Monday, March 20th 2023

I wake up, my wife seemingly already in the kitchen, judging by the sounds of dishes clashing around downstairs and echoing into our master room. My eight year old Daughter, Alexis went up to Charlotte with my mom, her grandma for a few weeks. My wife’s parents are out of town in Orlando down in Florida for the time being. Her schooling is all done online on her school iPad anyways so she won’t get behind or anything. Plus since spring break was last week for her anyways it’s not like she was going to get behind on her work anyways. She’s been gone for a few days since Saturday. So it’s just been me and Nicole these few days getting everything ready for our trip out to Big Bear in California, since we’ve been planning it for about a month now.  I lean over a little to touch the screen of my iPhone 12, it’s 8:07 in the morning. Our flight isn’t until 4pm.

I get up out of bed, feeling the chilliness of the room, walk a little bit and I see myself in the long mirror my wife has set up not too far from the closet. I almost don’t recognize myself for a second, realizing I’m not once the twenty something hotshot lawyer I once was. I’ve gained a bit of weight over the years in my stomach than most places on my body, especially in my thirties. Atlanta does have some good food spots, I will admit.  I imagine the Jet’s Pizza that me and Nicole had yesterday didn’t help, either. I’m pale (although due to the cold) and somewhat more hairier than I was back then as well too. My eyesight has been declining a little over these past few years as well. I wear glasses but I don’t wear them as much as I should, I don’t really “need them need them” but it does help when I’m driving at night or trying to read something really far away. I walk into the bathroom and freshen myself up, brush my teeth and everything. I walk back into the master bedroom and put on a white t-shirt, and just walk around with my plaid boxers on, out of the bedroom.

“You must not know ‘bout me you must not know ‘bout me” Nicole sings the lyric of a Beyoncé song as she opens up the cabinet, bringing out a box of Bisquick, as I walk down the steps and into the kitchen. She’s in her bra, her golden brown skin glistening in the morning sun, those toned tanned legs catching my eye, and those thick thighs and her nice ass with some , her natural frizzy brown hair, I love the stretchmarks on her thighs and a little bit on her lower tummy as well I notice too. 

We met in Baltimore about fourteen years ago exactly, March of 2009. We met at a coffee shop, Dunkin Donuts to be exact. Something I kinda got hooked on when visiting my ex-girlfriend I was waiting in the drive thru line picking up some Munchkins and a macchiato for breakfast before heading into the law firm and I pulled out into the street afterwards and I noticed some cute looking frizzy haired black chick in a parka hoodie with a broke down dark green 1995 Chevy Lumina in a nearby Royal Farms parking lot, seemingly having some car trouble. I pulled over and I had some jumper cables in the trunk of the ruby red 2008 M3 BMW convertible that I was leasing at that time that I had only had for a few weeks, a pretty hefty sized monthly payment from a local BMW dealership. Seeing this car as a new stage in my life, the 1996 Altima that I was driving to School in L.A. I also drove a year after graduation before moving back up to Baltimore and selling it on Craigslist to a elderly Asian gentleman who was in the market for a new car since his car had gotten stolen a few weeks prior. Police not being much help he said.  I now look back I wish I would've spent my money on something less flashy and really new to drive and not act like I was hot shit and pretty much rushed through Law school because he thought he was “so smart” since I just started making huge amounts of money for what I think of myself now as a then twenty three year old kid. 

I remember pulling into the parking lot, my MGMT CD on full blast that I had gotten from a local Best Buy the same day I bought the car, although my convertible top was up since this was pretty early March and spring didn’t really hit Baltimore quite yet.

I pulled up next to her car, my car’s heat was on full blast. And I remember from what she told me a few months later, she thought I was just some “rich white boy” trying to give her shit her at first, judging by my new at the time BMW convertible and the way I was dressed, my combed gel slicked hair and my suit and dress pants. I ask her if she needed help, and she looked at me pretty hesitant at first, since after all, I am some stranger off the street at this point and she didn’t respond. I tell her that I’ve got some jumper cables in my trunk given to me from the dealership, and she says it’s something else. Something about the transmission, and she’s already got a tow truck on the way, mumbling something about the minutes left on her phone. I offer if she wants a few of the Glazed Munchkins out of the fifteen count I have, and that it’s pretty chilly outside and if she doesn’t mind sitting in my car to wait for the Tow Truck, I’ve got heated seats and hot air on full blast and everything. 

My firm didn’t mind me being late to work, especially if it’s a good cause like this. She seems to trust me and I lean over and open the door for her, I smell her perfume as soon as we enter, and I notice the song “Electric Feel” by MGMT starts up in the track listing after ”The Youth”, and looking back at it it’s almost like the song was signaling something about her towards me. We talk a bit, her saying thanks for this offer and I tell her it was no problem. She works as an entry level marketing analyst for a local agency and she’s about 5 months younger than me, she went to college at Kennesaw State University in Atlanta where she’s from. Moving up here for a job opportunity provided to her after college. We share the Munchkins and talk a bit more and eat, seemingly really hitting it off at first. I asked if she’s seeing anyone and it went silent for a bit, and then she smiled and she knew what I was thinking and we exchanged numbers, and it all started there.  We’ve been married for ten years this year in July.

“I see someone’s in a good mood this morning, you making pancakes?” I say, caressing her a little bit around her upper tummy, feeling the warmth on it compared to my kinda cold hand. I smell the olive oil she put on in her hair, arousing me a little. 

“I mean, yeah. I’ll cook if you do the dishes afterwards, a nice lil’ breakfast before we head out to Cali. Pancakes, scrambled eggs, maybe some bacon if you want” She says, moving a little out of my caress and going towards our Refrigerator, reaching towards the silver long handle for the cooling, it’s a little dirty and sticky from our daughter’s grubby hands always touching it to grab a Capri Sun or a Go-Gurt. 

“Come on babe, no one says Cali. You'll obviously make yourself look like a tourist if you say that out there” I say, as Nicole opens up the refrigerator and pulls out a gallon of Kroger brand whole milk and a carton of eggs, the styrofoam packaging of the Eggs squeaking as she moves it. I walk over to the cabinets and bring out the electric griddle we have and it’s plug in.

“Spending four years out there back well over a decade ago doesn’t make you a native either” Nicole says, as she sets the ingredients down, and reaches up to a top cabinet, and I check out her ass as she does this, those panties she bought from Victoria’s Secret last month really do show her features off, nice and round, a little firm looking as well too, she’s a bit of a gym girl. 

As soon as she stops reaching back down, I notice she gives me this look, a little flirty, and a little bit that says, “typical man, tisk tisk tisk”.

“Hey, white guys like ass too y’know” I say, with a bit of a smile and she cackles a little at this

“Yeah, about ten years into our marriage I’m definitely well aware of this” she says, as she puts down the mixing bowl and slides open the drawer for the whisk.

“I mean, I’m the only white guy you’ve ever dated, unless you wanna count that high school fling with that Slim Shady wannabe you were dating” I say, as I start to hook up the electric griddle to the plug in outlet near the stove.

“Oh my God you still remember that? I told you that years ago” She says surprised and also giggling a bit, as she adds in and mixes the ingredients. 

“Yeah, I do” I say, as I set the heat to preheat on the griddle.

It goes quiet between us for a bit, as we focus more on cooking than anything else.I think about my dad a little bit while doing this, remember back when I was a kid back in Baltimore and a little bit during my teen years in Charlotte he’d sometimes cook breakfast if he was off that weekend or during a school break like Christmas or Summer something like that. Pancakes, French Toast, Eggs,Sausage Links, the whole shabang really. He was a bit of a cook if he wasn’t super busy with cases and spending time at the firm, more of a cook than mom I’d say. Dad passed away in April of 2021 due to COVID-19 complications, something about his chest after being in the hospital sick with it for about 5 months. It still hurts me to think about it since I’m still grieving his death in a way, losing a parent is something I feel like no-one is really prepared for until the day it happens. I still have my mom, she had COVID catching it from my dad as well but she recovered much quicker and was nowhere near as severe as how dad got it. I start to tear up a bit but I distract myself by thinking about my daughter, and how I’m trying to be a better and more involved parent to her as my parents weren’t as much to me growing up to some extent. 

Our food is ready, Pancakes golden brown as you would see at IHOP or Denny’s or whatever, Bacon and scrambled eggs. We get our plates and get our food and utensils out, and start to eat at the table in the little dining room near the kitchen.

The pancakes are a little runny and raw in the middle, Nicole and I both notice this and smile when we make eye contact as soon as we both take our first bite into our pancakes, us both having about four decent sized ones. 

“Well thank goodness for Aunt Jemima” I say, reaching towards the syrup bottle to the side of Nicole, which she picks up and places in my hand as I reach out for it.

“You mean (Nicole swallows the chewed up bite of pancake she had in her mouth) Pearl Milling Company” she says, with a bit of a cheeky smile.

“Yeah but, it takes a little bit to get used to renaming something that had the same name for like, decades. Besides you know what I meant” I say, taking the syrup bottle and adding onto some of the syrup we’ve already poured onto my pancakes.

It’s quiet again as we eat, nothing really else going on besides the sound of our chewing and swallowing and the clinking of utensils against the plates. 

“The reason why I’m going on this two week trip is to really find out what I wanna do with my life, I’ve been talking about a change of careers since Thanksgiving of last year when we went up to Charlotte to visit my mom and thinking about how the years have gone and how my dad was a total workaholic throughout my life. I really only became a lawyer since it was kinda always the thing to do with how dad would say, I’ve been groomed into it. Now that, y’know, forty isn’t too far away now and I'm turning 37 in May. Heh, that kinda rhymed. But on a serious note I do feel like I wanna see what else is out there, I’m thinking about going into teaching maybe. High School, maybe Middle School I don’t really know yet. I think I’d be a good teacher. Hell I might even go back to school and become a professor, but I’m just throwing stuff at the wall right now. But this Lawyer thing isn’t really for me anymore, I feel. I’m burnt the fuck out on it.” I say, as soon as I finish up my last bite of egg. My plate being syrupy and covered in egg and little soggy bites of pancake crumbs.

“Yeah I get what you mean. I understand, whatever you wanna do babe, I’m all for it. Whatever you feel like the right path is for you” Nicole says, as she gets up to grab something out of the fridge.

She grabs one of our daughter’s Fruit Punch Capri-Suns out of the refrigerator, and drinks it for herself. I was about to say something about it, but I figure what the hell and asked her to give me one too, and she tosses it to me, landing on my syrupy plate, covering the backside of it with syrup. I just get up and grab a paper towel off the counter on the paper towel holder, to wipe off the syrup off of the container. Both of us grown adults drinking Capri-Suns to wash down our breakfasts, but whatever. The Capri-Sun not tasting as sweet anyways due to the syrup we just had on our pancakes.

After breakfast Nicole goes back up stairs to lie down a bit, saying she feels a bit sleepy and wants to take a morning nap to let her food digest. I don’t really say anything about that. I get started loading the dishwasher, putting our last Cascade pod in. Reminding me that we should probably get more when we get back from our trip. 

I remember I left my phone up the stairs, and I think about going to get it. But I remember nah, I don’t feel like going back up stairs.

I walk into the living room, our big gray couch and a few loveseats scattered about. The flat screen 4k TV showing my reflection, another reminder that I don’t look exactly how I think I look, noticing my nipples poking a little bit through my white t-shirt. I look into our backyard through the window near the TV stand, the sun shining bright despite being really chilly outside. The trees you can see in the background past my backyard, the East Cobb suburb we’ve lived in ever since we bought the house out here in 2015 while my wife was pregnant. Atlanta in general outside of the city is pretty forest-like. Reminding me of Charlotte in that way with all the tall trees and shrubbery.  Finally moving out of our apartment we had together for a few years in downtown Atlanta that felt like it was costing an arm and a leg a month for not that much space it felt, I honestly didn’t care much for urban living. I’ve had a few tastes of it when I used to visit my Ex-girlfriend back in college when she went to college in New York. I wonder whatever happened to Molly, anyways. It’s almost like she dropped off the face of the earth sometime in the fall of 2009 if I had to pinpoint it, nearly fourteen years ago. Even Jon saying something about she became uncontactable and her phone number always went to, “this number has disconnected” when he first tried calling her earlier the next year. Jon eventually went to her parents at some point, and they weren’t much help. Saying something about how it’s none of our business, not really giving us an answer.

I sit down on the edge of the loveseat, and chill for a minute or two in the still and calm silence of the house, our kid away with her Grandma, it’s about 9:45am I’d guess judging by the clock in the kitchen saying 9:37 a few minutes ago when I passed by it a little earlier. Only the sound of some slight wind ruffling outside and the branches on trees swaying, with chirping from birds as well. The only sound is my stomach growling a little, processing the food I just ate.

I look directly at our TV screen, not much there under it besides a Roku box. We cut the cord a few years ago in 2019. I haven’t really been a big TV watcher anyways, not since I feel before marriage and before I really got into my career, big case after big case and all the time committed to it. Nicole is more of a TV gal, always binge watching something in her free time whenever she’s not dedicating time to a project at the ad agency she works at . She’s been re-watching The Wire lately with HBO Max, another one of those shows that’s actually pretty good once you understand the tone they’re going for, but I was blindsided by The Sopranos around the time The Wire was on TV, despite both shows airing on the same network. Sometimes I’ll watch TV with her if I’m in the mood for it or if I’ve got the time. Whenever I do have freetime, I usually nap if I’m that tired from work. Or read, something I’ve been trying to get more in the habit of. Something I started doing during the Covid-19 lockdowns a few years ago. I’ve started with self help books, like Tony Robbins and Mark Manson. The type of stuff I’d remember my day would read in his spare time if he was at home and relaxing, something I noticed more in my teen years and early twenties. He was big into books. I’ve also read a few of Jack Cooper’s books, that shrunken guy that was really popular in the late 2000s and early 2010s. He’s a pretty popular self help guru as well with his books, although his fame has definitely died down over the years. Being called a “One Inch Tony Robbins” by many people thinking of him as some type of gimmick.  Someone I met in college a few years before his “incident” he likes to call in interviews and in his books. My wife thinks some of these self help guys are scams and con men, but I just do it for the advice and nothing else.

I sit for a bit and then I decide it’s time to go upstairs and check out what’s going on today in the world, via my iPhone. I go upstairs and retrieve my phone, quietly walking to my room to retrieve my phone, passing a sleeping Nicole, she snores a little. I head back downstairs and into the living room, I sit back on the couch, and open my phone, using facial recognition. It’s about 9:57 now. I open Instagram, and then I close it. Realizing that I don’t exactly feel like going on it today. 

For about an hour I just lounge, just sitting and enjoying the silence. Just zoning out. And I feel like hopping on the internet, and then I get up and go back upstairs to retrieve my Macbook and see what’s going on in the lovely world of the internet. I have a Reddit account that I’ll occasionally hop on and use that I’ve had for about nine years now, mostly for musical discussions and following subreddits of bands I enjoy or trying to keep up with the current indie-Alt-rock scene. Music is a hobby that I’ve never grown out of throughout the years, I’ve always kept up with the current alternative rock music scene. I’m also discovering more bands as well and getting more into the ones I always knew about since being in the scene but their music never really captured me until recently, like Teenage Fanclub and Guided by Voices.  More on the Power Pop side, though. 

I’m on my laptop for about an hour, just scrolling through Reddit and reading posts, I go to Youtube for a bit as well. I still use the same account that I made way back in 2006 when I was in my college Dorm in UCLA, when the site started to pop off. It’s changed so much since then, but the internet as a whole has over time. I only have one video, which is pretty much a pretty blurry quality 2 minute video from 2007 that I took on my flip phone from that I uploaded that very same year when I went to a Silversun Pickups concert, it only has about 12k views on it. Not very many comments, besides a few more recent comments saying that they were at that concert. I’m subscribed to a few accounts, mostly music wise. Like Todd in The Shadows or The Punk Rock MBA, and a few others like Funny or Die and Cracked that I’ve been subscribed to for awhile and The Whitest Kids You Know clips on the comedy side. A show I used to catch when I was in college and me and my roommates would crack up at. Not being reminded of it until the death of Trevor Moore a few years ago. My Wife enjoys more of the food side of things like Daym Drops or those fast food comparisons between countries that Insider does. Sometimes I’ll watch First We Feast or Binging with Babish, if I’m in the mood. I do most of my Youtube watching on my TV in the bedroom, than on my computer.  I pretty much spend the next few hours watching Youtube, generally just catching up with other channels I haven’t watched in a bit like Dead Meat and The Nostalgia Critic. Although the last one I feel like isn’t as funny and entertaining as it used to be, maybe I'm just getting older. Also doing that and going back and forth between Reddit, I think about using Instagram on my laptop, but I realize it’s probably time for me to take a break from social media anyways.

Eventually the time comes, and it’s about 11:00 am that I need to get ready for our flight. I shut down the laptop and bring it with me upstairs, I go and wake Nicole up and we start to get ready. We mostly got everything packed up last night, so all we really need to do is dress ourselves.

This takes about 30 minutes in total, I’m more worried about the traffic to the airport than missing our flight. Atlanta traffic can get pretty brutal anyways.

We go down stairs, I’m dressed in a light blue v-neck long sleeve shirt and some jeans with just a regular pair of gray Nikes on. My wife wearing a green Adidas tracksuit jacket and some black dress pants and some red New Balances. I open the garage door, a gust of cold wind coming into it as I open it. I wonder, should we take my 2020 Tesla Model 3, or my Nicole’s 2018 Toyota Rav4. I figure the RAV4, since I wanna really conserve the miles on my Tesla.  Nicole doesn’t really mind driving me driving her car. I bought the Tesla during the height of the pandemic a few years ago, realizing that these Electric cars are probably going to be the future for real this time and these Teslas do look kinda appealing. Getting rid of the 2014 Lexus GS that I had bought before this one, selling it via Facebook Marketplace to some construction worker that wanted to give his wife a present for their 25th anniversary. 

I tell her that I wanna take her car and she has no issue with it, we load our bags in the backseat and we start the SUV off, and pull out.

“Y’know, have you ever been west of the Mississippi, I know you said you’ve never been out to California?” I ask Nicole, as I drive through the neighborhood and onto the mainstreet .The heat is on a little bit, but not on full blast. 

“I went to Las Vegas when I was like, twelve over summer vacation. I pretty much just watched TV in the hotel room most of the time, I couldn’t really do anything with my parents since they were always in the casinos, the workers didn’t allow me on the floor. I didn’t really get to see a lot of the sites, just passing through the Vegas strip. Pretty boring vacation for me” She says, with a little bit of a sigh.

“Oh okay then. Y’know I never got a chance to go to Vegas when I was going to UCLA. Most of my traveling was to San Diego if I did go out of town and my ex was was visiting. I went to Orange County a few times but that’s not really going out of town though, Anaheim and Fullerton and Irvine and Huntington Beach. I mostly went out to Orange County for it’s beaches than anything else. I saw a lot of Southern California and the New Jersey/New York Metro area when I was dating her, my college years in the mid to late two thousands. I almost had a chance to go up to San Francisco my Sophomore year of college, one of my roommate’s friends, Tommy. He was this “Doctor House” wannabe since he was really into that show at that time. It was pretty big then, he was in Medical school. Dude was an absolute asshole to deal with and I made a point to always just leave and go do something out to avoid dealing with him. He backed out of the trip at the last minute due to some family emergency involving his grandma or some shit back in Indiana or whatever, had to fly back home for it. I got offered his place by my Dorm roommate for his flight ticket and hotel and everything, but I said no due to the fact I didn’t feel like doing this all last minute” I say, as we go more towards Marietta going through lights and passing by shops and gas stations and fast food places and strip malls, in order to get onto 285 and make to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

 I feel like no matter where you go, suburbs seem to look the same. Just change out the regional stores and fast food places and gas station chains. Something I remember realizing during my trips in Long Island and North Jersey, comparing it to Los Angeles and San Diego. 

“Do you wish you would of went?” Nicole says, starting to mess with the radio a bit, turning it off mute. Playing “Killing me Softly with His Song” by The Fugees on 102.9, the big Old School R&B station in Atlanta. She usually listens to the radio if she’s going to work, on an off day she’ll use her Spotify via bluetooth for her car, at least that's what she tells me. I rarely ever listen to radio, I’ve been using Spotify since 2014 and not much else since.

“Eh, it will always be there, I imagine.I might plan a trip out there next summer for the family if it’s calling me that much.  Northern California is pretty much more on the forest side it seems with the huge ass trees and forestry, something I’ve seen pretty much all my life, living in Baltimore and Charlotte. And living down here in Georgia too. Southern California with the beaches and palm trees, and that lack of humidity. Man I miss those days, it’ll be the first time in nearly fifteen years that I’ll be back out there again” I say, as I stop at a stop light.

It’s quiet between us for a few minutes, as I navigate the city streets to make it onto the ramp for the highway. Living in L.A. really helped with my big city driving experience, really learning how to drive aggressively there and how to deal with large amounts of traffic since I didn’t have a car in Charlotte, borrowing my brother’s whenever I needed to. And even then I mostly stayed in our little suburb, never driving out into the city proper. 

I let her play her music, not really fidgeting with the radio. The station now playing, “Too Close” by Next. Reminding me of that one Vine meme about ten years ago, back when that was a thing. Vine and the Harlem Shake and Gangnam Style, crazy to think all these crazes were about ten years ago. That’s probably around the last time I really started paying attention to these types of crazes and trends. I’ll poke around a little bit with the Tik-Toks you see uploaded on Instagram, but that’s about it. My wife is a bigger fan of that stuff than I am and keeps up with it more. She thinks my music taste is, “pretty white” but lovingly poking fun at it. She does like a few rock bands like Rage Against the Machine and The Smashing Pumpkins, the last band I introduced her too, although she knew a few of their big radio hits like 1979 and Bullet with Butterfly Wings. RATM was mostly through an ex-boyfriend of hers in college, he being more into that stuff, playing in a System of a Down cover band. The type of stuff that I remember my younger brother was listening to in his teen years. 

We eventually make it to the airport through the traffic and all the guys in newer looking 5.0 Mustangs and Dodge Challengers and Chargers blasting their trap rap through their bass boosted speakers racing down 285 switching from lane to lane trying to avoid traffic, treating it like they’re playing real life Need for Speed. I swear Atlanta has a street racing problem, especially these days.  And it’s pretty hectic as it always is at these huge airports, especially at Atlanta’s. 

We do the parking stuff and get our bags out and go through TSA and all that bullshit, and then we head into the airport, and we deal with the headache of waiting for our flight, and it’s a pretty boring few hours until the flight. I make conversation with a twenty something year old guy from England in a “Ash” t-shirt, a band I forgot existed, seeing the shirt reminding me of Alex and all those British bands that he would share with me over AIM all those years ago that weren’t as popular in the states, Ash being one of the bands Alex introduced me to. I haven’t talked to Alex at all this year yet, but we still keep contact via Instagram. My wife was seemingly talking to an airport worker about something while doing this.

Eventually four o’clock rolls around and after a 30 minute delay we eventually board our flight.I haven’t flown since pre–pandemic, and that was on a family vacation with our daughter to New York in the summer of 2019. My wife has only flown a few times in her life. Only twice, before she met me. Going to Las Vegas as a kid and to Philadelphia on a high school trip with her school. Her parents didn’t really take vacations much, she was comfortably middle class growing up but her parents weren’t much seeing anything outside of Florida and Georgia, let alone much of Atlanta anyways. She always made the drive from Atlanta to Baltimore when coming back home when she was living up there before she met me and that’s when we started flying regularly, I’d pay for her tickets. Ironically making Charlotte her half way point, usually stopping there for the night and continuing the next day all the way down to Atlanta.  She’s got a bit of a fear of flying still but she says she’s better than she used to be, due to heights and the like.

The flight itself is pretty boring and anti-climatic, I notice a decent amount of Germans on our plane. Since Atlanta has a huge German population due to all the big German companies like Mercedes Benz and Porsche and Voltswagen, all these German car companies that've been setting up shop these last few years. Hearing all this German on the plane reminds me of when I went to Europe the summer after my high school graduation, and holy shit. It’s been almost nineteen years since all the events of that trip went down, it’s technically older than I was when I went through all that shit. Getting shrunk and everything, something I’ve pretty much kept a secret among all my friends and family and even my wife doesn’t know that I went through the same thing Jack Cooper did, only the people who knew about the situation during the time did.

As we take off it feels kinda weird going up into the air, seeing the city below us get smaller and smaller and having a birds eye view of Atlanta as well, all the traffic on 285 and I-75 seemingly like filled up with cars and semis and pickups in all the spaghetti junctions . My wife sitting a seat over, the middle seat between us is empty, we’re in Economy class on Delta. But I made sure we’ll be flying business class on the flight back, a promise I made with my wife, since I tried to minimize costs somewhere during this trip.

As we start to get into cruising altitude I start to check out the infotainment system, I check out the news channel. Which is focusing more on that Trump Indictment stuff since he’s been out of office, after the political world had changed much since the 2016 election I’m kinda burnt out of politics in general, I know I probably should care more about it but after having it pretty much shoved in my face for about four years straight whenever I turned on CNN or ABC or NBC Nightly News or whatever .Compared to how it was in the past I honestly find more bliss in ignorance. My wife focuses on it more and is more vocal about it than I am, but I’m honestly completely tired of hearing about Trump or Biden or whoever the news wants to focus on at the moment. 

I check out the movie side of things, and I figure that this flight is a good chance to catch up on movies that I’ve wanted to see.I notice that Jack Cooper biography movie, “One Inch” is available to watch, something that came about about ten years ago that was a huge part of his craze. Reminding me of everything I went through in England and Germany all those years ago when I was eighteen.I wonder if they have “The Whale” on here, which they seemingly didn’t. A movie I do wanna go and check out at some point with all the Oscar Buzz around it with Brendan Fraser’s comeback, I settle for No Country For Old Men. A movie I think I saw on HBO a good while ago when I was living briefly in Charlotte on HBO when I had first moved back there after college. 

The flight goes by quicker than expected, and I notice Nicole seems more relaxed than usual on this flight, she’s also seemingly watching something on her Screen. Once the movie ends I pretty much just nod off, I notice that we’re flying over Oklahoma, as the pilot says over the intercom, the skyline of Oklahoma City seemingly in the distance with the interstate below us. And then I start to nod off again.  I went there in 2000 on a road trip, not much to really do or see that I can really remember, besides the memorial for the bombing a few years prior. 

I wake up, with the jolt of the plane landing at LAX. I hear the pilot over the intercom saying that the local time is 5:12pm. Time changes can be kinda weird, huh. I look out my window, and onto the tarmac and the background, the Los Angeles skyline although changed a bit here and there and the mountains in the background, something that I haven’t seen in year fills me with a longing feeling for my college years. I remember flying into Los Angeles when I first came out here with my parents and my younger brother Nate, helping me get settled into my dorm and everything way back in the fall of 2004. 

My dad took me to the used car dealership not too far from the airport to go look at a car, a 1996 Nissan Altima that I made a lot of memories in while being away for college here. I went to Los Angeles one time as a kid in the summer of 2000 before I moved out here for college, July of 2000  to be exact. Not too long after we moved to North Carolina, Dad rented a brand new Tahoe for a few weeks and took us across America, starting in Charlotte and going all the way to the west coast. Seeing Memphis and Nashville and Albuquerque and Flagstaff and Amarillo along the way.  His own “National Lampoon’s Vacation” he called it jokingly during the trip. Although that time was different since I was on my own and actually living in the city and was an adult. Although looking back I don’t think I was as mature as I think I was, as an 18 year old. 

We get off the plane with our carry ons and into LAX, and it’s pretty much a repeat of what we saw in Atlanta, all the busy people rushing from here to there and the lines. It takes about an hour to get through it all and get set up with a rental car, taking a shuttle to the Hertz lot. LAX has changed a bit, more technology in it and everything. A few more new shops here or there and with some renovations going on. I notice it's a little bit warmer than in Atlanta in LA, but that makes sense obviously. We go to Hertz and get our car. I usually get a Lexus or something like more on the luxury side whenever I’m out of town and I’m renting a car since I can afford. But I figure this go around it’s best to save money somewhere as well too and get a Toyota Corolla. Not like we need a SUV anyways for offroading or something, us pretty much staying at the resort. 

I pull out of the Hertz Parking lot in our rental car, with my infotainment screen set on Google Maps via my phone, showing me directions to our Holiday Inn in West LA, I had a hard time convincing Nicole to stay here just for one night, but she eventually came around since again, it’s just for one night. 

“What do you think so far babe?” I say, as I drive down South Sepulveda Boulevard to head onto the 405 , heading towards West LA, not too far from Santa Monica.

“Seems busy. Palm Trees are cool, a little bit of smog in the air. I mean I haven’t seen much yet, feels much warmer this time of year it seems compared to Atlanta” She says, her arms folded in a relaxed way on her chest.

“Yeah, I spent four years out here. More expensive and more homeless encampments everybody says when I talk to coworkers who’ve been out here recently, although L.A. has always kinda been more on the expensive side compared to the rest of the county” I say.

It’s pretty much quiet between us the entire drive to the hotel, besides the noise of the pop station that the last person before us put on playing “About Damn Time” by Lizzo before going to “Heat Waves” by Glass Animals judging by the name on the infotainment screen, the songs playing at a low volume. I remember L.A. was my first time encountering a ramp meter while driving when I came out here in 2004, a stop light near a highway entry. Something I bring up to Nicole when I get onto the 405, a Atlanta native since those are pretty much all over Atlanta. She finds it somewhat amusing. I noticed she’s not too impressed or awed about what she’s seeing, since she grew up in a big city like Atlanta so all this hustle and bustle and like 8 lanes of traffic and helicopters flying overhead is just another day to her. I mean Baltimore and D.C. are big cities too but not a world class big city like L.A and Atlanta like my wife’s from., so I had a bit more shock and awe whenever I came out here. 

We make it to the hotel, going inside the parking garage and getting our parking set up there.

We check in, having a room on the third floor, and it’s your basic hotel room. Modern looking flat screen TV with cable and streaming options, generic looking hotel beds with a chair near it and a desk.Obviously higher tier than a Best Western or a Super 8, but not exactly the Ritz Carlton or a Four Seasons. 

She calls my mom to talk to our daughter and we check in with her, I talk to my daughter a bit they’re doing Arts and Crafts and watching movies and the like.

The rest of this evening is pretty quiet and we just watch TV and my wife goes out and gets some In N Out Burger, something she’s been curious about trying, there being one up the road not too far from UCLA, where I went to school at. I frequented that specific In N Out probably at least twice a week when I lived on Campus. Something I was looking forward to the most coming back here. I was kinda hungry about the time she went out, I didn’t really eat on the plane. Two double doubles with grilled onions and fries light well animal style and a large vanilla shake I get, my wife being a little surprised by how much I order, but I gotta make up for lost time since I last had in not too long after graduation in 2008.  Everything tastes as great as I remember it being back then, although I get reminded why I never ordered the fries when I lived out here. Not really my cup of tea to say the least.  My wife also enjoys her meal, which is pretty much the same as mine, but just with one double double and no caramelized onions. She likes it too and says she wouldn’t mind eating it again tomorrow if she can, if there’s any near Big Bear. 

I shower and go to sleep early tonight since I’m pretty full from my meal, I hit the hay around 9pm. I usually don’t go asleep until 11:00pm, usually during a day I’m off from work, but I’m tired a little bit tired during this travel day, and besides, I gotta get up early and drive two hours out to Big Bear Lake for our resort. My wife not heading out to bed until an hour later. 

It kinda feels good to be back on the West Coast, but I get the feeling that things will be pretty different during this visit.

Tuesday, March 21st 2023.

I wake up, my body seeming waking me up naturally this time, I look over to the clock next to me and it’s about 7:18 in the morning, I can see the morning traffic and a little bit of the Los Angeles skyline rushing by on the 405 from my hotel window, reminding me that I was fast asleep while everyone else is rushing to work or wherever they need to be this morning, all the 18 wheelers seemingly hauling ass on the freeway too as well, the car pool lane doesn’t seem too full though. I slouch up a bit, my wife still fast asleep I can tell by her calm in and out breathing. I reach over her to grab the TV remote on her side of the bed, on her night stand.

I point it at the TV, and press the power button on top, the TV’s LG starting screen coming up and then going to the cable network, it last being on TBS, playing an episode of the George Lopez Show. Another show I never really watched when it was on TV when it was airing new episodes, I flick through channels, either coming across commercials or infomercials from channels who haven’t started airing it’s regular programing yet. With the few interactions I’ve had with cable TV since we stopped having it at our house four years ago and granted over the years as streaming has kinda taken over, I’ve noticed the content on channels like Comedy Central or TruTV don’t have as much variety of different shows playing during the day like how it used to be. I press the number 7 for ABC, something I still remember all these years being gone for the basic TV channels. Seemingly also on a commercial break, that stupid Burger King commercial everyone seemingly loves these days talking about Whoppers despite it only being 7 o’clock in the morning. I decide it’s probably best to get up and go out and get breakfast downstairs while I’m up, and bring it back to the room. 

I brush my teeth and get dressed, I put on a nice denim jacket and some black jeans, the same shoes as yesterday. I grab my phone and my wallet, and I think about waking up Nicole before I go downstairs, but I think again, and say nah since she looks like she’s having a nice sleep anyways. I grab the hotel card key and head out the door, closing the door slowly and softly to make sure I don’t wake Nicole up.

I head down the hallway to the elevator, it smells like fresh paint and a little damp. I wait a little before the elevator, I can hear it making its way up from downstairs. I think a little about what I’m getting, I’m in the mood for a pretty light breakfast anyways, just a coffee and a bagel or two, maybe a strawberry yogurt if they have them. I think to myself what would Nicole want, and then that makes me think if I should go back and wake her up and ask her, or should I bring back some fruit and hope for the best. I figure, nah fuck it. I’ve made it this far, I might as well just bring back some stuff for her and if she doesn’t like it I’ll just go back down with her.

The elevator door opens and I back up a little bit to give them some space for they can walk out, and out walks a middle aged black man in a suit with some pretty strong smelling cologne on with a Suitcase with a LAX and Minneapolis-Saint Paul airport tag on there as well and a Latina chick seemingly in her twenties, probably 25-26 if I had to guess. She’s dressed in a light green crop top showing off her somewhat chubby tummy, her navel being a bit of an outie. She’s wearing black yoga pants and some sandals that show off her hot red painted toes. She’s got her jet black purse around her shoulder, she’s on her phone, speaking in Spanish, I can make out the word Texas in her conversation, assuming that’s where she’s from.

I exchange head nods with the man with the suit as we pass by, and I get into the elevator and press the button for the lobby floor. As I ascend down, I look at my phone, going onto Instagram. I go onto the explore side, seemingly mostly made up of memes that consist of sexist/racist jokes made by high school kids with whatever hot rap song with autotune and trap beats of the week being played in the background or memes made 30 something millennials like myself that seemingly just crap on the younger generation for existing or whatever nostalgia bait they can think of as if the nineties is still only ten years ago in their mind, seemingly not much of an in between for my content feed for my explore page. Nothing really too funny that catches my eye, either. Before I can go onto my regular feed the elevator stops on the lobby floor and opens up, and I put my phone up and head out into the lobby.

I get two bagels for myself and some coffee, two sugars and two creams.  I get some Yoplaits and some plastic spoons and a couple of muffins and biscuits and head back up the stairs. There’s a handful of people hanging out and eating downstairs but not much else seems to be going on.

I make it to the hotel room, realizing I’ve got my hands full and I knock on the door with my knuckle.

Nicole opens it, seemingly in her nightgown and everything.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were going to breakfast?” she says, as I walk through the door.

“I didn’t wanna wake you up, it seemed like you were in a good sleep anyways. At one point I thought about it when I was about to enter the elevator but I figured it was too late” I say as I close the door behind me and set the food down on the bed.

“I mean, I would have appreciated it though. It’s fine I guess” she says, as she reaches towards a blueberry yogurt and a plastic spoon.

We eat our breakfasts and watch morning TV which consists of local LA news pretty much with a mix of national, by the time 9:30 rolls around we’re ready to pretty much check out.

“So, do you wanna check out the beach or something before we make the drive up to the resort? Check-in for the resort time isn’t until three. I know LA traffic can get bad anyways but I think that’s enough time to maybe check out Venice Beach, check out Santa Monica a bit” She says, as she slips on some black socks she's got a light blue Nike jacket on and some skinny jeans.

“Ehh, let me look at Google Maps and we’ll see how bad the traffic could get when we leave out, I don’t wanna spend too much time in LA before we head out to the Resort because traffic can still surprise you and you get caught in a jam” I say, as I start to get up in my chair, as I start throwing away my paper plates I had on the bed in the trash.

I look at Google Maps and if we spend an hour and half or a little less and then head out to Big Bear it’s not too bad and we’d still make it before the check out time. Besides, it would be kinda cool to show Nicole a little about where I used to hang out with friends in college and see how much has changed and what stayed the same over time. 

“Yeah, we can hang out in Santa Monica a bit before we leave out” I say, as I put my phone in my pocket. I notice Nicole does a bit of a celebration dance when I say this, I give a bit of a smile at this. 

We check out of the hotel, and head into the parking garage to get our car. As we walk inside the garage the sounds of the city outside echo inside the parking garage, all the rushing of cars outside and the nearby freeway really making it’s noise inside the garage. Even though Atlanta is a pretty busy city itself with a lot of commotion, it’s a reminder that I’m back in fast paced Los Angeles.

Nicole hands me the keys and I open the door of the Corolla, with by pressing the unlock button on the key fob and I set my luggage on the back seat. I also press the unlock button on the driver’s side and Nicole gets in, putting her bags behind her seat also on the backseat .We both get in, and I press the start button and the car turns on. 

“What do you think about eating Raising Cane’s sometime later on the trip, I saw there’s a few in the area? I wouldn’t mind trying that out while we’re in a place that has one. One of the Copywriters at work talks about it all the time, see how it compares to Zaxby’s” Nicole says, as she puts on her seatbelt, and adjusts her hair.

“I don’t think that was a thing when I was living out here, maybe we’ll try it out on the way back, if there’s not any near Big Bear, which I don’t think there is” I say, as I start to mess with the radio, changing it from the pop-station, which is playing Taylor Swift’s Anti-Hero, to KROQ. Good ol’ 106.7,something that brings me back to my college years, a station I listened to all the time and was pretty much my default station if they weren’t playing singles from Green Day’s American Idiot on repeat, like it was in the later end of 2004 and a good chunk of 2005 and 2006.

“Yeah I knew you’d put it on something like this” Nicole jokes, I look at the screen, the station is playing “Edging” by Blink-182. The new-ish comeback song by the band.  I remember hearing something about them getting back together again with one of their original singers Tom Delonge after a few years of him being gone and being replaced by the lead singer of Alkaline Trio. A band I kinda did like that wasn’t on the Indie-rock side and I bought their “From Here to Infirmary” and “Crimson” Album off of a guy on campus that was selling CD’s. I discovered the band, seeing their “Time To Waste” music video being played on MTV2 in 2006 while hanging out over one of Molly’s roommates' friend's parent's house in Montclair, New Jersey while visiting Molly over her spring break that year.  Although I mostly know about the Blink information through the feed of one of my best friend’s from high school Jon on Instagram. He bought tickets for an upcoming show in Charlotte, seemingly costing a fortune for good seats due to Ticketmaster and all their bullshit. He’s now a Youth Pastor at some Medium sized church in Charlotte, becoming a born again Christian after that bad wreck he had back in December of 2011, seemingly making him have a come to Jesus moment while in the hospital. Dude’s married with a few toddlers now.  I guess that wreck did him some good, since he was kinda at a null point in life during that period and that wreck seemingly made him feel like he’s kinda been taking his life for granted.

