Meanwhile, Nadia only prayed that Sarah would remain still for a while, so she wouldn't have to be pounded into the insole for another stroll of rhythmic torture. Or, better yet, maybe she'd tire of her probably-equally idiotic friends and head home soon.
"You wanna see the selfies I took?" Sarah asked. There was a pause while she retrieved her phone and the other girls crowded around. "They're sooooo precious. Yeah, I got another pet. Found her right out in the garden! It's like she was waiting for me. Seriously, she loves her Mommy so much now, and can't get enough of me. It's like she feels safer when she's near me, especially my feet. I know, it's super-duper cute, right? What's that, Amy? Yeah, sure, you can meet her sometime!"
Hearing these filthy lies made Nadia ill. Or maybe that was just the expired-dairy-and-meat stench of Sarah's summertime sweat, roasting in stale sneakers. Nadia blanched at the putrid air and sweat-soggy toes, as well as the extent of Sarah's foolish misunderstanding. God, what she wouldn't give for just a puff of fresh air and three seconds of linguistic contact with this enormous teenage dolt. Then she'd let her have it.
Mercy came eventually, when the walking resumed and the volume of sweat coursing through the swamp of Sarah's sneaker reached its peak. They were going home. At this point, so much moisture lubricated the girl's pudgy sole that Nadia was free to slide all about with each step. On one impact, the tiny woman might find herself pinched in the vice of eager toes; on another, she might be smashed under the supple mass of bare sole flesh expanding atop of her frail three-inch self.
Relief like nothing Nadia had ever known was experienced when that massive adolescent bare foot peeled itself away from her perspiration-glossed body. Even when Sarah's fingers fished down into the sneaker to grab her, Nadia didn't complain. Anything was better than being walked on by a cataclysmic naked foot for an hour in the muggy summer heat.
At least until Nadia looked around. They weren't back in the bedroom, and she wasn't being returned to the ballet flat with Matt to finish what they'd started. Instead, they were in the bathroom, and Sarah was dangling her pet over a marble sink filled with warm water.
"Wait, STOP!" Nadia cried as she hung upside down from Sarah's hand.
"That's right, I know you're excited to get all squeaky-clean. No offense, Queenie, but you smell after you were having so much fun down in Mommy's shoes. Now, let's soap you up." True to her word, Sarah's arm descended, and without hesitation she dunked Nadia into the lukewarm bath.
Caught off-guard, Nadia took suds down the throat as she was dragged to the depths of the bowl. The water temperature was comfortable, but Sarah's hand kept her trapped like a shark cage, restricting oxygen. Then, in a breaching splash, the girl drew Nadia up in cupped hands full of soap. The shrunken woman sputtered for air, coughing up bubbles, but there was no time to recover.
"There we go, now you're all wet and sudsy. Let's see if we can scrub you all pretty again, okay?" Sarah forewarned.
Her thumbs reared up on either side of Nadia, and with ruthless efficiency, proceeded to rub the slippery little pet into oblivion. As expected, Nadia's cries went ignored, except for the occasional snicker, while Sarah's fingers washed every nook and cranny of her body. In soft circles, those spiraled thumbpads stroked. The girl's finger batted at Nadia's chest, wound around her legs, and flicked her in the butt. Never had the woman felt so violated in all her life. Just as before she couldn't have imagined having her life threatened beneath a meaty bare foot belonging to a teenage girl, so too did she find it impossible to picture being roughly fondled by that same well-meaning entity. Yet here she was.
"Cleanliness is next to godliness, you know, Queenie," Sarah commented. She closed her fist around Nadia and dunked her again into the warm bath. Upon drawing her dripping fingers back up, she continued the forcible rubdown as before.
Nadia went despondently limp, and didn't fight back now as Sarah's exploratory fingers scoured and polished the grime away.
"And you're gonna be sooooo clean, that you'll just wanna jump right back in my shoes. But I won't let you just yet. Not until it's time for school. Then I'll take you both with me: Boogie in one shoe, and you in the other. Cuz I love you both equally!"
Nadia lay still as the water was drained, the towel wrapped around her to dry, and Sarah's fist bundled her up for transport. The tiny woman couldn't summon a word nor even a facial twitch as the closet doors were opened, and the opening of the familiar ballet flat came near. Matt waved his arms desperately from inside, but still Nadia didn't react.
"That was so much fun, Queenie. We're definitely gonna bring you along all the time now, too. I wouldn't want you to get jealous of Boogie, since you're part of the family," Sarah enthused. She brought Nadia to her mouth and wrapped her wet lips hard over most of the woman's head, undoing half of her cleansing efforts in one slobbery smooch. With a soft pop, then she withdrew and tucked Nadia into the slipper with Matt. "I'm gonna go eat lunch, and then I'll be back, and let you two play under your Mommy's foot, okay? Byeeee!"
Sarah shut the doors and bounded away, leaving them in shadow and silence. Instantly, Matt huddled around Nadia, kissing her cheek, but the woman held still as a statue.
"Thank God you're all right," he whispered. "Please, Nadia. Lay with me. I... I need you so bad. This is so awful, I just have to feel close to you. Won't you-"
"I need to be alone for a while," Nadia croaked. She brushed off her boyfriend's embrace and crawled down into the balmy toe section of the slipper, where she curled into a ball and fell into fitful rest.