back to get a phone book to sit on but only my big toe touched the pedal. I thought it would be safer to take the bus. After all, I wasn’t going to get any bigger as this magical day went on.

I clinbed the stairs to the old independent toy store (every city has one) and noticed how much bigger the stairs were, weird! Obviously, I couldn’t take out my tape measure in publc, but after the bus ride I must have shrunk to 4’ 8”, jeez…that’s how small I was in grade seven! Oh well, I had asked for this, hadn’t I? I went straiught to the doll section. Of course there was the usual Barbie display, but I came here because I know they specialize in had made dolls and miniatures. I figured it would be a waste of money to but a whole dollhouse, , the professor said it would be all over in few days, I wouldn’t have enough time to enjoy it. A salesgirl came over to me, she looked to be about my age and was wearing a short skirt. I was shorter than her breasts. She even thought I was preteener out to add to my Barbie collection, so I played along as we picked out a couple outfits. Then we went over to the doll furniture and I picked out a bed a chair and a table. The barbie bed felt spongy.

“Boy, you sure take your doll stuff seriously.”

I couldn’t help myself, I was having so much fun here at the toy store, I felt like a rich movie star on a spending spree. “Well, actually I’m the Incredible Shrinking Girl, and I’m going to be wearing that doll dress and even those tiny rubber shoes. That’s where I’ll sleep tomorrow night,” pointing at the Barbie bed. “Um, I need some really really small doll furniture for the day after that.”

After that the salesgirl said nothing to me, I could only grin from ear to ear as she brought out their smallest doll furniture. The tiny little chair was about an inch high.

“I’ll take’em.” Knowing I would at some point be able to fit into all that doll stuff, even sleep in that tiny bed, gave me a weird feeling. I was a little scared but also thrilled and excited at the same time. Knowing that if my uncle was unable to keep me from shrinking all this stuff would become too big for me anyway.

I must have shrunk while I was at the toy store, because I almost tripped on the stairs the way out. I realized I didn’t even come up to the cashier’s counter. By the time I got off the bus and walked home with my bags it took almost twice as long because I was even smaller now.

I went back to my room, put my bags down and went straight for the tape measure. It was after supper now, about 6:30, almost 12 hours of shrinking has elapsed. The mark is now…less than three feet! 2 feet 11 inches! I measured myself, I was shrunk to the size of six year old.

It was becoming harder for me to contain my excitement that I was shrinking, but now the reality of my experience was coming home to me. I tried my best to relax and managed to wait an entire hour before measuring myself again…another ½ inch smaller. That’s when I wished I had a scale to measure my size. I spent the rest of the night going through my supplies, trying to act normal. I even put on my tape of the Incredible Shrinking Man as a background, and that helped a lot.

I watched for the umpteenth time as Scott Carey Shrinks. Boy, do I know how you feel now. I took comfort knowing I wouldn’t end up in my own cellar shrinking smaller and smaller to microscopic size without anyone even knowing you are there (sigh * I thought of my micronaut cousin).

I knew my uncle was doing everything he could to keep from shrinking smaller than Scott Carey did, and I knew I would be safe in my uncle’s lab no matter hard small I may become. Suddenly I felt very tired and laughed to myself as I put my nightshirt on. It easily touched the floor when at my normal size it would have been all the way above my knee. I had to jump up into my bed like I used to when I was a little kid.

I looked around and up at my bed, there definitely was a change in perspective as since I went to bed. I walked across my bedroom to the wall and picked up my tape measure. It was the size of a tire and weighed even more. I left it on the floor so that i wouldn’t have to jump up to the dresser to reach it. I put it

NOTE: The end of this story somehow got lost--if Microman is out there, please send me the end again (sorry!) so I can repost it. Thanks!--shrinkingman