“I’m in Los Angeles, I’m driving a Nissan, and Blink-182 has a hot new hit song on the radio? Feels like it’s 2004 all over again” I joke to Nicole, and she smiles at this as I shift to reverse and back up, looking at the backing camera that shows up in the infotainment. 

“I don’t even like Blink-182 that much, I know you know about Jon and his obsession with these types of bands back when we were in High School when they were big. I heard about them and saw their stuff on MTV and shit like that, but I didn’t really care much for it” I say, as I cut my wheel to the right as I slightly press my foot on the gas to turn out. 

She doesn’t really respond much to this, I notice she switches the radio around a few times, landing on 98.7, playing “Barely Breathing” by Duncan Sheik. Seemingly an alt-rock station. 

“This doesn’t sound bad” she says, as I pull out of the spot fully and start to make my way out of the parking garage.

“This was the type of stuff that was playing on the Top-40 stations when I was like, 10-11-12 years old and living in Baltimore” I say, noting to myself that the song does sound pretty familiar and it’s pretty much your typical mid to late nineties adult contemporary rock song that you would hear around that time. 

I drive out of the garage and into the street to make my way onto the 10 freeway, I can pretty much get to Santa Monica by just following the freeway signs and using them to tell me what to do. It’s quiet between me and my wife as I drive, she’s seemingly not too impressed by her surroundings still. I tell her that it snowed earlier this month here and you can still see the snow on the mountains in the background if you look hard enough. She doesn’t really respond much to this besides an “okay”.

We make it into Santa Monica fairly quick, it's seemingly filled with life and commotion in it’s shops and it’s foot traffic and car traffic and tourists even during a weekday morning that’s not a holiday. She perks up a little at the site, and it’s kinda nice to see the Santa Monica Pier and the Pacific Ocean after seeing it all in well over a decade, I let our windows down to really smell that ocean smell and the salt and just to hear more of the general life that’s going on around us, turning the radio down low, playing the song “Alive” by P.O.D by this point, ironically, reflecting everything around us.  Another one of those songs by bands that my younger brother was crazy about during his teen years. I feel like I’m always being reminded of the past during this trip.

“Do you wanna stop and take a few pictures?” I say.

"Hmmm, yeah. Let’s do that” She says, as I pull into a spot not too far from the Santa Monica Pier sign, next to a parking meter.

We get out and take about three pictures, one with me and her standing right under the sign, having some middle aged midwestern white guy from Ohio take our picture for us, Nicole flagging him down. I noticed that she uploaded one of her pictures on Instagram, when we got back in the car. She’s more into that update stuff than I am, and I ask her to send it to my DM’s for I can also post it, and she does too, we do a double post, using the collab feature. I haven’t posted anything on my Instagram account since the New York trip in 2019. I’ve got about four posts in total, mostly just from New York, a picture of my family posing in Times Square near the steps, a picture of the Statue of Liberty from our plane when first landing, and a picture of Central Park. The very first picture I posted in 2017, when I first got Instagram after being begged to by my wife. A picture of me on my wedding day in 2013 with my groomsmen, Jon, Richie, Frankie, Lenny, and Jared in a local Atlanta bar smiling and laughing it up on the day before my wedding day in our jet black suits looking like FBI agents. I managed to get back in touch with Frankie when I went back to Baltimore after college, Lenny got me in contact with him when I moved back briefly.  Alex being my best man, him knowing all about the shrinkage situation made me feel much more closer to him than anyone else in that lineup, to some degree. 

“Do you really wanna check out the pier or you wanna hit the road to Big Bear? I mean I might take a day trip to really enjoy LA in full for you can get the experience. It’s 10:41 right now, we probably do wanna start making tracks because we could catch some hell on our way up there” I say, as we’re standing outside.

“Eh, yeah. I guess it would be better to really enjoy it and make a day trip out of coming here and instead of feeling like we have to rush it” She says, as she walks, dodging a twenty something year old woman in yoga pants and a tank top and her hair in a bun with a Lululemon bag and pushing stroller and a teenage guy on one of those electric scooters you’re seeing more these days, his brown hair in that broccoli haircut you see Gen Z sporting all the time.  I wonder if these people are tourists or locals.

We both get into the car and I turn it on, I pay whatever you need on the parking meter, and Nicole enters the information onto the car’s Google Maps display, and then we start to make our way onto the 10 freeway to make our trek out there. Google saying we should arrive 1:30ish, hopefully. 

I hook my Bluetooth up to the car’s infotainment system and I notice Nicole rolls her eyes, not wanting to hear whatever type of music she thinks I’m about to play. I say “If I gotta drive roughly two hours and half straight, even though it’s not that long, I don’t wanna listen to the radio the whole time”.

I go onto podcasts, and I look into Jack Cooper, and he has his own podcast series and everything he made during the pandemic that has somewhat of a following that gets somewhat talked about, getting a few celebrities here and there like Jonah Hill or Devon Sawa, or a comedian like Bill Burr or Demetri Martin. No-one like, A-lister Hollywood level but a decent amount of recognizable names.  He seems to just talk about topics more than inviting people on his podcast to converse with him. But I look at his Joe Rogan Experience podcast episodes instead, his latest one being in the fall of 2022.  He’s gone on there a few times, the first time being in 2015 and the next times in 2018 and 2021. 

I press the button for the October of 2022 episode, and it starts up. 

As I drive down the 10 freeway, all the Teslas and Corollas and Camrys around us. It seems like Priuses aren’t as big as they used to be as I remembered when I lived out here a little more towards the end of my college years. As we get deeper into LA, nearly passing by downtown. Seemingly where the worst of the homeless encampments are and it’s seemingly grown up a lot since the last time I’ve been out there.

“But yeah it’s crazy how the years have passed by. So, Jack. How do you feel about the movie “One Inch” now that about ehhh, 10 years I think have passed this spring” Joe Rogan says, he can hear him shifting around in his chair a little.

“I think it’s a decent movie, still. Made good money at the box office, got all the little details right, like “That 70’s Show” playing on TV when I’m looking for tickets to fly back home on the computer, and when I first go back into the house all the smoke from the food being cooked and “Two and Half Men” playing on TV in the front room, “Ends Tonight” by All American Rejects playing on the radio when I’m being driven home by my sister from the airport in Madison. That 70’s Show was kinda funny I guess since Ashton Kutcher played Dave, my roommate. A lot of details like that I made sure they got right. God bless Emma Stone and Dakota Fanning, which you know Emma played my girlfriend and Dakota played my sister. And as pretty much everyone knows and was one of the main allures for the movie, they swallowed me for real for some shots and had me wear a miniature camera and used CGI to put Shia, Shia LaBeouf in.  The CGI was okay I guess looking back, for 2012 standards and I remember that Avengers movie had us beat for sure. That was a major thing critics nitpicked at. And they had to do these shoots on a empty stomach for a few hours or whatever for my case to make it easier and safer for me to film, maybe there would be a couple of chewed up carrots or cookies or brownies or whatever from the catering company that was on set. Craft Services or whatever the fuck it’s called. Nothing too heavy that would cause too much commotion for digestion to stir me up and possibly damage the camera I had on my head. I still honestly appreciate those girls for going through it and being totally up for the filming in there” Jack says, you can hear him scratch his stubble a little bit during the conversation.

“Yeah the fact you actually literally filmed inside their stomach’s for footage for scenes is pretty hard core. So how did they get you out?  I know nature’s way isn’t ideal for like, either of you” Rogan starts off, you can hear Jamie stifling his laughter a little in the background.

“Oh no yeah no no we did the vomit route. Damaged the cameras less that way” Jack says.

I notice Nicole seems a little grossed out when they talk about this, noticing by her facial expressions. I chuckle a little, in my mind internally knowing that it’s much more grosser when you had to go through something like that like I did.

“So, about Shia. Do you still talk and hang out with him like you used to” Rogan starts.

“Y’know, we did hang out a little when he was trying to get to know me and get all of my mannerisms and personality down. Dude is a damn good actor, I will say. This was like early 2011 before filming had really started and he met my family and the real Chris and Annie and etcetera. It’s kinda funny too since I had to take a detour to get to work in real life one time, since they were filming Transformers not too far from where I lived to get to work one time, before I shrunk and everything. So I remember we joked about that a little. We talked a little bit after the movie and all the press stuff and the movie premieres going from the US to Europe and Asia and Australia and all that circus handling nonsense that comes with movies about people, and this is one of those movies like“15:17 to Paris” with those American military guys and stopping that terrorist attack on a train in France and 8 Mile and 50 Cent’s “Get Rich or Die Trying” where the person that the movie’s about actually play themselves so that brings a lot of interest even though it was just me kinda in the stomach shots and Shia was mainly playing me, plus this whole situation with me being shrunk and everything and how the public eye was still wowed by that. Everybody wanted me on their talk shows or guest star on some stupid kids show like iCarly like I did one time or fuckin’, Sesame Street or go up to some cartoon studio out in Burbank and do voice work for some wacky one inch tall guest character on Spongebob or Adventure Time or Phineas and Ferb like I did when I’ve gotten offers for guest staring roles during that period. And he sympathized and understood how exhausting it could get doing this shit, so that’s where our friendship kinda stemmed from. Now after all the movie stuff, around 2014-2015 when things started dying down or so we kinda stopped talking, and I haven’t really talked to him really since the “I am Not Famous Anymore” paper bag stunt in Berlin at that Film Festival thing. So right before we went off the deep end with all this “He will not divide us”  stuff and how it’s been all downhill pretty much since then and is still going downhill till this day. I cut contact with him before all this shit went down. I will say Honey Boy was an interesting movie, showing his struggles and upbringing and stuff. I saw that a few years ago” Jack says.

“Yeah, your movie kinda has a representation of now of the last Shia LaBeouf movie that was pretty huge before he went off the deep end. But do you like not being as, I don’t wanna say famous since you’re still pretty well known. But it’s not like how it was for you in 2007 to roughly, 2015-2016ish I wanna say. I guess guys like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos kinda took up the spotlight you had with their wealth and Elon’s technology ideas and the like being the big thing everyone was kinda looking at” Rogan says.

“It has its perks, I’m still like, a inch and a half sized man and all oddities that come with that when on the street and hanging out with my normal sized wife. I’m used to it now, y’know, being 16 years next year since all that stuff went down” Jack says, coughing a little bit during this.

The rest of the podcast as I drive down the 10 is pretty much just conversations about opinions on things like politics and California (Despite Joe now living in Texas) and it’s issues with costs and homelessness and current events of the time and the day to day life of Jack Cooper, which is pretty mundane if he’s not out doing Tony Robbins style seminars at company picnics or the occasional college or high school commencement speeches if  he gets reached out by some school. Typical Joe Rogan conversational topics. The LA skyline and the mountains and palm trees and the mountain in the background from my view on the freeway being a pleasant to look at on this drive, as we go through LA proper and head more towards the San Gabriel Valley. 

It’s pretty quiet during our drive, nothing but the sound of the podcast and Nicole being asleep, laying on the window a little bit. As it’s kinda cool driving through LA, and driving through areas I’ve never really been through the San Gabriel Valley besides Pasadena and Glendale. Alhambra and Monterey Park once with Molly to go check out a Asian food place when she was visiting that she heard about from a friend in New York from the area and wanted to go and try, and the Inland-Empire and it’s cities that I’ve never been through it before and didn’t have a reason to go and check out while I was living in Southern California, the landscapes changing a little as I go more into the Inland-Empire and drive through cities like El Monte and Citrus and San Dimas, the landscape changing more as I drive through it more mountains and hills becoming more present in the background and the ground looking more desert-y compared to all the grass and palm trees in LA and the SGV. Mostly suburban areas and their shops and restaurants and fast food places and grocery stores and schools and hospitals that I see off the overpasses and freeways, Costco really is pretty much everywhere in Los Angeles. I pass through San Bernardino and that takes us into the mountains where people seemingly ski and camp out at and the like, seemingly signaling that we don’t have too far to go, and traffic has actually been pretty good and no slow-ups or nothing as we went through LA and during this trip. I still feel pretty good, but after all two hours and some change isn’t exactly a long drive either. 

We go through all the twists and turns and all the roads to make our way up to the area. I feel a little nauseous doing it all but it seems like Nicole is still sound asleep during all of this.

We finally make it to Big Bear, the town while passing through a couple of little towns in the mountains, The podcast still going strong and our directions on Google Maps leading us to our resort in the town, I wake my wife up as soon as I park into a spot near the entrance. Shaking her shoulder a little, she wakes up a little bit after a do so.

“You missed a lot of good views being asleep, y’know. The Mountains and the trees from the road the way, it was Instagram worthy” I say, giving her a toothy smile.

“I guess so, huh” she says, as she starts unbuckling her seatbelt.

We arrived at about 1:45 in the afternoon, not bad time. We get up in our resort room checking a little early and everything and getting keys, not too far from the lake or anything like that. 

Once we get settled in I honestly take a nap, not waking up until sometime in the evening, around 6 o’clock. My wife seeming exploring the town a little while I’m sleeping, saying it’s a nice little mountain town with shops and restaurants and stuff to do that’s not super outdoorsy. She telling me this while I’m in bed not too long after I wake up, I don’t really feel like responding and I raise my right arm all the way up and give her a thumbs up, she finds this amusing.

“Why are you so tired? You only drove two hours” she says, fiddling with the TV remote and changing channels.

“I don’t know, I guess driving long-ish like that just makes me wanna sleep when I’m done, not stretching my legs or anything like that. I guess I’m getting older I don’t know” I say, with legit uncertainty at the end.

The rest of the evening is pretty boring and we get in contact with my mom and talk to my daughter a little bit, I just lay around in bed and watch movies on the movie channels we’ve got and we order Mountain Mike’s Pizza and get it delivered to our room, Mountain Mikes Pizza Nicole wanted to try, since it’s a chain we don’t have back in Georgia. I don’t think I’ve ever had it either, now I think about it whenever I did get pizza in Los Angeles. Sticking to national chains like Pizza Hut or Dominos or whatever.  The pizza we had was not bad and pretty good, with some salad and Mozzarella sticks along with it as well.

I promise Nicole I’ll go out and explore the town and the resort with her tomorrow, right before I go to bed at around 11 that night.

Might as well enjoy this calm resort mountain town while I’m away from the hustle and bustle of the city, right?

Friday, March 24th 2023. 

I wake up, these last few days I haven’t really been up to much. Just generally looking around the area with Nicole and getting in that California sunshine and fresh air and enjoying the nature around us, although it’s been a bit colder up here compared to LA. Me and Nicole layering up a bit more when going out. I honestly forget I’m up here to really think about what I really wanna do with my career and the like. Something I don’t remember until I wake up this morning, one of the first thoughts that pop up in my head. I think about where my dad was at my age, thirty six going on thirty seven. Successful 80’s Baltimore Lawyer and me, successful but not as fulfilled as he was, at least I imagined. I was always one of the high scoring kids in school, honors classes in high school and pretty much A’s and B’s in classes and whatever, without even trying. I didn’t really act like a hotshot or a “egghead” or whatever you wanna say, but I feel like my parents wanted me to take more pride in my school work and grades than acting pretty much nonchalantly about it and treating it as if it was no big deal. I guess this attitude of not really caring about decisions like school and just doing it to do it lead into my college years and the fact I became a lawyer because dad was and it makes good money and it’s a great career and I’m a smart kid and blah blah blah, stuff my parents told me throughout my school years at least since middle school. I guess I’ve finally realized that I’ve been kinda coasting on that and not really making too many major decisions for myself that involves my career, and I guess that’s something I didn’t really realize until Thanksgiving of last year.

That Thanksgiving being about fourteen years since I got drunk at Thanksgiving, something that my mom brought up to me once Alexis was out of the room, I remember feeling super embarrassed about that, and Nicole thought it was funny more than anything, something I actually have never told her about. Me hitting the Jack Daniels pretty hard that day and just straight up drinking out the bottle and my dad and my brother telling me to slow down on it for today since it’s Thanksgiving. Day Drinking and all. I’ll admit, I drank a little bit more that year to curb my feelings about the breakup I had earlier that year with Molly. Who I guess you could call my High School sweetheart and we’d been together all through high school and pretty much all of college. My first and pretty much only girlfriend and we were together about eight years. And the reason we broke up was mostly due to me, becoming really career focused in the last few months before graduation and not really staying in touch with Molly and having her always initiate conversations, whether that be calling me or conversing with me through Facebook, something we had just got during that time. And she called me out on it one day on the phone about a week before graduation and it got ugly and I wished I didn’t get so defensive about it, and we ended things over it. Something I really started to regret doing about three months into it, that following August not too long after coming back to Charlotte after graduation.  And this led to me around dinner time at 2pm getting super drunk and dialing her number and wishing her a happy Thanksgiving, my mom being furious, my dad and uncles and my brother finding it kinda funny but pretty sad as told by my younger brother later on. I realized I had a problem and slowly started sobering up, it was a little easier  for me since I wasn’t that heavily alcohol dependent plus I’ve only been doing it for a few months. 

I realize I’m super deep in thought and I’m still in bed, I slouch up, putting my warm back against the kinda cold backboard of my bed. My spine hurts a little laying on the wooden backboard.

I notice Nicole is still sleeping, but it’s light out outside. I grab my phone and take it off of the charger, it buzzes and shows that it’s 100% fully charged. The time is 8:47am, about thirteen minutes to 9. I put my phone down, and do a pretty big loud-ish yawn. I wonder what Nicole wants to do today, I guess just go on another nature walk but I’m kinda starting to regret making Big Bear our little getaway. I’m more of a fan of the beaches like I used to go to with friends in Orange County and little bit in L.A. proper than forest areas and just a huge lake. No snow anyways, it seems like that’s something that might have made this trip a bit more interesting with the ski-slopes and stuff you see around the area, but it’s out of season plus the surprise snow that Southern California had gotten not too long ago had all dried up. All to clear my mind anyways.

I get out of bed, and to the bathroom and do my business and take a shower and brush my teeth. As I shower I hear Nicole get up as well, judging by the sound of the TV turning on and her ripping ass, seemingly her stomach is still bothered by that Chinese food we had yesterday that upset her stomach a little bit. I crack up a little at this, she usually tries to hide that from me. I remember one time, when she was pregnant with Alexis she was craving Krystal burgers a lot, seemingly the south’s answer to White Castle. I think there was a few in Charlotte at one point, but they all closed down.  And I’d remember she’d eat like, 20 cheese sliders out of a 24 pack in one sitting and belch up a storm and was all gassy. Which I found kinda amusing since she was the type of girl to not really do that type of stuff around me, which I didn’t care much either way since we were well beyond past that part of “being uncomfortable to do bodily functions around my significant other” part anyways, being married a few years and all.  I’ll get them every now and then and if Nicole is up for it I’ll get a 24 pack for the family. I’m not a huge slider guy, I didn’t really enjoy White Castle that much either when I was on the east coast whenever she’d take me there or eat out there with her friends. My daughter doesn’t seem to like it very much either, she’s more of a Bojangles girl when it comes down to fast food. Which is something I joke about that she gets from me. 

I walk out of the bathroom after showering and freshening up, with a pair of boxers on, feeling water droplets on my back and chest and it getting intertwined with my chest hair. 

“I can hear that General Tso is seemingly winning the battle in there” I joke, pointing towards her slouched toned stomach as she lays on the head rest a little, you can kinda see the definition of her slight abs a little in the skinny sheet. 

“Tell me about it” she says, hiccuping and then turning on her side. 

I begin to get dressed, putting on a pair of blue jeans and a “The 1975” t-shirt. My wife jokes that band tees and concert tees is how I’ve been dressing in my free-time the entire time she’s known me. Which she wouldn’t be wrong, and a few long time friends like Jon and Richie and my younger brother Nate have picked up on this as well too. I mean, it’s my style. 

“So, do you wanna do anything this morning or you wanna lay in bed all day. It’s (I pull my my phone out of my pocket to see the time) 9:24 right now. I feel like maybe going and getting some pancakes, there’s a Denny’s not too far from us” I say.

“I’m not feeling too (she stifles a burp, seemingly able to control it this time) good, I don't know what was in that General Tso but whatever it was set my stomach off. You don’t have to get me anything if you go out to get something to eat. I’ll call you if I want something’” she says as she starts to lay flat in the bed, pulling the sheets over her head a little bit.

“Alright then, you want me to bring you back some 7-up or some Alka-Seltzer tablets or something. Or you don’t think it’s not that serious  I say, as I begin to walk over to my nightstand and grab my car keys off of it.

Nicole’s stomach gurgles pretty loudly under the sheets, sounding like a rushing gurgling sound a little, sounding as if the contents of her stomach had started to empty into her intestines. Hearing that sound makes me feel like I’m flashbacked to when I was eighteen and stuck inside the belly of a 30 year old German women. I’ve never told anybody besides Alex and the people that knew I was shrunk and everything back then about my experience, not even my wife or kid or any family. 

“So uh, I’m guessing that’s a yes?” I say.

“No, I’m fine Matt. That didn’t hurt or anything. Again, I’ll call you if I need something” she says.

“Alright, suit yourself. Love you” I say, as I make my way towards the door.

I go out the door and into the hallway, I hum “Brimful of Asha”  by Cornershop. A song I remember being introduced to by Alex over Myspace way back when. Another British song that I didn't really know about until Alex introduced me to him. 

“Everybody Needs a Bosom for a Pillow, everybody needs a Bosom” I say one of the lyrics to myself as I walk down the hallway, a little too loud I quickly realize and I quickly go quiet. 

I get to where the elevator is and I press the button and the door opens, and I quickly walk in.

I notice the song “Quiet Little Voices” by We Were Promised Jetpacks is playing faintly inside, I almost whip out my phone to Shazam it but I realize it last minute what it is. One of the many late 2000s Indie bands that I’ve forgotten about over time, like Black Kids and Hot Hot Heat. I feel a little bit nostalgic for that time, despite the breakup and how I handled that. Being fresh out of college and the thrill of never having to go to school ever again for real this time, plus discovering bands like I’ve just mentioned and going to concerts and being single for the first time in awhile and getting back in touch and hanging out with friends from my school years in Baltimore that I only talked to on Myspace rarely. And of course, first meeting my wife.

I get to the bottom floor and walk through the lobby and out into the parking lot, getting out to my car. The hotel mostly consists of tourists from Southern California judging by the license plate holders from car dealerships in Temecula or San Diego or Glendale, not really too many out of staters I’ve noticed, besides those from nearby states like Nevada or Arizona. 

I press the unlock button on my key fob, and I open my car door and get in. I press the start button and the car starts up, and I quickly go from the radio to my Bluetooth settings, some local pop station playing “Closer” by The Chainsmokers, not bad for a modern pop song I’d say and was all over the airwaves in 2016, that much I do remember when I did hear a little bit of it. I haven’t really relied on the radio as my main source of music when out and about, since probably 2005. When I went to some car audio installer place out in Northridge up in the San Fernando Valley that one of my classmates told me about, saying I could get a CD player installed for cheap. I didn’t wanna mess around with the hassle of cassette tapes and rewinding and all that shit  and finding cassette tapes for newer bands that didn’t really seemingly have any. So I mainly listened to the radio then.

I connect my Spotify to it, and it automatically turns on my playlist. It’s simply called “Melloncollie and The Evergrowing Playlist”, a name I made for it during the pandemic, after it being called simply just “music” for about six years by that point. I’ve got about well over a thousand songs on it, mostly from rock bands of mostly the indie/alternative genre that I’ve always loved or discovered throughout the years. With some more rap or R&B songs by Tupac or Biggie or A Tribe Called Quest or TLC or Destiny's Child from the nineties that my wife put me on and plus a few songs I’ve heard over the years and have grown to like like OutKasts’s music and Terror Squad, Nas and a few Eminem songs and N.E.R.D. I used to kinda like Kanye’s work in the mid and late 2000s but he’s gone off the deep end wayy too much as a person for me to enjoy it anymore, especially in recent times. There’s a few rappers like Kendrick Lamar or Tyler The Creator or Donald Glover that have gotten big in this past decade as well that have songs I do like and have been introduced to by Richie, giving me recommendations through Instagram. Kid Cudi is probably my favorite rap artist and has the most songs from various albums that I do like scattered around on my playlist. Hearing Day N Nite way back in 2009 when he first got big and being hooked on it. Probably the only Rap album that I’ve ever bought, Man on The Moon: End of Day. Around the same time that Molly went missing, and not too long after the album’s release. There’s a few nu-metal songs I’ve grown to like by bands like Linkin Park or Alien Ant Farm, being introduced to them via my younger brother. Alien Ant Farm especially, I feel like they’re not as screamy and I can get down to them. There’s pop songs that have grown on me, like Taylor Swift’s earlier stuff that was coming out in 2009-2014 or the Spice Girls, although most of the pop stuff are mostly guilty pleasures, my wife teases me about this occasionally when she hears it. I don’t really care much for the Soundcloud and Trap House, Emo rap stuff all the kids seem to be into these days these past few years. 

The song starts up, it being “Walking on a Dream” by Empire of the Sun. I smile to myself, another indie song from the late 2000s. I pull out my phone and look up directions to Denny’s, and I quickly realize it’s only a 10 minute drive roughly down the street, all the restaurants and stuff being pretty centralized in this kinda tourist town. I back out of my space and get out of the parking lot and turn onto the road, it seemingly empty enough for me to cut across a few lanes of traffic to get to the opposite lane without trying to wait for traffic to pass. 

The song ends and then switches to No Tomorrow by Olson, a song by a rock band I heard at a college party back in 2006 at UCLA, the band being more of a hit in the UK despite being American.This I’ve been told by Alex when I showed him this song back in 2006, the same party I brought Jon to when he visited me during college, him really digging Los Angeles and everything and actually thinking that he wanted to move to the area. He visited me that September, wanting that January but couldn’t make it due to something going on in his family, I think someone was moving in his family.

I drive down the street and head into town, shops and restaurants and more people in this little mountain town. Ads are now playing, I’ve been pretty much been using free Spotify for years, I don’t really care about getting premium or whatever,  even though it feels like Spotify wants me to, judging by all the ads I get for it during the ad breaks. I see the Denny’s and I turn into it’s parking lot. It seems kinda busy, it’s only 9:45 in the morning and I guess everyone’s hungry to get something to eat with the family before starting their day off or their last meal before they head back to wherever they came from, usually somewhere in Southern California.

I reverse park into a spot and stop and turn the car off. The song “Take Me Home” by Phil Collins starting up. A song they played at his funeral that he requested while on his deathbed. Dad was a huge Phill Collins and Genesis fan, I remember hearing a lot of his songs growing up due to dad playing them around the house or in the car. A feeling of sadness comes over me once I realize this but I focus my mind on the fact I’m back in California after all these years away.  I do reverse park more now in recent years due to backup cameras being much more prominent even in newer cars these days. Before I got a car with a backup camera in it I usually only did it if I had a clear shot of doing it, enough space to do so cleanly and not too many cars around. 

I get out and walk towards the restaurant, the cool breeze outside making me feel chilly on my arms as I walk.  Plus the earthy smell of the trees and grass and outside in general just filling my senses, the sounds of cars rushing by is also something that really stands out in my mind. 

I open the door, a Hispanic family walks out and I hold the door open for them as they are walking out, the adults thank me, the kids seem pretty focused on their phone to say anything. I ignore this. I walk in and see there’s a bit of a line, and I figure I’ll just stay. I sit on the waiting seats. There’s a middle aged man and wife ahead of me, the man is wearing a leather jacket and some cargo pants and those generic “dad shoes” you see men of his age wearing all the time. Some Nike Air Maxes. His wife is in a puffy green  Nike jacket and leggings, it seems.

“Nice shirt. My son loves that band” he says, smiling at me.

“Thanks, I’ve been following them for a few years now” I say, giving a weak smile back.

“Yeah, I’ve been trying to keep up with music these few years. I kinda lost interest some time back in the 90s after Cobain offed himself, nearly thirty years ago, crazily” the man says.

“Yeah, I remember being in school when that happened, I mean I was like eight, so 3rd grade or so. But yeah” I say.

“Ha, you barely remember it then. I was roughly twenty two when that all went down” He says, chuckling a little after that. It annoys me a little when he says this, but I let it slide. 

“I guess so” I say, a little sharply.

“So, are you from the area?  Or are you vacationing just like me and my wife are” the man says, his wife looks up from her phone a little when he says “wife” and then she goes back to looking at it.

“No, I’m from Atlanta. I’m visiting from out here with my wife. She wasn’t feeling too good so she stayed at the hotel, not really in the mood for eating she said. I lived in LA during my college years and I had a bit of longing for southern California, even though it’s changed a bit since I left in 2008” I say.

“Y’know I went to Atlanta once back in '95, stopping there for the night once when I moved back up to Grand Rapid. Big city, bad traffic even back then. You don’t really sound southern, but granted this younger generation doesn’t really have accents like in the past” he says.

“Well, I’m originally from Baltimore, I spent my high school years in Charlotte. So I’m southern-ish, I’d say. Besides, how young do you think I am? I’m 36 going on 37, dude” I say, and he laughs a little at this.

“Well when you’re my age, fifty one you’ll see how young thirty seven seems. The 1975 shirt and the lack of facial hair made me think you were like, only thirty or something. You’ll age well , at least. Unless this piece of shit you’re staring at right, it’s like everyday I’m finding a grey hair whenever I comb” he says, scratching his beard a bit.

“Language, Tony” his wife says, still not looking up from her phone.

Before Tony can say anything, a server comes up to them and asks them how many people is in their party.

“Uhhh, (he looks back at me). You wanna join us, I’ll pay for your food. Me and my wife don’t mind having a little company” Tony says.

“Yeah, sure” I say without missing a beat, because hey, free food is free food. 

“Party of three” He says, and the waitress leads us through the restaurant.

We get a booth side, and the restaurant is pretty lively with people and couples and families and friends and tour groups and conversations and stories being told and laughter going on as we walk through all the commotion. 

The waitress sits us down at a booth near a window, Tony saying something about wanting to see his car as he eats. She starts us off with drinks, Tony and his wife getting Coffee and I get water. 

“So, what’s your name?” Tony says, reaching out his hand.

“Matt, Matt Poindexter” I say, reaching out mine and we shake. I feel a little weird shaking his hand, not like I’ve been infected with a sickness but more like, there’s something running through the both of us, we both react a little.

“Damn, I think we shocked each other” me and him and his wife laugh a little about this.

“Yeah something like that. I know your name is Tony…” I say before he finishes it.

“Smith, Smith’s my last name” He says.

“Yeah, yeah and how about you miss” I say, and I take a sip of my Ice water.

“Erica, I’m Erica” she says, with a warm and welcoming smile.

“Nice meeting both of you guys” I say.

About thirty seconds of silence comes between us and I decide to fill the air with conversation again.

“Denny’s, I haven’t been in here in awhile” I say. 

“Y’know, I run a Denny’s franchise out in Michigan, Been doing it for a little over twenty years now” he says.

“A bit of a Busman’s Holiday eating here huh?” I say, smiling.

“That’s more of a British term, but yeah. I guess so, besides California is the home of Denny’s anyways. My wife and I always wanted to come more out west, really only going to Orlando with the kids for Disney World as they were growing up and trips to Dallas to meet my adopted family, and most of our kids are out the house we figured why not, originally we wanted to go in 2020 but the pandemic ruined all that. We didn’t really go much anywhere else really besides Chicago or Detroit either which neither wasn’t really that far away and was more of a weekend trip to go do something sort of deal. My youngest one is 17 and he’s visiting his girlfriend’s extended family in Columbus on her mom’s side for spring break. Erica went to California back in the eighties to San Francisco with her family as a teen, but that was so long ago ” he says, and our waitress comes back and asks us if we’re ready to order. 

We order our food, I get a Grand Slam and Tony gets a cheeseburger with a side of fries and a small stack of pancakes, his wife gets a ham and cheese omelet. And then we continue our conversation.

"So, what do you do?” Tony says to me, as our waitress goes off with our orders.

“Lawyer. I’m a Lawyer. Although, I’m thinking of a career change though, I will say. Long story short, dad was a lawyer, kinda got groomed to be a lawyer, became a lawyer, dad died in 2021, 15 years in now and I’m starting to wonder if this is something I really wanna do with my life, and what career should I take up instead. Which is why I’m out here to really reflect on my life and what choices I should make and stuff. I think nature is a good way to kinda get in touch with thoughts like that, and I wanted to come back to California and I remember a few people talking about Big Bear when I lived out in L.A. and that came back to me when I when I started putting things into motion to come out here, and here I am right now” I say.

“I see what you mean. I went through a similar thing around the time I turned thirty and Erica was pregnant with my oldest daughter, Francine.  Although this wasn’t as deep and present throughout my life as yours is. Mostly about me feeling like I should be doing more at that age than I currently was, even though I was running a restaurant and making decent money doing so, plus with my wife being a decently paid nurse and everything we were making good money, even back in like 2001-2002 when prices were a bit cheaper than they are today. I hope you find your answer, I remember bringing this up to Roger. This retired Navy Line cook I used to hang out with during those years, was like in his sixties then. And I remember he told me that 30 is still pretty young and that I’ve got a long ways to go, and he told me to reflect on my life, doing better for someone who was orphaned at  a young age and now has a place to stay, a good job and a crew that appreciates and respects me, and a wife that loves me. And I guess his advice stuck with me a little. I’m not too sure what to tell you, but I hope you find your answer after this trip” Tony says, his wife smiling and nodding as well too.

“You see that Camaro out there?” He says, pointing towards the window, into the parking lot.

I look out the booth window, and I see a dark blue newer Camaro parked near the back and I see a younger black couple in their twenties getting into it, laughing it up and smiling and talking about this Kayaking mishap that happened yesterday, although it’s a bit muffled through the window glass.

“Yeah, what about it?” I say, wondering where this conversation might lead. 

“I’ve got that exact same model back in Michigan. 2022 LT1, ruby red convertible that I bought right off of the showroom floor. Thought I’d finance one for turning the big 5-0, last year. Before that I had a jet black 2008 Ford Mustang V6 coupe that I bought new and had for about 14 years. I gave that one to my youngest son, who got his license not long after I got the Camaro.  My wife really knows this but back around the time I was going through that “crisis” we’ll say that I told you a little earlier about, I started thinking about getting a new car. I had a ‘86 Firebird before I had this Toyota, and I haven't had the Toyota for long either. And I started thinking about the nineties and how I felt more, “free” we’ll say. And I felt like getting another Firebird would maybe help my feelings out since they were still making them then and Ponitac was still around, this was in 2002 . Erica heavily convinced me not to, since we wanted to save up for the house and Francine was a baby and it wouldn’t be a good financial decision at this point, and she was right and I didn’t go through with anything. I remember driving past a Ford Dealership in town on my way to Roger’s house to hang out and I remember seeing this line of brand new Mustangs on the lot, this bright yellow brand new 2003 Ford Mustang on that captured my heart for a bit. Didn’t get it though, and I already told you about the 2008 since even with the kids our finances had gotten a bit better and my pay was steadily increasing and her pay as a nurse was a bit better and it’s been slowly increasing over the years. But yeah, since then I’ve been a bit into muscle cars since they represent a more fun time in my life looking back” he says.

“Yeah I had a friend in High School in Charlotte, Richie. Guy was a Military Brat. I remember he had a bright red 1999 Mustang, he worked up for one and bought it when he was 17 and had money saved up from cutting lawns in the neighborhood and stuff saving up for one even back in middle school ,with his parents helping out a little as well since these cars were still kinda new then. He would give me and my friend Jon rides in it occasionally if we were hanging out, Jon was in the back seat since he was shorter, he would always complain that he was cramped, since these cars aren’t really for people moving. He still has the same exact Mustang too, it’s got about 130k miles on it now, which is pretty good for a little over twenty years of ownership. He brought it with him to Germany when got deployed and back and everything. I think he has a 2014 GT he bought brand new with the money he got while being in the Army once he came back to Charlotte after getting Honorably Discharged after” I say, and I notice that there’s our waitress lady coming out with our food.

She gives our food and we start to eat, it’s pretty good and we enjoy our meal. I notice that Tony and Erica pray over their food first before eating it, and I join in too just to be polite. I’m not really religious but my wife is to some extent and we’ll go to church with our daughter occasionally on Sunday and the like. 

We finish our food in about 30 minutes, all of us seemingly pretty hungry. No-one has any leftovers I noticed.

“Y’know, I guess I’m as still into music like you’re into cars. I always into alt-rock bands growing up, The Smashing Pumpkins being my gateway band and seeing the “Bullet With Butterfly Wings”music video on MTV and that opening up a whole new world of music to me, besides the Phill Collins stuff that my dad would listen to and the pop stuff I’d hear. I had a friend a few years older than me, Alex. Who’s still my friend and we first met online in the early 2000s when I was in my teen years, in a AIM chatroom for The Strokes and then we started talking on Myspace when that started to pop off a bit more. And he was from England and I went to visit him the summer after I graduated in 2004 and I was eighteen and everything. Some stuff happened there and I became a lot closer to him and all the people I knew there, like his sister Emily and her friends, especially Sarah. The friends I had, during that time and whom I’m still in contact with, Jon and Richie. Jon being into the whole mall punk scene and Richie being a huge hiphop head and everything, and I guess music brought us together in that since as well” I say.

“Where are all these people these days, if you don’t mind me asking, since this was a little bit ago it seems” Erica says, seemingly finally joining in the conversation, she’s been mostly quiet between my interactions with Tony.

“Well, I’ll start off with Richie, who I'd argue is doing pretty good. He lives in Charlotte, and has no desire to leave. He’s a car salesman at a local Toyota dealership and makes well over six figures, he’s always had that charisma and was pretty good with people. He doesn’t have much of a life though, we’ll talk every now and then via Instagram, his wife and my wife are pretty good friends since they met back in 2009 when I brought her down to meet my parents and my high school friends. They talk more than me and Richie do I feel. He doesn’t have any kids or anything. Jon was always kinda a floater in life after high school, being into the biggest trends and shit like that, he got a job at UPS a later on or something that he made good money at and that kept him satisfied for a bit. He got into a bad wreck around Christmas time in 2011. Drunk driver T-boned him at an intersection going 30 over the limit. He recovered fully eventually  although he broke a lot of bones from all the debris flying around plus his car flipped a few times and landed in a nearby Burger King parking lot. Became a born again Christian during his recovery, met a girl at some church he started going to about five years later, got married, and how he’s a doting dad with a couple of toddlers and a youth pastor at a local church in the city. Alex, he married a Japanese lady he met online and moved to Japan in 2005. It was good for a few years, but things didn’t work out and he was back in the UK by 2010. He lives a pretty quiet life now, he lives in London now and has some sort of corporate office job, he doesn’t have kids or a wife or anything. He says he enjoys the bachelor life. He’s still into music and we’ll talk occasionally. I haven’t visited him since he moved back in 2010, my wife then at the time girlfriend didn’t go since he was afraid to fly, especially overseas. So she sat that one out, but I had a proper visit abroad that time.  His sister Emily is a stay at home mom now, and has been for awhile. Her then boyfriend now husband Jamie seemingly smartened up at finding out that she was pregnant and getting a job in the trades, a plumber I think. They make decent money and they still live in Manchester, their daughter’s in college now I think. I think she’s eighteen now and they finish school a little earlier over there. Now, Sarah, the friend and her husband Jonas. I do know they still live in Germany, and I do know Jonas is a engineer and they make good money and they have a 7 year old son. I haven’t really talked to them in thirteen years when I was in England and they came to visit. Most of this I’m taking off of Alex’s word from the last time I talked ” I say, and I notice the waitress comes by to seemingly take our plates away.

