Anna strode back into the kitchen, her sister-in-law clenched, whimpering, in her fist as she calmly swung her arms, giving Helen a sickening roller coaster ride.  Using two fingers, she pushed her matted bangs off of her forehead, noting oddly to herself that the house’s temperature had gone up.  She assumed it had something to do with the AC, but she wasn’t particularly concerned at the moment, so deep was her determination.  Subconsciously, she wasn’t sure what her next moves were going to be, but her motherly instinct had kicked into full force, replacing all other thoughts about technical morality or even legality.  She would figure out how she and her daughter would get out of it later.  Grimacing, she admitted strongly to herself a truth so she wouldn’t forget it: as much as she deeply hated the guts of Kevin, Helen, and their bratty daughter, she wasn’t a violent person.  She realized what she had just done to her late husband’s sister was cruel, and probably mentally painful, but she convinced herself that this was as far as she would allow it to go.  It had to be.  For the sake of her mind and heart.

                But this came secondary to her daughter.  Anna nodded, reaffirming the promise she had made to herself only around thirty minutes ago.  She was going to ensure she and her daughter had a future, no matter the somewhat questionable methods she had to employ.  And she was more determined to succeed here than she had ever felt about any problem of her life.  This was for Alison.  Alison’s future… and, partially, her own personal satisfaction to give the conniving, money-grabbing, spoiled family a taste of their own medicine.

                She came to a stop in front of the pantry door, twisted the handle, and stepped inside.  Light flooded in, and she chuckled to watch Kevin, his clothes completely stained purple by the wine, struggling into a position where he could press his soaked hands against the squeaky glass.  As she stepped closer, she could see his face was just about as purple flushed as the wine he was pruning in.

                “All right.  Listen UP, you stupid piece of…” he growled, trying to form his words, his voice sounding slightly tipsy, as if the constant scent of the wine in his nose for the past thirty minutes had almost had the effect of actually drinking the stuff.

                “Told you he wouldn’t be a happy camper, sis,” grinned Anna, raising Helen’s dizzy body up into view of the shelf.  Instantly, she perked up, and wiping a piece of encrusted mucus out of her hair, Helen reached her arms out toward her husband.

                “KEVIN!” she screamed, fresh tears running down her cheeks.  “Are you all right?”

                “I’m just FINE, no thanks to this… this…”

                Anna tittered at his pathetic, purple, dripping form trying so hard to come up with the perfect insult, as he so often did.  “I’d think if you were in there that long, Kevin, you’d at least have thought up something creative.  C’mon, hit me with it.  Anything you got.”

                “You stupid BITCH!  You… you… rotten, stinking, WHORE!”

                “Really?  That’s all of it?  That’s what you came up with while you were in there?  And here I thought you got more eloquent after a glass of wine,” smiled Anna, crossing her arms with Helen still gripped in her fingers, now dangling underneath her forearm.  Anna’s thumb and middle finger calmly started kneading over Helen’s flailing form as she held her rather precariously, staring down at a death drop from about stomach level on Anna’s body, which represented a mortifying far distance down her smooth legs and billowing white skirt fabric.

                Using her free hand, Anna reached forward, pinching the stem of the wine glass between her ring and middle fingers, lifting it off of the shelf regally.  Kevin stumbled, going face-under in the wine once again before struggling to his knees, looking out the fogged glass dome as the kitchen came back into view.  Anna placed the hand holding Helen on the countertop, although she didn’t let her go for several more seconds, continuing to knead at her tiny stomach with two of her cool fingers, ruffling her outfit.  Helen tried to grasp at the massive, intrusive thumb as it worked over her mid-torso, but she was powerless to get it off of her.  Just as Helen’s stomach started to feel rubbed raw through her clothes, Anna finally released her fingers, allowing the acrophobic woman to drop to the marble top, breathing heavily.

                Kevin wrinkled his nose in disgust, before speaking softly in determined sarcastic sound bites.  “You wanna play rough?  I see.  That’s all right.  I can do rough.  I can play rough.  I’ve played it a hell of a lot in front of a judge, and I guarantee you that, no matter what the fuck you think you can DO to me, those guys are a hundred times scarier than you’ll EVER be!” roared Kevin with confidence, placing his hands on his sopping sides in perceived victory.  Anna batted her eyelashes playfully, her lips curling into a smile.

                “Come on now, Kevin,” she murmured softly.  “I don’t think there’s ANYONE scarier than me.”  With that, she opened her lips, bringing the edge of the wine glass closer.  She pinched around the translucent rim, smearing her pink lip flesh along it, smudging it.  The tiny man watched nervously as her lips were smushed against the glass, where he could see every detail through the floor of the glass.  Then, it began to tip slightly, and Kevin backed up as far as he could along the slippery wall to the base, where he cowered.  A river of red wine ran past his ankles, slipping over the partially parted plush lips, trickling into the cracks and sticking to her mouth like a sugary adhesive.  She pulled back, eyeing him in the glass, and dramatically licked her lips, wiping her moist tongue all the way around her mouth twice between retracting it with a satisfied slurp. 

