Tiny Dadby Bob "Shrinkingman" NelsonIt was morning, and he had to ride the train. He walked from his dwelling to the train station, saw it was just arriving, and boarded it.The train took off with a lurch and started speeding over the tracks. It seemed like it went faster everyday. Suddenly he felt the brakes go on; he tried to hold on to his seat but the force of the brakes lurched him forward toward the next seat. He heard a child's laughter far above. The train stopped and he got out. Did it all come down to this? 37 years of effort and he was reduced (literally) to this, a tiny man in a world of giants? He used to be almost six feet tall but now Mike Hurley was all of three inches tall, and at the mercy of his son Danny.He just couldn't win. There was the time just yesterday when it was really warm and Danny said he could cool him off. Danny got out a glass, put some ice in it, and poured some Pepsi.Then he grabbed Mike and dropped him into it.He felt the chilly liquid all around him, bumped into some ice cubes, and the carbonation of the drink bubbled all around him. To his horror, he found that Danny was lifting the glass to his lips.Danny drank some of the Pepsi while his dad bobbed helplessly inside the glass. Mike had divorced his wife Kathy a few months ago, and he had custody of Danny--for now. But somehow he thought that Danny preferred his mom.Now Kathy was overseas on business so he had Danny all to himself. But Danny knew he could get back at his dad.So one day as Mike typed at his computer he suddenly felt odd;he looked up and saw that the chair he was on was now immense. So was the keyboard and monitor, both now too far away to reach. He looked to his left and he saw Danny,who held a strange plastic device. Danny reached down and picked up his dad and placed him on the floor at his feet, which were now about 16 feet long. Mike looked up at Danny who stretched far above him.Before, Danny was a petite boy who was no taller than Mike's armpits, but now he seemed as big as the Statue of Liberty. Mike worked at home as a freelance writer so not many people noticed he was "missing" for a few days.Danny took care of his dad,shrinking clothes to fit him, feeding him, and giving him a combination bath and swimming pool by filling the bathroom sink with water (Mike, wearing a bathing suit, would walk barefoot onto the faucet and dive down into the warm water). Danny would take his dad into school by putting him into the pocket of his pocket-T-shirt.Miniature Mike would peer over the side of the pocket as 110-foot-tall grade schoolers talked with his son. The world was now a bizarre distortion of what it used to be. Everything was 24 times bigger and many, many times heavier.He was so small now, and weak. But his son was huge and strong. Why, his son could now lift up a car with ease--that is, he lifted up Mike's car, which was now shrunk to a fraction of its former size.Danny let Mike drive the shrunken vehicle over the wood floor of the living room and the linoleum floors of the kitchen and bathroom.He had fun with his dad, too--Mike would drive over the living room floor when suddenly he would see a huge sneakered foot appear in front of him!Mike would slam on the brakes and just miss the boy's foot; then he would feel the car going up in the air as Danny lifted it up... One day at school Mike decided to try and escape.Because Danny wasn't wearing a pocket T-shirt, he kept Mike in his backpack.He found a tiny opening near one side where it wasn't zipped all the way so he eased himself through the opening. Danny was far above him, sitting at his desk.He dashed under a radiator and hid; the class ended and all the kids headed out. Danny didn't check his backpack. Mike went over to the teacher's desk and climbed up a phone cord to the top. He looked up at the 140 foot tall teacher who was seated at the desk--and she looked down to grab her things, and that's where she saw Mike.Amazed, she put her right hand out and he climbed on it.She brought the hand up to her face and got a good look..."Mike?" "I gotta go home now but you can look around the classroom if you want," said Patty. Mike looked out of her purse and observed Danny on his hands and knees, looking for him.Patty smiled down at him and they left.
Back at Patty's apartment, Mike sat on the kitchen table and talked with her. " I could keep you in a dollhouse," she smiled, "but I don't have one." Mike put his head in his hands.She patted the top of his head very lightly with one finger. "So what happened again?" "Danny pointed some device at me and the next thing I know I'm as big as The Indian in the Cupboard. I gotta get back to normal!"> She sighed. "I'll try to help you, though I wouldn't mind playing with you." Ah, so that's how to do it!She pointed it toward Mike and he was 5'10" again!Just then Danny came home and saw his teacher there, and a normal sized dad right next to her."Looks like your little fun is over now, Son," said Mike.Danny grabbed the device from Patty, adjusted it, and pointed it at the two of them. "NO!", they screamed.Instantly they shrank to three inches tall. A few hours later Danny was on the sofa again,wearing his smelly socks.His dad was strapped to the sole of the left foot with a rubber band while his teacher was similarly strapped to the sole of his right foot. Both of them grimaced at the smell."Well, you said you liked tiny people and now you are one, I guess," said Mike to Patty.
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