“Yeah, I get that. The girl I used to live with, which is my sister I guess, adopted family stuff. Kate, I keep in contact with her every now and then. And her kids grew up with my kids and etc and we’d visit each other every other summer if either of us weren’t doing anything. She’s a realtor in Dallas now, been one for about twenty years now. She got a divorce with her Husband in 2020 since their kids were well into their teen years and could handle it. I feel like her ex boyfriend before she was married that I was acquaintances with I guess we could say, I knew him for a bit. Brian, he’s actually the reason why I have a Camaro now since I remembered he had a IROC-Z back in the day and I started to fall in love with the new models that were coming out these days as well too. He lives in India now, and we got back in contact via Facebook over the pandemic and the last time I saw him was around Easter of 2001 when he randomly came to visit me passing through the area. How he got my address or knew I lived up here, I don’t know. I don’t think he was talking to Kate or anything. But yeah he’s the co-owner of a hostel, the main owner an older Australian man who’d been there since the nineties that he met on one of his journeys. This is in India somewhere in New Delhi and he seems content there. He spent most of the 2000s and a good chunk of the 2010s partying and having one night stands whenever he wasn’t doing dentist work, kinda losing control over his life. A lifestyle he slowly tapped into after being single for so long and he couldn’t control it after awhile. He looked at himself in the mirror one night and realized he looked horrible, compared to how he looked in the nineties. And that caused him to reevaluate his life and made him take trips to India, and he got into all this Buddhist and Hinduism stuff and it seemed like it made a difference in his life. And right before the pandemic hit, he sold all of his belongings and moved over there. He told me all of this on Facebook” He says, shifting around in his seat a little.

“Wow, that’s interesting” I say, before I take a last big swig of my water before I finish it off. 

Tony offers to give me his phone number, saying I seem like a cool guy and he would like to keep in touch with me. We exchange numbers, I notice he has an Android, they both have Samsungs Tony and Erica.

We get up, Tony leaves a tip and he goes up and pays for all of our meals, and we go our separate ways.

I drive back to the hotel, feeling good about the interaction I had today. I start to think if I might have over shared a bit, but nah. I don’t think so, it isn’t like I gave out their housing addresses or any of their personal issues.

I go back to the hotel and chill a bit, Nicole still laying in bed, she says she feels a little better but she’s not too hungry either. I pretty much just watch TV for a few hours, mostly movies though. Licorice Pizza is something that I wanted to see in theaters and I catch that on Showtime. I've been a huge fan of the A24 films that have been coming out these last few years, like Uncut Gems and Mid90s. The theaters have been mostly Marvel dominated and just superhero movies in general since 2016 I feel. My wife is a bigger fan of these Marvel movies than I am, they’re good but I would like more variety at the theaters. Although I’m noticing it’s starting to slow up with movies like Cocaine Bear and Air getting heavily advertised with their trailers, it seems like the movie companies are starting to trend back to more movies focused on normal movies instead of superhero blockbusters. 

Around 3 or so, I get a text from Tony if I wanna come hang out with him by the lake and he sends me the address. I text him back with a yeah. Usually I don’t hang out with people I just met too quickly, but he did seem like a nice and caring older guy,  and he seems like he’s lived an interesting life. 

I tell my wife that I’m going out to hang out with a friend I made while at Denny’s and she sounds a little confused at first, but she says okay. Saying something about how I usually don’t hang out with people I just met too quickly, but if I feel like I’ll be fine then it’s alright.

I drive down to the lake, and it’s a little crowded, but not too crowded I notice. I joke to myself if he wanted to kill me he sure as hell didn’t care about witnesses. 

I waves, he’s dressed in a long sleeve shirt and some shorts, and I walk towards him.

He says he wants to continue the conversation we had at Denny’s, his wife gone back at the hotel to take a nap after eating her food.

And we go to a place that is not as crowded, but there’s people around the beach laughing and talking and walking, and we sit in a some beach chairs and we talk a little. Mostly about the pandemic and how it sucked being inside all day and that it’s good to be out among people again. Politics comes up a little bit, with the Trump stuff coming up a bit more in the news but we don’t really have a full scale discussion and turn the conversation topic to something else. And a guy joins us, about thirty he says, and we shake hands with him. His name is Dave and he’s from San Francisco, a newly wed guy that’s up here for his honeymoon. 

As soon as my hand touches Dave’s hand, we all randomly shrink and, and it all feels like a blur before any of us can react. 

“Here We Go Again” Tony says, and we all look at each other with shock and surprise.

“BRO. WHAT. THE. FUCK.” says Dave sounding shocked and a little annoyed as well too in his tone, seemingly sounding as if him being shrunk was like accidently knocking over a glass of juice off of the table, and not some sort of life changing event. Dave’s a guy that I met literally a few minutes ago when he walked by, a mere stranger commenting on our conversation about how great the Southern California weather is this time of year compared to our respective states of Michigan and my Georgia. Him saying something about how Northern California is so much better compared to Southern California, seemingly joking around a bit. Tony invites him over to hangout with us for a bit, Tony is a pretty extroverted guy compared to me.

I look at my surroundings, us three standing in a sand hill, this whole area of the beach looks as huge as the other people in the background far in front of us look like giants and giantesses running around and laughing and taking pictures and all types of just general life going on. Although it seems like no one has noticed us shrinking, although we are a bit far from everyone else plus the fact that everyone seems so caught up in their phones or with their conversation or whatever else they’re doing to notice that we’ve shrunk. I worry a little bit about the seagulls swooping down and getting us, but luckily none haven’t yet at the moment. All of us are about a inch tall, if I had to guess. I feel a bit shorter than how I was nearly 19 years ago, during that whole saga. I notice the looks on the faces of Dave and Tony. Dave seems pretty annoyed judging by his facial expression, Tony seems to be somewhat shocked, but more as if he accidentally burned his hand under hot water, trying to test if it was hot or still lukewarm. These reactions I see on their faces make me wonder if this is something that isn’t all that shocking to them. 

“So uh, wow. This is uh, new” Tony says, scratching his beard a little. He kicks the sand around a little, playing with it.

“You’re tellin’ me” I say, I feel an awkward vibe between the three of us as soon as I finish what I say. As if someone really wants to say something but doesn’t really know how to say it. I get that vibe really heavy right now.

It’s really silent between the three of us for about a few minutes, us standing and looking at each other dumbfounded a little bit. Nothing but the sounds of the squawks of the seagulls in the air flying around and that mixed in with the sounds of the waves crashing in the nearby shore, and the sounds of people talking and laughing in the background, I hear some dude and his seemingly college aged group of  friends seemingly start up a speaker, playing “Celebration” by Post Malone, a rap song from these past few years that happened to catch my attention whenever it was big. Although the sound quality of this portable speaker is pretty shitty and bass boosted to all hell and skips a lot. 

“Does anyone have anything to say about the situation we’re currently in” Dave says, and I notice it turns a little bit into a Mexican standoff. 

“Fine, I’ll admit it. Since I guess this isn’t all that weird of a situation for me.  I’ve been shrunk before, if anything I was born this way. How I became a normal sized person is a story for another” Tony says, sounding pretty tense in his delivery of what he’s saying. 

“Yeah, similar situation happened to me back in my junior year of high school. About twelvish years ago” Says Dave, looking relieved as soon as he says it, taking a huge relaxing sigh after doing so. 

Tony and Dave both look at me, seemingly waiting for what I’m going to say next. I smile, and I begin to say something, but I stop myself. Even though they’ve been through the same things I have, even though in Tony’s case I wasn’t born that small or whatever. I don’t really know what their motives could be, or if this could be some type of F.B.I. trap to get me tested on or whatever. I know that last part sounds kinda paranoid, but I’ve only known these guys for roughly a couple of hours for Tony’s case, and Dave for only about a few minutes. So they could keep each other’s secrets, and then they could grow big and I’ll be small and they’d send me to the government or whatever, I know that’s a big what if but I’m honestly a little skeptical now. 

“We’re waiting” Tony says, playfully tapping his foot on the sand as if he was waiting for real. I was deep in thought and when he says this he snaps me out of it.

“Okay. (I hesitate for a little). Yes. I’ve been shrunk before. This was literally 19 years ago for about, two weeks. I was visiting Europe the summer after graduating high school, I wasn’t ever shrunk on American Soil or anything like that” I say.

“ “Shrunk on American Soil” We’re not cops dude (he chuckles a little ).I don’t know why you were so nervous to admit it. We’d all been through it. Us three and Jack Cooper. Although I’m sure everyone else who took those weird pills back in 2007, felt like they did. All those weird side effects and stuff, but nothing like us” Tony, chuckling a little before saying what he says. 

“I thought me and Jack Cooper was the only people on earth who’d been shrunk. That’s why I was so hesitant to admit I had with you guys since I thought no-one else on earth had ever done it, and with us meeting in Big Bear and everything it kinda felt like a setup with how all of this came to be. Even though it was like, 19 years ago this summer I still think about it from time to time. Even if I don’t think the government knows what went down way back then” I say, starting to relax a little bit. But still keeping my guard up in case I’m proven right. 

“Yeah, weirdest episode of X-Files this would be huh? So, I know I shrunk in the womb at some point before my birth due to some genetic thing, I think. I’ve never gotten really the full explanation how, my parents whenever it was mentioned just said stuff about God or whatever. So I really don’t know. What about you guys” Tony says.

“I honestly don’t remember, it’s been so long. It was around new years and it happened at random I feel. I think I woke up, and boom. There I am, shrunk in a chick’s room” Dave says, pushing his hair a little.

“Sounds like a dream situation for a 17 year old” says Tony.

“I guess so” Dave says.

“I think I ate some grass or something like that when I first landed in England as a stupid attempt to make a friend laugh, that’s what caused mine”  I say.

‘Bet you regretted that one” Dave says.

“Eh, as weird and crazy and hectic those two weeks in Europe were. I’m kinda nostalgic about it to be honest with you, since the time has really gone by and that feeling of being a bit more carefree and all I think about a bit more and it feeling like adventure. The summer of 2004. I remember when I got back from Europe my girlfriend and another friend at the time noticed that I was a bit quieter and more, stoic I guess you could say. I remember I started exercising a bit more to get my mind off the events of everything that happened in Europe, this was not too long before I left for college, sometime in August. I got a gym membership and everything, dropped a dumbbell on my foot not watching what I was doing, broke it. That made me realize that all the side effects of shrinking was gone, lack of injuring yourself and everything” I say, and then us three look behind us, noticing the college kids seemingly running and laughing towards us, and we start to run as well too, to avoid being stepped on.

Dave, Tony and I start running, and probably the fastest I probably ever have during my adult years. I notice Dave seems to be in the best shape out of all of us, although he has an age advantage with him being thirty and in really good shape it seems. Tony is behind me but he seemingly is keeping up pretty well too.

“HOLY SHIT WADE” I hear a booming female voice behind us and their laughter booming as well too, I don’t look back still.

We run a bit farther, and then we look back. The group of people, guys toned with their tan  and their swimming shorts. And the girls with their bikinis and their hairs flying around in the wind or tied into a ponytail. The portable speaker they’ve got with them is playing “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X as they bring it with them. The last huge song before the Pandemic hit that I can remember.

“Look, there’s a volleyball net right over there” Says a guy, beach blond hair and blue eyes and seemingly with abs and everything. You can tell he's probably about 23 or 24. He’s got a volleyball in his hand as well, although it looks pretty ragged and barely in shape to use. And he drops it on the ground and it rolls a little bit towards us, the dusty sand from the collision blowing back on us, knocking me back a little on the ground, but I get back up pretty quickly.

Dave, Tony, and I look at where we’re standing, and realize that the net that they’re talking about is still pretty close, and we run a little bit farther. I realize that we probably look like bugs at the size we are compared to them. So the thought of them realizing us and seeing us doesn’t really register as a possibility in my mind. 

We get far enough from the group, them seemingly setting up their lawn chairs and beach towels, and them laughing and talking and joking. Two Girls, Two Guys. I notice that one of their beach towels has the USC Trojans logo on it, probably the respective college of the group. 

“Alright, so who wants to start us off” One girl says, she’s in a gray bikini and a little bit sun tanned and has her jet black hair in a bun. She’s got a little bit of a husky voice. She’s got a decent figure, nice tits, and bit of an ass. A slight tummy, but seemingly more or the average size than anything else. I try not to let my thoughts wander too long, since I’m a married man and besides, this chick is 10+ years younger than me for sure. She’s probably 19 or 20 if I had to guess. 

“I might, after I go grab the White Claws from the back of the car” Says another guy, an Asian dude. He’s more of an average body type, not as ripped as the other guy I noticed. He sounds pretty Americanized, as if he’s grown up here and might be 2nd or third generation of whatever nationality he might be descended from.

“They’re probably lukewarm from being in the car from the drive from Irvine to up here, I think all the ice is gone” Says the blond guy.

“Alcohol is Alcohol, homie” He says, Blonde guy tosses him the keys to unlock the trunk as he begins to trot off to the car and more towards the crowd of people to get to the parking lot  . I think he was the guy who was holding the speaker earlier. 

The blond guy and husky voice girl and another girl who hasn’t really spoke yet laugh at what he says. 

“I bet it wouldn’t be that lukewarm if we didn’t have to go all the way to OC to pick up Kyla '' says the girl who hasn’t spoken yet. She’s a redheaded chick with a few freckles scattered around her legs and a little bit on her chest and torso, looks about 21 or 22 I’d say. She’s wearing shades and seems a little bit on the taller side for a chick, I’d guess 5’10 or 5’11. Because she looks even taller than Kyla, I wouldn’t be surprised if she played Volleyball for her school. She really towers over us for sure. I notice she has a silver navel piercing, the light from the sun’s reflection from her piercing coming not too far near us.

“Whatever, Michelle. At least I made it into UCI pretty easily, you had to get tutoring and everything your freshman year to keep going to USC. You barely made the requirements to even have a chance of getting accepted” Kyla says, with a bit of a mean looking smile. I notice she has retainers in, noticing the plastic gleam of her teeth.

“Let’s not start this right now girls, please” Says the blonde guy, annoyed. I notice he moves his Dogtag a little. You can hear the jangling sound of it as he moves it through the metal necklace.

“We’re just joking around Wade. Besides, it’s not like you and Jerry don’t do the same type of ribbing back in L.A.” Says Michelle, moving her hair out of her face from the wind that started blowing a little.

“Well I’ve known Jerry since like, 4th grade I mean we’re the only ones Socal Born and raised, besides Jeff out there getting the White Claws. Only reason Jerry didn’t come is because he wasn’t feeling too good, getting something about his sinuses he said.Plus he’s single and everything and he didn’t wanna feel like he was third wheeling us. Me and Jerry have history together, been friends for well over a decade. You girls have only known each other for a few months.  Let the relationship grow a bit and understand each other and stuff like that to be joking” Wade says, seeming putting a bit more bass in his voice when saying this. I notice Tony chuckles a little when he does this, us two watching these college kids’s interactions. I notice Dave seems to be looking at his phone, and checking all of his features to see if it still works. 

“You’re always acting like you’re so much more mature than us even though you’re only 24”says Kyla, her and Michelle laugh at this.

“Hey, you change a lot from 19 to 24. Final Semester of College and I feel like a whole different person than I did when I started. You can laugh, but it’s facts” He says, and I notice Jeff getting closer in the distance with the box of White Claws.

“Whatever, Old Man”  Kyla says with a playful smile.

“Back with the White Claws!” Says Jeff, sounding pretty pumped up, about ten steps away from the group.

“Hell yeah, let’s start up a game of Volleyball!” Kyla says, skipping around a little bit.

“I don’t why you’re so excited, it’s not you can legally drink yet anyways. You don’t even turn 19 until like what, June? Jeff just turned 21 last December anyways. You’re the only one who can’t legally drink yet” Says Wade, as he walks over to pick the volleyball up, which landed not too far from us.

Wade sprints over a little bit to grab the ball, and a little bit of sweat from his face gets onto us when reaching down to grab the ball, and it grosses us out, and you can smell the mix of sunscreen and aftershave mixed in it as well. I think he notices us down here for a second, but he must have dismissed us as bugs or something, judging by the fact that he doesn't really react or do much besides look at us.

The group seemingly gets ready to play pinball, although Jeff and Kyla seemingly just chill on one of the blankets, seemingly talking a bit. Jeff jokingly singing along to the song playing on the speaker, seemingly annoying Tony I notice, saying it’s the same type of shit that his kids listen to.

“I took the WOOOOOCKK. To Poland” Jeff says, and Kyla finds it a little funny. Although Wade and Michelle seem pretty intense into the game of volleyball,  both of them taking good shots and really putting their all into the game. 

“Let’s switch sides” says Wade, you can tell he’s been playing pretty hard with all the sweat on him and how it looks like he’s been sweating a little bit hard as well, his face looks pretty red.

Wade’s on our side, and they pause the game to switch sides, Wade going more towards the other side closer towards the rest of the lake beach area and where pretty much most people are and Michelle goes to our side where the beach starts to get more towards the end, we get a pretty good view of her back, ass and her thighs and legs, you can see the sweat especially gleaming on her lower back, and it’s freckled glory and all.

“She’s a redheaded beauty, I’ll say that much” says Dave, says, seemingly looking up from his phone for the first time during this whole Volleyball match.

“Really? On your Honeymoon” I jokingly say,

“Hey, you can still be married and still appreciate female beauty” he says, without missing a beat.

I notice that her and Wade play even harder now that the sides have switched, Michelle’s stomps and landings really making the ground beneath us shake a little, you can tell she’s really the athletic type, her and Wade. 

Wade does a pretty hard serve and sends Michelle running and diving onto us, and it all happens before all of us can even really react, although I notice that Dave puts his phone right back into his pocket before she started running, which is pretty much perfect timing on his part.

It’s a mix of sand, air and skin during this moment of time that I can feel and tell in the mix, all I see is pretty much just all corrupted by sand. I notice that none of us scream during this commotion, since I’m assuming that we all learned in our time being shrunk, reactions like that can get you caught in a situation like this. 

“Damn Girl, you landed pretty hard” I hear Wade's voice from distance, it’s dark, and sandy. I know we’re not in any crevices or anything like that. But I can feel the weight of Michelle’s body on us.

“I mean you fucking Missle-ed the ball, Wade. Goddamn, don’t do it that hard next time” She says, her voice sounding Muffled but also close.

“Yeah my bad babe” Wade says, his voice goes from muffled to pretty clear as Michelle gets up, and I notice that us three ended up right on her upper stomach,  among the sand as well. Us kinda sticking to it a bit with the mix of the sand and I guess the static cling of it all. Her navel piercing not too far below us and you can kinda hear the flutter of her heartbeat a little bit above us as well. Seemingly beating pretty fast I can tell due to all this activity that’s been going on. 

“Wanna White Claw to cool down with?” Says Kyla, as she breaks open the variety pack box, grabbing a raspberry one to drink, she opens it with a crisp sounding break of the tab, before starting to chug it. You can hear her burp a little bit as she continues to chug, seemingly the carbonation setting off her stomach a little as it lands in there.

I notice Wade opens his mouth to begin to say something, and then closes it and just starts walking a little bit into the distance.

“Yeah, I could use a hard seltzer. As we all know they TOTALLY replenish your electrolytes after a hard play” She says, joking around a little. She walks a bit more towards Kyla and Jeff, Jeff seemingly more focused on his phone. You can hear the noises of whatever he’s watching, sounds like a public freakout judging by the dialog. Seemingly having it connected still to the Speaker Via Bluetooth judging by the logo visible on the speaker.  Some road rage incident that’s a yelling match between some middle aged midwestern guy and some teenage kid.  A little bit of sand falls as she walks, although I think the sweat is what’s keeping us on her stomach.

Michelle walks over and Kyla asks her what flavor she wants, Michelle says Black Cherry. And Kyla reaches over into the box to grab her one, Michelle bending down a little bit when Kyla hands her one while still sitting on the Towel, making us slide a little but not off of her stomach,  right onto the middle of it, not too far from her navel.

Michelle leans back up, and I see her left hand reach out to break the tab of the Hard Seltzer, and crack it open.

“Hey, I think there’s something on your stomach” Jeff says, looking up from his phone. The sound of the tab of the can opening seemingly snapping him out of his trance of watching the video on his phone.

I notice that Michelle looks down, and notices us, and brushes us off somewhat softly, and it happens so quickly and we land in her can of White Claw. Splashing down a little on impact.

“I really hope she isn’t going to do what I think she’s about to do” Dave says.

“Let’s hope that she pours it out and gets another one, if she did see us” Tony says, splashing around a little, trying to get himself stable in the can. It overwhelmingly smells like metal, Black Cherry flavoring , and alcohol in here.  I notice their voices seemingly reflect off of the inside of the can, and it’s pretty dark in here besides the lighting from the opening shining in.

“I think those were bugs on your stomach that went in there” I can hear Jeff say on the outside, half muffled and half clear from the opening. 

“Eh, oh well. Extra protein I guess” She says. I notice Dave makes a disgusted sound that could be audible enough for Michelle to hear but me and Tony quickly put our hands over his mouth to muffle him. And he quickly does stop himself, I’ll give him credit for. 

“You’re so gross, Michelle” says Wade, a little in the background. 

She lifts up the can, and begins to sip it as we go closer and closer towards her open mouth.

She stops for a second, and then says, turning her head a little I notice, she also still has sand and stuff on her neck and everything I can tell.

“Wouldn’t wanna waste a whole can of White Claw” she says, as she turns her head back and begins to drink again. 

As we start to get closer toward her mouth and as we slowly get toward it, I realize that a trip to her stomach is imminent. I start to accept my fate, and I’m sure the others have similar thoughts in mind. I’m sure we’ll survive though, hopefully if things go how they did in the past. 

We shall see.

I feel the warmth of her open mouth radiating and the slight coolness of the White Claw sloshing behind us as we start to enter her mouth, seeming a little cavernous at our size, being and feeling even more shorter than we were when we were shrunk, at that’s how I feel compared to the experience I had in Europe. It feels like it’s taking forever to reach her mouth, but it’s much quicker than I think too.

 I look at Tony’s face as we wash towards Michelle’s mouth , and he doesn’t seem too shocked judging by his reaction. As if this was just another Friday for him, I feel like he has more to his time being shrunk, him telling us he was born this way so that leaves a open door for a lot of questions that I didn’t really think about asking, since I wasn’t focused on that at the time.  I notice Dave looks a little more frightful, in his reaction. He seems to look a bit more nervous compared to me and Tony. 

Before I can say anything we get whisked away into Michelle’s mouth, and it’s warm and damp, plus the lukewarm coolness of the hard seltzer contrasting with everything as well too. It’s kinda dark, with the light from her open mouth still drinking the White Claw peaking in. Her mouth is mostly just pink, with her teeth seemingly a little crooked but you can kinda tell that she might have worn braces or retainers at some point since they seem like they might be transitioning that way, since some of her other teeth seem more straightened. Her back molars I notice seemingly more on a yellowish white I noticed. I feel her swallowing muscles pulling me towards her throat, and Tony and Dave aren’t far behind either I notice behind me. I wonder if my swimming abilities are still pretty good, I don’t know how active Michelle’s stomach might be, although I’m sure the carbonation in this drink will surely set it off. 

I get pulled into the back of her mouth, going right under her uvula and I see her esophagus starting to open up, her swallowing muscles feeling stronger and stronger as I go down, and I go through the opening, and down her throat, it feeling a little bit tighter than I remember being in a throat being, I swear I had more space when I was in Emily and Sarah and especially that German woman, although my memory’s a little fuzzy now since it’s been nearly 19 years and I’ve grown a lot (pun unintended) since then and live events and the like.   

It feels dark and even more damp compared to her mouth as I travel through her throat, it smells like spit and Black Cherry flavoring as well too, and it’s really intensified in her throat, I feel the slimy saliva get on my back as I fly down a little. I can somewhat hear the bubbling in her stomach as I get closer and closer towards the opening of her stomach, sounding like the carbonation in the drink is really causing a lot of commotion in there. I hear a few loud pops and gurgles as well too as I get even closer and closer towards the opening of Michelle’s stomach, as if they’re burp bubbles starting to really starting to form, but not able to, either being counteracted by the acid or not having enough strength to really get bigger than it is.

 I will say, my time of being inside the stomachs of various women has really gotten me to be able to tell what’s going on in there by noises and the like, maybe I should have become a gastrologist instead of a lawyer, heh heh. I guess that’s still left an imprint on me over time still, getting memories of being swallowed whenever I heard someone’s stomach gurgle at work or even my wife’s especially as well too. Really whenever I heard a woman’s stomach gurgling or whatever, whether that be out of hunger or fullness it really gave me a flashback to my time in Europe. I guess it’s somewhat of a form of PTSD, even though it wasn’t really traumatic or stressful I guess looking back since I adapted to it pretty well even at 18, although it’s something I thought about a lot in the time after that trip. The rest of the summer of 2004 and a little bit in that fall when I started college as well. 

I can hear the opening of Michelle’s stomach open up, I fly down into the sloshy liquid in there, as soon as it opens, I’m hit with the smell of acid and Black Cherry flavoring and alcohol hinted in there a little, but the acid and Cherry flavoring does hit my senses pretty hard, the acid smell reminding me of vomit but I keep my composure, since I’ve been through this before. Dave and Tony land as well not too long after me, along with the rest of the swig of White Claw that she had as well too, you can hear the fizzing of the drink as it lands too. Causing acid/hard seltzer waves and even more bubbling and gurgles as the drink makes contact with her stomach and its acids. Us three land with a pretty good plop, but I notice that we’ve got some buoyancy this time as well too, us three floating more than sinking, the liquid is up to our waists a little more or less. Although I feel like there’s a bit more space below us though.

It’s super warm here, I feel the humidity and the warm mist from the heat of her acids really making me feel like I’m in a really hot sauna. This feels a little hotter than the last time I was in a situation like this, or maybe this is just how Michelle is. 

Dave, Tony, and I reach out and feel each other in the dark. Knowing that we’re all together here.

“Okay, I think all of our phones probably don’t work anymore due to the acids” I say, and I lower my voice a bit after saying okay, being concerned that Michelle could hear me from within her stomach.

“Yeah, I think so too. No point trying to use the phone as a flashlight” Dave says. And I hear him slosh around a little, in the acids as he moves.

I hear more liquid rushing down her throat from up above, and I start to move a bit more, knocking myself onto the wall of her stomach I notice. I don’t think Michelle notices this, since I might be too small for her to really feel this. It’s somewhat noisy inside her belly with her acids seemingly hard at work with the carbonation in the drink, but I can talk loud enough where Dave and Tony can hear me. 

“Brace for Impact” I say, raising my voice a little bit, warning the other guys. I have no clue where anyone’s at, so I assume one of them is probably under her stomach opening.

In only about 10 seconds later I hear the splash of the swig of the hard Seltzer land with a loud fizz, and more bubbling and gurgling with the acids clashing against the carbonation. I accidentally get some in my mouth which makes me wanna puke but I quickly spit it out and it makes my tongue burn a little with the acid mixed in but I notice there’s no real damage, my clothes already feeling soaking wet from the waist down especially which doesn’t feel all too good either. 

About a minute passes by and I hear that there’s not much going on in her throat besides maybe a glob of saliva passing through, Michelle seemingly stopped drinking for the moment.

“Fuck” Dave says sounding relieved, the drink in here really stirring things up in here. Me and Tony both chuckle a little out of agreement and relievement. Seemingly blowing off some steam and a little bit of tension I could feel in the air, this shared tension of “will her acid kill us or we’ll be fine”.

“Damn all you BEAUUUTIFUL GIRRLLLSSS-UH. THEY ONLY WANNA DO YA DIRT!” I can hear Jeff sing pretty loudly on the outside, imitating Sean Kingston’s Jamaican accent a little too, seemingly starting up the music again, which I can vaguely hear while inside Michelle. 

“Haven’t heard that one in awhile” I hear Wade say too, although a bit muffled.

I feel Michelle start to walk a little, I can hear her comment a little bit on how she can feel the liquid move around in her stomach. She does this under her breath

“Hey guys, watch this” I hear Michelle say, and I feel my own stomach start to bubble up in anxiety on what she might do next.

“Here we go” I hear Tony say, sounding somewhat tired.

Before we can say anything else, I feel her abdominal muscles start to move us around pushing her stomach in and out,  causing us to slosh against her stomach. I go under during one of the waves, and it’s honestly scary. I thought it was over for me for a second and then my head goes back up. I’m surprised how Tony and Dave really maintain their composure I notice, at least from the lack of noise they make with all this constant and sudden movement going on. I can hear the liquid smack against her belly with every slosh she makes.

“I bet those bugs you swallowed are having a hell of a time in there with all that sloshing you’re doing. Still can’t believe you did that” I hear Wade say, and I hear Kyla giggle a little bit in the background. 

Michelle sloshes us around a few times, and I notice a few burp bubbles form in the acids as she does this, seemingly going up from her stomach opening and into her throat.

She does a few small burps, excusing herself. 

She takes one last huge swig of the White Claw, judging by the fact that I hear the noise of her squeezing the can with her hand, the sound of the aluminum with a solid echo-y pop. And you can really hear the loud gulps of her throat muscles really gulping down the last of the White Claw. I can hear the carbotion popping as it comes down her throat. I wonder how bad the carbonated drink burns her throat, because in here it sounds like it’s popping pretty loudly. It makes a another hardy splash as it lands inside her stomach causing a little bit more of a commotion again, actually knocking Tony aside a little bit when the drink lands in, I hear him react with a “UGH” as he gets sloshed by the entering liquid towards my direction, knocking him into my chest a little bit and it knocks me back a little too but I quickly regain my composure and Tony moves up a little. Michelle sloshes her stomach one more time, getting a “Ewww Gross” response from Kyla from the crisp watery noise it makes, and Michelle chuckles a little bit as she does. We all slap against the wall of her stomach as she does this, and I start to get somewhat used to all the movement. 

As she starts to stop sloshing her stomach, and everything settles down a bit in her stomach as it starts to process the Hard Selter and gurgle a little at us, but nothing seems to be coming of it. I start to talk a bit more to Dave and Tony as things settle down. I can tell the conversation has died a little bit on the outside, I hear a little bit of the whatever reels or posts on Instagram or Tik-Tok or whatever that Michelle seems to be watching, although it’s pretty vague.

“So uh, I’m guessing this isn’t everyone’s first time in a situation like this” I say, calling out into the darkness. 

“Third. This is my third” Dave says. I hear him push his hair back a bit with his hand, making a watery sounding slap as he tries to get some of the liquid out of it. 

“Too many times to count. It’s been awhile though, for sure” Tony says.

It’s quiet for a minute.

“So, how were you shrunk again, Dave?” I say.

“I guess when I really put all my thinking power into trying to remember it, A chick I used to date, and dated briefly again too after all the shit that went down with the shrink stuff, how the shrinking happened is that we met at some new years party. She gave me this pill or whatever that her dad, some recalled bottle of the same shit Jack Cooper took. Everything ended fine though, Judy, the chick who swallowed me. She was a total punk rock kinda girl back in high school, now she’s a 3rd grade teacher with a second kid of her own on the way and married to some ex-Marine and lives a suburban lifestyle, she still lives in Oregon, where I’m from. Another chick that I was swallowed by, during that time, her name was Samantha, Sam for short obviously. A good female friend of mine from that time, she was another chick I was swallowed by too.  Smart girl, she’s got a pretty good paying job up in Portland as a Risk Manager for some Tech Start up that she's been doing for a bit” Dave says, as I feel Michelle walk around a little bit, I can feel the liquid slosh and sway us a little as she walks.

“So did they swallow you on purpose or” Tony says.

“Yes and No” Dave says, a little bit sharply.

“That’s interesting” I say.

“I had a somewhat close friend named Adam that I interacted with a little right before I got shrunk, I almost thought about telling this too, a few years after it happened, this was like in 2013. He asked about this box of Milk Duds that I had in my car, him always noticing it and that I’ve never thrown it away. By this point I’ve known Adam for like, I wanna say, ten years by that point. We were both around twenty at that time. I almost said that it's a keepsake from when I was shrunk, but I luckily stopped myself before I alluded to the shrinking. Changed the story up a bit, reminded me of a new years party back when our friend group was still active.I still have that box, although it’s somewhere in my apartment now instead of my car. I used the same excuse with girlfriends who wondered about it.  Me and Adam had a falling out over the pandemic, he sadly became one of those governmental conspiracy theory nut jobs over time getting more and more invested into that stuff and Infowars and Alex Jones and all that stupid shit as we went into the pandemic, sending me all these crazy theory videos on Youtube that only had like only a total of maybe three thousand views in our texts.These vids were seemingly unlisted and everything, you really had to go down a pretty deep rabbit hole to find them. Dude almost booked a flight to D.C. for January 6th but luckily his parents and his younger sister got ahold of him just in time before he could board it and talked him out of it, saying something about how it could go really wrong, which we all know it did. I haven’t talked to him since the day I found out about all of this, which was about a week or so after everything went down, I got a call from his younger sister that he was going to some sort of mental health rehab center for awhile, being sent there by his parents” Dave says, and I hear a little bit of chatter on the outside from the group, talking about how it’s now nearing five in the afternoon, and they kinda wanna do something else now. 

“Pretty crazy how that happened to your friend, I guess people do change over the years, for better or for worse. But yeah, I’ve always been pretty tight lipped about that sorta thing, no-one knows accept the family that adopted me, and long story short about that, back in ‘88, I got discovered by this teenage girl by the name of Kate on a road trip with her family from Texas in Redding, California at a gas station, I’ve only ever been discovered, while I was on my travels, like once or twice. Even then I managed to escape quick enough before they could capture me or really recognize what they saw. But anywho, she was pretty nice and warm towards me and she’d keep my secret.  Her parents found out about me, ehhh, I wanna say about a month or so. Her mom seeing me in the dresser in Kate’s room while doing her laundry one Saturday morning and I while I was dead asleep, and needless to say she freaked and her dad came into the room and Kate had just gotten back home from spending the night at her then boyfriend's house. Some guy named Wayne, tall skinny redneck kid that really contrasted Kate's Valley Girl and super suburban way of life back then. They broke up around prom time her senior year the year after. Jared was off somewhere that morning, I don’t remember. Luckily Kate heard all the commotion going on upstairs and ran up there to come and save me” Tony says.

“Wait, so hold up. You ran around the country shrunk? How many years did you do this, how did you get by and everything, what about your parents?” I say, sounding both confused and intrigued. I notice some of the liquid starts to drain away, seemingly to her intestines or other areas, making it not as flooded in here, I notice the liquid levels start to go down. It’s still pretty warm and humid, in here, although it’s cooled a little with her stomach starting to chill out a little

“Long story short again, around age ten, my parents just went totally berserk one day and threw me out the house. I guess trying to keep me a secret for ten years kept them crazy, I never really had known extended family members or anything like that due to this, and they thought that I died during birth. Since the summer of 1982 until April I think of 1988 when I was sixteen and met Kate I got by eating out of trash cans, hanging around restaurants like McDonalds or A&W or KFC and maybe there’d be some edible trash or someone’s leftovers. It sucked but I made do, I guess I had a pretty strong immune system while small since I don’t think I ever got sick during the years I was traveling by myself, and not really getting sick on a more regular person’s basis until I grew. There was a whole bunch of news shit around the time I was born, but it was quickly sidetracked by the whole Watergate thing, which was my birthday. When I was about, ehhh, 35 or so around the time the Jack Cooper situation was going on I tried to see (he clears his throat)  if I could find anything about it online, me being born shrunk. I went to a local library and everything after work  to look it up. I didn't wanna leave any trace of it on my home computer in case my wife sees something while using it. Couldn’t find anything but articles about Watergate, nothing about me” Tony says.

“That’s crazy” I say, this guy pretty much really lived a good chunk of his life shrunk, compared to my measly two weeks at 18. 

“Yeah, I was only shrunk for like, maybe a week give or take a day or two. I couldn’t imagine living like, how old were you when you became, like, normal sized?” Dave says, and as he says this I start to feel Michelle start to bend and pick something up off the ground, making us slosh around a little bit and move, although it’s not as bad this time due to a bit of the liquid has gone away. 

“You guys in the mood for something to eat? It’s getting about that time anyways’” I hear Wade say on the outside.

I hear Tony begin to say it but Dave cuts him off. 

“Oh we go” I hear Dave say reacting to the news, I agree with him but I don’t really say much of anything about it. 

“Yeah, let’s head back to the Airbnb and change clothes, I’m honestly in the mood for Mexican food tonight” Michelle says, as she gets back up. I think she got a volleyball up off of the ground. 

“You’ve been such a fanatic about that the whole time I’ve been with you” I hear Wade joke.

“Hey, you can’t get Mexican food this good in Pennsylvania. Taco Bell is all we got out there” Michelle says, I hear Jeff in the background fiddle a little bit with the speaker, attempting to turn the music off and disconnect it. Seemingly starting to play “Crank Dat Soulja Boy” before he turns it off, one of those cheesy ringtone rap songs from my college years that was pretty big. I remember Richie wasn’t a huge fan of that stuff, the ringtone rap era of Rap. When I did talk to him about all the fads he noticed and stuff during his time in the military. I will admit, Mims’s “This Is Why I’m Hot” was a guilty pleasure of mine though, that and ‘Ridin by Chamillionaire. Songs I’d hear on the top forty when they were new and they started to grow on me. 

“Hey, this Texas girl has already been spoiled with Tex-Mex growing up. The stuff out here is pretty good too though” Kyla says with a little bit of sass in her voice.

“She’s not wrong” Tony says, and I laugh a little bit.

“C’mon, I’m sure there’s some good places in, where are you from again in Pennsylvania?” Wade says, " I feel them really start to walk, with Michelle gently sloshing us around a little as she walks, hearing the sound of more and more people in the background, this signaling they’re getting closer to the rest of the beach. The jingle of Wade’s dog tag as he walks I can vaguely hear too.

“Really? You still keep forgetting?You literally visited my parents there over Winter break last year. Altoona Wade. Altoona. You Californians barely know about anywhere that’s not Phoenix or Vegas or San Diego” Michelle says, sounding a little pissed and a little joking in her tone of voice.