“Boy… gotta hand it to you, Kevin.  You don’t fool around when you buy your liquor.  This stuff is fantastic!” she laughed, bringing her lips back onto the glass and sucking at the new, trickling river of dark red.  The glass tipped at a sharper angle, and Kevin was barely able to keep himself backed against the wet glass base as he watched the droplets of strong liquid flow into Anna’s gargantuan, muggy mouth.  Just as he felt his hands slipping from creating a little bit of friction against the glass base, the glass reverted to its standard position as Anna slowly swallowed the gulp of wine, holding her hand over her throat and patting at it to show her enjoyment.

“I don’t want to drink you out of house and home, Kevin.  I’d probably end up becoming the person you tell the family I am, right?” she asked, raising an eyebrow, knowing full well that Kevin often spread rumors that she was a heavy drinker.  “So maybe just… one last sip,” she whispered, moving the glass back to her waiting, damp lips as Kevin fruitlessly waved his arms, shaking his head in protest.  She chuckled at his attempt, tipping the glass at a greater downward diagonal angle, allowing the river of wine to flow more thickly into her mouth, which sent Kevin rolling down the slick glass and slamming against her wet lips.  Feeling him there finally, she began sipping harder from the glass, and felt his clothes become stuck to her plush, sugar-coated skin.  Kevin tried desperately to pull off of the massive puffs of pink flesh, stained by wine, as he looked into the dark opening of her mouth.  Inside the dark cave, he could see glistening saliva being splashed by a writhing pink muscle of a tongue.  The walloping scent of the wine was already leaking right out from between her lips, tainted slightly by her hot breathe, once again filling his nostrils.  He closed his eyes, shaking in terror as he continued fighting, while her mouth had slowly begun sipping harder on the wine, the suction keeping him firmly held against the vacuum of her parted lips.  As the last dregs were chugged into her mouth, Kevin felt the intense force pull his arm part way over the gummy entrance to her mouth.

As soon as this happened, Anna clamped her lips closed, trapping his arm mostly inside her mouth.  He struggled violently against the strength of her lips, even pressing against the sticky flesh with his other arm to try and free himself, but he was unsuccessful.  Then, a second later, he felt something heavy and wet tapping at his hand.  As he waited another moment, a thick, rubbery, sopping wet mass began to fold itself around his hand.  He felt warm mouth juices beginning to drip along his arm as the drenched, sinewy muscle began to tube itself around his hand, sucking on his arm.  He shook violently in disgust as he realized Anna was pressing her tongue against his arm inside of her mouth.  This continued for a full minute, Anna chuckling lightly, as her tongue worked itself back and forth along his arm, coating it in muculent spit that soaked so thoroughly through the arm of Kevin’s shirt, he felt like it was going to leak into his body.  Finally, with a soft pop and a sprayed droplet of spit that dribbled onto Kevin’s chest, Anna opened her lips, allowing the arm some freedom.  Kevin yanked it back, his hand fully doused in the spit-laced wine that was being sloshed around her mouth between her cheeks.  Finally, pulling away from the glass, Anna smiled and snickered between her slick teeth as Kevin rolled back to the center of the wet, empty glass, trying to wipe the gooey residue off of his soiled arm.

Helen gasped to find the wall of squishy hand flesh closing back around her body, giving way to finger muscles an instant later, as she was lifted into the air again.  Anna was headed back for the living room.  Kevin looked up, too busy trying to clean the revolting sputum off of his arm to even care much, and he was certainly too busy to come up with his next retort for the situation.  He grumbled, cursing lightly under his breath, as Anna reached the living room, taking a seat on the couch once again.  She pulled her legs up this time, sitting cross-legged, and tipped the glass over the couch, spilling out the disgruntled Kevin and a few stray drops of wine that instantly stained into the fabric.

Helen screeched, waving her arms in horror, as Anna let go of her right next to her husband on the couch.  Kevin, looking very weary, held out his arms for a hug from his wife, but instead, to his shock, found her kneeling on the couch cushion, rubbing at the purple droplet on the couch with her tiny fist, to no avail.

“No… no… NO!  Oh, Kevin…” moaned Helen, clearly in pain.  “These stains are NEVER going to come out!”

“Stains…” repeated Kevin, seeming calm, but Anna could almost see the steam coming out of his ears.

“Well, just LOOK at them.  Dear God, what a mess… I’ll have to call the…”

“HELEN!” he bellowed without warning, causing her to flinch and stand back up, staring him straight in the face.