“Hey, we’re not just Californians. We’re SOUTHERN Californians” Jeff says. 

“And Los Angelinos at that too. Ain’t that right Jeff?” Wade says.

“Fuck yeah. Grew up in Woodland Hills, but I was born in Riverside” Jeff says, and I hear the noise of them walking on gravel, seeming getting close to their car.

“Born and raised up in West Covina, I’ll take an earthquake over a snowstorm, that’s for sure” Wade says, and I hear the unlocking of a car door. 

“At least the foundation of my house won’t collapse in a snowstorm” Michelle says, as she walks, I notice her stomach starts to gurgle a little bit out of hunger, that White Claw seemingly not really fulfilling her anyway. I feel the acid starting to burn a little, but it doesn’t really hurt at all.

“You never know, if that snow gets too heavy…” Jeff says, and Kyla laughs at this.

“Whatever, Jeff” Michelle says, and I hear a door near her open and she gets in.

Wade and Jeff snicker at this a little I hear, and I hear more car doors open as Kyla gets in as well. 

“Hey, I bought the booze. You wanna drive Wade?” Jeff says, to Wade.

“Yeah alright, me and you are the only two sober people in this car anyways” Wade says and Jeff giggles at this.

“How lightweight are we if One Seltzer makes us drunk” Michelle says, as she says this her stomach makes a huge gurgle bubble and it pops that I can feel being formed, this one’s audible enough that everyone in the car hears it.

“Sounds like you’re hungry more than anything” Kyla says.

I mean I haven’t ate since 10 this morning, that bowl of Chex that I had” She says.

“That was a pretty big bowl” Wade says, as I hear him open the car door, to get out, judging by the chiming noise it makes.  I know it's a Ford judging by the chime, something I’ve heard a few times over the last few years, although this one is a bit more screechier and not as refined as a brand new Ford. The same exact door chime I remember hearing in Richie’s 2014 GT Mustang. I remember him driving down from Charlotte in it with his Wife for my Wedding in Atlanta. I remember asking him if I could drive it just to see what it was like a few days before my wedding day, and I’m telling you, if looks could kill. I’ll never forget the look on his face. To be fair, I probably would have spun-out knowing me. Cars with that type of power do take a bit of getting used to. 

“Well, you know I’m used to kinda eating big due to Volleyball meets and trying to make energy out of it and everything” Michelle says. 

Wade and Jeff trade seats, I hear. And then, I hear the shifting of gears and a little bit of the sound of gravel on their tires as they begin to back out.

“So, will one of you guys look up a Mexican food place?” I hear Wade say.

“I’ll do it” I hear Kyla say.

“I hope she doesn’t eat big at this place” I hear Dave say.

“Hope for the best, prepare for the worst” Tony says, I hear him slosh the Hard Seltzer around with his hand, playing around in it and concocting a really strong Black Cherry smell in here now.

“At least, y’know. 3.5 Stars on Yelp or Google Reviews or whatever” I hear Jeff say.

Kyla names a place in town and says it’s not too far, and they all seemingly agree on it. I notice Michelle’s stomach starting to bubble a little bit more, her seemingly more hungry. Her acids feel a little more hotter than warm too, but luckily they’re still not burning at me. I notice Dave seems a little bit more reactive to it, I hear him wince in pain a little bit, but it doesn’t seem like he's actually getting burned by it or anything. Tony doesn’t seemingly react, but he seems to be a veteran of this type of stuff, now that I’m getting to know his history. 

“Hey Wade, could you turn on the Bluetooth” Jeff says.

“Lemme see the directions first” He says, I hear his voice become a little more clearer as he turns his head towards the direction of the back seat.

I think Kyla exchanges the phone with him, and he says “Oh, I know where that is, that’s right in town” and says it’s not going to be a long drive, and he hands it right back.

The drive there is pretty silent between the group since it was only about 10 minutes away, I can vaguely hear Kyla’s stomach growling inside Michelle’s, she must be pretty hungry too. There’s some talk about school, and a little bit about STEM classes vs Literature or Communications or something like that.

“Damn you girls must be starving” I hear Wade say, and Jeff chuckles at this.

I hear the noise of a blinker a few times and the sound of someone letting their window down up front, although this one I could barely make out. Michelle’s stomach is still processing a little bit of the White Claw that’s left in here, I can tell. The hunger and the digestion somewhat canceling each other out I can tell, judging by the mix of gurgles and a few small churns, pushing me and the two other guys around too. 

I feel a sudden Jolt, sloshing me around a little, and the sound of a gear being shifted.

“Alright, time to eat” Jeff says, and I hear the noises of doors unlocking and people getting out, I feel Michelle as she gets out, sloshing me and Dave and Tony around too as well. I feel Michelle’s stomach churn and bubble even more as she gets out, her hunger really starting to take head in anticipation of her dinner.

“Wait, they’re not going to let us in in bikinis and us shirtless. Fuck it, I’ll just look through the menu online and I’ll grab a spare t-shirt we’ll take it back to the AirBnB” Wade says, seemingly realizing the group’s collective brain fart of not remembering to go back and change. 

“As I said earlier, hope for the best, prepare for the worst”  Tony says, moving around in the bubbly acids a little bit. 

“You pretty much are a veteran of this sorta thing, aren’t you” I hear Dave say.

“I’ve had dreams throughout my adult normal sized life, about being shrunk since I found it strange so long that I was finally a normal sized person. Especially around the time I was going through that crisis about turning thirty, something I told Matt about at the Denny’s where I met him earlier today” Tony says, I can feel like he’s pointing at me through the darkness. 

I hear the group on the outside talk about the menu and they pass the phone around, as they do that, we talk to each other a little bit more. Me and Dave having a bit more interest in Tony’s adjustment as a normal sized person. 

“So, what was it like seeing people that were so huge all your life, and then them being shorter than you or same height or somewhat taller? '' I say.

“Yeah, it was a bit of a mindfuck at first. But about after, a year of being normal sized it stopped being such a strange concept to me” Tony says.

“I’ll get the Chicken Quesadilla with a large side of chips and salsa and Guac ”  I hear her Michelle say, telling I think Jeff. 

“Yeah, I don’t mean to ask so many questions about it but it’s just crazy to me how long you were shrunk for and how you were born this way. Me and Dave, I’m assuming for Dave at least, being shrunk wasn’t any sort of normal for us”  I say.

“Yeah, it’s still just, I didn’t know you could be born like that. I mean there’s Dwarfism and stuff like that but this is just a whole different case” Dave says.

“I get it. It’s nice to talk about it at least, with someone who’s been through it. Kinda.” Tony says.

The group gets their orders ready and I hear Jeff ask Kyla to reach in the trunk and grab his shirt and his flip flops to go in, and hear the noise of Kyla unbuckling her seat belt and reaching into the back. 

“I wanna slap that ass so badly” Jeff says, and Kyla giggles a little bit.

She gives him his shoes and shirt and you hear him get out of the car. I guess Jeff was barefoot this whole time, but I’m assuming everyone else is, even Wade who’s driving.

“So, USC. Is the area outside the campus really as dangerous as everyone says it is?” I hear Kyla says. 

“Not really, even though it’s South Central, it’s not that bad. Just watch yourself and don’t be super naive once you get off campus.  Do you think Obama’s Daughter would go here if it was that bad?” Michelle responding to her.

“Aren’t you guys skipping class anyways, you guys already had your spring break, I’ve heard” Kyla says. 

“Whatever, my grades are pretty good anyways, and Wade doesn’t have much to do anyways in class” Michelle says.

It’s quiet for about 3 minutes, and Wade starts to fiddle with the radio, landing on some local rock station, playing “Black Summer” by The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Their newest hit. The Red Hot Chili Peppers were honestly one of those bands I’ve never been a huge fan of, to be honest with you. 

“This song isn’t bad” I hear Kyla say.

“Yeah I do dabble into rock, my older brother who’s like, 31 is more into it than I am. KROQ is always on in his car whenever I rode with him, I like a few songs here and there, but it doesn’t capture me that much”  I hear Wade say.

“Why is rock so unpopular with this generation? My oldest son is more into rock, and my daughter is a little bit too, but my youngest son just loves all these mumble rappers these days” Tony says, sounding a little bit like an old man complaining. I notice Dave chuckling at his complaint.

“Hey, I guess Hip-Hop’s the big thing now. I mean there’s still new bands and songs and stuff being made, you just gotta search for it more now” I say.

I hear the noise of a car door opening.

“It’s gonna be a little while, they said it’s gonna be about an hour and a half due to all the orders ahead of us  so are sure you guys wanna eat here, they haven’t made the food yet so we still have a good chance of going” Jeff says, as I hear the car door open, his voice becoming a little less muffled as he gets in. 

“I’m cool with McDonalds or Carl’s Jr something too” Wade says and everyone else chimes in agreeing, saying they wouldn’t mind McDonalds. 

“Yeah okay, I’ll go back inside tell them we’re going somewhere else “ Jeff says as he closes the door to walk back in the restaurant.

“I haven’t had McDonalds in Months” Michelle says.

“Yeah I don’t really eat it that much either, but those fries do sound pretty good right now to be honest” I hear Kyla say.

“Honestly I’d go with In-N-Out but I don't think there’s any in the area” Wade says, I notice he turns the radio up a little, playing “Best of You” by Foo Fighters. 

“It’s honestly Overrated, I ate here and in Texas and I still think Whataburger’s better. People used to tell me that tasted better in California but I honestly can’t tell a difference” I hear Kyla say.

“What you just said is California blasphemy, but I’m gonna be the bigger person and ignore it” Wade says, Michelle giggles at this. 

Jeff gets back into the car, and they begin to head off to McDonalds not too far away either, If I remember correctly there’s only one Mickey D’s in town, and it’s not far from the Denny's I went to earlier. I start to wonder if Nicole is worried about me, I’d use my phone but I know it’s probably short circuited due to all the acid it’s been soaked in.  

They talk a little bit in the not super long drive to McDonalds, mostly about Jerry since everyone seems to know him and he’s a mutual friend of everybody, saying that it doesn’t quite feel the same without him being here. This Jerry guy was the life of the party whenever he was around, judging by what they’re saying about him.  

They get to McDonalds, and they order and they get their food fairly quickly in the drive-thru I notice. Michelle Orders a decent sized meal, and I feel a little nervous when she does order. She gets a double Quarter Pounder Meal and it’s upsized to a large, with a side of 10 extra nuggets on the side. 

“Damn, this chick really can eat” Tony says Michelle tells Wade her order.

They get through the drive-thru line fairly quickly, Jeff makes a quip about how McDonald’s nearly almost gets your order wrong every time he goes there, and I notice Wade and Michelle and Kyla giggle at this. 

They park in the parking lot, and I feel the acids becoming more and more bubbly.

“If her stomach was that active from just a White Claw, then I wonder how active it’ll get during a full meal” I say. And I start to hear the carbonation from up above travel through her throat, she’s starting to gulp down a little bit of her Sprite as she begins to start on her meal. 

Hope for the Best, Prepare For the Worse. 

I hear the gurgling and popping of the carbonation of Sprite in her throat as I hear it get closer and closer to her stomach opening, and I notice Michelle reacts to it as well too, hearing a “MMMPH” as she swallows it. Probably the carbonation burning her throat, and you know how everyone jokes about how super carbonated McDonald's Sprite is, but there really is truth in that one though. As it rushes closer and closer the sound of its carbonation is really loud, and it lands with a pretty loud splash, her acids and the carbonation really kick in with the bubbling and the gurgling, I can hear a few bubbles starting to be formed inside her stomach, seemingly burp bubbles but they pop before they can really make their way out, seemingly. 

I hear more and more Sprite above being swallowed and traveling down her throat, a loud carbonated sounding squelch with every swallow, and it all travels down with a louding bubbly splash into her stomach, bringing the liquid levels up more and more with every landing. I feel the warm mix of the acids and the ice coldness of the Sprite giving us somewhat of a relief with all hot and warmness we’ve been feeling being inside Michelle’s stomach, the carbonation I can also feel as well and it’s popping and how it’s mixing well into the acids as well too, so it doesn’t really sting but you can definitely feel it. I think she swallows a chunk of ice, I hear one plunk into her stomach along with some Sprite, and It feels even colder in her stomach when it plunks in. Although I figure it won’t be long until it completely melts.

I hear the ruffling of bags on the outside, over the slight churning of Michelle’s stomach as her stomach plays around with her Soda. Making me and the other two guys really start to move around and get harassed by her acids as it starts to really get more active in here. I get a mouth full of Sprite when I get sloshed around, it tastes somewhat sweet and a little bit of carbonation is in it when it goes with it, but the taste of acids and the warmness of that makes me wanna puke, and I spit out the drink immediately. I hear it’s pretty quiet on the outside, as everyone gets their food handed back to them.

“Goddamn it’s been years since I’ve been through something like this, and it’s crazy to think that this chick is probably as old as my oldest Daughter!” Tony yells, as he gets sloshed around by Michelle’s acids. He yells this pretty loud I notice too, loud enough that I think Michelle notices as well with a slight movement. It seems like this was a spur of the moment sort of thing for Tony, he’s been keeping level headed during this entire situation.

“What was that?” Michelle says, and my butt puckers as soon as she says this. I hope we don’t get caught.

“What?” I hear Kyla say, with the sound of some paper unraveling as well too.

“I heard something from inside my stomach” Michelle says, and I hear the noise of something cardboardy with the sound of her fingers pressing on it.

“Probably just it growling or something like that” I hear Wade say, I hear him shake his drink a little, you can hear the Ice crunching against each other as he shakes it.

“It sounded like a voice, though” Michelle says, as she says this I hear the noise of what I think is fries being taken out of the cardboard, judging by the noise of it. I feel her stomach bubble up a bit more out of anticipation with the fries, something she’s seemingly looking forward to I notice.

“Yeah, Jack Cooper’s totally in your stomach. You doin’ alright in there, Jack?” I hear Jeff say, and I notice Wade laughs and Kyla giggles a little. 

“Yeah right (I hear her chewing a little bit and swallowing, the gulp sounding pretty loud as we’re here in her stomach) I’m sure I would of noticed I ate a little dude or something like that” She says, and as soon as she swallows I notice that her stomach really does kick into overdrive, really anticipating her food. The acids start to burn even more, but I noticed that the smell of the lemon and lime in the Sprite are really starting to become overwhelming. It’s pretty silent hearing the bite of the fries that I'm assuming that’s traveling down her throat.

“Maybe it’s those bugs you swallowed earlier making their presence known, they probably aren’t enjoying that McDonalds you’re eating” Wade says.

“Hell no, they’d be digested by now for sure” and as she says this, the mushed up bite of fries land in with a hardy plop, making her stomach smell of Salt and that signature McDonalds smell I’ve known all my really makes a huge stink inside her stomach. This is probably the closest I’ve ever gotten to throwing up yet, the smell of the acid and the McDonald’s really makes quite a putrid stench. I don’t remember feeling this sick when I was swallowed all those years ago. 

Her stomach really starts to work on the fries judging by the gurgling I hear and all the bubbles and the like being formed around it, and I hear her grab some more fries on the outside, judging by the noise of the fry carton ruffling a bit, I feel a lot of saliva being swallowed as well too, some of it splashing back on me. Her stomach moves me around a little, the acids burning and I notice now starting to rip away at my clothes a little bit, I feel the fabric in my jeans starting to become less and less thick and skinnying out more and more. I feel a piece of chewed up french fry float next to me, gurgles all around it and Michelle’s stomach really going at it. The smell of the salt and the potato really intensified when next to me, the McDonald’s smell isn’t as bad with this piece of chewed up french fry. I notice that Dave’s splashing around, seemingly moving around a little bit more, seemingly trying to get away from I think the chewed up french fly globs that’s floating towards him. 

“Hey, they say cockroaches can survive anything” Jeff says, and then I hear him take an audible bite out of his Big Mac that I heard him ask for, I can hear the crunch of the lettuce and the pickles.

“They can’t survive being in my stomach.  (I feel her lightly tap her belly with her free hand, feeling the pressure of her hand with her pat)  Besides, I don’t think I saw a cockroach, I would of noticed one being on me if I did. I hate those things” She says, as she starts to put another bunch of fries in her mouth, beginning to chew, I hear some more saliva being swallowed as she begins to chew more on her food. 

It’s quiet after that, everyone seemingly just more focused on their own food. Michelle really demolishes her fries, with every plop of chewed up fry mush I feel the liquid levels getting higher and higher. I notice Wade fiddles with the radio a bit, I hear “I’ll Never Let You Go” by Third Eye Blind vaguely playing, and then “To Be With You” by Mr.Big, and then “The Promise” by When in Rome, and then “She’s A Beauty” by The Tubes.

“What’s with all the eighties-nineties stuff on the radio out here? I don’t usually listen to the radio since it’s just bunch of top 40 shit mixed in with the same 5 rock songs from fuckin’, 1980-whatever the fuck” Jeff says.

Wade changes the station again, and he gets some radio station jingle and the song “Ex’s and Oh’s” by Elle King starts to play, the DJ announcing the title and who made it before it starts to play.

“Is that Modern enough for you?” Wade says, and I hear Kyla giggles at this, and then hiccups and slightly burps afterward.

“It’s a little old, pre-pandemic pop song from like 2016  but eh” Jeff says, and I hear him pop what I think is some fries in his mouth afterwards, making a good crunch as he chews. 

“Y’know, the chick who sings this song is the daughter of Rob Schneider. I found this out via Youtube, this music reviewer guy on there who hides in the shadows, it’s kinda his gimmick “ I say.

“Really” Dave says, unenthusiastically. I figure that this fact isn’t as interesting as I thought it would be to those around me. 

“When I come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve had McDonald’s this entire year” Says Tony, as he says this another huge plop of chewed up french plops in and Michelle’s stomach starts attacking it, I notice a few churns starting to come on in her acids, as her stomach breaks down the fries.

“It’s only been what, three months so far into this year?” I say, as I hear more ruffling of the bag on the outside, and the sound of a container being opened. The french fries have crowded her stomach a little bit, the gurgles and pops going on in her from her acids breaking down her food has become a little bit louder as her stomach sounds a bit more content with what it’s been given. I also hear the noise of some ice being shifted around in the cup, and I hear her start to swallow more of that fizzy Sprite, washing down the fries I guess. Her gulps echoing inside her stomach, I wonder if it sounds that loud on the outside. 

I can hear the Sprite travel down her throat, you can still hear the carbonation popping around in there, but it’s not as loud as bubbly and it’s died down a fair bit as the soda isn’t as fresh out of the machine as it once was. It lands in with a big rushing splash and adds more liquid inside her stomach, mixing the smell of McDonald’s French Fries and Ice Cold Sprite mixed with stomach acids together, which isn’t a smell I’d like to use as a car air freshener, but it’s not so bad I guess compared to just straight up acid and that signature McDonald’s smell. I hear her swallow more and more Sprite above as I hear the carbonated rushing of the Soda traveling down her throat. Like a carbonated waterfall flowing down her throat, and it also rushes in as well too with a decent splash down, making waves and causing more commotion as it lands inside her stomach, I notice a few pretty decent sized burp bubbles making its way to up her throat as well too, going up her throat as the soda makes its way down. Her stomach is slightly tossing us three around a little.

I can tell she somewhat stiffles one burp, but the next one is pretty bassy and wet and pretty loud.

“Damn that stinks Babe, I can smell the French fries in your stomach from all the way up here” Wade says, and I can hear some more windows letting down on the opposite side of the car and a little bit up front, seemingly on Wade’s side I think since it sounds a little farther off. If they think her burp smells pretty gross despite having fresh air available to them, then they’d really hate the smell in here. It’s probably magnified a thousand in here. Her stomach makes a really loud gurgle and a slight churn after the burp. Loud enough I think they probably heard it on the outside too.  A mushed up bite of french fry seemingly being taken under by her acids, and bobbing right back up on the surface. 

“Excuse me I guess. It’s fast food, what do you expect it to smell like? Besides, I remember this one time like the year I graduated from High School, I was like 18. I went to Louisville, Kentucky for the Derby. My Dad grew up around horses and was into breeding them and stuff and it had been his lifelong dream to go to the Kentucky Derby and finally got around to doing it that year. And I skipped school to go with him and mom and my younger brother with him. We ate at this Barbecue place, and I guess something in it upset my stomach and burped like, the whole car ride from this place to the Hotel. Smelt more pleasant though with the sauces and stuff mixing around in my stomach, I guess. But at least you’ve just got one whiff of it” Michelle says, giggling a bit. 

“Who would've thought that a hot girl like you could be so gross when no-one’s looking” Wade says, sounding annoyed and somewhat amused by this

“Yeah, who would've thought that girls like us have the same bodily functions like everybody else” Kyla says a little sarcastically, teasing a little bit in her voice. 

“Yeah, we’re people too. I don’t get why some guys act like we’re just completely clean and smelling nice on the inside” Michelle says, a little annoyed. I hear her pick up something, judging by the sound of something leaving the cardboard on the outside, as if she’s picking up something. 

“Hey, every guy has that realization at some point. If they don’t have a sister they grew up with or something” Jeff says, and I notice the song “Blinding Lights” By The Weekend playing on the radio. Although it’s a bit soft in volume, one of the guys up from turning the volume down. 

I hear Michelle swallow, it sounds like she’s swallowing something pretty thick. I think it’s the chewed up lump of burger she’s got, you can smell the smell of the catchup and the grilled beef and the cheese and onions especially as it gets closer to the opening of her stomach, it’s a really strong smell. I notice her stomach starts churning and gurgling a little bit more out of anticipation, really knowing it’s going to churn it up. The clump of chewed up burger splashes in with a hardy plop, and I feel the acids inside her really start to burn at us now. But again, no damage. I’m surprised that these “powers” of making us somewhat indestructible to stomach acid still seemingly works pretty well all the years later when we were shrunk again. The smell of the Onion in her Double Quarter Pounder and Ketchup really intensifying as it the bite of the burger bubbles around in Michelle’s stomach, her stomach feeling a little more crowded and liquidy as it starts to expand a little bit, with the fries and a decent amount of soda already co-existing in there in a pretty empty stomach besides the Hard Seltzer when we came in. 

“I think one of  those thick beef patties could work as a rafting sorta thing” Says Dave, and I hear another loud gulp from Michelle, from taking another bite of her burger it seems. I feel the liquidy-acidy-Sprite waves in her stomach swaying me from side to side a little, as it starts on digesting the chewed up burger. I think the White Claw is all gone now, but we still remain in her stomach. Maybe as the food digests we’ll be taken along for the ride with them, but that’s not something I’m looking forward to either. Hearing decent sized pops and gurgles as it works on it, the beefy smell really intensifies as it’s being digested by Michelle’s stomach.

“I don’t know about doing that one, it’s not like a piece of steak or some sorta firmer meat like that” Tony says, raising his voice a little over the constant popping and gurgling from Michelle’s acids that’s happening in here, her stomach really working on her food. It starts to feel a bit steamy and a little more moist as her stomach does its job. I feel her stomach expand a little bit and I feel a little more space pop up, seemingly a little bloated with all this food.

The next bite of her Double Quarter Pounder is pretty big I notice, and it lands in her stomach with a pretty loud sploosh, splashing liquid onto us, the smell of grilled beef and cheese and pickles and ketchup and everything and it’s liquefied or kinda chewed up glob like state is splashing onto us. Her stomach really going at it at that big piece, judging by all the bubbling and gurgling and a few churns of the liquid/acidic waves in her stomach. I hear a really loud groan from her stomach, but not loud enough I think that they heard it out there.

I hear her take another big sip of her Sprite, hearing the carbonation in her throat, although it’s gotten even more flat it seems, you can somewhat hear the hiss of the carbonation in the liquid traveling down her throat with every swallow, although it’s really died down compared to when the drink was fresh. The Sprite lands with a pretty good splash, and I hear her swallowing more as the Sprite splashed down inside her stomach, mixing in with the digested McDonald’s meal she’s currently having. This mix of cool Soda, and the warmth of the Burger and its toppings and condiments in her stomach is really making for a luke-hotish temperature place. 

“Haven’t been through something like this in awhile!” Yells Tony as her acids slosh him around a little, although I imagine she can’t hear him, since it’s pretty hard to hear him in here with all the digestion going on inside her belly, all the churns and gurgles and a few groans from her stomach trying to process all this food, I reek of Sprite and grilled beef and ketchup and cheese and McDonald’s french fries, getting a whiff of my drenched shirt a little among all the other stuff going on in here.

I hear a pretty crunchy bite on the outside, which I think is the nuggets that she got on the side. She finishes it in about three bites I notice, and then swallows. 

“I know this sounds kinda crazy to you guys, but honestly with all this burger stuff in here it’s kinda making me crave Five Guys” Dave says, I bust out laughing but I quickly stifle myself, making sure I don’t get discovered by her, although I imagine she couldn’t hear me anyways over all the noise that’s being made in her bloated stomach.

The chewed up McNugget she had landed with a big plop and a loud squelch and gurgle from her stomach adding that into its contents. 

“Y’know when I was shrunk, I don’t remember ever getting hungry. Although being around digested food like now kinda kills your hunger I guess” I say, as I hear Michelle crunch into another McNugget.

“Well, we’ve got McDonald’s in here in case you’re brave enough to eat what she just ate” Tony says, making a pretty gross joke out of our situation and me and Tony giggle a little bit, our snickering matching up with the bubbling going on.

“That’s even grosser than being inside of here” Dave says and I laugh a little, as soon as he says this I feel like I’m being taken under, and I notice Dave and Tony follow suit as well too.

I feel us get moved along, traveling along into her small intestines and I feel them inflate and bulge out a little too with the amount of digested food that’s being pushed in and push along the process, along with the some of the mushed up food she’s eaten early, it’s pretty dark in here, and I get that cramped subway feel like I remember feeling when I was inside Jessica’s intestines all those years ago. Although not feeling as lonely since I’ve got a few people with me  who’ve been through the same thing that I have, and I’m literally in the same Country and state and town and state as my Wife, although my daughter and my house is on the other side of the country.  The people I love and care about the most are at least in the same country as me, although except for Alex. 

You can really hear all the digestion going on above us in her stomach and the churns and gurgles and a few long groans from her acids battling out the fast food she’s currently eating. Although things like swallowing and the like are pretty vague unless she does it pretty loud, since we're not in her stomach anymore.

“You’ve got a food baby going on, Michelle!’’ I can hear Kyla teasing a little in her voice from outside, I can hear the song “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons playing and I noticed that someone up front must've turned it up a little. A music group I’ve never liked since the very beginning back then. 

“Well, you’re a little bloated too. Besides, it’s only really showing because I’m in a Bikini” Michelle says, and she burps again, although not that loudly this time. 

“Eh, I guess that’s fair” She says.

“Damn you girls are slow eaters” Wade says, I hear a slight burp from him and he excuses himself.

“You’re already done?” Michelle says, with a full mouth, and then she swallows.

“Yeah, I only had a Medium sized regular quarter Pounder meal. I don’t need to eat that much” he says.

“I’m almost done with my Big Mac meal, all I gotta do is knock out the rest of these fries and I’m done” Jeff says, he burps as well after saying it but he stifles it.

“Well I rather savor and enjoy my food instead of just gobbling it down like it’s no tomorrow, what time is it anyways” Michelle says, and then she takes another bite into her burger, hearing the crunch of the onions and the tomato, wet and loud. 

"It's about ehh, 5:50 but 5:45 is what the car clock says, since it’s five minutes slow. At least that's what Jeff said the way up here. You guys wanna head back to the AirBNB and chill out there for the rest of the night? We gotta head back to L.A. tomorrow morning, and in Kyla's case Orange County which is going to take a bit longer to drop her off first in Irvine” Wade Says.

“Yeah, I’m getting kinda bored of this town anyways. I’m honestly looking forward to seeing palm trees and traffic and the hustle and bustle of the city again, after spending all my life in boring as fuck Altoona Pennsylvania” Michelle says.

“Yep, the hard streets of Altoona. Small little meth-head mountain town from what I saw when we visited”  Wade says.

I hear Jeff snickering in the front. “Pennsyltucky” He says, and snickers a little more and Wade gives a slight laugh too. 

“Fuck you guys” she says, annoyed in her tone. 

“I mean, I kinda liked this little trip. I wish Jerry was here though, he might have made it a little more fun. I never really went to the lake or camping growing up, and it’s a little nice to see big trees and forestry and stuff. My family wasn’t really into the whole outdoors, living in Houston and stuff” Kyla says, and I hear her take a sip of her drink.

“Yeah” Michelle says, and I hear another audible crunch in a bite, sounding like her McNuggets.

"I’ll let you girls finish your food and then we’ll take off” Wade says.

“So uh, the intestines. Quite a place to be huh” I say, it being stuffy and warm and pretty stinky  and pretty wet in here compared to mostly of the food smell in her stomach. I can feel her food somewhat being pushed along somewhat, a bit slow though, her stomach still going to war with her food. 

“Just goin’ through the motions” Tony says, and Dave coughs a little bit.

It’s quiet between us and the group outside, Michelle finishes her food and I think Kyla’s not too far behind, her stomach bloating out even more and also her intestines, her belly really kicks into overdrive we can hear, lots of loud squelches and groans going on in her stomach overhead trying to digest all the food she crammed in there. I wonder if we would have stayed longer, and with how active and a little angry her stomach is sounding, would we still be indestructible or her stomach would have been our demise.  It’s sounding pretty fierce up there, with all those really intense gurgles and churns.

I feel us move a little closer and closer through her various  intestines and how it gets smellier and smellier as we get closer towards the end of our journey, as more digested food from her stomach starts to join behind us. I hear a little bit of talk on how Jeff’s going take all the garbage and throw it out before they start to head back to the AirBnB, and I can somewhat hear the noise of bags ruffling and the like and everyone getting their trash together. I can somewhat hear the song on the radio too, Hearing Drake’s “God’s Plan” being played, a song I remember being everywhere the summer of 2018.

The sound of her pretty gurgly and churny and bubbly and very active stomach becomes more and more distant as we move through her intestines, it’s a little gurgly and bubbly in here too, but nowhere near compared to her stomach.

I hear the sound of a car door opening and the sound of a door chime and then closing. 

It’s quiet for a few minutes besides the sound of that Overplayed Drake song, and then I hear the sound of a door opening and the chime, and the sound of Jeff getting back into his seat upfront. 

“Alright, let’s get ready to roll” Wade says, and I hear the sound of the gear shifting and the car jolting a bit back, Jeff tells him to be easy on the pedal. Wade doesn’t respond.

I hear the creaking of the breaks as Wade breaks a little and turns, and then makes his way out of the McDonald’s parking lot and into the street.

The drive is pretty quiet, although I notice that we’re getting closer and closer towards our exit, judging by the smell and Michelle on the outside seems to get a little antsy shaking us around a little, squirming around a little in her seat. Seemingly needing to use the bathroom, some of this food ran right through.

“Seems like the Food Baby’s due for delivery. You’re shaking the car a little bit babe” Wade says, Jeff and Kyla snickering.

“Yes you asshole, I need to use the bathroom. I was just about to say something. There’s a Vons up ahead. Just stop off there”  Michelle says.

“Alright, they’re probably gonna stare at you though, that bod in a bikini is a showstopper for sure. You’re one of the few East Coast girls I’ve seen that’s a total six or seven in California” I hear Wade say. 

“Whatever Wade” she says, annoyed a little at this. Wade seemingly always thinking about her body.

I hear the acceleration of the car as Wade goes a little bit faster and then stops, and makes a sharp turn and I feel the car go into a parking lot.

Wade starts to slow down, and I feel Michelle start to get out of the car and open the door, and she starts speed walking, and goes into the store judging by the sound of the automatic door opening. I hear her bare feet slap along the ground as she walks, she mumbles something about it being a little more colder outside than she thought it.

I think she makes a Beeline towards the women's restroom, no employees or anything like that seemingly calling her out for just being in a bikini. As she speed walks towards the restroom, I can hear the sound of shopping carts rolling around and people conversing and the noises of people checking out their items as she passes people with beeps and the like from the checkout machines. I hear her almost bust into an empty stall and sit down, seemingly quickly pulling her bikini bottom down. As she does this, me, Dave, and Tony fly through her intestines and out her ass, seemingly flying out with a huge clump of the excrement into the toilet. 

The slight light, although Michellle’s freckled pale but with visible tan lines from the bikini ass really covers it, really takes my eyes to get adjusted to the light after being in Darkness for pretty much, the white porcelain that we land on, I quickly climb out of the water and try hanging onto the side of the bowl, and Tony and Dave. Michelle shits some more, plopping more into the watery bowl. The smell is horrible, but it’s still shit at the end of the day. Michelle pisses a decent amount too, and it gets onto us. All that Sprite seemingly making its exit as well too.  She wipes her ass and gets a different wad and wipes her piss off herself, doing it front to back I notice. Something my wife said she learned to do the hard way during her college years. Michelle throws both of them in the toilet, and then she gets up and pulls her bikini up, and walks away out the bathroom. Leaving us three guys dumb founded.

“Did she really just do that shit, pun unintended?” Dave says.

“Yep, she’s one of those nasty motherfuckers that just ruins public toilets for everybody. She didn’t even wash her hands either. They say women can be just as gross as men, I guess this is living proof. I used to work at Winn-Dixie when I was in my later teen years in North Carolina, those Women’s bathrooms would be rough even by the men’s comparison. That’s what the custodians would say, used hygiene products and discharge and everything in places they shouldn't be, to say the least ” I say.

“Well, she might have forgotten, I guess, somehow. People are weird. At least we didn’t get flushed away” Tony says. 

We crawl out of the toilet, mostly by running and jumping, landing on the very warm toilet seat from Michelle’s ass warmth. 

We all look at the stall, the door a little bit open but mostly close.

“Alright, so what’s our next move?” I say, looking at Tony, as us three stand on the toilet seat, looking into the bathroom. Hearing Seal’s “Kiss From A Rose” playing overhead in the speaker.

I guess we’ve gotta stick together even more so now, three shrunk guys in an unfamiliar forest mountain town far away from our respective homes. 

"What are you looking at me for? I don’t exactly know what to do next either, it’s been thirty years this year since I’ve been shrunk,  October 14th, 1993. I’ll never forget that day” Tony says, I see Dave trying to ring the toilet water plus any excess stomach acid or the like out of his shirt a little, wringing it out a little at the bottom of the shirt.

“Damn, that’s almost a month before I was born, I was born November 15th that year” Dave say, really starting to put lot of elbow grease into wringing out the bottom of his short, a decent amount of liquid seemingly comes out, landing onto the toilet seat, some of it flowing out into the toilet, landing not making much of a sound though, since it’s landing on the side of the bowl and not directly into the water.

“Please, please don’t make me feel old. It’s already bad enough that it isn’t ten years ago anymore that I was shrunk and that I’m in my fifties now” Tony says, chuckling a little, running his hands through his hair a little, getting the liquid out of it, toilet water seemingly knocking a little bit of it out.

I’m about to say something but we hear footsteps and we all collectively go quiet and abruptly quit doing whatever we were doing before, this woman’s shoes sound pretty clacky and echoey against the tile floor as she takes her steps, hoping she doesn’t come into our stall. Not really knowing where to hide if she does, and jumping into the toilet to get pissed/and or shitted on if she doesn't notice us first and then flushed away to some place God knows where I’m sure is something all of us don’t wanna go through with. I hear her walk a little bit more and go right into the stall next to us, opening the door with a creaky sounding swing, and then walking right in and closing the stall door with a loud bolt lock. I hear the noises of this lady’s belongings being placed on the ground, and I can see the bottom of her purse on the ground, seemingly black and leather. I get the thought to maybe peek in more out of curiosity than anything else, but I quickly dismiss it with the fact that I have a wife and I’ve been married nearly ten years now and it would still be wrong. 

I hear the noise of her letting her pants and everything down, it all landing on the floor, and she goes to sit. I hear a few small and airy farts and the sound of a steady stream of piss splashes pretty loudly into the toilet. I hear this chick sigh a little bit loudly, seemingly out of relief and a mix of just seemingly breathing. The stream of piss goes on for a little while I notice, she must have had a lot to drink beforehand or something like that if the stream’s that strong and it’s still going on. It eventually ends, and she farts again, although a little bit louder. I notice she reaches down from the toilet and into her purse, knocking it over, her phone and Coach brand wallet landing on this side under the stall. I see that the time is 6:13, I know Nicole is probably called me a million times and is wondering where I’m at, I get that sinking feeling thinking about the fallout of me being gone for as long as I’ve been gone, and I’m sure that Dave and Tony have thought about it as well too about their loved ones and how they’ve probably called them on their phones and the like as well too. I notice that this woman’s home screen is her and her husband, seemingly near the Grand Canyon, the chick is blonde and tanned and blue eyed dressed in some sorta gym wear, in this pic she seems like she might be in her mid to late 30s. Her husband looks like more on the Gymrat side, he being more muscular and he’s wearing a loose fitting black T-shirt, he’s got a full bushy beard but he’s seemingly bald. He reminds me a little bit of Bane from Batman. I see a few notifications, one for some Instagram live for some Hairstyling account, and another for her Gmail, her email handle being “Hot4Teacher”, I’m assuming this is her personal account and not something that she uses for work or ever, one of the email notifications that I can see is seemingly something about a Taylor Swift concert, the email notification being sent by Stubhub. 

I see her wallet wide open, showing off her driver’s license in a plastic pocket, seemingly from California. Her name’s Ashley Jennings, she’s 5 '6, born on 09/23/1982, and lives in Chula Vista, California which is in the San Diego area if I remember correctly. She’s seemingly an organ donor as well, judging by the pink dot that says it on her License.  She’s a pretty girl, she’s got a pretty nice and warm smile judging by her picture on her license, her nice straight, white picture- perfect teeth and blonde hair. The type of girl I would, I guess the kids these days say,  “simp” for back when I was in High School, and I guess I have a thing for blondes considering Molly was one, although that was more coincidental and just another thing I found attractive about her. A lot of people that I bring this up to if it’s relevant to the conversation we’re having and even my parents find it crazy that I’ve only technically had two girlfriends (if you count my now wife) in all my relationship life. But I was with these girls for a good awhile so these relationships did grow over the years, 8 years I think for Molly until we broke up, and six years for Nicole until we married. 

I hear the sound of her leaning down and reaching out her hand, showing off her bright nice diamond wedding ring and her hot red painted nails, she reaches out and grabs the wallet first, and uses it to slide the phone over, making a bit of a scratchy sound on the tile floor as it moves, luckily she has a case on her phone, seemingly a iPhone as well. I hear her lean over to go and pick it up. It’s kinda weird she doesn’t respond to the grossness of touching this stuff that was on the floor especially in this world we live in now with people even more conscious about germs in this somewhat Post-Covid-19 world, but granted what can she do in this situation I guess if you’re just sitting on the toilet and you’re trying to get your stuff back without getting out of your current position. She drops the Wallet in her purse, you can hear the keys and the other objects inside, I see her hesitate a bit and then she tosses her phone in there too, landing with a healthy plunk. She yanks the purse up and back to her side of the stall.  I hear her plop it on the floor to get out her phone, and she seemingly has a Facetime conversation with her husband, who’s seemingly out in the car judging by the sound of the hum of it’s engine. She’s seemingly on some girls trip with some friends she went to high school with back in San Diego, seemingly stopping here for the evening, although going a bit out of their way for a friend who was interested in the area. She talks about her kids and how they’re doing since she’s left for the trip a little bit I notice, seemingly elementary school aged and seemingly obsessed with their Nintendo Switches she jokes about.

I can tell she has a bit of that classic SoCal Valley Girl accent, although a little more softened a bit I can tell due to age. She’s on the phone for about 15 minutes if I had to guess, me and the rest of the guys wait for her to get done and out of the stall before we make our next move. She finally does finish her conversation, saying something about getting a text from one of her girlfriends that they’re waiting on her to get out. She quickly grabs her purse and pulls her pants up and opens the stall door and walks out and washes her hands and drying it off with paper towels, the sound of the electric paper towel dispenser really echoing as Ashley waves her hands around to really get that motion dispenser to work, you can hear the drops of water on her hands land on the floor as she waves her hands around. For almost what feels like an eternity, she finally leaves the bathroom. And it’s just us guys again.

“Alright, how much do you wanna bet we don’t get caught trying to make a run for the Exit?” Dave says.

“Ehhh, I don’t know about that man. I guess we could try but someone could see us” I say.

“Just make a run for it, with the way people are glued to their phones these days, plus the fact not everyone’s paying that much attention to the floor unless they're a custodian or whatever. I’ve done this a million times, especially back in the eighties especially when this type of shit was a daily occurrence for me” Tony says.

“Yeah, but we don’t know the layout that well, at least I don’t” I say.

“Can’t be that hard, this place isn’t Costco or Sam’s Club or some huge warehouse store. At least I don’t think it is. We can B-Line it to the door pretty easily that way. We better start making a run for it now before our luck runs out and someone comes into this bathroom again” Tony says, as I notice he starts to shake his left foot a bit, seemingly splashing a little bit of toilet water out of it as does, splashing onto me a bit. I notice he quickly says sorry as it accidentally splashes onto me. 

“Alright, I guess since you’ve been in this longer than we have” I say.

Tony makes a bit of a running jump first, landing on the floor with a pretty loud oof. He says he’s alright and he gets up, saying that jump looked pretty far on the way down but when he got down there he didn’t think the fall would be as painful though.

“Fuck it, I’m only technically 29. I’ll be fine, my joints and stuff are still good” Dave says, as he makes his running jump off of the toilet seat and onto the floor, he lands pretty good, despite the far fall that it seems he doesn’t make any noise about pain or anything like that.

“Your turn, Matthew. Make it quick, I don’t want another chick coming in here before we escape” I hear Tony say, a little bit mockingly and jokingly with the “Matthew” part.

“Alright, just give me a sec and let me position myself” I say, starting to get into a stance.

I run off the toilet seat, and do a running jump, not quite putting my all into it but I do enough to really get some air off the toilet seat when I do jump. I land on the tile floor on my side, and I feel a bit of pain in my rib cage but not that much, seemingly being dulled, seemingly that lessened pain effect from being shrunk previously, remember when I jumped off that sink over in Sarah’s apartment back in England all those years ago, a event I vaguely remember now, this individual memory I haven’t thought about in years.

“That looked a little rough” Tony says, as I get up and brush myself off, this sticky and kinda gross bathroom floor all over my acid stained jeans and my discolored black  “The 1975” t-shirt. The words all blurred out due to Michelle’s acids.

“Yeah, says you. You landed way rougher than I did” I say.

“Whatever. Let’s stop with the chit chat, let's start getting a move on” Dave says to both of us, and we all start to speedrun to slight jog out of the bathroom, and into the grocery store, it’s weird seeing a bathroom seem so large and huge that was normal sized to me yesterday, I remember feeling a little bit of this reverse shock feeling when I came back home from Europe  all those summers ago, when the thought that I had gone through something no human being or any living thing in general has been through (at least until the Jack Cooper stuff a few years later) had really settled in.  

We run out of the bathroom and onto the sales floor, we all collectively look around and then quickly run, me taking the lead. We run around shopping carts and mobility scooters, although I notice you don’t see as many people on them as in Atlanta in the stores, since I guess the south is pretty well known for larger people, to say the least. I think we ran through the cereal aisle trying to get to the door. I notice that Tony is keeping up pretty well, compared to the last time I saw him run on the beach when we were trying to get away from those college kids coming towards us. I dodge some guy’s boot walking above us and another shopping cart wheel. I can hear the song “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley playing as we’re running over the speaker above us as well too. We almost make it to the door and then a big gust of wind from a custodian sweeping right near us knock all three of us pretty high into the air, getting us as high as almost the cart handles, if I had to make a reference, I’m pretty freaked out because at our height this is like being as high as a building. The janitor moves out to a different direction and we land on the tight fitting blue collared shirt of a chubby latina woman in her late 20s or early thirties if I had to guess that was seemingly right behind him. We land around her upper stomach area. I notice we land with a bit of cushion, right on her shirt, not too far from her breasts. I notice she's a bit on the portly side, not exactly fat but a bit bigger than average I can tell, seemingly the static cling from all the movement once again seemingly making us stick to her. 

She walks, and I can hear her stomach a little bit as well too as she walks, she seemingly had a big meal judging by all the gurgles and churns and the like behind us. 

“Todavía no puedo creer que dejé mi cepillo de dientes en casa (I still can’t believe I left my toothbrush back at home)” I hear her say under her breath, although I don’t understand what she’s saying, but I can make out the word home out of Casa. My wife actually knows Spanish better than I did, she took it up in high school and retained most of the information years later surprisingly, something that she sometimes jokes about, saying that it’s one of the few things from high school that she remembers, saying those years were such a blur to her.

I internally think jokingly about asking the other two guys if anyone knows any Spanish, but I don’t wanna get caught.

She walks to the dental section of the store, and grabs a box of Colgate toothpaste and a toothbrush, the toothpaste reminding me of all the “Supreme” stuff the kids have been wearing these last few years, although I’m sure the toothpaste is where the brand got their logo from, or at least the inspiration. She walks toward the checkout and gets checked out by some seemingly unenthusiastic emo-looking 20 year old chick with a septum piercing and with her eyeliner on a little too heavy around the eyes. It seems like Vons has gotten rid of self-checkout seemingly since the last time I was in on, or at least this location does. I noticed that she and the cashier don’t exchange too many words, she pays for her stuff with her U.S. Bank Debit Card. I noticed her name is Martina from what I could see on the card when she handed it to the cashier. She grabs her stuff and her bag with the toothpaste in it, giving the cashier a heavy accented “Thank you” as she walks towards the door.

As she walks towards the door and out into the parking lot, seeing that it’s getting closer to sunset with the way the sun is out, seemingly sunset is on it’s away, it reminding me again that it’s been hours since I’ve seen my wife, and I know she’s probably scared and wondering why I’m not answering. As she walks out the door I can feel more commotion going on inside her stomach with all the growling and bubbling going on in there seemingly digestion if I had to get due to how content is seems, I feel some bubbling in her stomach again, seemingly a burp bubble, and she burps about 30 seconds later, and pretty loud too, it echoes in the shopping center’s parking lot. It’s pretty loud and bassy and had a lot of gas in it for sure. I can somewhat smell it too, it smelling like a mix of pepperoni and chocolate. She walks a bit more towards a newer looking Chevy Equinox in the parking lot, 2018 or 2019 if I had to guess the year and I see her take her keys out of her pocket, and unlocking the door with a button. She gets into her car and takes a seat and closes the door with a slight slam, it smells heavily of Pizza and new car smell, she’s got about five of those Little Trees of the new car scent around her rear view mirror. Her stomach makes a really loud groan and a squelchy churn and then a loud chain reaction of gurgles and I can feel it all happening a little bit below us were I wanna say right above her navel would be if I had to guess, and she puts her left hand on her chubby tummy, seemingly feeling a another burp coming on and she does burp, pretty loudly again, the pepperoni smell really intensified in this closed windowed car. And after she burps her stomach gurgles pretty loudly again, loud enough that she could definitely hear it. The pizza she ate, I’m assuming, isn’t having a funtime in her stomach for sure I can tell. Her stomach is really battling it there.

“Too Much Dominos…” Martina says in English, her accent is pretty heavy, and she hiccups. 

She notices us as she shifts her eyes towards us, I think when she looks down at her tummy, her face looking ginormous to us, her hazel eyes and her caramel coffee brown skin and her jet black hair, I notice she looks a little bit more skinny in the face compared to her tummy. She moves her hand and brushes us off, and we land in the open Arrowhead water bottle in her cup holder, landing in a slight splashing, not enough that I think she would notice.

“It’s the same ol’ same ol’ Situation, Same Ol’ Ball and Chain” Tony says, referencing a old Hair metal song in light of the situation we’re in, seemingly trying to make some light out of it. 

We bob around a little bit in the water, it somewhat smelling like pizza sauce, and I see little particles of chewed up crust and the like in the water, coming from what was being washed out from Martina’s mouth. We get a good view of her face, and she’s kinda cute if I had to say. I hear another loud gurgle come from her stomach, and she places her hand on her belly again and she does another pretty loud burp and it really echoing in her SUV. She must of ate a good amount of Pizza if her stomach’s that noisy.

She looks at the water bottle, and she reaches out her hand and grabs it, lifting us up.

“Same Ol’ Same Ol’ Situation” Tony says, singing it a bit more than just saying it, seemingly not even phased by this anymore, because judging by the last situation it doesn’t seem like we’re going to get digested along with whatever’s in her stomach.

As her mouth gets closer and closer and the warmth of her mouth mixed with the smell of Pizza Sauce gets closer to the bottle opening, I honestly feel nothing, and Dave seems to be nonchalant about the situation as well too.

“Same Ol’ Situation, Same Ol’ Ball and Chain” Tony says, as we all begin to go from the plastic bottle to her hot and damp tomato sauce smelling mouth.

Martina’s mouth is hot and damp and smells like pepperoni and tomato sauce, something that’s really overwhelming while we’re inside of it. I can see the pieces of dough and cheese and splotches of tomato sauce and little bits of pepperoni around in her teeth and on spots on her mouth, as I can see as the light from outside gets into her dark and damp mouth. I see that Tony and Dave are right behind me as they get splashed into her mouth, me always seeming to be first in these swallowing situations. I guess it’s just my luck. I hear another burp being formed coming through her throat, and it seemingly squelches itself out inside her throat. Smelling the acidic air as it waves towards us as we flow towards her throat. As we get closer and closer towards her throat opening, I get the thought that my dad could be watching all this stuff from above, and now knows about everything that really happened during that Europe trip when I was eighteen. I get a slight sadness thinking about him and then I fall down her throat with the water she’s drinking, and I hear Dave scream a little bit as he falls since I think the drop scared him a little bit but he quickly shuts himself up as he realizes he doesn’t wanna get caught. 

As I fall down her throat, the smell of pizza and stomach acid really is intense in here, that signature Domino’s smell is really overwhelming, and there’s a hint of garlic as well too in here I can smell. Her throat feels more on the wider side and there’s a bit more room in here compared to Michelle’s I feel, but I think it’s because Martina’s a bit more on the heavier side than anything else, Michelle being a lean volleyball playing early twenty something year old chick and Martina being a overweight woman in her late 20s or probably early thirties, if I had to guess. I feel the water mixed with her sticky saliva as we go down her throat. I think Tony is a little bit on her throat, judging by the sticky noises I hear as he makes contact with something with a bit of squish. I don’t think he feels him though, since we’re only about an inch or so.  As we get closer and closer to her stomach, even though I’m pretty sure it’s about the same length from mouth to stomach for pretty much (at least that’s what I think) it feels like it’s taking forever to reach her stomach. I guess maybe it’s all in my mind, as we get closer and closer and I hear the noises of her full stomach really digesting her food and working hard at it as well, judging by the heavy churns and a few groans emitted below us as we fall, echoing up in here with how loud and intense they sound. I think about how I’d never thought I’d find myself in a situation like this ever again after everything that happened nearly 19 years ago, but here we are. 

As I see her stomach opening up and all the noise from down in there getting louder and louder as it becomes more clearer than muffled, I secretly pray to myself that her acids aren’t so aggressive that they somehow digest us for real this time.

I land in her full and hardworking stomach along with the rest of the guys, and of course the swig of water. I feel the multiple lumps of chewed up pizza and all of it’s toppings, pepperoni, cheese, sausage I can tell now, and also some sweeter smells like cinnamon, indicating some sorta dessert she had as I land. Although all the dough kinda mixes together in here and it’s a little harder to differentiate between what’s what. The water really seems to be somewhat of a catalyst here as well too adding to the chaos , it’s splashing inside causing a huge groan and a few bubbles popping off inside her stomach. I get up off of the rapidly disintegrating bite of dough and land with a splash into her stomach acids and they kinda burn a little as I try to make my balance with trying to attempt to swim a little bit and not get pulled under by Martina’s super aggressive acids.  I call out for Dave and Tony. Hoping that they find some stability inside Martina’s super active and heavily digesting stomach. 

“I’m doing fine!” I hear Tony yelling over the constant gurgles and smaller churns going on in Martina’s stomach.

“Same here” Dave says, sloshing around a little, I hear him struggling a little bit trying to find some balance. 

Before I can get another word out I feel a another huge churn starting to form, it taking me along with it a little in the wave of acids, seemingly trying to take out a big chunk of chewed up pizza, I notice Martina reacts a little bit to this with a slightly painful sounding moan, and I can hear her shift a little bit in her car seat as a reaction. I think she starts up her car, judging by the loud start up vroom of the SUV’s engine and the sound of the radio turning on, some SiriusXM promo for something, I can barely make it out over the sound of her heavily digesting stomach. I hear her sigh loudly again out of fullness, and I see a few bubbles from her acid go up her stomach opening and up her throat. I will admit, Martina’s stomach feels sizably bigger compared to Michelle’s, Michelle’s stomach even when full felt like I was in a waiting room when comparing the size, and Martina’s feeling more like an even bigger waiting room, if you catch my drift. I feel a big piece of chewed up pizza dough churning and being dissolved around my leg, and before I make another move, I hear a huge sounding burp from up above from the previous burp bubbles, and it sounded pretty wet too. 

I think she unbuttons her pants judging by some tenseness from I wanna say her stomach walls not too far from me in the front seemingly seemingly more relaxed and expanding a little more, this causing some more commotion in here, her digestion still pretty intense with all the gurgling and bubbling going on with the digestion of the pizza, although the tightness inside her stomach seemingly alleviated made things a little less intense digestion wise. I feel a crashing churn lifting me up and taking me under for a bit, my mouth filling up with stomach acid and digested pizza chunks and a hint of cinnamon dough. I almost throw up while under the liquid but luckily the churn sloshes me back up into the air and I fall a bit back and I land on her stomach wall, sliding down a bit, as I slide down I spit out the liquid and undigested food in my mouth. Out of all the moments I felt like throwing up, this is the one where I felt like doing it the most. The bile acid and the undigested Domino’s pizza in my mouth, pretty much assaulting my taste buds and leaving one of the most disgusting after tastes in my mouth. I guess on the brightside, at least I could swim. I imagine someone who couldn’t swim all too well or at all probably would have drowned in the situations that I’ve been in, and same for Tony and Dave.

I land right next to Tony, he murmurs a “Oh Shit” as he sloshes a little out of my way.

“First Time?” Tony says, teasing a bit.

“Being thrown up in the air by acids  inside some chubby chick’s stomach? Yeah, first time. Like that stupid meme or whatever” I say, as I spit some of the digested chunks of dough and pepperoni still lingering around in my mouth.

“How are you holdin’ up in here Dave?” I say pretty loud making sure he can hear me over the bubbling and gurgling going on inside Martina’s stomach, noticing that I haven’t heard him a bit.

It’s quiet for a few minutes, and it’s pretty dark in here and with all the bubbling and gurgling going on you can’t tell apart the sloshing from someone moving around or the sloshing from the digestion and the pizza and the like being moved around. I fear the worst for the second, that his acid invisibility from being shrunk had worn off due to how intense these acids seem to be. But then I think, if Tony seems to be alright due to how many times he’s probably been through something like this and becoming shrunk again years later and still being alright, then I don’t think it should wear off for Dave, even though it’s been years for all of us though since we’ve been like this and inside someone’s stomach. 

“DAVE?!!” Tony says with a lot of fear in his voice and I can hear his “Dad Voice” pop out when he says it, sounding pretty commanding and adding a bit more bass in it. 

“Yeah, I guess it’s not cool. I was going to pull a prank on you dudes, but I guess it’s kinda stupid considering this situation we’re in right now” Dave says a little far away from us, sounding a little defeated as if it’s something he didn’t really think about the implications fully. His voice isn’t quite as loud, and you can hear the gurgling and squelching of Martina’s food digestion over him, but you can still make out what he said. 

“C’mon dude, you should know better, especially at your age and the situation you’re in. I can’t even begin to understand why you think this is the time for that” Tony says, using his stern dad voice with him I notice, and I start to giggle a little bit at it. Tony sounding like he’s lecturing one of his teenage sons about something.

“What’s so funny?” He says, and I feel his eyes looking back towards me.

It’s silent between us for a few seconds besides the noises of Martina’s stomach, and then me and Dave bust out laughing.

“I don’t know if you’re noticing this (I breathe in for another giggle) but you’re really using that dad voice of yours” I say.

“Forreal dude, I felt like I was being yelled at by my parents all over again when I first got home after being shrunk while they were on vacation when I was like 17” Dave says, and then laughing a little bit more.

Tony loosens up a little, and does a few chuckles himself. 

“Well, when you have teenage kids, especially boys, you’ll be using this voice at least on a constant basis and you’ll slip into it at times when you don’t even realize it” he says, chuckling a little. 

As all of this is going on I realize that Martina is I think driving now, making her way out of the parking lot. The slight movements of her driving doesn’t really register to us due to all the commotion going on inside of her stomach anyways. I haven’t really noticed the sounds of the shifter or really the radio over the commotion going on inside her stomach either, I notice that some of her food has traveled into her intestines judging by the levels of acids slightly getting lower but her stomach is still digesting, although there’s still a decent amount of pizza still in here getting churned around and destroyed by her stomach. Judging by all the food in here and that will be later on, moved out to say the least. All that cheese and dough in here probably is going to lead into some problems later on, she might need some MiraLax with all that possible blockage that could happen. I feel an undigested piece of pepperoni float into me, and I push it away, and the smell of it is really intense when it’s near me.

“My oldest Francine is a girl, now a smart young woman, she’s 22 now and almost done with her Bachelor's degree in Psychology at University of Michigan.  She’s always been somewhat of a social butterfly and I feel like she gets a lot of that behavior and attitude from my wife and she has a pretty large friend group I noticed as she grew up, she’s currently dating an Asian kid from Boston she met at some sorta party on campus. The kid is Boston born and raised too, he’s got a really thick accent. Franny’s always been a good girl, she had a bit of a wild streak in her teen years but she tamed herself out of it. She actually stole my old Mustang one summer night while I was sleeping when she was 17 to go to this party all the way across town. I had my keys near the key ring that was near the door that lead to the garage, so I guess it wasn't hard to do so. When she came back early the next morning, I was pretty pissed and so was her mom and I think she got the message. We probably would of let her go anyways if she would of told us, we know the type of people she hangs around and we know she won’t get up to any trouble. We didn’t ground her though, since she really seemed to understand this was the last straw and she had such a good streak before all of this and she showed a lot of remorse. This was the last of her “teen rebellion” we’ll say” Tony says, and then coughs a little bit. Some of the stomach acid’s smells are really getting into his nose and in his own throat. 

 “My middle son Tony Jr but just really Tony we call him, He’ll be twenty in September. College wasn’t really something he was really interested in, he did okay in school but he wasn’t a high achiever or anything. He got into fights and shit his junior and senior year, small stupid shit that he knew he should have done or instigated for the hell of it. He was pretty quiet and didn’t do much actually when he was at home when Covid hit and his online schooling, but as soon as we went back to in-person and things started to get better to get back to school he was back to his old ways again. He really was the biggest troublemaker out of all my kids. In elementary school he was a bit of a bully to the other children but we quickly nipped that stuff in the bud once we started to catch wind of it. Or was disrupting class or lying to the teacher about doing an assignment or not following directions. It’s not like he had ADHD or ADD anything because we had him tested for that stuff when he was younger, that’s just how he was and this stuff was starting to get talked about a bit more when he was coming up I feel. I feel like almost every week my wife or sometimes both of us would be in some principal’s office for whatever he did” Tony says, and I hear the noise of a water bottle being lifted up on the outside, judging by a crisp plastic crunch I hear not too far from us on the outside. 

“But I will say after his senior year last year after literally having me and his mom constantly yelling at his shitty behavior and seemingly realizing of all his past groundings and the like he seemingly finally matured a bit and realized that he needed to do some more good and change his behavior up, and I’m still proud of him. College wasn’t really in the question, me and my wife debated over this and I was more on his side when it came down to not going, because it’s really not for everybody, and if he’s not interested in it there’s no point in him going. Although we did make an agreement at the end, he has to find some type of job that he can support himself with. And he’s actually found some interest in welding and he’s in welding school in Detroit and one of his high school buddies has a friend out there and that’s where he is now being roommates with them in Royal Oak, he’s been there about 7 months now once his welding school started out there. He’s got a girlfriend out there he met at some church thing one of his friends’s grandparents or something dragged him along too, so he’s really shown a lot of positive growth these days'' Tony says, and I hear the gulping of Martina’s throat, the rush of water traveling down it. Her stomach still churning and bubbling pretty strongly, but it’s starting to die down a bit more as her stomach starts to transport a little more of her semi-digested food into her intestines, which are also pretty bloated as well if I imagine. When the water crashes down into her belly, seemingly as if she’s finishing off her water as I can hear the gulps and the water traveling through her throat and getting ready to send more and more water down into her bloated belly. 

“Yeah that’s good, former problem child turned up and coming productive member of society” Dave says, as the water lands inside Martina’s stomach, with a loud splash and it sets off a chain reaction of gurgles. 

“Yeah, I will say my youngest, Vincent, is almost the complete opposite of his older brother, the son I told Matt about earlier when we were at Denny’s earlier today, he’s in Ohio with his girlfriend’s family where they’re from for spring break. He’s such a good kid, decent grades, plays soccer with the school’s team as goalie and makes a damn good one too. My kids aren’t really into sports like I am, but at least my youngest seems to like soccer, although I’ve never been a fan of it myself. He turns 17 in May. I’d say out of all my kids, he’s the most like me. He’s more into the rock side of things, like I said earlier to you Matt he likes The 1975 and The Arctic Monkeys and some punk-ish newer bands like Neck Deep and The Wonder Years.  He’s more into rock compared to his Siblings, who are into all that rap stuff these days that are coming out, especially Tony Jr. Drake and Da Baby and Chief Keef and Juice WRLD and XXXTentacion and all that shit I only know through him” Tony says, as the flow of the water splashes inside Martina’s stomach, bringing up the liquid levels a little bit more and causing a bit more gurgles and a few smaller churns and squelches inside her stomach.

“Yeah, I hear a little bit about this rap stuff. Living in Atlanta and it’s always been the southern rap capital, here and I wanna say Memphis and Texas to some extent as well. Jack Harlow and Da Baby and Travis Scott and Post Malone and these guys are really seemingly the new “rockstars” these days with all the popularity that they seem to have. My wife likes some of the newer stuff rap wise, like Yung Gravy and Pop Smoke. I listen to a bit myself, Kid Cudi is one of my favorites and he’s a bit on the newer side of things I’d say, rap wise. ” I say, as a big piece of chewed up dough slides up next to me, and then quickly goes under with a few bubbling noises.

It’s quiet between us for a second, and then I notice the flow of water stops and I feel us star to move, as if we’re being pushed by something that’s not our own doing, and I think it her stomach starting to move us towards her intestines, and it happens so fast and so quick that I can’t even process myself what’s happening at first, I feel me, Dave and Tony being moved and shifted under in some sorta way, I can quickly hear a loud squelch as we move, all the food and us being moved into her intestines. As we enter her large intestine with the rest of her digested food, you can still hear her stomach hard at work with the rest of her pizza not too far away from us. It feels even more cramped in, the dough really feeling like it’s starting to harden and her intestines are really making away with it in some sorta sense, seemingly slightly moving it along and it’s doing it’s thing with it. It honestly does feel pretty crowded in here, though, with us three guys and all the digested pizza. It’s still dark and damp, and a bit more smelly compared to Martina’s stomach. Will admit, despite it feeling like we’re cramped and it’s crowded, it still feels a little bit bigger than being inside of Michelle’s intestines. Although the difference isn’t too massive, and I think the reason why it’s a bit bigger is due to all the food and stretching them out as well too. I notice there’s a lot of gurgling and little pops and the like around us too, the noise of her food moving inch by inch. 

“Domino’s Pizza, I remember when it used to be 30 minutes or less to get it delivered for free and everything”   Tony says.

“I’m more of a Pizza Hut guy, to be honest with you. Especially after this experience” Dave says, sniffling a little bit to clear his slightly stuffy nose and then quickly regretting it considering where we are judging by his hardy cough afterwards of disgust. Getting a good whiff of the smell of digested food with the slight hint of shit at this area of her intestines, it gets stronger the farther down you go.

“Yeah, I will say seeing one of your favorite foods all like this in someone’s stomach upclose really does kill your hunger for it in the future. I’m honestly used to it at this point due to how many times it’s happened. I remember one of the times Kate swallowed me back in 93’, this was around that crazy time that I ended up getting normal sized, she had Domino’s not too long after she swallowed me. I remember my first normal sized meal while over Brian’s house, who I lived with for a bit since he had more space compared to Kate’s apartment. My first normal sized meal was Domino’s and Pepsi, and Ironically enough the same delivery man that delivered to the house when I shrunk and visited again for the second time. I ate the pizza, although it felt kinda weird thinking that not too long ago then that Kate ate this in this very house, and I was inside her stomach as it was digesting. I used to get these types of thoughts, but over time the memories kinda weren’t as intense and a little more faded and faded as time went on. Granted, the same thing we’re going through happens inside us. ” Tony says, and I feel us being pushed a little bit forward and forward by her intestinal tract, along with the digested food. I still hear her stomach gurgling and groaning a bit farther from us, and the noises echo in the background.

“Probably true, but man I thought the last time I was shrunk would be a situation that I never would forget, and this is even more unforgettable due to the fact I’m technically on a vacation miles away from my house, and I’m with other people who’ve gone through the same thing I’ve been through” I say, rubbing my eye a little bit. 

“Yeah, life is strange, ain’t it?” Tony says, and then chuckling about it a little. Really sounding like a middle aged man with his laugh, I notice. 

“You’re tellin’ me” I say. 

“Who’s Kate and Brian?” Dave says.

“Long story, we’ll just say they’re friends of mine that I have history with” Tony says nonchalantly. 

As it’s quiet between us three again for the next few minutes, I can somewhat hear the outside noises. The hum of the SUV's engine on the road, the slight sound of the A/C on low, seemingly on heat if I had to guess by the temperatures outside, it still being March and all and it being chilly up in this mountain town. I can vaguely make out the song on the radio if I really concentrate and focus in on it over the noise of Martina’s stomach churning around it’s food, I think it’s a Bruno Mars song, I think it’s When I Was Your Man, especially with the “Flowers” part that I make out.

I think more and more food behind us is being pushed from her stomach into her intestines, and I feel us as a trio getting moved closer and closer towards our end, the smell of excrement getting more and more intense as we move throughout her intestines, I honestly start to feel a little bit more Nauseous as we get closer and closer. And I think she needs to use the bathroom herself. I hear her mumble something in Spanish, although I can’t completely make it out, I think the Word “baño” is used as well in what she says under a breath, it’s a little bit amplified since we’re inside her. 

“Welp, let’s see where this is going to lead to” I say, I think we’re towards the end of her interstitial track, I don’t this her anus and everything is too far away.

“As I’ve said a million times already I feel, hope for the best, prepare for the worst” Tony says. 

I think she drives a little more, and then I can kinda feel an abrupt jolt and the sound of a gear shifting, signaling that she’s stopped. I hear the sound of a car door opening and the sound of the door chime, and I feel us move around a little as she gets out of the car, I feel her lean a little bit to grab her toothbrush and toothpaste. She closes the door with a slam and makes her way into the hotel, and as she walks I feel like the process speeds up a little bit, us getting closer and closer to our exit. 

I hear the noise of an automatic sliding hotel door, and the sound of someone in the hotel lobby greeting her. I can hear this outside interaction stuff a bit more clearly now, since we’re quite a bit a ways from her stomach. 

“Bathroom Near?” Martina says in choppy English, I’m assuming she thinks she won’t be able to make it to her hotel room. 

“Yes Ma’am, right around the corner, there’s a sign” I hear a man say. I think it might be the Front Desk Clerk. He has a slight Texan drawl to him I notice, he could be a visitor or a transplant. How ironic these days, a Texan moving to California. 

“Thank you” She says heavily accented. 

She walks a little more and she turns, and she walks into the bathroom and closes the door. As soon as she does this, I feel us getting closer and closer towards our exit, although it literally smells like shit, and we’re surrounded by shit. Shit happens, literally. 

As we somewhat quickly get closer and closer, and we finally do see the light again, although there’s a few pretty thick looking logs of excrement in the toilet as our destination. The sound of the light bulb in the bathroom buzzing being our first outside sound that we’ve heard in awhile, this reminding me of when I was in Jessica’s bathroom in Berlin when I was shrunk and got discovered. 

As we fall I feel like I’m making eye contact with her gaping pink hole as I look back, getting ready to pinch out another loaf. We’re not mixed into the stuff, I will say. That’s pretty good at least. I fall out first, and then Dave and then Tony, and then another batch of the stuff falls out. 

I throw myself to the side of the toilet, not wanting to land in the shit, and I notice Dave and Tony do the same thing. It kinda hurts landing on the porcelain with all your velocity, but better than literally being covered in shit and getting it all over your already faded and somewhat torn-ish clothes.  Maritina farts and it sounds like one of those deep ones, and it’s a pretty nasty smell. 

I notice that she pushes a little more with the last batch with a little bit of grunting from her as well, I guess I am really right about the constipation that I predicted.

I notice that she grabs toilet paper and wipes her ass a couple of times before tossing it in the toilet, and she throws it in, a little bit of the stained paper landing on Dave’s arm before fully splashing into the toilet, and he seems grossed out.  I notice that she gets up to flush, looking into the toilet and she makes eye contact with us, and it feels like time stands still as she does.

“OH MY GOD, LITTLE MEN!!” Martina screams, at the top of her lungs as her pupils really focus in on us.

“Yeah, this is going to be fun” I say, fearing for what might happen

“Oh MY GOD. OH MY GOD” Martina says as starts to pull her pants up and button herself back up, starting to freak out more and more as she starts to really realize what’s going on and what she's staring at, and I wonder what’s going to happen next. Will she flush us down, or will we be saved and given away to the government or something like that as well too, and God knows what might. I feel my anxiety starting to rise and rise the more this situation goes on. 

I look at Dave and Tony as Martina’s pupils start to shift constantly and really focusing in us, seemingly ignoring all the other stuff in the toilet.  I guess when you see something as shocking as three shrunken men still alive after going through your entire digestive tract is something that can cause you to rethink your entire life. Tony seems to be a little bit shocked, but seemingly has a “welp, I’ve been caught” look on his face, with a bit of a frown. Noticed that Dave is the most shocked out of all of us, with his wide eyes and his eyebrows. While I guess I’m somewhere in between.

“Everything alright in there ma’am?” I hear the voice of a concerned man, I think it’s the Texan from earlier.

“Uhh Yess?” She says quickly calming down after being asked, I know her English skills aren’t the best and I’m pretty sure none of us know Spanish so I’m kinda wondering how this is going to play out as well too. 

“Alright. Just Checkin’ “ He says, and I hear the sound of his footsteps as they click clack against the tile floor, echoing a bit and the sound coming in here.

“Listen, we’re just robots!” Dave says, seemingly out of desperation. As soon as he says this I cringe internally, and I notice Tony shakes his head as if he’s saying “c’mon dude, that’s the best you could of think of?”. I start to giggle a little bit when I see Tony’s expression, since this is a pretty serious situation I also try to stifle it as well too.

“Ehhhhhhhhhh” Martina starts off, I can tell she doesn’t really know how to converse with us all too much due to her lack of English skills. So this situation is really a double whammy for all of us involved, since our Spanish is probably even worse than her English.

“I’m hearing some voices in there! And it doesn’t sound like there’s somebody else on the phone either!” I hear the hotel lobby attendant say, his Texan accent becoming stronger when he gets louder. 

“Uhhhhhhh” Martina says, and I see her reach out her left arm to flush the toilet out of a state of panic and me and Tony and Dave scream “Noooo!” at the top of our lungs, not wanting to get flushed away into the sewer system. I’m pretty sure we’re loud enough that I think that the lobby attendant is starting to unlock the door judging by the noises of a lock being unlocked. Our voices at the top of our lungs combined, sounding like another person screaming “No” inside the bathroom, our lungs and voice box seemingly packing a mighty punch of sound if we really do push it to the limit. As soon as we scream Martina quickly retracts her arm and her hand, shocking her a little bit and I notice this startles her as well too, judging by how shocked she looks a little bit in the face. The Lobby clerk comes in and I hear him cough a little bit, probably from the smell of the shit still in the toilet, although it’s died down a little bit due to water, but it still smells pretty bad to us shrunken three, since we’re so close to it still. 

“Who’s in here?!” He says, his drawl and his voice sounding stronger and stronger, he closes the door behind him slightly, enough that it’s cracked and not everyone can see in here.

I think he notices Martina looking down at the toilet. He hesitates at first judging by, judging by the smell and knowing what’s leading to it. I can tell he hesitates judging by how quickly he takes a few backwards steps. 

“Alright, what’s going on? I really don’t wanna have to look and see what’s in here” He says.

“People, Little People!” Martina says.

“I don’t think Jack Cooper’s in this toilet, ma’am” he says, that ma’am sounding a little sharp. 

“Fuck it, yeah we’re in here!” Tony says loud enough that the Hotel Clerk can hear us, and me and Dave turn to look at him like he’s insane. I honestly have no clue what the hell would possess him to blow our covers like this, I start to think all my worst fears of being tested on by the government and God knows what else what will happen once we get caught just all came true. I feel defeated and as if my life is pretty much over.

Although, there’s a small glimmer of hope inside me. That maybe the government won’t treat as badly as I though, since Jack Cooper’s talked a little bit about it on his podcast every once and awhile when the question is asked by a guest (the stuff they allow him to talk about, he says) and it’s not as bad as people have thought or figured it was. Although I also think he might be lying about that and just might be saying to throw everyone off or it’s what the government tells him to say about his time being tested when questioned about it by those who aren’t in the know. I feel as I’ve grown older through these years, I’ve really become an overthinker. Now if that’s a positive thing about me growing older, or negative. You tell me. 

“Are you play some type of fuckin’ joke on me now?” The clerk says and he quickly shuts up and I hear the sound of his hand slapping against his mouth. Letting a cuss world slip as he’s talking to a customer. Martina giggles a little bit at his reaction, 

“So, so sorry ma’am” He says, and as he starts to apologize Tony pipes up again.

“Nope, we’re actually shrunken men. Come Take A Look At Us!” Tony says, loud and clear.

“This has to be the stupidest attempt I’ve ever seen to make me look at some literal doo-doo, but hell. Fiiinneeee. I’ll budge” he says, and I hear his foot steps come closer and closer to the toilet, and my heart speeds up a beat or two as he gets closer.

“Oh dear lord, those are real tiny men in there!” He says, and I notice him looking into the toilet, seemingly not even caring about all the shit and the toilet paper around us. He’s middle aged, probably more in the 50 to 55 range if I had to guess judging by his face. He’s got a mustache but not much else facial hair, pink/tannish skin. He’s got his dark brown hair in that military crew cut sorta way, he reminds me of Steve Zahn in that Martin Lawrence comedy I remember seeing a movie trailer for on TV back in early 2003, during one of those nights back in high school hanging out with Jon and Richie and watching TV over Jon’s house, I wanna say it was winter break. Sometimes we’d hang out and our Summer ritual of hanging out in front of the TV until the early morning during other school breaks, but it was pretty rare though.  A random memory I haven’t thought about probably since it happened that randomly came out when seeing this guy’s appearance. 

“Yep, we’re real!” Tony says, and me and Dave keep quiet in all of this. 

“You’re talking but your buddies there don’t seem to be, are they mute or something?” The hotel Clerk says, I notice his pupils focusing more on me and Dave, studying us a bit. I start to wonder if I should say something to just keep staying still and not say much of anything. But I figure, that I might as well say something. He realizes that we’re all flesh and bone and not some type of toy or action figures or whatever as he slowly backs up out of the toilet.

“Yeah. He’s right, we’re real” I say, and the silence after I say my piece is pretty deafening as well too. The situation that we’re in really sinking in with all of us, The Texan hotel clerk and Martina seemingly starting to realize what they’re seeing is true and coming to terms with it, and us three realizing that we’ve really been caught now and there’s not coming back out of this. I think the fact Jack Cooper exists and the things he’s gone through doesn’t make it too unbelievable for people to quickly realize that we’re actually shrunken. 

I think the clerk’s about the say something but then we get interrupted by his boss. 

“MIKE, WHERE ARE YOU?! THERE’S PEOPLE UP FRONT THAT NEED TO BE CHECKED IN!” I hear his boss yell, sounding ironically younger than him. He sounds like he's probably somewhere in his twenties. 

 “HEY JON…YOU’RE GONNA WANNA SEE THIS. YOU GOTTA SEE THIS TO BELIEVE IT” Mike says, sounding shell shocked in his tone. 

“Alright!” Jon says.

I hear Jon’s footsteps walking closer towards the door, and creaking it open. I can hear him mumble under his breath that it smells like shit in here still, as if he expects a bathroom to smell like roses and cupcakes. 

“Is there a problem in here? Is the toilet clogged?” Jon says, putting on his professional voice for Martina. 

“Little Men, in there!” Martina says, I can’t see her hand but I’m assuming she’s pointing towards the toilet. 

“She’s not wrong, Jon. There’s some Jack Cooper stuff going on right now, look in that toilet right there” Mike says.

“Alright, but there’s some, uh fecal matter in the toilet we’ll say. Judging by the smell, so I’m not going to get that close to it” Jon says, slowly taking steps towards us.

“Yep, we’re here!” Tony yells, and as soon as he says this Jon stops in his tracks.

“Alright, is this some Youtube hidden camera prank shit? I swear to god Mike if I find out that you were in on this you’re fired on the spot!” Jon says, sounding pretty annoyed.

“Nope, no cameras here Boss! C’mon, take a look!” I say, starting to have a little bit of fun with the situation. Dave is still staying quiet. Ironically enough I was the most scared about it when we first all got shrunk, but now Dave’s the one who’s seemingly the most scared now when shit seemingly hit the fan, pun unintended. 