“What?”
                “I DON’T GIVE A FLYING FUCK ABOUT THE GODDAMNED COUCH!” he screamed waving his arms as a stray dribble of drying wine fell onto the couch.  Instantly, Helen was back on her knees, trying to rub it out with her fist, but Kevin lifted his tiny foot, casually pushing her arm away from it.

“Stop!” she cried, trying to reach for it, but Kevin leaned over, grasping at her arms and pulling her roughly to her feet.

“Leave the couch alone, Helen.  Leave it.  Leave it,” growled Kevin more softly this time but with the same level of anger.  He stared at her intensely for a few moments, and finally she began to cry, leaning over his soaked shoulder.  He quickly pulled her into a sticky embrace.

“I’m s-s-sorry…” she whimpered.  “This is just w-what I d-do when I can’t c-cope…” she sighed, tears flowing down her cheeks.  He patted at her, shushing her.  Finally, getting the courage, Kevin looked up at Anna’s eyes, which were trained, fascinated with the pair of them.  He sneered at her but said nothing more.

“Kevin…” continued Anna at length, rubbing at her chin with her fingers in thought.  “If your wife is having such a hard time with all this, I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t indulge her.”

“In… indul…” mumbled Kevin, trying desperately to decipher the meaning.  Anna chuckled.

“Well, first we’ll send you back to high school English class, but then we’ll give Helen exactly what she wants.”

                “What I… want?” sobbed Helen, still shaking, as she let go of her husband and turned to face Anna.  Absentmindedly, the titanic sister-in-law began to wiggle her toes in her flip-flop, which was right in view of the tiny couple before her.  This caused Helen’s attention to quickly divert as she stepped back into a nervous hug with Kevin, her eyes locked to the tremendous nubs of meat, muscle, and bare toenail as they flexed back and forth, deep wrinkles forming in the barren, toe-printed grooves along the joints, compressing the white foam of the shoe slightly with each bending.

                “You’re kind of a neat freak, Helen.  Not that I’m judging you in any way,” smiled Anna.  Calmly, she lowered a hand, laying it on the bottom of her flip-flop, which was horizontal because of her crossed legs.  She flattened her palm against the dirty bottom and gripped her fingers around the edge, calmly pushing at the foam with a soft tap.  “And I know something else about you…”

                “W-What?”

                Anna looked over the length of the couch, her eyes darting, before returning with a grin to Helen and Kevin before her, standing on the cushions.  “You’re not REALLY okay with me having shoes on the couch, are you?”

                “I… I…”

                “Just answer the question, Helen,” came Anna’s voice, suddenly much sterner and more authoritarian.  Helen eeped, covering her mouth, then nodded.

                “N-No… no, I d-don’t…”

                “That’s it…” whispered Anna, satisfied at last.  Her fingers began to compress into the firm foam of the shoe, slipping it forward and off of her foot.  Helen hugged herself more tightly to Kevin as the flip-flop, longer than most trucks would be, rose over their heads, briefly casting a shadow over them.  They turned, ducking, as Anna set the flip-flop face up calmly onto the couch.  As the couple was so small and Helen was so hypersensitive, she couldn’t help but notice a tiny clump of dirt invisible to an average human plopping onto the fabric as it made impact with the cushion.  She squealed in Kevin’s embrace, but did nothing else.  They then turned back to face Anna again, but were quickly knocked over as Anna swept her other foam shoe over them lower to the cushion this time, brushing them against the warm, worn material with great force.  They sputtered with surprise, then struggled to their feet as Anna set the shoe down right next to the other one, very near to the pair of them.

                Helen’s eye fearfully traced along the shoe’s inside.  The plastic strap had an impressive sheen in the light of the room, unlike the rest of the shoe, spreading across most of the flip-flop’s width before reattaching itself to the foam base and looping back up, where Anna’s massive big toe was supposed to fit comfortably.  The tiny sister-in-law’s jaw dropped, realizing that the loop looked could have fit a fatted pig through with ease at her scale, and yet Helen knew it was simply meant to contain the hulking, meaty weight of Anna’s pink big toe.  Next, her eyes followed along the white foam.  Up close, the filthiness of them was especially apparent.   Deep brown stains from mud, along with tiny green splotches from grass, suggested Anna’s outdoorsy style, but also disgusted Helen as she realized that they were sitting on her couch, spreading their germs.  At the front of the shoe, in the foam, Helen’s skin got goosebumps with fear to see five deep, distinct, circular impressions directly into the foam where Anna’s heavy toes had been laid countless times before, pressing hard into the shoe as she walked.