“Alright, you’re lucky I have a pretty strong stomach anyways dude. Working at that McDonald’s in South Gate in High School changed me as a man” He says, and I hear him walk up to the toilet, and look down, and he leans a little bit. He’s a black dude, which surprised me since he sounded pretty white without looking at him. He’s got a high top fade and an ear piercing, and looks about twenty eight or twenty nine if I had to make a guess. 

“No fucking way” he says, really focusing in on all of us, it’s almost like the other stuff inside the toilet doesn’t exist. I notice his pupils expand when the realization hits him with what he’s looking at is real.

“Yes, fucking way” Tony says, jokingly. 

“You guys really are real. Like actual human beings, how the fuck did this happen?” Jon says and a few specks of spit lands onto us and it lands onto the side of us, it smelling pretty minty and that really contrasts with the smell of shit, and I hear Mike walks back a bit, and closes the door.

“Like seriously, how did this happen, how did you end up in the toilet? Did she eat you guys or something, and if she did, how are you guys still alive?” Jon says, rapid firing off all these questions.

“Uh yeah, she ate us. Unknowingly. How we’re still alive after everything, I guess the same way Jack Cooper is, we’re just durable like that” I say.

“I still can’t believe what I’m seeing and hearing is real, I thought Jack Cooper was the only one. Now there’s three of you guys right in here in my lobby bathroom” Jon says, and he starts to bend up and get out of the toilet. 

“HEY, WHAT’S GOING ON IN THERE” I hear a very authoritative sounding voice from the outside. It’s quite deep and booming and I can tell that Martina is a little started by a small eek that she says.

“I think that’s the General Manager” Jon says, saying it to Martina.

I hear the sound of someone opening the door, and it’s almost like you can hear a pin drop with how silent it is as soon as the GM’s footsteps clack against the floor.

“Is there anything someone wants to tell me before I find out for myself?” He says, his voice being pretty sharp. 

“You gotta see it to believe it!” Tony says, and I snicker at this a little bit. 

I hear his footsteps get closer and closer, and he doesn’t seem to care about the smell (although it’s died down as the feces gets colder and more adjusted to the water) and we’re on the side of the bowl. He looks into the toilet, his face all stern and he has a bunch of stubble all around his face. He’s a middle aged white guy, around the same age as Mike. His hair is jet black in a 50s crew cut as if he’s an adult male extra out of Leave It To Beaver or something like that. 

“Damn, those are some realistic looking action figures” he says.

“Nope, flesh and bone right here buddy boy” I say, messing with him a little bit. 

“Alright, very funny prank” He says, looking right back at me, his blue pupils really focusing on me. 

“If this was a prank, then it’s well thought out” He says, sounding monotone, as if he has better things to do.

“No, Tom. It’s real.” Jon says, and you can really hear the seriousness in his voice with it. As if his life is dependent on it. 

“BullSHIT” He says.

“As God as my witness, Tom” Mike says, I find it somewhat amusing there’s not a whole lot of “mister or misses” when talking among work superiors. But that might just be a southern thing as well too, me spending a lot of time in Georgia and North Carolina for a good chunk of my life. I guess Mike took up that west coast informality.

“Alright, if you guys aren’t trying to play some sorta Jack Cooper prank or game. What’s your guy’s name, ages, occupations, and where you’re from?” He says.

“What are you, a cop? Whatever.  My name is Anthony Smith, I’m 50 going on 51 years old. I’m from Grand Rapids, Michigan. I manage a Denny’s out there-Alright you convinced me” Tony starts off but Tom cuts him off. 

“Yeah I’m calling the cops, I’ll let one of you guys uh, take them out and put them up on the sink” Tom says. And as soon as he says this I feel my stomach drop, and I think all three of us feel the same. I’m surprised he’s pretty nonchalant about this, seemingly realizing that these shrunken men are actually real and not some type of toy or whatever. I guess due to Jack Cooper, a situation like this can have people with mixed reactions. Others seemingly shocked, and others not so fazed due to seemingly it seemingly being humanly possible to be shrunk like we are, Jack Cooper being the main example. Although he’s the only person to be so, known by the public. 

"C’mon dude, PLEASE!” Dave says, sounding pretty desperate. The first time he talks during this whole situation, and I can hear Martina gasp a little bit, seemingly out of shock.

“I didn’t know that one talked. And again, somebody get those men out of that toilet” Tom says, again, nonchalantly and ignoring Dave’s plea. I hear the sound of someone opening up some sorta cabinet and grabbing something.

“NOT IT!” Tony says, giggling and quickly touching his nose. I don’t know what came over him during this discovery, but I guess maybe being humorous in a situation like this, even though he gave us away (but to be fair once we were found and everything else that went down after it once Martina saw us).

“Lotta Humor, the older one” Tom says as I hear the noise of the phone ringback as it tries to connect to the number, and I hear some murmuring between Jon and Mike. I think Jon takes one for the team, even though Martina should be the one who should be taking us out, since it’s her shit, after all. 

I hear the sound of Latex and I hear the noise of footsteps. I see Jon look in, bend down a little and then reach his hand out, the smell of the latex from the dark blue glove on his hand really being intense as he reaches his hand out to the side of the toilet that we’ve been keeping our balance on. 

“Just grab onto my finger and I’ll take you guys from here to the sink, although I’ll probably just do it one by one” He says.

“I guess I’ll go first” Dave says, seemingly starting to come more to terms with the situation of us being caught pretty quick, and he jumps a bit and grabs onto Jon’s finger. Jon asks him he’s got a good grip, and Dave says he does. I hear a few foot steps, and then the sound of someone being dropped off. And Then I go next, and I see the outside world again for the first time in a little while, The GM and Jon seemingly dressed in dark blue suits but no ties and with golden name tags saying their positions. Jon’s position being a regular manager. Mike seemingly dressed in a yellow collared shirt, light crispy looking jeans and a name tag. He has a very “dad cutting the yard” kinda dress attire for this job I’ve noticed. 

I hear that Tom is having a bit of trouble trying to convince the 911 operator that there’s truly some shrunken men at his hotel, but I can tell she eventually says that she’ll send someone over. The bathroom isn’t that clean, there’s toilet tissue on the floor from whoever’s used it last and a few piss stains on the grody looking tile floor. It’s just one bathroom, so there’s not a men's or women’s one either so this is it.  Jon goes back to get Tony last, and he has a little bit of trouble properly grabbing Jon’s finger, and he eventually is able to get a good grasp on his fingernail that’s poking out of the glove, and he goes from the toilet to near us, all of us sitting near the sink, the open bowl only a few inches away from us. I think Martina goes up and does the honors of flushing the toilet, and it sounds like the suction is pretty fast and quick of the toilet disposing of everything.

“Jon, go back out and tend to the customers. Same to you Mike. I’ll handle this from here. One of you guys tell me when the cops make it here” Tom says, and Jon and Mike quickly follow suit. Jon throws his gloves in the garbage and then walks out. Mike follows him out the door. I notice Martina starts to leave but Tom tells her to stay as well, and she stops in her tracks, almost nearing the door and about to open it.

“I’m going to wait it out with you guys until the police show up. I still can’t believe what I’m seeing is real, but honestly after these last several years in society. Nothing shocks me that much anymore” Tom says, and I notice he pulls out a silver flask from under his suit, seemingly having a pocket inside the suit jacket. He unscrews the cap and places it of of the top, the cap being connected to the flask in some way. He takes a few long sips and screws the top back on and places it back in his inside pocket.

“Yeah yeah I know, drinking on the Job. But hell, in a situation like this I need to take a swig or too” Tom says, seemingly breaking a smile. Seemingly loosening up a bit.

“Yeah, Okay. But why the police?” Tony says. 

“Well, I gotta tell somebody about you guys. I can’t just let you guys go. Imagine, you’ll get Jack Cooper levels of fame. How cool is that?" He says, stifling a burp when he finishes talking, and then he excuses himself. 

Martina seemingly doesn’t really care as much anymore, looking at her phone as she waits around as us three and Tom talk. I hear something from an Instagram reel as she opens up her phone and she turns the volume  

“I don’t care about that dude, I don’t wanna be tested on” I say. 

Tom laughs at this, and then smiles. 

“Ehh, I’ll just say I don’t think it’s going to be as bad as you guys might think” Tom says. 

“Do you know something?” Tony says, and a soon as he says this, I hear a loud knock that’s more like a bang on the door.

“Who is it!?” Tom says.

“SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW!” The officer barks, a little bit more aggressively than I’d argue he needed too considering the situation that we’re in. 

“I don’t know why Jon or Mike forgot to warn me, I’m gonna give them hell about that one later on” Tom Mudders. 

“I’M UNLOCKING AND OPENING THE DOOR” Tom Barks back, and he walks towards the door, unlocks it and opens it, and as soon as he opens it two officers speed walk in, knocking him back a little bit he quickly regains his composure. 

The cops scope the bathroom, but they soon realize what they see is something that shocks them on site. Martina seemingly looks shocked and quickly puts away her phone, but they seemingly don’t pay her too much attention though. 

“HO.LEE.SHIT.” An officer says, noticing us on the sink, Jon seemingly standing off in the corner, seeming pretty intimidated by the officers. The other one takes off his shades, and adjusts the already recording body cam and putting the focus onto us, judging by the green silently beeping light right on it, you can see the shocked expression on his face. His last name seems to be Schnider judging by his badge.

“Hey, uhh. We’re gonna need some back up. This is something that’s gonna be for the history books. You have to see this one to believe it. This hotel guy wasn’t lying” one of the officers says, talking into his radio, still making eye contact with us as he does so. His last name on his badge seemingly being Gallagher, now that I get a good look at it.

“I guess this is really the best time to have the right to remain silent” I say, cracking a joke and Tony smiles at this. Dave just shakes his head as if to say “really dude?”.  Officer Gallagher seemingly looks even more shocked by this when I talk, me talking really confirming what he sees is real. 

I guess this is where it all starts with the publicity, huh. 

“I’m getting the feeling this is way above our paygrade” Officer Schneider says, as he starts to look more towards Officer Gallagher, still keeping his eye contact unto us a little bit.

“I’m getting that feeling too” Officer Gallagher says.

“So uh, how did all of this happen? Bathroom, you guys being shrunken” Officer Schneider leads off, speaking directly to us standing on the bathroom sink.

“We accidentally got ate by that chick the corner, went through her entire digestive system, got shitted out, and found out in the toilet” Tony says, pointing toward Martina, seemingly playing some sorta mobile game on her phone, judging by her hand movements and how she’s really focused on it. 

“Ma’am, is that true?” Officer Schneider says to Martina, she doesn’t seem to look up at first, still being really immersed in what she’s doing. She looks up a few seconds and then says “No habla ingles”. Seemingly not knowing how to converse this conversation in English. Officer Gallagher mumbles into his mic saying something about bringing over a Spanish translator along with the back up. 

“Well you sir, do you know something?” Officer Gallagher say to Tom, who’s been leaning back on the bathroom wall near the door, watching things unfold. Tom scratches his stubbled chin, and then swallows some phlegm. 

“Y’know, I can’t really say that I know this whole situation all too well either. I just got called into it by my employees. Who found them in the toilet, after y’know, the woman over there defecated them out along with the rest of her waste. Now how she accidentally ate them and all of that, beats me. I guess y’know, you can actually ask the people who actually went through it” Tom says, with a little sarcasm at the end, throwing a glance towards us. 

“You guys wanna explain yourselves a little more?” Officer Schneider says turning towards us, sounding annoyed in his tone of voice after what Tom said to him towards the end.

We stay silent for a minute, I think we’re all internally thinking how we should approach this situation. Should we tell them that we all made physical contact with each other and then we shrunk, and then talk about the situation with the college kids and how that went down and how we ended up here. Or should we make up some sorta lie that kinda fits. I can tell we’re all thinking these, since I can feel the tenseness in the air between us on what to do.

“Well guys, you do speak English and we just saw that you did. Did you guys hear my question?” Officer Schneider says, again, the beeping light of his body cam really focuses on us. Something that I really think about as it’s happening.

“It’s a long story” I say.

"Well it ain’t like we ain’t got nothing but time” Officer Gallagher says.

“Hey, San Bernardino County Sheriff, open up. This is the back up” We hear a slight knock at the door, and they come in creaking it open.

“Yeah, this isn’t our jurisdiction. This is some F.B.I, X-Files type shit right there. ” An officer says as he comes through the door immediately noticing us on the sink, I can tell it’s getting almost dark outside. It’s a little past sunset. The hotel's lights are really starting to shine, and I think there’s a few customers outside in the lobby watching what’s going on, all this police presence attracting attention. Another one walks in after him, a lean looking Hispanic woman. I guess she’s probably the translator officer.

“So what do you wanna do then? Call the F.B.I and get them on the case?” the translator officer says, her name tag saying Vargas. She runs her hand through her shiny jet black hair.

“Yeah bro, this is way above our paygrade as I said earlier” Officer Schneider says, starting to scratch the scalp of his head. 

“I do know one thing though, this shit is the Jack Cooper situation of like, 2023. Never in a million years would I ever think there was more just like him, or ended up like him” Officer Gallagher says, and I notice the officer who’s last name I haven’t seen yet chuckles a little at this, and Officer Vargas gives a weak smile.

Officer Vargas says something in Spanish to catch Martina’s attention, seemingly back to playing her mobile game. They walk out the bathroom door so they can talk more about the situation, seemingly to the side somewhere outside the bathroom and somewhere more secluded. They both somewhat hurry out of the bathroom as they walk, a bit more of a crowd has formed outside but I see Jon tells them to please stop trying to stare and they do disburse. 

“I’m just flabbergasted. I have so many questions” The nameless officer says, and as soon as I get a good look at his badge I see his last name, it being Fowler. 

“Yeah, tell me about it. I honestly can’t wait for what she has to say about this” Office Schneider says, pointing out the door. The cops I notice are kinda standing in a circle now, Tom standing to the side a little. Seemingly staying quiet as all of this goes down as the cops talk amongst themselves about the current situation. I have the feeling judging by the unfinished conversation him and Tony had before the cops showed that Tony may know more than what he led on, at least about being shrunk. Maybe that’s why he’s being quiet. 

After about 15 minutes or so, Officer Vargas and Martina come back in. The cops seemingly well adjusted to our existence, seemingly ignoring us in the background. I guess it isn’t that weird once you get past the initial shock, their conversation goes from how weird this situation is, to how bored they are posted up in the Big Bear area. Seemingly mostly being from the LAPD or the Inland Empire cities police departments and seemingly mostly patrolling out there, and how boring it is being up here in Big Bear compared being a cop in Downey or Riverside or West Covina or whatever. As soon as Officer Vargas and Martina come back in, they seemingly stop their current conversation.

“So, what’s the story?” Officer Fowler says, swinging his arms back and forth and clapping when he swings them forward. 

“So she says that she doesn’t know 100 percent how they got inside her, she says she think if something like them got inside her stomach, she would know about it. She’s completely honest about this it seems. So I’m assuming she consumed them by accident” Officer Vargas says, and Officer Fowler looks shocked when he seemingly finds out all three of us have been consumed.

“Wait, so you guys…” He says, looking toward us. He had that same shocked expression that Officer Gallagher had when he found out that we talked.

“Yep, it’s as gross as you could imagine” Tony says, answering his trail off.

“This really is a Jack Cooper situation, and you guys are still in one piece and everything” Officer Fowler says, sounding amazed. 

“So do you guys know how you ended up in Mrs.Perez’s stomach?” Officer Vargas says, eying us. I guess Perez is Martina’s last name.

“Well, we fell onto her shirt, after being tossed up in the air inside the local Vons by a janitor as we were running across the floor, figured it would be best not to move to alert her, we end up on her until we get to the car, she gets in and we land in her water bottle, and we got swallowed and everything. And here we are now” Dave says.

“Does this check out for the rest of you guys?” Officer Fowler says.

“Yep, that sounds about right” I say,

“Yeah, that’s how it happened” Tony chimes in seconds after me. 

“Okay then. Yeah there’s not much we can do about this, we gotta get the big boys involved with this one?” Officer Gallagher says, using “big boys” to refer to the government agencies. 

They ask us for our names, and the like, and ages and occupations. They say that they’ll contact our wives once we get to the station, since we’re all out here from different states and on vacation, plus we’ve been gone for hours now and it’s starting to be night time. I’m sure they’ve texted and called us a million times where we’ve been. If they haven’t filed a missing persons report already.

“So, how are we going to get out of here and get to the station?” I say, once they start to wrap things up, Martina is seemingly kept in contact for future reference I notice and that’s what they tell us, she’s free to go as of now and she did leave. Her husband and kids are probably wondering where she’s at in all of this commotion, since I think she’s at least married judging by the Misses that Officer Vargas says.

“I’ll make sure to go tell the guys that we need the lobby cleared just for a minute, just for they can get you guys from here to the squad car” Tom says, speaking up for the first time in a little bit, starting to stop leaning off of the wall and heading towards the door and opens it and slightly leaves it open as he walks towards the lobby.

“Thank you” I say, and all the officers seemingly nod their heads in approval. 

“So, how are you guys liking Big Bear?” Officer Gallagher says towards us, seemingly trying to fill in the silence between us as Tom goes out and tells his employees what’s up. I’ve only seen Jon and Mike at this point, I haven’t seen anyone else get involved in this. Maybe that’s just who’s on shift at this very moment, at least down here that I can see. 

“It’s alright, y’know. Woodsy, I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and I live in the Bay Area now as you guys know so it’s nice seeing big trees and forestry and stuff. My wife proposed the idea of us coming out here for our wedding, since we’ve put it off due to Covid and the like as well” Dave says. 

“Yeah, I spent a decent chunk of my life in Charlotte and it’s a pretty woodsy city. So this isn’t too shocking to me. I remember hearing about this place a little bit from other students who went up here on spring break with their friends when I was in college myself, like 17-18 years ago. Wow, it’s really been that long huh…” I say, I realize how much time it’s been since I was in college. It really does something to you when you say it out loud. The world’s changed quite a bit since 2005. 

Tony begins to say something but Tom comes back in, interrupting him.

“Alright, you guys should be in the clear. I shut down the lobby for a few minutes, I told a few people who were on their way to check in that were outside that we’re handling a massive spill in the lobby and they should go back to the car for a bit. Surprisingly that seemingly worked and they obeyed what I said without a doubt" Tom says, closing the door behind him fully before saying what he says. 

“Y’know, you guys are lucky these bathrooms are pretty soundproof too” Tom also adds. 

“I’ll just put them in my breast pocket, if they’re alright with that” Officer Vargas says, and Officer Fowler snickers a little bit at this.

“What? It’s just a form of temporary transportation” Officer Vargas says, questioning Fowler a little.

“Y’know what, nevermind nevermind” Officer Fowler says and he waves his hands as doing it as if he's shooing her away.

Officer Fowler walks a little bit closer to us to and to the think, her nice toned figure looks nice in her uniform. Almost like a sexy cop, I’d say. Her dark eyes seem somewhat seductive towards us even though she’s not trying to be. She’s quite busty, as well too.

“Which one of you guys wanna get plucked up first?” She says, and I’ll admit. The way she says it kinda turns me on, even though she’s not really saying it in a seductive way. I’ve kinda had a thing for Latinas, ever since I first came out to Los Angeles for college and saw a bunch of them around the city dressed pretty sexy, whale tails and that type of stuff being the style back then. Not that many of them in Charlotte and Baltimore, especially back in the early 00s.  Although I never dated one due to the fact I was with Molly during that time. 

“I guess I’ll go first, I know Erica is worried sick for me by now and everything” Tony says, as Officer Vergas reaches out to softly grab him, picking him up by the back of his faded and pretty raggedy shirt, and placing him in her front breast pocket, right above her name tag. I know he can probably feel the padding of her bra. And probably the heat of her breast as well, radiating onto him. 

“I’ll go” Dave says, and Officer Vergas lays down her hand palmside up and lets him walk on it, I notice Dave tries to lightly step on her fingers as he makes her way up into her palm. I guess if he really put pressure on her hand it would hurt, or at least that’s what he thinks. Officer Vergas slowly rises her hand up to her breast pocket, and Dave climbs in, Tony reaching out his hand and pulling him in, him falling in head first, but he’s able to rotate himself up and on his feet, Tony moving over a little.

“Your turn” Officer Vergas says, looking directly at me. She gives me a warm smile and reaches her hand out to me. I feel kinda turned on, when she’s giving me all of this attention. I look at her hand, pretty wide and her fingers are pretty slender. I walk onto her hand, and she gently moves me, and it feels like I’m on an amusement park ride right with how high I am in her hands and how she’s moving me, although she’s being slow and gentle about it. 

C’mon, climb in” Tony says, gesturing to me to make my way inside her breast pocket, Officer Vergas putting me slightly closer to her pocket, making it a bit easier for me to climb right in and not have to have Tony or Dave try to lend me a hand. I notice all the other guys in the bathroom with us are seemingly watching this go one, even Tom seems to be paying attention to what’s going on. I don’t know if they’re watching us because they’re ready to leave this cramped bathroom or they’re intrigued by how we’re going into her pocket, possibly a somewhat perverted moment to look at her bosoms. 

I climb in, getting a good spot next to the end near Tony on the right side of her pocket. It’s like seeing the world from on top of a sky-scraper, although it’s just a bathroom that would have been normal sized to me just a few days ago.

“Alright, let’s get ready to roll. Sir, you’re good to go from here” Office Gallagher says,  then pointing towards Tom when he tells him that he’s good to go, and everyone starts to get up.

“Alright, thanks for your time, officers” Tom says, seeming being the first one to go towards the door, wanting to be the first one out of this situation that we’re in.

As Officer Vargas walks, and the other officers as well too, I can really feel her heartbeat a little bit behind us, behind the padding of her bra. And a little bit of her lungs going in and out as well too behind us, I notice after Tom leaves, Officer Fowler walks up to the door and opens it up for us, seemingly trying to be a gentleman. Everyone walks out in a single file line, I think that it could look suspicious to those who aren’t in the know, but then I remember that Tom temporarily told a few patrons to wait for a minute outside.

It’s nice being in the outside world again and seeing it, after being inside the digestive systems of two women .That signature hotel smell too being a nice reminder and refresher as well. Smelling actual fresh air, and not smelling air mixed with the smell of digested food and the like. As Officer Vargas walks, and we head towards the lobby. It really does feel weird seeing all these items like a flat screen TV in the breakfast area or a candy vending machine in the hotel commissary area look like it’s 100 feet tall compared to how it probably would have looked to me  just a few days ago when I was normal sized. I can feel the steps of Officer Vargas as she walks, I can see Jon and Mike seemingly behind the lobby desk, watching us as we walk away.

We make it outside and breathing even fresher air makes it even better, and I see the few Tahoes they have parked to the side of the hotel, and then Officer Vergas mumbles under her breath for all of us three to duck down for no-one can see us, something you think that would be really obvious for us being shrunk, but we forget collectively to do so since we’re already find out. We duck our heads down and sink a little bit more into her pocket as she mumbles this.  I hear some police talk on their radios about how they addressed the situation and they’re going to bring us into the station and how we’ll contact our wives and families and how it’s going to go from there

We get into the same car as Officer Fowler, the same Tahoe they seemingly came in on. I think Officer Gallagher and Schneider went along back to doing whatever they were doing, patrolling the area or whatever they were before they got our call. The crisp March air ending when dealing with the heated warmness of inside the Tahoe.

The drive to the station is pretty quiet, there’s not much talk between us shrunken guys and the officers. Besides Officer Vargas or Fowler telling us to duck down whenever we’re right besides somebody at a light or something and they don’t wanna risk us being seen by them. 

At the station we go through a separate part of the building to avoid being seen by civilians that might be there and the like, and we’re put in this little room. We tell them our wives numbers and they call them to tell them our situation, and we’re told that they’ll be coming to see us first thing tomorrow.

As I fall asleep on a napkin in this little area of some sorta secluded jail cell and Tony and Dave lying down not too far from me on it, it’s probably about 9 o’clock now and I’m starting to feel all tuckered out from all this action I’ve gone through. I wonder what tomorrow might bring, and how Nicole will react to seeing me at this size. And telling her all the history she doesn’t know about, what really went down in the Europe trip after high school and everything.

I feel a little bit of anxiety before I fall asleep about tomorrow. Crazy that all of this shit happened to me over the course of a few hours, in one whole day. 

Saturday, March 25th, 2023

I wake up, feeling kinda sore since I was lying asleep on a napkin all night. I notice that Tony and Dave are still knocked out next to me. We’re all sleeping on a napkin on a counter in some sorta secluded holding cell, not exactly the most comfiest place to lay your head at but I guess when you’re tired like us three are from all the events of yesterday you can fall asleep anywhere.  I sit up, and I see the analog clock on the wall not too far from us. Guessing by the hands, I woke up a little bit on the earlier side. It is roughly 6:27 in the morning if I really look at the hands on the clock hard enough. It almost being 6:30 now. I hear my own stomach gurgle, pretty loudly I admit. Even though I’m never hungry when shrunk, I find that kinda odd. Unless it’s just noisy for the sake of being noisy it seems, since it’s been awhile since I’ve eaten anything I’m digesting anything either. 

I think a little bit about what today might entail, how Nicole might react to my height and all the what ifs that could come out of this situation, what if I do get tested on by the government, what if this is permanent this time, how would I explain this to Nicole and my daughter and Mom and I guess would I have to reveal everything that went on during that Europe trip all those years ago? It’s a little scary to think about, to be honest. I feel the same anxiety I had last night before I went to sleep last night, it creeps up on me again as I think more and more about the possibilities of the situation, since we’ve been caught now and there’s no getting out of this one. I wonder if I should alert a few of the officers that I’m awake, or should I enjoy a few minutes or a few hours of peace before we get this crazy ass day started. Because I know I as soon as someone realizes that we’re all awake is going to get this whole ball rolling. 

I sit in silence, the only sound of the keys of the Officers in the distances jingling as they walk and the sound of a coffee pot brewing, looking out the cell doesn’t seem like there’s much around us. We’re in a pretty secluded area of the station anyways, away from a lot of the action from going on in here. The little that is going on in this tourist mountain town’s police station. The clock doesn’t tick at all as the time goes by, it’s a silent analog clock.

About 15 minutes pass by, judging by the different places the clock settles at. I just sit in silence, enjoying what time I have left before whatever happens once we all get up and we start calling our wives and telling them what’s up. I wish I had my phone, it makes moments like this much easier to get through. Waiting around without one makes me remember how boring it was waiting around before smartphones, even with flip phones and the like there was only so much you could do, playing Snake or Tetris or whatever you had available on there does get old at some point, I imagine. I think how I never expected this vacation, or at least a getaway to really think about my career and how I wanna move forward, would ever be like this. 

I think a bit about how my life in Atlanta that I’ve made for myself and my wife and kid. How different things could be after today, with my job, my friends who never knew I was ever shrunk in the first place, family. Will we have some sorta government assistance, a nice check every month to keep us afloat. I guess I’ll have to start thinking about downsizing if that’s the case since I don’t think they’re going to give us that much if we did get government checks. My wife and kid will probably not like it, my wife getting used to our well into upper middle class life, us making a little bit over 200k although factor in taxes and everything with our combined incomes. My wife grew up comfortably middle class, her dad being some sort of electrician with the city, her mom being a stay at home mom so the lifestyle she lives with me is pretty different from what she had growing up. They weren’t exactly paycheck to paycheck and had room to splurge and eat out and take the occasional trip to Florida or Savannah or some nearby, but it’s not like how it was for me growing up either though. I guess me and Nate were spoiled rich kids growing up, getting whatever gadgets and toys we wanted every year for Christmas and living in big nice houses and the like. Although I will admit our parents did teach us constantly about how lucky we were and not everyone has the same opportunities that we had whenever it fit. 

I think about all the things I may never be able to do anymore if I’m like this for the rest of my life, which could be the case this time. Having to get pretty much everything tailor made for me, clothes, toothbrushes, how would I eat regular food and have regular meals again? Stuff I didn’t think about all too much the first and I thought would be the only time I was shrunken. My anxiety gets even more heightened as I start to think more about this. 

I think a little more about Nate, my younger brother. I haven’t really talked to him since Thanksgiving of last year and around the time dad died and all that shit. He’s still working at the car wash he was working at in high school, although he’s the manager now and he makes okay money I’d say for a single guy living in Charlotte. He still lives in Charlotte and has an apartment in Matthews still keeps in touch with a decent of his friends from high school in that little nu-metal posse that he used to hang with way back when and they hang out from time to time, at least those who are still in the city. 

Most of them seemingly starting families and having kids and marriage and the like as they got older I seemed to notice whenever he’d talk about it. I’d argue that he’s not doing all that great compared to them, a lot of them making really good money and going up corporate ladders and the like, Nate never really went to college or expressed interest in it and my parents we’re okay with that, I guess.  He had that issue Jon had after high school but never got out of that slump though. Never really leaving Charlotte or having many ambitions after all these years. He’s been single for awhile now, he’s had a few girlfriends over the years, Julia didn’t last too long, his first girlfriend back in high school that he met at through some sorta mutual nu-metal friend of his. They lasted about two months and they didn’t really think they were right for each other. He was single for roughly a year. Then there was this Brunette chick he was with that he met through some sorta dating website, Mary. This chick was a year older than he was and this wasn’t long after he graduated from high school.  They were together for about 4 years and then he found out she was cheating on him with this other dude in Durham, and this had been going on for two years by that point. She went back to Durham on the weekends from where she was from and she worked in Charlotte for some sorta Veterinary internship thing that she was doing through college. 

He found this out, accidentally seeing one of her messages on her phone pop up from the other dude as she was texting somebody else right beside him and then confronting her about it. It was a ugly breakup, and this was in 2010 or so and I found all of this out when I came back to Charlotte for one of the first times with Nicole, mom kinda filling me in on everything when noticing why Nate wasn’t in a great mood all the time whenever I’d talk to him if he wasn’t at work. He didn’t move out of the house we lived in with our parents in Matthews until the summer of 2011 or so when he was 23. 

I’m debating if I should say something to the guards in the distance to maybe get this day started off even though now it’s only 6:51 as the time went by as I look at the clock again and we’re getting closer to seven, seemingly talking about how much of a pain in the ass it is in Los Angeles traffic compared to where some new recruit they’re talking about is from in Colorado. I don’t think they notice me too much, since we’re all pretty small and plus the fact that we’re in the distance from where they are. I get the brief thought to go back to sleep, but then I remember that they’d probably wake us pretty soon anyway since in a situation like this I don’t imagine they’re gonna let us sleep in. I notice that Dave and Tony are still fast asleep, I guess they are really tuckered out from the events of yesterday. I remember when I shrunk I think I would usually sleep pretty good, even though I slept in a suitcase or on Sarah’s stomach or Under Emily’s bed, even getting passed through Emily I was asleep, being swallowed and everything for the first time. It’s all so intense but vague all these years later thinking about these memories.

It’s a few more minutes of silence beside the noise of footsteps of the guards in the distance and the sound of Tony snoring a little bit, and Dave quietly breathing as he sleeps. 

“Alright Boys, time to get up!” I hear the sound of an officer quickly walking towards us, and I see him getting quickly to us in the distance.  He’s looking somewhat stern in his face, an older looking guy, the officers we were with yesterday were seemingly more in their 30s or 40s and this is for sure probably in his 50s to say the least. This guy seems like he’s been on the force for at least 20 years if I had to guess, maybe 25 or more. This Salt & Pepper haired older guy. He could be a captain or something. 

“Aye, Aye Captain!” I yell, trying to joke with him. He doesn’t seem too amused by this judging by his unchanging stern facial expression.

Dave slowly starts to wake up, seeming to be woken by his voice and shifting around a little. Slowly started to get up, Tony still dead asleep in this all.  He’s really in a heavy slumber.

“I see your oldest buddy there is still sleeping…” The officer says, getting pretty close to us now, start to slow down with his walk, beginning to open the cell, taking his keys and entering it into a slot and slowly pulling the door back. 

“Yeah (Dave yawns and covers his mouth) he’s probably still tired” Dave says, sounding like he’s half asleep in his voice, still just waking up.

“WELL HE BETTER WAKE THE HELL UP!” The officer screams out at us, scaring and shocking me and Dave right to our system and seemingly waking Tony right up out of his slumber, his shifting around and then getting up, seemingly awoken by the officer’s yell.

“Alright, Alright. I’m up” Tony says, starting to scratch his beard, it looks a little more on the bushy side due to how it’s not really groomed like usual. 

“Alright, well walk onto my hand for we can get to the phone and call up your wives” he says, seemingly unfazed by the fact he was screaming at the top of his lungs only a few minutes earlier. He reaches his hand out to the napkin on the counter, and I take the first steps to his, everyone else just lagging behind me. 

Everyone gets onto his hand, seemingly pretty rugged when I can kinda feel it. It’s like walking onto a huge baseball mitt with how big his hand is to us at our size compared to the other hands we've been in by this point.

He takes a few steps more into the station, and I notice a few officers stare at us as the officer who’s hand we’re in to get to the phone. The officer who’s hand we’re in says sternly that they better not catch anyone taking videos and pictures, even more so if this gets uploaded to Twitter or Youtube or Tik-Tok anything like that (he says TikTok unsurely as if he doesn't know what it is and as if he's just heard of it, which I find kinda funny), giving us wide publicity. Hearing him say all of this as we get taken near the phone makes me somewhat relieved that we could have some sorta lack of wide recognition or something worldwide, at least for the time being. 

We get up next to the phone, and the officer lets us start making our calls and we tell them their numbers and they push the buttons for us and they talk to them and tell them that we’re at the station, not saying anything about our current condition. Saying that our wives will respond pretty quick before they start calling, me and Dave having missing person reports filed for us anyways by now, as told to us by some passing officer when our names are found out by them. They call Dave’s wife first, she sounding frantic and somewhat relieved, and you can hear her practically jump out of bed as soon as they say they’ve got Dave at the station, and that she’ll make her way down pretty soon. Then they call Tony’s wife, and they have to call about two times, she not picking up the first time, going straight to voicemail after a few dial tones. They dial her number a second time and it rings for a bit and then she answers, and she asks who it is and they say this is the local police department and that Anthony’s at the station. She is more responsive when this is said, she sounded pretty groggy over the phone but it clears up when she hears that Anthony is at the station, and she quickly wakes up when she learns of this. The police then turn to me after the two other guys have already made their calls, and then we call Nicole. 

I tell them her number, although I admit I’m a little bit hesitant before saying some digits, since due to Smartphones having everything saved these days remembering numbers off the top of my head isn’t my strong suit like it used to be. I see her number on the screen every time she calls me and every time I go to my recents my contacts to call her, but yet I struggle a little bit when it comes to actually remembering her number. I still remember the number she had when we were dating though pretty clearly, punching it into my little keypad in my little Motorola phone to call her back then. I finish off giving them the numbers to punch in into the phone and I hear the dial tone and the ringing. And it doesn’t last long, because it’s almost as if she picks up immediately. I imagine she can see the name of the police precinct and everything on the screen, before she picks up, at least that being one of the biggest reasons why when regarding her picking up so fast. Besides me being gone and missing without a word to her about it, of course. She frantically answers hello, and the Office says that I’m at the station and that I’ve been found alive and (he hesitates before saying well). I hear her quickly get out of bed as soon as she finds this out, she says she’s getting dressed and will be up here shortly. 

“Sounds like you boys are truly lucky to have wives that jump into action when things like this go down, but again who wouldn’t” The officer says, and then I get a good glimpse of his nametag, his last name being Morris. He hangs up the phone as he says this. 

Officer Morris takes us back to our cell again, and tells us to hold tight until our wives get here. Saying that he and a few other officers are going to talk to them first before they see us, so we might be waiting here for a little bit before they get to see us. 

As he places us back on the napkin and closes the cell door, I do think to myself that we are technically small and at least me and Dave, somewhat slim enough to slip through the cracks under the door and make a escape, but then I figure that would make no sense now, since the jig is up and it’s been up since yesterday. Besides, we’re in pretty deep now with our wives being called and coming up to the station and of course, the police being involved and probably the government will be involved pretty soon. 

We wait around, it being silent between all of us, I notice Tony sits on the napkin that we all slept on and me and Dave just stand. I notice that we all smell, now that I really think about it. A mix of our own personal BO plus the smell of stomach acid really seeped into our clothes. I guess with everything going on the stench of ourselves have been the last things on our minds. To be completely honest. Ain’t really much we can do about it in our situation, considering everything that we went through. 

“I hope they aren’t too freaked out” I say, turning towards Dave.

“I think “freaked out” is gonna be an understatement” Dave says, scratching his nose. 

“Yeah, through sickness and in health was in our vows, I don’t think through shrinkness and in health was in there” Tony says, and Dave gives a weak smile at his attempt at a joke and I just playfully roll my eyes at him.

“Shrinkness isn’t a word, dude” I say, giving him an antagonistic smile, and he doesn’t seem like he gives it much thought.

“Whatever, I did it to make the joke work anyways. You know what I meant” he says, giving himself a pat on the back jokingly.

It’s quiet between us for about 20 minutes us sitting or standing in silence to ourselves waiting for the an officer to come bring us to our wives whenever they do explain the situation to them before seeing us, and then I see a officer in the distance walking towards us, I can’t tell what he’s saying at first since I wasn’t paying full attention, but I do perk up at him and I notice that Tony and Dave also do the same.

“You guys are in the clear to be brought to the front” He says loud and clear one more time for us to hear, the officer being a shorter Hispanic man if I had to guess in his mid 30s. Around the same age as me. 

I feel anxious as soon as he says this, wondering how Nicole is going to react to me at the size I am, and I don’t know if it’s going to be good or bad.

The office, who’s last name is Ortiz, opens up the cell and walks towards our counter where our napkin is on and reaches his hand out for us to walk out to it.

“I’d say your wives are taking this a little bit better than we anticipated, if that calms everyone’s nerves” Officer Ortiz says to us as we walk on his hand and get to where our wives are.

As he says this I feel a little bit more calmer as we get toward where we meet up to meet our wives. Every step he makes as his shoes click along the hard marble substance like floor. 

We got through the station, getting farther and farther from our cell and more into where most people are at the station. Officer Ortiz says the same thing the previous officer says about people not taking pictures or videos of us at this time and if he does see something online about there’s gonna be hell to pay. This seemingly deterred a few people from looking at us. We get closer into what seems to be an integration room where our wives seemingly are at, and an officer on the inside opens the door, a female officer, and we enter. 

As we walk in as the door opens on us and we see our wives at the table and a male officer standing in the corner. It feels like things have been cemented at this point that we’ve been caught and there’s no way out of this, even more so with our wives seeing us.

I look at my wife’s reaction, she doesn’t seem like she’s too bothered or shocked by how I am although she gasps a little bit when she sees me, I’m guessing the fact that I’m alive and well to her is all that matters. She seemingly handling this the best out of the other two wives. I notice that Tony’s wife is hyper focused on him, seemingly a little shocked and has a worried look on her face. And Dave’s wife who I’ve never seen before but heard a little bit about when we first met Dave at the beach, a sandy blonde looking chick with a diamond ring stud in her nose and wearing a parka and some jet black leggings and bright red lipstick, a typical looking chick for this day and age, I’d say Dave’s punching a little bit above his weight class with this girl. Dave isn’t a ugly dude by any means but this girl totally looks like one of those types that you’d see in the luxury shops on Rodeo Drive, your classic Beverly Hills bombshell beauty that’s not filled with Botox and has natural beauty.  I wonder how they met, they seem like they’d run in different circles you’d imagine.

“Yep, here we are” Tony says, seemingly judging by the tone in his voice it seems like he’s trying to comfort his wife a little bit, her pupils really focusing in on Tony.

“We’re going to give you guys a bit of time to talk, but we’ve gotta take you guys down to Los Angeles to check in with the Government Agency down there around 7:45 or so, this is something I think they’re more qualified to handle than we are. Chief said so. They’ll be arriving pretty soon to pick you guys up and drive you down to LA” Officer Ortiz says, leaning his hand out to the table with our wives sitting in their chairs, we slowly walk off of his hand and onto the tables. Our wives collectively watch us with their eyes as we walk.

Officer Ortiz leaves, but the female officer stays in the corner, seemingly there to watch over us before we get set up to leave. 

“So yeah, what did they tell you guys about what happened?” Dave says, looking at his wife, I can kinda see a few smaller crusty boogers in her nose from where we are, her hollow looking nose holes from our distance. Even pretty women have imperfections like that going on if you were to really notice them.

“They said somehow someway you guys were shrunken, and then accidentally swallowed by some  lady and shitted out and discovered by her at a nearby hotel” Dave’s Wife, I think her name is Jenny if I really think back to our past conversation on the beach. 

“But if you guys were at the beach the last time we knew where you guys were and they didn’t tell us that the woman was at the beach, then how did you guys end up where she could swallow you, at Vons or whatever like they told us” My wife, Nicole says. With a little bit of sass in her voice with the delivery, making me smile a bit because hearing her voice again and with her signature sass that I would get from time to time from her here brings a sense of normalcy in this situation that I thought I’d ever have to go through ever again. 

“Well, there was these college kids that we had to run from not too long as they ran towards us, and then they started playing volleyball and ended up in some girl’s drink with all the commotion going on, and long story short we got defecated out by that same girl  at a Vons restroom not too long after the ordeal” I say, and I can hear Tony’s wife mumble “ew” under her breath when he talks about the defecation part, and I can hear the female officer in the back make a audible yuck when he says this too.

“And then luckily we managed to avoid getting flushed and we ran through the supermarket and with all the commotion going on there too we ended up in the air by landing on the stomach of this Hispanic woman that swallowed up, and we didn’t wanna get discovered or nothing so we kinda stayed their as she checked out and got to her car and stuff.  Fell off, ended up in her water bottle, got swallowed and you know the rest” Tony says, completing what I’m about to say.

“That’s disgusting,” Nicole says.

“You’re tellin’ me” I say, and Nicole and the two other wives slightly laugh at this, and Tony and Dave crack a smile.  I guess by me saying that by relieving this situation’s tension.

The next couple of minutes is pretty much small talk between us and our wives, us introducing each other and the like, apparently Dave and Jennifer met in a In N Out parking lot in Dave’s stint in San Diego, Dave accidentally bumping into her in the parking lot when pulling out of parking space at the same time she was about 5 years ago. They seemingly literally hit it off then. Apparently Jenny's from Ohio, the Cincinnati area to be exact. I feel like I'm running into a lot of Midwesterners during this trip, Tony and his Wife and Jennifer.

“But yeah, there’s a lot more I’m going to explain to you later about Kate and her Family and stuff on the drive. Because it’s shocking that I lived a good chunk of my life like this” Tony says pretty casually to his wife/everyone in the room, and after he says this the room goes silent because besides us three, none of our wives knew. I think Erica's audible silence is the most noticeable. I notice the Female officer in the back doesn’t seem to react at all to this, though.

“Alright, they’re here, get ready” Says Officer Ortiz opening the door to the room and telling all of this this as soon as Tony finishes his sentence.

As the officer says this, I wonder if this is when shit really starts to get real, my anxiety pops up again.

I guess becoming another Jack Cooper is our best case scenario.

As we begin to get scooped up one by one by various officers, the female one in the back and Officer Ortiz to be exact, I get scooped up by Officer Ortiz. The Female one having Dave and Tony. I hear Erica and Jennifer argue a little bit on why can’t they handle their husbands, and why couldn’t it just be with Officer Ortiz like I am currently am.  Officer Ortiz quickly shuts them up with a “The government has to be with us all times now” kinda answer. Nicole not saying anything I notice, she makes eye contact with me as Ortiz picks me up though. As if she knows that she shouldn’t really interfere with anything that the officers do or say and as if she knows that they’re just doing their job. 

I hear the sounds of scooting chairs and our wives collectively getting out of their chairs and beginning to follow us out the door wherever they’re going to take us before we leave. My heart is beating out my chest right now and my stomach is in knots with how I’m feeling with anxiety, since a situation like this and being brought to the government is a worst nightmare, although in the back of my mind it can’t be that bad if they’re acting that casual about it, but again they’re trained to be casual in situations that aren’t normal. I hate how I overthink things. 

We make it towards the door, Officer Ortiz leading us out and the woman officer not far behind us, and our wives in single file line order walking out as well behind them. Officer Ortiz says the same thing to everyone else as he’s said before about filming us and not uploading us to any online or social media websites or there’d be total hell to pay as we walk into the main parts of the station and we make our way to some separate entrance outside. 

It’s almost like you could hear a pin drop as we as a group make our way through the building, with how silent with us and how there were officers and other workers in the building watching us as we went by, their eyes staring us down as we went to the loading dock area I could somewhat see in the distance as we get closer, seeing a few jet black brand new  Suburbans and Tahoes and a newer looking Ford Explorer pulling up as well, all government vehicles it seems to be as I can tell through the back door window towards the outside that we’re headed too. Their government lights on the bottom of the doors silently flashing and going off. Seems like they’re just pulling up to the station. I kinda wonder if we get a car per shrunken person and all of our wives will just gather into one SUV or something like that or what? I guess you could think about the efficiency of all of this as well too. 

We go through this back door and into this loading dock area of the jail. It’s kinda interesting being in this precinct because besides for my job as a lawyer here or there to talk to a client for a case or to update them on it I’ve never really been in a jail. I don’t really know about Dave or Tony’s case but they seem like law abiding citizens that haven’t exactly spent a ton of time in jail either. As we go out the back door, the cold wind hits us as we walk out, reminding us how cold it is outside compared to how warm it kinda felt inside the building. As we walk out the door the government agents also get out of their vehicles, dressed in crisp and super clean looking black suits and black dresses for the women. About a total of 5 government agents here , two white dudes, one black guy, and two women, one white and one Asian.  As we walk down the steps and towards the agents and their vehicles, I see them start to walk towards us as well.

We all get down the steps and then one of the white guys puts out his hand in front of him as if he’s telling us to stop, and everyone does. 

“Alright, so here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re going to put all the guys in that Black Explorer right there,  And you gals are going to be in that Tahoe over there. We’ll regroup once we get to the main headquarters in Los Angeles ” One of the officers says in a very commanding sound voice, a middle aged looking white guy. 

Everyone’s pretty compliant as we get situated into our cars, the local Big Bear cops seemingly letting the FBI agents take over as soon as we get situated in the car. I notice that my wife and Erica share a Tahoe as they begin to get coaxed into getting into one and Jennifer gets a Tahoe all to herself. I jokingly think to myself it’s “pretty privilege” as I see this before we get situated ourselves, Officer Ortiz still holding us at this point as they get in first.  I guess it’s not that cool to be alone in a situation like this with Jennifer, on second thought. It’s at least a two hour drive from here to the building that I’m pretty sure they’re talking about, it's a distinctive looking building that I remember driving past quite a few times during my time at UCLA back then. But once the initial shock of us being shrunk kinda wore out I think they’re at peace with the situation, even the officer in the station that told us all this was surprised with how well they’re taking it collectively as a group. You would think a newlywed would be the worst about it in reaction to a situation like this especially on your honeymoon, but Jennifer’s still chill too. 

As the women start to get into their vehicles we start to get into ours, Officer Ortiz handing me and the Female officer handing Tony and Dave off to the government agents, and they quickly place us on the back seat. Surprisingly, they don’t really have anything special for us to sit in or a container to sit in or something like that. Just having us sit in the  backseat behind the driver’s side together, us being safely placed on the seats in the backseat of this SUV that feels like a huge ass building to us at this size, with how high everything feels like it is compared to our height. The officers in this car are one black and one white, the other guy seemingly going towards another Tahoe.

They stop and collectively get back out to talk a little more, as they get everything  more  situated before we take off on this convoy to L.A., seemingly making calls to the agency and in talks with all types of government stuff, making me somewhat nervous overhearing a little bit of it, not knowing if we’re getting set up to get tested or not or something. Dave and Tony and I sit next to each other, Tony sitting Criss Cross Applesauce and me and Tony just sitting down with our legs stretched out. Seemingly travel buddies for the next couple of hours.  The conversation with the agents as they talk amongst themselves and on the phone with whatever superior they report to I think, I can hear bits and pieces of the conversation but not much else. The windows that the SUV has are also tinted I noticed, making it a little bit darker here. 

“Welp, let’s just hope this goes well” Tony says, seemingly making himself comfortable. 

“I wonder if what we’re saying is being recorded in here. I wouldn’t be surprised” Dave says.

“It wouldn’t shock me, to say the least,” I responded back to him.

It’s quiet between us for a few minutes and I think the officers wrap up their conversation and phone call outside and head back to their vehicles to get a move on, and we hear the driver’s side and the other passenger side door open and we know we’re in for a ride now. 

“It’s about two hours roughly till we arrive at HQ in West LA, so you boys better get comfy back there” The black agent says, as he closes the driver’s side door with a slight slam. 

“Will Do” I say, responding back to him, as I say this the white agent closes his door on the passenger’s side in the front seat, and then there’s some mic talk about them collectively getting ready to roll and then I feel the car start to jolt off. 

The Explorer starts to jet off out of the parking lot and into the street, although we can’t see the streets all too well due to the fact that we’re only a inch or two and the windows feel so high up and plus the fact you can’t see all that well anyways out of these due to the tint on them. It would be ironic if we got pulled over due to our windows being too dark, but who’s going to pull over an obvious governmental vehicle. I think we’re leading this trail of vehicles, since we seemed to be one of the first ones parked up front before everything else. The smell of the car is pretty much a really heavy brand new car scent, with the seats and everything with the really nice feeling leather that’s on it. The floors are really clean as if they’ve been vacuumed regularly as well too, whenever I lean myself out as I sit and reach my head out and look down.

“So, what about our rental cars and clothes and belongings and stuff at the hotel?” Tony says out loud, the question going out to

“We’ve gotten the rental cars and your things taken care of. It’s not like you need them at your size, anyways” The white agent says, a little gruffly with his second remark. 

“Is there a way we can shower or something when we get back to the Agency?” I start off but I quickly get cut off.

“We’ll go more into detail on these things as once we get there, no more questions for NOW” The black agent says, sounding a little bit intense this time.

It’s quiet inside the car, the tenseness of the Agents really have us kinda sitting in silence and there’s nothing but the sounds of the hum of the car’s engine and a little bit of whatever’s going in the outside world, the hot A/C blowing up front and a little bit onto us as well. The radio in this one is just for talking, there’s no music to be used or any Bluetooth or anything of that nature it seems to be. So this is going to be a very boring two hour drive for sure. I can’t see out the window all too good, I just kinda judge what they’re doing by the SUV stopping and turning and a little bit of the top of the window, maybe showing a tree or a building or a street light in the background. 

The agents don’t seemingly talk much among each other either it seems, maybe they’re just both more on the quiet side, but they do seem pretty tense so maybe they don’t like each other at all or that’s just how agents seem to be. I guess all tensed up and quiet. 

I think after about 15 minutes or so we finally make it onto the highway, judging by the sound of the SUV’s acceleration in its engine and its constant quick movement. You can tell that there’s a  good amount of horsepower with how quick they get to highway speeds in this Ford Explorer. I don’t know if it’s been modified or what but I think cars these days have more horsepower than you might think, especially these brand new cars. 

“Y’know, what year is this Explorer? This is a new body style I’ve noticed” Tony says.

“2022” The black agent says, as he turns into a different lane judging by the sound of the blinker. The way he says this sounds like he really doesn’t wanna talk about anything right now. I notice he also says 2022 in the way of two thousand and twenty two, instead of the typical twenty twenty two like most people would say these days when talking about years post 2019 or so. 

“Pretty much brand new then yeah” Tony says, kinda quietly seemingly killing the conversation.

For the next thirty minutes or so it’s quiet between us all, us driving through the mountains and getting stuck in a little bit of traffic as we get closer and closer more towards the Inland Empire, seemingly reminding me how huge and big Southern California is and how everything’s so close together but all spread out everywhere. I can’t get a good view as I said before though.

“Can we talk amongst ourselves or would you rather have us three stay quiet?” Dave says, sounding a little bit bored in his delivery, as if he’s somewhat tired of all the silence.

“We don’t care” Says the Black officer, sounding gruff about it. 

Even though we get “permission” to talk there’s an uncomfortable feeling in the air between all of us though, since they’re there and can hear everything we’re obviously saying if we were to say something. It’s pretty awkward so we still don’t really talk at all, everyone kinda avoids eye contact, at least us three shrunken men are. The guys up front don’t seem as if they really care about what we say, their heads at laser point focus on the road ahead of them. I guess treating the situation of transporting us to the LA agency as if it’s another job they have to do, which I guess is why they’re so tense since they think it’s grunt work? I don’t really have a big clue about it to be honest with you. But a part of me just thinks that’s how government agents kinda are to some extent. 

About another 30 minutes pass and I think we’ve hit back into the Inland Empire proper for real this time, judging by the Freeway signs and the buildings and the like that I can somewhat see through the tinted windows of the SUV. It’s kinda nice to be back in regular civilization again after this past week, this crazy ass out of this world week I’ve had. The type of week I haven’t had in nearly twenty years. All this shit going on in this touristy mountain town, a different setting from the houses in England and Germany back in 2004. At least I’ve only been swallowed like twice this time, and at least I’m going through it all with two other people this time. Not being alone during this.

“I love LA” Tony says, referencing the Randy Newman song I can tell with the tone in his voice, him seemingly noticing the scenery outside, even though we’re not quite near L.A. yet and still rolling through the Inland Empire, I think we’re in San Bernardino right now, if I think back when I was coming up here with my wife judging by the bit of scenery that I can see through the window, the tops of buildings and the like as well. 

“Yeah, I’m more of a San Diego guy. Not as dirty, traffic doesn’t get as bad, but still has all that Southern California weather and charm and the food, good god the food is so good” Dave says, breaking the ice a little bit in the backseat. 

“Really, then? Why didn’t you stay down there instead of going back to San Francisco? It’s probably cheaper to live in San Diego than up north in San Francisco” I say to Dave.

“Because I got sick of working with Rockstar, dude. Remember, I said this at the station when we were talking with our wives and stuff when we saw them” Dave says, a little bit annoyed.

“Sorry, y’know with all this commotion going on. Do you know anything about the new GTA? I saw that leak last year and it seemed pretty interesting. I’ve never really been a huge video game dude even back when I was a kid I’d just play them socially with friends occasionally or whatever” I say.

Dave just chuckles a little and doesn’t respond to it. Whatever the hell that means. 

“Yeah my sons like those games, Anthony and Vincent. GTA Five, Call of Duty and all those M+17 rated games they’d beg me to buy when they were 10 and 13 or whatever when I’d take them to GameStop on a Friday after school or something. Shoot em ups and zombie Nazis and shit like that.  Did you guys make Fortnite?” Tony says, sounding generally curious about this a little. Sounding like an out of touch middle aged man a little bit when saying all of this. 

“Nah, we didn’t. That’s Epic Games” Dave responds back, sounding a little amused by what Tony just said. 

“Oh” Tony says.

“I mean I worked on Red Dead Redemption 2 and some of the GTA Online stuff, it paid a pretty penny with some of the ideas of designs and stuff of that nature, I had a job at Microsoft that paid okay in Seattle, I didn’t have a college degree so it really was just a glorified internship. Something involving idea, not quite a product advisor but something on the lower rings of that” Dave says.

“Working with video games would be cool, that’s not a bad gig. I remember a few of the guys who went to UCLA that we’re friends of friends wanted to get into that industry” I said.

“It’s not as fun as it sounds…” Dave says, trailing off. 

It’s quiet between us for the next few minutes, although not as bad as it was earlier. That Awkward tension that we had before we started talking is now gone since the ice of being in the SUV with these tense Government agents has been broken. 

“You play any video games yourself, Tony?” I say, attempting to start the conversation back up again.

“Not really, I remember wayyy back long ago, this was like 30 plus years ago Derek would play on his NES and stuff and I’d overhear it downstairs when hiding from him. Duck Hunt and Super Mario and Zelda, all the big eighties games everyone had and shit. He gave his old NES to Kate as a present when she moved out, it just sat in her apartment collecting dust. She never really played it, I think she sold it about a year after I became normal sized” Tony says, and as soon as he says normal sized I notice the agents in the front perk up at this a little. 

“Oh yeahh, you guys don’t know about that. Do you?” Tony says, talking towards the agents upfront. Sounding a little more surprisingly bold about it 

They don’t respond at all to what he says, as if we never spoke to him. Tony shrugs it off and leaves it alone. 

I kinda wonder if they already know that if they’ve been told that already by some higher ups, Tony’s birth being something that I’m sure the government to some extent probably knows about, it being covered up by Watergate conveniently seeming. Not to say Watergate was planned due to Tony’s Birth, cause no one could have predicted this one. 

As we speed along the freeway, cruising down the 210, which I recognize through taking the same route to get up to Big Bear, going through the Inland Empire, although I’ve noticed the traffic isn’t too bad on the route we’re taking, Remember living in LA the traffic on the weekends could get pretty bad, which was another shock that took some getting used to when I first came down here for college.

“What time is it?” I say, we don’t get a good look at the center console from where we’ve been sitting. 

 “Eight forty nine” The black officer responds sharply.  

“Thanks” I say, responding back to him, me sounding cool and collected compared to his sharp and tense answer.

It’s quiet between all of us again as we get closer and closer to L.A. proper as we go through the various cities and areas in the Inland Empire, traffic getting a little more heavier and heavier as we get more into the thick of L.A., seeing Downtown and the skyline and the mountains and things of that nature as we get closer and closer into the city. Getting onto the 10, a freeway I spent a lot of my college years on with friends going all around LA and Orange County a time or too. A part of me thinks as we drive along the freeway and see a little bit of the sights, thinking that maybe I could move back to LA, or at least find somewhere in Orange County to live in for a good five or ten years maybe. I wouldn’t mind my daughter growing up out in Sunny Southern California, lack of homeless in Orange County compared to L.A. anyways. Much cleaner too, even back then. I haven’t been out there since 2007, though. But even back then I thought that area was a bit cleaner than Los Angeles. Irvine, Anaheim, Brea, Fullerton, just to name a few places that I’ve been to in that area that I remember thinking were pretty nice even back then. Better weather, not as much crime, just to name a few things comparing Atlanta. Especially the heat, I’ll take the possibility of earthquakes and “The Big One” that’s been hyped up for years even back when I was living out in L.A. over the muggy humid heat of Atlanta and the South in general.  Way more expensive though, I have to factor in, even with how much Nicole and I are (or maybe were) making. Cost of Living really is a bitch these days, especially out in Socal. Our money goes much further in Georgia anyways.

We start to get in some stop and go traffic, as we get closer to West LA, nearing my old stomping grounds near the university and Culver City and stuff like that. I get a little bit of a nostalgic feeling being in this area again, college days and the like as well too. I notice the guys don’t seem as phased by LA sites as I am, but I guess they don’t really have any memories associated with the place like I do. I think Tony’s probably been here before, traveling the country as a shrunken teen and everything as he’s told us before when we were in Michelle’s stomach.  But maybe those years are something he’d rather forget than reminisce about, considering the circumstances of which he was forced to be doing.

As we get closer and closer towards the building, I wonder what’s going to happen next, as I feel us going onto an exit as our driver starts to switch lanes and slow down a bit.  I don’t think everyone else is too far behind either. 

As we get closer and closer towards the building, I start to feel sleepier and sleepier too and I notice that Tony and Dave start to feel the same and yawning as well, right before we get into the parking lot of the building. I can’t remember much else after this.

I wake up, and Tony and Dave wake up quickly after me. We’re in some sorta breathable plastic cube shaped container in a room, our wives and a few agents in front of us.

“Ah fuck. We’re being tested aren’t we” I say, as I start to immediately perk up as I see. Noticing that we’re in this sorta lab place in a top floor area of the building, judging by the windows

“No, you guys aren’t being tested. We just put some gasses under the backseat of the SUV you guys came in for you wouldn’t see everything that you weren’t supposed to see, for your entrance. It luckily went off when Agent Williams and Agent Stevenson pulled in, the two agents who transported you guys” A agent says, a male one. He seems to be in his early thirties. A tanned looking white guy, with a crew cut. He’s in a dark black suit and with some really dark looking Ray Bans.

"We had to be knocked out to be able to come in but our wives didn’t?” Tony says.

“We had a separate entrance for them, you guys had to come through a certain way for you as a group could be uh, checked in” The tanned agent says. 

“So what are we going to do now?” I say.

“Well, we’re going to get in contact with D.C. to fly you guys out sometime later today to meet up with Jack Cooper and uh, we’ll discuss more there. We told your wives this as they came in and we were in the elevators, and this may come as a shock. But you guys aren’t the only ones, and Jack Cooper is the only one that’s been caught” The agent says.

And as soon as he says that, it’s pretty quiet between all of us. All of us are pretty shocked by this when he says, even a veteran like Tony is shell shocked by this, looking at his expression. I honestly thought us three plus Jack Cooper were the only ones in this world that has ever been through something that many scientists have said weren’t possible and that Jack Cooper was the freakiest of accidents.

“Yeah, that’s uh, that’s something I wasn’t expecting” Tony says, sounding in a daze when saying all of this.

“Yeah, it’s even above our paygrade too out here on the west coast. We gotta send you guys  out to Washington D.C., because they can tell you about this type of stuff in more detail and the like as well too” The agent says.

‘What are they going to do to us out there?” Dave says, with a little bit of fear in his voice.

“I think they rather not have us spoil their all that, but I have made sure with your wives and we talked about all of this as they came in, you guys won’t be tested or hurt or anything like that, Jack Cooper and a few of the people who came before him kinda paved the way for all of that. If anything, it’ll be some pretty simple tests that’s similar to what you’ve gone through before at your size. Nothing involving stomach acid or anything like that” The agent says, starting to wring his sleeves up a little and check his Smartwatch, seemingly an Apple watch. Looks like there’s a little too much grease in his hair, noticing how some drips off as he looks down. 

As soon as he says this, it’s like there’s been a weight lifted off my chest, my anxiety that was building up after Dave popped the question quickly deflated as soon as the agent responds with an answer that’s a huge relief to me. Something that’s come across my mind frequently since we’ve been caught. 

“You guys are going to be flown out around 1pm or so, we’ll get you guys to LAX and everything. Private jets and all” Another Agent chimes in, a more middle aged looking Asian woman in that’s also standing around. 

“What do we do in the meantime?” I Say.

“Well that’s about ehhh, it just hit eleven now since I just looked at my watch. Knowing L.A. traffic and they probably don’t wanna use the helicopter, let’s go ahead and get ready to head out now” The agent says, and people start to move, someone ushering our wives and a man grabbing our case and we start hustling out the room and through the hallways.

As we get hustled, I wonder if Jack Cooper will be there in D.C. But at least this experience isn’t as scary as I thought it would be, although the agent we were talking to didn’t exactly go into detail on whatever tests we’d be put through, and that leaves some room for even more questions in this already question-filled scenario. 

Hey, at least we get to go to D.C. A place I haven’t been to since I left Baltimore and a place I went to every now and then growing up when we lived in Baltimore when I was a kid.

Providing another sense of familiarity in this surprisingly familiar situation.

As we’re carried from the lab through the hallways and into an elevator, our wives aren’t too too far behind or anything like that, trying to keep up with the pace of the fast moving Agents, seemingly a few talking into their mics and giving their location as a few of them make it on the elevator, the ones that know they won’t fit go onto the stairway route.  As we’re taken into the elevator, they do try to make room for our wives, about 5 people in total with us if you don’t include us in the shrunken plastic breathable container. It notice that it feels somewhat cramped for them, everyone seemingly elbows to elbows and the like. The agents don’t seem to mind, still talking on their earpiece headsets, but our wives don’t seem like they’re enjoying the crowd, especially Erica, who seems somewhat baffled by the experience she’s going through right now, if you’re looking at her facial expression. 

As someone punches a button for one of the floors for downstairs, I feel as if I’m sleepy again, and I notice that Tony and Dave do the exact same thing. The last thought I have as I realize what’s happening again is “yep, I guess we can’t see this one”. Everything after that is a blank due to the fact that I fell asleep during, getting hit by the gas we were given in the car, this is something that I thought only happened in movies but turns out it’s really real in some sorta form. This gas is apparently being stored in some small container I didn’t notice until the very last minute on the top of the inside of this plastic storage box that I’m in. I notice that our wives don’t say anything about this, so it really must be non harmful or anything like that. They’ve been pretty quiet in general during this whole situation when we’ve been inside the building.

I can somewhat remember the noises of where we weren’t allowed to be awake for, during my lack of consciousness, even though I was asleep during this time, the sounds of people talking and the noises of some sorta machinery. The sound of machinery and bubbles and types of things that you wouldn’t expect us to hear in this building. And it’s still all so vague due to my lack of consciousness when I guess my mind did pick up on this. I wonder if I should ask them about it when I do get situated and wake up and things of that nature, or I shouldn’t and even in a situation like this they’ll be like “he knows too much” and kill me or something like that. So I guess I probably should keep what I heard to myself and maybe bring it up to Tony and Dave or something along those lines. Someone who I think can keep a secret, because after all of this I consider Tony and Dave probably life long friends and almost brothers due to what we’ve been through together. 

When I do fully wake up, we’re in the backseat of a Suburban and its engine humming as it speeds down the freeway, on Nicole’s lap in the same plastic breathable box we’ve been in. She’s sitting in the middle seat, Jennifer on the left, and Erica’s on her right. Seems like despite the backseat being full it seems like there’s a lot of room between them. I notice Tony starts to get up next, him seemingly in a deep sleep before waking up and starting to get up off the floor of it. The last one to wake up is Dave, but he doesn’t wake up too long after Tony does I notice as well . He rolls around a little bit on the floor before getting up.

I look at my wife, as the box we’re in sits in her lap, she seems to be focused on the road ahead of her, Tony’s wife Erica seems to be looking at her phone, playing Candy Crush Saga or whatever judging by her constant finger movement, the sounds seems to be off though. Jennifer just staring out her window at the traffic and the city as we pass it all by. Not seemingly looking too much at me and the other shrunken spouses in this box. Almost as if she’s daydreaming or something as she’s looking out the window, as if she’s got a million thoughts about what’s going on inside her head but not really speaking out on it. As I’ve noticed before, as soon as the big government agents have gotten involved, all of our wives have been pretty quiet about the situation we’re currently in. 

I see a can of Cactus Cooler in the cupholders in the front seat as I start to look up front at the agents in the front seat and the road ahead of us, this soda being something I haven’t seen or thought about since I’ve lived in L.A. I never really drank the drink but I would see various grocery stores like Vons or Ralphs or Target or Walmart in the area carrying it. I remember you might see someone with a can or a two liter around campus carrying it or something along those lines. It’s almost like a throwback from the past seeing it again, even though I’m sure it’s something that’s been here since I’ve been gone from Southern California and I just didn’t happen to notice or see it until now. 

“Nice to see that you guys are finally waking up” Nicole says, with a slight smile on her face as she notices and begins to talk to us, and she says this somewhat in a hushed voice. As if she doesn’t want to attract too much attention to herself in this pretty quiet ride to the airport. 

I don’t respond verbally, I just shake my head up and down with a smile, making eye contact with her, I look into her eyes, those brown irises of hers that drive me crazy as I look at them, another reminder why I love her and we’ve been together all these years now. Almost like looking into the moon at the size I’m at. Tony waves a little and Dave just smiles like I did. Their wives were still seemingly doing what they were doing before they woke up.

Nicole taps Jennifer on the shoulder, and Jennifer looks over and then looks at the box, and sees that we’re all awake, she still stays silent but she does smile and wave a little bit and we do the same back. Erica notices Jennifer waving and she looks over from her phone and notices that we’re all awake and she does the same as her, smiling and waving as well. 

The agents in the front don’t seem to care about what’s going on in the back, judging by their lack of reaction about it, still keeping their eyes on the road and trying to navigate the traffic on the freeway as we get closer and closer towards L.A.X. I can somewhat see them in the rear-view mirror looking a little bit at what’s going on through looking at the rear view mirror, although it’s a quick second before they put their eyes on the road. Still staying silent and still not really acknowledging what’s going on behind them and not really seemingly showing much of any emotion about it. Being stone cold about it. I guess that’s just how they’re trained to be under any circumstances, especially more unusual ones like this. 

I can tell Nicole wants to kinda talk judging by her smile and her eyes seemingly hyperfocusing on me but she doesn’t I’m guessing due to the fact of the awkwardness of breaking the silence, and Jennifer and Erica kinda feels the same but I guess with the agents being in the car and them hearing every word would make things somewhat awkward to add on top of it.  So it’s just quiet between us as a group it seems to be, and honestly it sucks. Maybe on the plane or jet or whatever they’ll send us on to D.C. we’ll be able to talk and converse a bit more, at least without the awkwardness of the agents seemingly like their listening to every single word that’s coming out of ours mouths, even though it doesn’t really seem like they are, we know that’s what they’re doing as their focused on the road ahead of us.

So it’s only a few minutes before Jennifer and Erica goes back to doing what they were originally doing, Erica goes back to using her phone and Jennifer goes back to looking out the window, and as we get closer and closer to LAX the Traffic starts to get heavier and heavier, being in stop and go traffic and all and as the SUV we’re in slows down and speeds up and slows down and speeds up again as they go through the traffic.

I start to wonder, who’s in the know about the situation? I know Tony’s and Dave’s families must know about the fact that he’s a shrunken man and everything, at least since the police and the government especially now are involved and everything. Tony especially since he’s got kids and the like, although all of them seemingly at least in their teen years. I start to think about myself, I know that my daughter and my mom must know about the situation, with me being missing at first and the like and all of that jazz. Something I haven’t really thought about too much now, my own family who might have contacted me during this whole episode. I’m sure Nicole said something about me being missing, Alexis I’m sure was worried about me as well too. I feel some sadness come over me, imagining how she felt, not knowing where her dad is and everything and my mom too. It’s bad enough she lost a husband and she’s still coming to grips with that, but losing me as well wouldn’t make the situation any better. Losing your oldest son.  I wonder if we can get in contact with them once we get onto the plane, or if they've already told them about the situation that we’re in at some point.

 I think about asking the agents about this, if they might be in the know and have access about if my mom and my kid know about what’s happened. I don’t really say friends, because there’s not really anyone I’m on a regular speaking basis with that would know that something was up with me right away. Guys like Richie and Jon and Alex and all my friends from Baltimore growing up I only speak to maybe once or twice a month, everyone busy with their own lives and a few with families and the like. So really it’s just family. I also think about should I tell them this isn’t the first time that I have been shrunk, or should I still keep it a “til’ the grave” sorta secret among those who still don't know. I guess we'll find out at some point, I guess. If they don't tell it off on me and the other guys in D.C. somehow.

 Although a part of me wonders if it’ll get revealed anyways when we get to D.C., since the fact we all became shrunk in the first place was due to the fact we all made contact with each other, so maybe it’s best to come out to her about this instead of the government saying something. I’m pretty sure Tony’s got more to explain than all of us, since the fact he doesn’t have much of a backstory about his life is due to his time being shrunk, and the reason why he knows the people he knows is the fact that they knew he was shrunk and everything of that nature. So this might really rock Erica’s world when she eventually finds out about this and everything that went on before she met Tony. I think Erica would be more shocked about it, than his kids. Even though the life he’s currently living is all they know, they’d be surprised to find out the crazy backstory of their own dad that they never knew the full truth about.

I think we get closer and closer to the arrivals and the like and then we go into this other pathway, going down the ramp and onto the street and more towards this special gate entry and getting waved through by Security through this opening. The security guy doesn’t really seem like he cares as if we’re coming through, waving us through and looking like he doesn’t care. This feels like something a celebrity or the president or someone big and official would go through, not having to deal with TSA or any sorta thing of that nature and having easy access to get on a flight. Just taking us right onto the tarmac, and up to whatever jet or plane that we need to deal with. This sorta secluded area of the runway where we can get transported from the SUV and into whatever air travel vehicle we need to get into to get to the East Coast. I kinda feel somewhat giddy about this trip, even though it’s not like it’s a vacation and it’s sure as hell not a trip of leisure. Probably due to the fact it’s been awhile since I’ve been to D.C. , I don’t think I even went once when I briefly lived in Baltimore when I first got out of college. I don’t think I’ve been to Baltimore probably since I moved down to Atlanta in 2013 with Nicole around the time we got married, it being ten years since I’ve been to the city of my birth and where I spent the first part of my life in, I met up with my old Baltimore friends in 2019 up in New York City, when they came up there to visit us on their vacation. Frankie and Lenny and their wives and Frankie’s kids, although a bit older than Alexis at ages ten and eight back then. Jared not being there due to the fact he had some work duties, something about a major client meeting at his job or something. I mostly talked to them via on the phone and through my barely used Facebook account. Something I rarely ever used, and even back then. 

I might take my wife and daughter up there, once this is all over. If there is an end in sight to this weird situation.  Back up to Baltimore, that’ll be the first time for my daughter.

The SUV speeds up and we get closer and closer towards wherever we’re supposed to be, and then I see a pretty slick looking black private jet rolling up in the distance, as if it had just landed, and we get closer and closer towards it. I think Nicole is starting to get a little nervous as she starts to tap her foot a little bit more and more on the floor. Sending a bit of vibrations into the seats back here,I can feel it as I sit down and I think Tony and Dave are a little annoyed by it too by their reactions to the vibrations but they don’t say anything although the looks on their faces say everything. Nicole and Jennifer don’t react because I think they’re a bit more focused on the fact that they’re about to go on a private jet, seemingly with smiles on their faces. As I’ve said before about my wife she’s not a huge fan of flying and I guess with something a bit smaller where you feel every bump and move the plane is making compared to a bigger commercial plane is a pretty big difference and something you’d be pretty hyper aware of when you think about it. I start to get nervous myself honestly, once I think about it. It’s usually these smaller planes and these helicopters that usually crash, thinking about Kobe Bryant and how I heard about all of that news when it went down one unsuspecting Sunday afternoon. But again, with the way the government is you’d think they’d hire the best of the best of pilots to fly for them, and with the right conditions too. 

We start to slow down as we get closer and closer towards the jet, and the noises of the jet start to become louder and louder as the sounds of its roaring engines become closer and closer to us. I think the agent driving mumble something up front about how he hates being this close to planes and the like, and the one in the passenger's seat says something about tinnitus and going to concerts in their twenties. 

“Yeah, like P.M. Dawn?” The agent in the driver’s seat says a little sarcastically, a middle aged looking black dude. Probably the first actual sentence I could make out in the mumbling both agents have been doing in their first time of actually using their voices to speak.

“You know I didn’t listen to that soft rapper shit, you’re looking at a reformed metalhead right here,” The other agent says, a white guy seemingly around the same age as the black dude. He’s bald and everything

They chuckle a little bit at this, attracting the attention of everyone in the backseat. This interaction seemingly shocking all of us, I hear Tony also mumble “That’s a name I haven’t heard in a long ass time”. Referencing the “P.M. Dawn” in the conversation.

“Who’s that?” I say, to Tony, a bit hush hush to him. I’ve never heard of this artist before, at least when first mentioned

“Early nineties Hip Hop artist “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss of You” was his big song, I think he died a few years ago. The type of stuff I’d hear-” Tony says, and then cuts himself off, I think alluring to his time shrunk with the way he didn’t want anyone to know.

The SUV comes to a stop as the driver shifts to P, and they tell us to stay in the car unless they tell us to move, and then they get out and close the doors and then walk up the jet and some stairs start to form leading up to the top, and a door opens and they walk in for a little bit. What they’re going to tell the crew inside I have no idea, I’m sure they know why they're here and who they’re flying and everything. But maybe it’s some other stuff.

We wait about five minutes and then the agents come out of the airplane and down the stairs and walk towards the SUV and open the passenger’s side door where Jennifer’s sitting at and they tell Erica to hand the box that we’re in to them, and she obliges. She gently picks up the box we’re in off of her lap and reaches the box over to the hand of the White agent that asked for us, the agent almost snatches us from her hand, jolting us a little bit. Causing Tony to lose his balance a little bit but he quickly regains his composure. With us in his hand, he says to the ladies just to wait a few minutes and then we’ll come and get you.

The agent walks with our box in his hand, heading towards the jet, the smell of jet fuel in the slightly cold air on this runway, the fresh air is nice though, I will admit. That cool Californian air, although this is probably my last time experiencing it as we fly out to Washington D.C., somewhere you really wanna go ahead and layer up for especially in March. The sound of the engine of the jet running is still overwhelming to our ears. The agent walks onto the stairs and we feel every step he takes, knocking us a little bit. We make it into the jet, although our wives are still sitting in the SUV. I think about asking the agent about when our wives are coming on board but it seems as soon as I think that I can briefly see the black agent get towards the SUV and open the passenger’s driver’s side door before we go completely inside the jet. 

It’s not that big compared to a commercial airline’s cabin, it’s kinda like a living room on wheels and it gives off that vibe, there’s a flat screen TV on the side hooked up, seemingly playing MSNBC, talking heads talking about all that Trump stuff and I rather not see the news at all right now, I’ll probably request to change to something else when we all get settled in. There’s a mini fridge among the seats and the like, seemingly they really travel in style. But again, it doesn’t seem all that fancy or anything like that, just a living room for a cabin it seems. Plush black leather seats as well, I notice. Too bad we probably won’t be sitting in them. 

The agent sits us onto the table with a good angle to the flat screen mounted TV on the plane, and walks back out, and I can hear his heavy steps on the stairs. Not too long after he leaves, our wives walk in. Nicole, Erica, and Jennifer in that order. I smile and perk up, and they come towards our direction but an male agent pops out of the cabin and tells them to take a seat and leave us alone for now, we can talk more on the flight.

The women get settled into their seats, and I notice that the TV is a Roku sort thing going on and not cable or anything like that, since a female agent hands Erica a Roku remote and tells her that they can rent a movie or watch Netflix or Hulu or Youtube or whatever they want. Explaining this out to all of our wives.  The agent says that she and agent Richards ( the male agent from earlier she alludes to ) will be accompanying us on our flight to D.C , saying it’s a governmental flight and we don’t have to pay for anything besides renting a movie or something if that’s something we wanna do. She says that we’ll be taking off in about ten minutes and as soon as we get into the air we can start getting up and walking around.

Our wives get settled down in their seats and the agents get settled too and the stairs retract and everything along those lines, as we get ready for take off. I noticed the time now is 1:35 in the afternoon when looking at the time on the TV when they’re on the Roku home screen. I feel a little bit of anxiety about flying and stuff, I don’t know why though, the only time I ever had anxiety flying was when I flew for the first time back in 2004 when I was eighteen, when I went to Europe for the first time. Again, I guess another call back to that whole situation from back then, which our current situation has felt like a little bit. 

As the plane begins to move and we get ready to take off, I start to relax a little. I notice Nicole doesn’t seem as nervous either as we begin to make our way down the runway and into the air. The ladies seemingly looking at their phones, Nicole seemingly looking at the Roku TV screen, watching it rotate as it’s remaining stagnant right now. 

Take off is much smoother than I thought it would be, and we ascend and everything along those lines, the agents seemingly looking at their phones as they’re sitting along in their chairs and the like too, the agents tell everyone to buckle up before we talk about and our wives do. 

About 20 or minutes or so we get into cruising altitude and then Agent Richards says it’s okay to get out of our seats and stuff, the pilots up front seemingly staying quiet about this.

As soon as he says this our wives slowly come up to talk to us one by one, slowly getting out of their seats and the like. We mostly talk about if our kids or other family know about what we’re going through, and for Tony and my case they kinda do but they kinda don’t, at least our kids and my mom doesn't know everything. Government doesn’t want them to know everything that’s going on quite yet. We talk for about 30 minutes, seemingly trying to catch up with each other a little bit. 

The agents, Agent Richards and the female agent who’s last name we finally learn, Agent Kirkpatrick are much more easy going compared to the agents we dealt with in the past, talking with us a little and laughing with us a little more as well too.

The flight itself from LAX to Dulles International is pretty anti-climatic, we just mostly talk a little bit amongst each other, mostly just about flying and our experiences doing this the agents mostly stay quiet when it comes to talking about life experiences and stuff, I notice. The talk seems to put Nicole at ease I notice too, seemingly distracting her from the fact that we’re high up in the air and the like as well too. I don’t really look out the window, besides I can’t really look out the window in detail besides seeing what’s through the windows of the plane anyways, so I can’t exactly tell the shift in landscape and everything too much besides when we past by mountains and desert and stuff to the greenness of the Midwest that we fly over. 

There’s some talk of watching a Movie towards the middle of the flight, Jennifer wanting to re-watch Drive with Ryan Gosling, something she said was the last thing they watched the night before all this seemingly went down the next day. Something that they’d said they’d re-watch but never got to. One of the agents says just look it up and rent it and Jennifer does, Dave seemingly being cool with it and no one else really caring. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this movie, but I remember hearing about it a little when it was in theaters and everything though and the buzz it got. People seem to be talking about it more nowadays, this quiet getaway driver that’s a stunt driver as his day job and he’s got the hots for the chick next door to him and all this stuff about it.  

It’s a pretty good movie and it’s a great way to pass the time, it finishes almost around the time we get to D.C. More violent than I thought it would be though. I remember Tony mumbled something about Blanche’s having a nice ass, which I guess is funny. I thought the Synthwave 80's style stuff was pretty catchy and I’ll probably look up the Drive Soundtrack on Spotify if I ever get the chance of doing that ever again. 

As we descend into D.C. and into Dulles International Airport, It honestly feels nice to be back on the east coast and especially a place like D.C. where a few of my childhood memories are, but a part of me wonders why couldn’t we went to Ronald Reagan International or something when I really think about it, Arlington’s a bit closer but whatever I guess. The agents seem to be texting someone as well too, seemingly in text with whatever ground unit they’re in contact with. 

I guess we’re gonna hit the ground running, as soon as we get out of this jet. 

As we get lower and lower and as the sound of the jet putting down its landing wheels I start to wonder if we’re going to go through some special part of the airport for security reasons or we’re going to go straight from here all the way to the F.B.I. building or something. But whatever it is, we’re definitely going to have some eyes really kept on us as well too, by the government people it seems. I notice our wives seem collectively ready to seemingly get off the plane, I also realize they didn’t pack any extra clothes or anything like that, seemingly also collectively forgetting to get any, but granted the way we were rushed off by the agents and everything I think stuff like that would be the last thing on anybody’s mind. 

We land, with a slightly rough bump of a landing. I look at the clock on the Roku TV and we’re getting towards 9 o’clock at night, judging by how dark it is outside too as well. All the lights at the airport really illuminate our surroundings, seemingly a bit far from D.C., we’re in the Virginia outskirts right now. Judging by the lack of city lights and mostly just Northern Virginia suburbs surrounding us. Grocery stores and schools and subdivisions all around us.

I hear Jennifer complain a little bit about she’s starting to feel some hunger pains in her stomach from not really eating anything during this flight and not having that much to eat today in general, Erica says something about if there’s anything to eat in the mini-fridge, and then Agent Kirkpatrick says something about their being a few Arrowhead Water Bottles they took from the West Coast and a couple of mini Pure Life water bottles, and a few Coke Zeros but that’s about it, nothing food wise. 

The agents tell us to wait for a few minutes before we start to leave as there’s going to be a SUV arriving onto the Tarmac in about 10 minutes or so to take us into D.C. and to the FBI office deep in the heart of the city.  I think about how cold it is out I bet and I know for sure from experience, remembering how around this time of year in March it’s usually pretty cold and everything on the east coast, the Mid-Atlantic area where we are too, a good contrast compared to the warmness of California during the early months of the year, spring not quite here yet. 

It’s quiet between us all as we wait for whatever the next move that agents want us to take, the pilots in the front seemingly chatting with each other as we can hear, seemingly talking with the Air Traffic Control about something involving waiting or something, them getting the memo somehow on what we’re doing. I can hear what I think is Jennifer’s stomach growl a little bit out of hunger during this silence, and her shifting around in her seat when it does, seemingly trying to deflect the attention of her loud pitched growl echoing a little bit in the silence. I can see Tony crack a smile a little bit at this, noticing this too. 

The agents seemingly get a notification on their phones, judging by the vibrating buzz that we can hear. Agent Richards seemingly being the first to get his phone out of his pocket and see what the text was, Agent Kirkpatrick being not as quick, rummaging through her purse to grab it. 

“Alright, you guys ready to go? ” Agent Richard says, sniffling a little bit as he says this. Agent Kirkpatrick stops looking through her bag when Richard says this. And sits back up.

“Born ready” Tony says, sounding somewhat cliché when he says this and his delivery on how he says this sounds pretty serious and not as goofy as I think he thinks it sounds like, but granted knowing his past and how he was literally born this way I guess it really does apply to him and his situation. 

“Allrightty then” Agent Kirkpatrick says, responding to Tony’s remark.

 I start to wonder if they know that Tony was born this way and about his history and the fact that I remember Tony mentioning something about this in the car while on the drive to L.A.X. that the agents driving us reacted to, this seemingly being something that caught their attention when Tony said it. So I wonder if the agents we were with told the rest of the agents about there’s much more than meets the eye about Tony’s life and back story and him being this way isn’t quite such a different and unusual situation that he’s used to. But granted, they might find out about us as well as we get more into this whole thing, going into the FBI buildings and all. I kinda dread having to tell my wife about all of this, and probably the rest of my  family and everything, and I know Dave and Definitely Tony probably feel the same way about this for sure, since I’m pretty sure for all of us this is a “To the grave” sorta secret as I’ve said before. The only person that knows of everything besides me is Alex, and he’s all the way in England and we don’t talk all that much these days. 

Our wives start to get up, and I hear the stairs start to retract and stuff like that outside for we can get out and everything. I see Agent Richards walk towards us and reach out as he gets closer, grabbing for our handle on top of this little breathable box that we’re in. I see Agent Kirkpatrick open the exit door to the plane and as soon as she gets it open you can feel the cold night air blow into the plane, reminding me that we’re really in on the east coast and that I’m really missing that Southern California weather right now.

Our wives go out first, and then we go out, in the hands of Agent Richards, Agent Kirkpatrick seemingly standing on the tarmac watching us and our wives getting into a different SUV than we are. Noticing how there’s two of them out here, one for us and one for our wives it seems to be. The cold ass outside night air going into our box made me shiver a little bit. I hear Dave chatter his teeth a little bit, seemingly jokingly showing how cold it is out here. As we make it down the stairs and onto the tarmac and get closer to our huge tank looking jet black GMC Yukon Denali that we’re apparently going to be transported in, Agent Richards saying how he’s going to put us in the back seat and then the agents inside the SUV will take over things from here. The hum of the Denali’s engine roaring to us at this size as it idles. Its grill looks huge, and they already do look huge at a regular size too. You can really see all the bugs and dirt and stuff on it at this size we’re at in full detail. 

Agent Richards walks around and towards the passenger’s side of the SUV, and then beside the backseat door on that side. I hear the noise of it’s doors unlocking with a loud sounding shift, and Agent Richards mumbles good luck to us and then opens the door to the backseat of the Denali, and I can hear Agent Kirkpatrick walking towards the jet in the background, her heels clacking against the ground in the direction of the plane we were just in seemingly to fly back or get her purse or something. I wonder if Agent Richards means anything by the good luck he just said, as if we’re into some deep shit now, or he’s just saying that just to say that. I feel some slight anxiousness when I start to think about it, even though we were told that not much was going to happen to us. I tell myself in my head that it’s probably nothing, and he was just saying that because of the situation we were already in. I can feel the warm air inside the backseat of the SUV blow onto us, contrasting with the cold air outside. Agent Richards reaches into the backseat, and places us on the middle seat right behind the center console, the backseat lights on the top shining down on us as the door is open. I can really smell the new car smell in this SUV, although there’s a few blue Little Trees around the rear view mirror I notice as well, another thing as well too that’s probably contributing to the smell. Agent Richards closes the door with a slight slam, us feeling the vibration from this in our little enclosure, knocking us back a little bit. 

“We’re going to leave in a little bit, just a few more minutes. There’s something going on inside the SUV you guys’s wives are in, something about tire pressure” Says the male agent in the front seat driving, he sounds like he could be my age, and his voice sounds quite chilled out and much more personable compared to the other agents who were driving us in the past, like in Los Angeles. It’s dark inside the car, nothing but the light of the dashboard and the radio display, which isn’t playing anything. I look a little bit toward the person in front of me in the front passenger’s seat, who’s a woman, judging by her long hair I see on the sides a little bit.

“You guys have a good trip? LA to D.C. I know you guys are for sure jetlagged” The male agent says again, sounding quite friendly and wanting to strike up a conversation with us.

“Yeah. Yeah, it was good” I responded back, seemingly the most eager out of the three of us to make conversation. 

“Yeah, so I’m Agent Warren. I’m one of the people that was shrunken at one point as well too, back in 2009. I don’t know if I’m supposed to tell you guys all this yet, but you guys aren’t the first though ” he says.

“Yeah we know, we’ve been told before when were back in L.A. ” Tony says, responding to him. 

I see him look at the woman in the seat next to him, as if he wants to run something by her before he says something, and I see the woman shake her head no, pretty softly it seems though. Whatever they’re communicating about I kinda wonder if it’s something I should fear. 

“But yeah you guys aren’t al-” Agent Warren starts off before he gets interpreted by a notification on his phone, judging by the buzz from his pocket, quickly digging into his pants pocket and pulling out his phone.

“Alright, we’re ready to go” he says looking at the phone, it’s brightness shining out in the darkness of the SUV. 

He puts his phone back in his pocket and he begins to drive and follow the SUV’s with our wives in them in front of us, jolting us a little when he taps on the gas. This Denali already feels like a tank at normal size, these newer ones. It feels like a fortress on the inside as well too. I notice that the gears are on the side of the radio display screen  instead of a traditional gear shift and you just push the gear and press down the brake pedal I assume and there you have it, showing off all that new technology you’re seeing in cars these days, innovative stuff. 

“So, I hear you’re originally from the surrounding area, Matt” Agent Warren says as he starts to speed up through the airport tarmac and follow the SUV in front of us, and I hear a slight giggle from the woman in the seat next to him. This giggle sounds very very familiar, but again it could be a lot of women that sound like that. 

“How did you know that? How did you know my name?” I sound a little defensive.

“Well, you’re dealing with the government now so it would be a little unprepared on our part if we didn’t know and look into your personal information and have it spread throughout every agent that came into major interactions with you, dontcha think? Besides, I think someone over here wants to talk to you” Agent Warren says, and the Woman next to him giggles a little louder, and I think she starts to loosen up a bit and it’s almost like I can pin my finger on who it is laughing but it still escapes me who it might be this time.

 The sound of the A/C blasting hot air upfront seemingly mixes in with the hum of the SUV’s engine as we’re cruising along the tarmac as we get more towards the security exit of the airport’s runway and onto streets. Really filling in the silence between me and Agent Warren and the woman next to him, as I think about who it could be. The woman next to him was not exactly answering right away either, even though Agent Warren gave her the space to talk.

“Yes, it’s me. Molly, me and Agent Warren went through something similar that you went through. Well, agent Warren was, I was a major part of it though. I guess this explains my unexplained absence all the years ” Molly says, and as soon as I really hear her voice and after about a minute or two of recognizing who it is and how her voice has aged a bit from the college aged twenty something she was back then when I last talked to her to the fully grown woman well into her 30s woman she is now. I haven’t talked to this woman in nearly 15 years. 

I can hear Tony and Dave collectively do a “Oh Shit” under their breath, seemingly as if this is some sorta real life plot twist. 

“So this is why you disappeared and looked like you pretty much fell off the face of the earth? This is why your parents didn’t respond with a straight answer or anything when Jon came to ask you about her, like, sometime thirteen years ago I think. We never went to the police about it even though I remember it crossed my mind at some point, but I feel like they wouldn’t be much help about it. “Missing White Woman Syndrome'' aside I guess that could of came out if it but granted your parents acted like were still alive and okay and just not wanting to be in contact with us anymore or anybody else it seems, and plus it didn’t seem that weird considering how we broke up and that whole Thanksgiving mishap too, which was totally my fault still, looking back at it” I say, as I start to really form my thoughts on this situation we’re in. 

“Thanksgiving? What’d you do?” Tony says.

“Yeah, you’ve never said anything about that?” Dave says as well, and I notice that the SUV gets off of the security area and through the access road, and now merging onto the Highway access road.

“He made a fool of himself, that’s all we’re gonna say. Isn’t that right Matt” Molly says, " I notice Agent Warren giggles a little at this, as if he knows the full details of what really went on that Thanksgiving of 2008.

“Yeah, we’ll say that” I say, responding, sounding a little embarrassed thinking about it. 

“Y’know I’ve changed since then too. I’m not the hot-shot cocky twenty three year old I was back then” I say.

“I’m sure you’re not, time changes us all” Molly says, sounding apologetic in her tone, to some degree. 

It’s quiet for a few minutes as we cruise along the highway, the lights from the light poles lined along the highway shining into the car as we pass by them. 

“So, is there a thing with you and agent Warren? If he knows about the Thanksgiving incident and everything” I say to Molly, feeling so weird inside that I’m casually  talking to a former woman that was a huge part of my younger years that I haven’t seen in what feels like forever, plus the fact I haven’t been in the D.C. area in awhile either is something that’s been on my mind too.

“Well, I mean we do have a thirty minute with some change drive right now. You wanna go into it?” Agent Warren says, looking over at Molly a little bit when he says this, while also trying to keep his eye on the road. 

“I mean, do you wanna talk about it, or do you want me to?” Molly says, and with her delivery of how she says this to agent Warren makes me feel like they’re in a relationship of some sorts, as if they’re married and as if they’ve had a lot of conversations together and the like.

“Well, you actually know the guy while I’ve only heard about him over the years. So I’ll let you take the wheel” Agent Warren says, seemingly focusing his head more on the road. 

“Okay, so like about a little less than a year after that whole Thanksgiving fiasco that happened I was living in Buffalo New York, had a job as a Massage Therapist after graduation from Pace down in NYC, as you know. And about after a year of living in Buffalo I met Brandon, Agent Warren as you guys know him I guess at a bar with our friend groups after work, and then I was over his apartment after going to Cheesecake Factory for our first date and everything and then he just randomly shrank as soon as he walked in the door, and that lead to me going into hysterics and everything. And then I hung out over his apartment over the course of a couple of days and  I accidentally swallowed him in the midst of all of this and then I threw him up, he didn’t have a “full course” of me per say like you guys seemingly did of that one lady. And then he got blown out of the apartment by this gust of wind that came through a open window, and he went on this whole trek through some barmaid and some other girl and one of his female coworkers from work, and then when he was at the hotel that the coworker worked at, getting crapped out by her and then making his way towards the entrance, he saw me driving his SUV, I had the spare keys and stuff, they were in his apartment. And then ran up to me in traffic, slapping on the tires and I'm at a stop light.  And I look out the window and I see him and scoop him up and everything, I was completely worried sick plus his cell phone and everything was gone so it’s not like I could of contacted him anyways during this time” Molly says, starting off

“And then after all of that, we went back to my apartment and she completely tore up the place trying to look for me, that I do remember in extreme detail. But that meant she really did love and care for me and everything, this situation we’ve been through together really did strengthen our relationship, which was only ehhh….not long at that point but still. Around this time Jack Cooper was doing a tour and we looked into meeting up with him and the in the next day or so we looked into it and then I became normal sized again randomly, thank God. And the nearest date was in Cincinnati which wasn’t too bad of a drive, surprisingly for a bit of a road trip, and we printed off Directions off of MapQuest to get there. Since this was back when everyone used that for directions.  Once we got to Cincinnati and we got our suit and dresses on for the meet up, and we managed to meet up outside the venue with him  security seemingly letting us after he okays it and I had my foot run over by his Escalade, as some sorta test because your pain receptors don’t really work after you’ve been shrunk for quite some time and he noticed that I didn’t react to it so he kinda knew I wasn’t lying. I remember he told me later on that most people run off or admit that they’re lying before a test like this happens, since y’know, it would hurt. And then we got into his Escalade and he talked about us being one of the very few people to actually go through this type of stuff and how he had plans for us, and this plan led us into being apart of the Shrunk division of the FBI, something that’s kept away from the general public. I remember after hanging backstage with him before his talk and getting VIP front row seats and everything after this, saying he knew us personally and said we were old friends or something, and then after this we got flown out to D.C. and got straight into training and got introduced to this world like you guys are now. They contacted our Jobs and stuff and said some BS about us being unemployable or whatever, we could still keep in contact with our family and friends though, which was cool” Agent Warren says, finishing off what Molly started and everything.

“Wait, Brandon Warren? Weird question I know, and it could kinda be a coincidence as well too, but are you related to Ben Warren? That guy who went missing around the turn of the millennium?” Tony says, seemingly putting two and two together during the details of this conversation. 

“Yep, that was my dad. I still don’t know what really happened to him, although there’s been a few theories with the FBI that he might have been shrunk or consumed some English Grass as well at some point in time, judging by how I was shrunk and everything and genetics, maybe he ended up shrinking someway and died somehow. It’s weird to think about” Brandon says.

“That’s crazy, it really is” Dave says. 

“There’s been an instance of something like, a shrunken person being found in someone’s autopsy. Like 2001, like in Philadelphia, there was this shrunken guy found inside this chick’s stomach who died in a car accident, and that ticked our organization off and everything and they had to come and retrieve it and everything. Honestly, Jack Cooper was just in a major situation that too many eyes had seen him so the government just let it slide and acted like he was just a once in a lifetime sorta deal, as if he was defying science or whatever” Brandon says.

“So yeah, there’s a whole lot more into this stuff that you guys don’t know, but are gonna find out about pretty damn soon” Molly says. 

“I will say, this sorta thing is kinda genetic. It mostly happens to Anglo-Saxton or Germanic ancestry, but there’s been a few Asians and quite a few black people as well too who’ve been shrunk somehow. Something about how in medieval times there was some sorta birth defect and English grass would cause it, and spread through the generations often skipping a few and then it goes throughout history and then it comes here now.  This organization was formed during the Vietnam War or so in 1967, when more cases started popping up stateside. A lot of this mostly happened in medieval times in England with a few cases through time. All of the people who encounter it today are mostly in America and Americans though, it’s pretty rare for something like this to happen outside of the U.S. and Canada, but there’s been cases in South America and Asia and Australia as well too, they have their own task forces with how to handle it and everything and they came out with their own secret agencies over the 70s and 80s. But still, Jack Cooper is the only one we’ve collectively as an organization as a whole to let him be known to the world” Brandon says.

“So it’s like some Men in Black type shit? I never would of guessed” Dave says, with a lot of wonder in his voice.

“That’s a pretty good way of putting it, no Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones in ours though” Brandon says, joking around a little bit.

“Yeah, don’t want the Fresh Prince slappin’ us around” Tony says, jokingly. No-one really laughs or reacts to this, probably due to the fact that all those Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscar jokes were done to death as soon as it happened. 

It’s quiet for about a few minutes again, the conversation dying down after Tony’s remark. 

I think about initiating conversation to catch up with Molly, but I figure she doesn’t care or seemingly wants to know too much about people from our past lives and what they’re doing ow, she gives off the vibe that she’s accepted her new way of life and has been cool with it for a little over a decade now. Brandon seems still open to conversation, but being my ex-girlfriend’s husband it seems that’s something that’s weird to me a little bit to think about, considering how long it felt like we were together but technically they’ve been together way longer than we ever were. From the beginning of high school to our college graduations roughly. 

“Remember when you used to call me Marty McFly?” I say, Tony and Dave giggle at this, Brandon doesn’t seemingly react to this.

“I haven’t called you that in like 20 years. I rarely said that as we got older. I guess you didn't look like him as much as you used as we got older. I’m surprised you remembered that.” Molly says, with a slight laugh in her voice. 

“Yeah, well you were my first girlfriend. Went through a lot of life events together” I say, stopping the conversation with this, realizing this could be kinda weird to do with her husband sitting next to her. Maybe "kinda weird" is a understatement.

“Yeah…” She says, leading off. 

The rest of the ride to the FBI building is pretty silent, although it’s nice seeing the D.C. surrounding area and the suburbs after years of being away from them, being back here. As we go out of the Virginia suburbs and around Arlington into D.C. proper it’s almost like I never left being in the area with how well I still know my way around the city and how the sights look the same as they did back then with a few difference here or there, scaffolding removed in areas or added in some areas. 

The FBI visit and everything, was actually pretty lackluster and less nerve wracking than I thought it would be. Although they didn’t tell us they had a cure for this sorta thing, it turns out Jack Cooper just was cool with being his size all this time and didn’t wanna take it even though his didn’t wear off anyways it seems. And yeah, as they told us in the car, we’re not the first, we’re definitely not the last either as well. The cure is some sorta pill we can have at our size, but it doesn’t really start to kick until 3 or four days or so. What’s it made out of, they don’t tell us. They think we already would have probably been back to regular size anyways in a few days anyways, judging by how our situation went. Miraculously, they never seemingly question about this not being our first time being shrunk. Although they figured something’s up with Tony and his history, they still don’t confront him about it. I think they know he’s the Watergate baby all grown up and somehow regular sized, but they don’t say anything due to his wife.  I think they understand they still don’t want our wives and family to know that this isn’t our first time being in this sorta situation, with the way they gloss over certain things. Like how we got shrunk in the first place this time, making contact with each other. They say it typically happens when someone who was shrunk in the past makes contact with someone who's done the same, but in other cases it can be a genetic thing. Us three guys being of Anglo Saxon in our heritages with some sorta common genetic thing going on, it’s rare, but it does happen they say to our wives. 

We get some light tests, and our wives watch us, mostly like endurance and mazes like we’re rats or something and the like, nothing too crazy and pretty light weight. We get our pills, but we also get a pension of roughly 100,000 a month which is a million a year for our troubles for the rest of our lives though, for getting swallowed and being put through the human digestive system and everything, since they knew how gross that could be. So that was pretty cool and honestly, I can retire for life and so can me and Tony and Dave as well too. Our wives were over the moon when they heard this. The government sends us a check for this every month. 

And honestly, Molly started talking to me again and saying that she might wanna start hanging out and catch up with us again. Brandon seemingly open to making me a part of his circle of friends as well too, having similar situations in the past of course.  Not really talking about Tony or Dave it seems. All of this which surprised the hell out of me, I guess having a change of heart about this whole situation and how Molly and I ended things. Molly seemingly being the one to open up to us more. Around 12 o’clock in the morning our visit and government talk and stuff finishes, we’re told to hang out in this little section of the Shrink division inside the FBI building and where we’re going to be for the next could days until this stuff wears off, the area  that’s in a super secluded place of the agency doesn’t actually doesn’t look as cool as you would think, just computers and agents and all different time clocks from different parts of the world, showing you what time it is in London or Beijing or Sydney or wherever on the inside. So again, it was pretty lackluster. The agency gave our wives allowances for hotel rooms nearby and rental cars and stuff like that, to stay in D.C. until we were normal sized again. Which they happily obliged in. The agency also saying that they’re shipping their clothes and baggage from the West Coast and it should arrive in the next few days.. They also got some Mickey D’s from a 24/7 spot delivered to them courtesy of one of the agents, they haven’t eaten much of anything during this day. 

But it was pretty nice, seeing Molly again after all these years. Once the weirdness of it all wore off, for sure. 

I guess I’ll have to wait out the rest of this, but at least I’m not alone in this fucked up situation of ours. My wife, my friends Tony and Dave at least I’d argue these guys are lifelong friends now after all of this shrinking stuff we’ve gone through together plus our backgrounds as well. And Molly, sweet, sweet Molly. A girl I haven’t seen in years who disappeared without a trace turned out to be a FBI agent of some sorts due to her boyfriend, now husband, being shrunk like me.  Besides, Tiny Ping Pong Tables with paddles and a regular sized flat screen smart TV with Cable TV and Netflix and YouTube to keep us occupied in the meantime, so could be worse, I guess. They’ll bring us food and there’s a cafeteria and stuff and they’ll say we can get Pizza and sub sandwiches and Salads and stuff at our size as well too and drinks like soda and juice and water of course. Something about food technology they said that the general public doesn’t know about that we can get at our size.  We have beds and nightstands and stuff tailor made for us, which is cool and surprising. Getting actual proper sleep during this size we’re in, probably for once. And a shower and a bathroom area too, with seemingly plumbing somehow hooked up to it and everything.  And of course, we can talk to each other and have our own company. It’s nice they gave us some clothes to change out of at our size that they’ve got tailor made, although they look like prison jumpsuits with the orangeness of them and the like.  It’s amazing how much tailor made stuff they had for our size at the same quality it would be at normal size though. I guess it really shows that we aren’t the only ones with how much detail went into this and how comfortable it is for us.

But thank God, I wasn’t alone at all this time. And it looks like it was always that way in some sorts, too. I just didn’t know it. 

Sunday, August 27th, 2023.

“Dude, I’m telling you. Jennifer Connelly was so much hotter back in the late eighties and like early nineties ” Tony says to Dave as Tony starts to flip over a Beef patty, we’re at a cook-out over at the unfenced backyard of Tony’s deceased friend’s house that he now owns, the previous owner being a old man named Roger that he used to be good friends with back in the 90s and 00s that passed away about a decade ago, went in his sleep. It’s nice and warm out and there’s a nice cool breeze coming through, it’s not too hot even though it’s the end of August. The smell of barbecue is in the air and I can hear the sound of the music playing through a Bluetooth speaker, the song “Hold On Loosely” by 38 Special. Tony put it on some random classic rock Spotify playlist via his own phone. This playlist was made by some random person and not Spotify made specifically.  Our wives talking amongst each other near the table, mostly about how the money we’ve gotten is life changing of course. My daughter is playing some puzzle game on her tablet sitting next to Nicole. And Vincent and his girlfriend are seemingly talking and flirty and playing around with their friends on Facetime with their phones, seemingly off a bit more in the background

Roger worked at Denny’s for about 15 years and then retired, Tony told us when we first came over. He and his wife have been good friends of Tony's family throughout the years before their deaths.  His wife passed away right before the pandemic hit in early 2020 of some sort of stroke, and they didn’t have any children or anything like that, so they wrote Tony in the will about a year before Roger went, seemingly getting their house and the like. Tony mostly rents it out to people, making good money on the side for it. There’s no-one leasing at the moment so he decided to have us all get together out here, our first in person reunion since all the events of the Shrinkage incident that happened earlier in the year. Something that’s changed all of our lives forever, especially with our bank accounts. Our wives are retiring early as well too, although their kids are still working and seem to have a plan for their own lives and making their own money. Tony Jr and Francine are still off at their respective colleges, or in Tony Jr’s case, welding school. Vincent, Tony’s Younger son is seemingly here though, although he still lives at home since he’s still in school.

“I don’t know bro, she was a total smoke show in that New Top Gun movie that we rented when we were stuck in that shrinkage thing at the agency. I remember seeing her in The Rocketeer when I was a kid and she was pretty attractive in that. I’ve seen Requiem for a Dream and she wasn’t bad looking in that either, but man. She’s a total milf in Top Gun. She ages like fine wine” Dave says, sipping on a bottle of Cherry flavored Clearly Canadian. A drink that’s made a comeback from the 90s in recent years, I’ve noticed. Seeing them in stores around Atlanta back at home. Dave and Tony and I grabbed a few when we went to Mejier to grab stuff for this cookout that Tony’s doing. Meijer is a pretty big midwestern grocery chain, especially out here in Grand Rapids since that’s where it’s headquartered, as Tony told us when we went with him. I think I might have heard of it once or twice in the past through Molly, maybe in passing conversation when talking about Illinois. 

“Yeah but dude, Career Opportunities. Jen was a total babe in that, I remember seeing it in the mid-nineties on cable TV when it had been out a few years, it was on HBO. I was getting started in life, living over a former work friend’s grandparents house when I first moved up here. Out in Muskegon, about an hour outside of Grand Rapids. Little lakeside town. I remember seeing her in this movie called Some Girls as well too that came on TV during that time, but no-one really talks about that one” Tony says.

“I’ve never given Connelly much thought, I used to really have a thing for Uma Thurman, Kill Bill and all that when I saw it on a Plane in like 2006 flying out to go see my ex-girlfriend in New York. Volume 1 I think it was. Tall blondes, I guess are my Kryptonite” I say, joking a bit with my last statement. 

“One of the most beautiful women of my generation, Jennifer Connelly. Nice tits, a nice smile, those eyebrows, man those eyebrows. Especially back then. Her voice as well too, and she’s smart as all hell” Tony says.

“Are you guys forgetting you have wives?” I hear Erica call out from a few feet where we’re at, and Nicole and Dave’s Jennifer crack up.

“Hey, you’ve had huge crushes on Michael B. Jordan and Denzel Washington and Ice Cube in the past before and gushed about it. So let me have my turn too” I say talking a little bit loud to Nicole, and both groups laugh at this. My daughter is still seemingly into her tablet, not really caring too much about what’s going on.  Ironically enough, that “867-5309” song starts to play through the speaker. 

“But yeah. Jennifer Connelly’s a hottie. So how have you guys been spending your time since y’know, we can retire now” Tony says, as he begins to put some of the beef patties and the sausage links on a nearby plate.

“Y’know, I’ve been mostly relaxing. Reading and just spending time with my daughter, picking her up from school and taking her out to the zoo or whatever on the weekends. Or after me and Nicole pick her up from school sometimes Just quality family time pretty much. Quitting the firm and all and finding peace with everything.  I still can’t believe we’ve actually managed to get Jack Cooper’s phone number since we’ve all met him before at some point, except for you Tony obviously. Brandon got us in contact with him when we were in that holding cell or whatever, and I’m surprised he still remembers us from those pretty short interactions all those years ago” I say.

“I didn’t actually know that you guys had met him before you mentioned it to Brandon when he came to visit for about 15 minutes once” Tony says, as he begins to put some more burgers and sausage links on the grill, replacing the ones he just took off. He waves a few flies away, the flies somewhat gathering in this area near the grill.  

“Yeah, it’s an even stranger coincidence considering it was just two out of three of us, considering what’s happened before” I say, alluding a little bit to our pasts a little bit in this too, I wonder if they catch this.

Tony walks over and puts the plate of food next to the table where our wives are, and there’s an assortment of buns and cheese and condiments and the like next to it, for the burgers and the sausages. Dave takes over for a little bit, making sure the burgers and the like don’t burn as Tony makes his walk from the table to back to the grill. 

“Last batch then I’m done” Tony says, as he walks back up the grill, regaining control of the grill again.

“I’m in no rush, you can’t rush perfection. Everyone else seems to be picking and eating a little bit anyways” I say, and Dave smiles at this as Tony chuckles.

“Yeah. But it’s been a pretty easy five months roughly since then. Life can’t get any better than this. You guys plan on moving or are you guys going to stay where you’re at like I am” Tony says.

“I’ve thought about moving to California, but nah. Money would still go further in Georgia. Besides, my wife’s family is there and stuff. And I think Atlanta is where I’m going to remain for the rest of my foreseeable future” I say.

“I’ll probably move to Cincinnati where Jenny’s from by the end of the year, San Francisco is expensive and honestly I’m liking the Midwest judging by what I’m seeing, cheaper, not as crowded. At least out here in Grand Rapids, we just got here yesterday” Dave says.

“Yeah, it’s a cool place” Tony says.

It’s quiet between us, Tony focusing more on the grill and me and Tony looking more at our phones. My family and my wife's family are well aware of the situation I went through this year, them being pretty sympathetic about it and everything. Not really asking us for money but mostly just leaving us be. It's not like my family, like my mom is hurting for money. Although my brother asked for a few thousands here or there, and I gave him some. Nicole's family are doing pretty good too even without the money and never really asked for anything about it.

I’ve talked to a few of my old friends since the shrinkage thing, Alex, All of my Baltimore Friends, Richie, and Jon. All over the course of a few months, Richie being the last one to know since I told him about a month ago. Alex seemingly surprised that it happened again, even after all these years later. Him still being the only one knowing that this isn’t the first time that this has happened to me. I see memes about that whole Trump thing that’s still going on and him having his Mugshot taken and all that stuff, jammed into my feed. Funny to think he was in Atlanta when he took it.

Tony finishes cooking the final batch of burgers and sausages and we all come together to dig in at the outside table, the time being at that point around 4:00 in the afternoon. We had been over his house since 12 roughly, Me and my wife and kid and Dave and his wife flew in last night from Atlanta and San Francisco. Tony initiated this cookout via text through our shared phone numbers sometime last week, we don’t have a group chat although I figure that we probably should. We talk about weekly though, at least me and Tony and Dave do. 

We eat, and talk a little bit. I notice that Tony turns the music off via his phone. Mostly about our lives and how grateful we are with this money, Jennifer uses the money to pay off her student loans. And Tony used the money to pay off his Camaro, now owning it outright. Which is something he seems pretty pleased about, and he’s using it to help his kids out with their college and the like as well too. My daughter doesn’t say much during this at all, neither does Vincent and his girlfriend either. All three are pretty much into their food and everything too.

We eat and talk a little more, mostly about just getting to know each other a little more, although Tony and Dave and I know each other a lot due to the fact what we’ve been through together, plus being in the holding cell at that shrink agency as well for about five days as well too. So it’s mostly just the women talking to each other, I think Vincent and his girlfriend slip away, Her mumbling something about her parents calling her home for some sorta family game night or whatever, Tony or Erica doesn’t seem to notice or care all too much about this when he does slip out with his girlfriend. I notice he’s pretty lax on him and doesn’t question Vincent too much for a seventeen year old, although Tony has said in the past that he’s a pretty good kid and never really gives him much trouble or anything like that. I notice his son’s wearing a “Thrasher” t-shirt that all kids these days seemingly love to wear these past few years and some ripped jeans and some Green high top Vans, his jet black hair seemingly it’s regular nature looking style as well too.

We finish eating around 6 or so, the conversation’s seemingly die down and everyone getting their fill of food, there’s a few sausages here and there and a few burger patties as well too.

Us guys, Tony and Dave and I get up and walk more into the grassy area, more towards the field and the trees in the background and the like and a little bit pass a old tire swing.

“That was some good food, Tony” I say, stifling a burp, I feel a little bloated to be honest with you. 

“Yeah, I haven’t eaten at a cookout like that since, probably summertime during my teenage years”  Dave says.

“Yeah, I thought this would be a good way for us to get in touch with each other again. Y’know I wish Brandon and Molly could be here, I know you reached out to them but obviously they were busy with, y’know, their duties with the agency and working for the F.B.I as a whole and everything”  Tony says, looking towards me. 

“Yeah, it would been nice if they would have joined,” I say, as we walk a little further into the fields, a little bit away from the tables and the house. The house is in this more rural area of town, not too far from the airport.

“Y’know too, next month will be twenty five years since me and Erica first met. And it was out here as well too, Roger’s wife’s friends and everything, I’ve told you guys how we met so you know the deal. But it’s crazy to think I’ve known her for that long now, and how it’s nearly twenty five years too” Tony says.

“Yeah, time does go by,” Dave says.

A few minutes pass of just silence, the wind blowing and everything and the distant chatter of our wives still at the table, talking still. Not really noticing us too much far off in the distance

“I remember Brandon said he had a song associated when he got shrunk, saying Surrender by Cheap Trick was played a lot on the radio and some of the lyrics repeated in his head the day he met Jack Cooper and everything. Do you guys have some sorta experience like that? I remember this band, my high school friend was into it, this band called Sugarcult. Typical pop punk stuff at the time, dime a dozen sorta thing. I remember the day I got back before July 4th, their song "Stuck in America” really rang in my head after he played it in the car once I came back from Europe, with Molly in the car and we were headed to the mall ” I say, filling the silence.

“Yeah, I get what you’re saying. Movies by Alien Ant Farm was a song I remember hearing a lot on my local rock radio station when I was shrunk back when I was like, Vincent’s age. Although the song wasn’t exactly new back then, since this was like, 2011. I guess it fit my situation, since I remember thinking all the shrink stuff was like being in a movie. I remember the lyrics would ring out in my head” Dave says.

“Nah, because it was a way of life for me compared to like, a week or two deal for you guys” Tony says, sounding quite blunt about it.

“Yeah, yeah that’s true” I say, as I start to think about the song. I remember my younger brother had their “Antology” CD, and he’d play it in his room sometimes when we were teenagers living in Charlotte. Alien Ant Farm was one of his favorite bands back then, that whole nu-metal thing back then. This Alien Ant Farm band is something I haven’t thought about in years, it was one of his few bands that I did like and had a couple songs I didn’t mind, Movies being one of the songs. This band was more sing-y and not as screamy in their songs as most nu-metal bands he liked. 

“Y’know, I’m just glad we survived this ordeal and the previous ones. I’m just glad we made it” I say, and Tony and Dave nod in agreement.

We all walk back to the table to join our wives and probably head back to hotels and get ready for the next day. We’re heading back to our respective cities on Wednesday morning, since we’re going to hang out in Grand Rapids with Tony and Erica a little bit longer. Don’t wanna keep Alexis out of school too long anyways, especially at the start of the school year. I hear something about Erica saying she’s going to go inside and bake some Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies that she bought earlier to make for dessert as we get closer again and we can hear their conversations more clearly, as she starts to get up to go inside the house and begin to bake. 

And I guess, Just Like The Movies, we played out our last scene.