                Helen, still holding tightly to her husband, flinched to find a pair of thick fingers grasping at her back.  She tried to fight against the fleshy pads but found herself suddenly peeled off of her husband’s purple-washed, sticky shirt.  He too tried to help her, grabbing at her arms, but Anna flicked at his ankles with a powerful middle finger, causing him to fall down and lose his connection.  Helen was brought into the air, flailing, for only a moment as Anna’s hand shifted over.  Her fingers released the struggling woman directly downward, where she landed crumpled on the dirty instep of the foam flip-flop, her back feeling the slight indent where the side of Anna’s foot had applied different amounts of weight to the shoe, changing its shape over time. 

Helen’s hands, as she pulled up, could feel the warmth Anna’s foot had provided not long ago to the shoe.  This alone made her uneasy, but not nearly as much as when the stale, rubbery scent of foam began to leak into her nose.  She pinched her nostrils, looking up at Anna, who had crossed her arms, smirking at her.

“What do you WANT?” cried out Helen, wiping her eyes.

“It’s not what I want, sis,” smiled Anna.  “It’s what you want.”

“WHAT?”

Anna laughed.  “Why is that such a hard concept for both of you to deal with?  I’m giving you an opportunity here.”

“Opportunity…” breathed Helen, disbelieving, looking down at the grizzled shoe.

The gargantuan sister-in-law jokingly slapped her palm against her own forehead as if disappointed.  “You two don’t catch on very quickly, do you?  Okay, so here’s the deal: you don’t like my shoes?  Too dirty for your precious couch?  I’m good with that.  Just go ahead and make them appropriate to use on the furniture.”

“You mean…”

“Yep.  I want you to clean them,” grinned Anna, her point revealed at last.

“Cle…” stuttered Helen, her eyes falling back to the impossibly large platform of soft white foam, which to her looked around 16 feet long.  “What are you TALKING about?”

“Go on,” smiled Anna.  She reached forward, her hand descending on her trembling sister-in-law and batted at her back with her fingers, causing Helen to fall flat onto the warm foam, her face hitting a dirty smudge directly.  “Get to work.  I think it’ll calm you down.”

Helen righted herself, standing up, and breathed slowly.  At this point, she decided, despite how terrible the situation was, that she should just get it over with and try to remain on Anna’s good side.  Trembling, she got onto her haunches, standing over the shoe.  Anna nodded encouragingly at her, and started to move her hand back to her to knock her back against the foam, so Helen quickly started working.  She clenched her fingers against the soft give of the foam, digging her fingers into the patterned grooves.  It was filthy work, and she shuddered as she felt the dry mud film getting clumped under her tiny fingernails.  However, she didn’t get long at this before she found a humongous nail smacking at her under her chin, flipping her onto her back as Anna flicked her.  Her head reeled, her teeth pained from being clacked together so hard from Anna’s flick.

“Anna, she’s doing what you asked her to!” yelled Kevin.  “Stop DOING that and let her do it, if that’s what you’re making her do!  I…” gasped Kevin as the soft finger flesh closed around his body again, lifting him up to Anna’s face.

“Kevin, please.  You’re embarrassing yourself,” mused Anna.  “How clean do you think she’s actually going to get those things by just scratching at them?”

“Well… well…” struggled Kevin, trying once again to move in his prison of smooth palm flesh, but it was obviously out of the question.  “What are y-you suggesting?” he asked, partly out of anger and partly out of fear.

“I’ll tell you, Kevin,” she smiled.  “I can’t imagine she’s going to be able to do much without getting them wet first.”

“Wet?”

“That’s right.  You know, with water?  Ever heard of it?”

“Fine.  Then let her off of it, and go and run some water from the sink on it.”

Anna appeared to be considering this, scratching at her chin with a free pointer finger.  “Hmmm… no.  No, I don’t think I feel like it right now, Kev.”

“What?  What do you MEAN you don’t feel like it?  Then how is she supposed to…”

“What can I say?  This couch is just too damn comfy,” she grinned, leaning back against the pillows behind her, still keeping Kevin gripped in front of her face.  “C’mon, little lady, get to work!” she chuckled jokingly, although her meaning was perfectly serious.  Helen looked down at the ground, then back to Anna, then back to a dirty splotch on the shoe.  Finally, looking back at her sister-in-law, she watched as Anna’s slimy tongue poked itself gently between her lips before disappearing back into her mouth. 

Directions.

Suddenly realizing what she was being asked to do, Helen coughed in disgust, standing back up off of her kneeling position and waving her arms.  “NO!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.  “You… y-you… Anna…” she gasped breathlessly, hardly daring to believe that a human being could ask another human being to do what was being suggested.  “Anna…” she whispered again fearfully.  “You’re not serious…”  Her voice cracked from the strain.

Anna leaned back forward, casually allowing the fist clutching Kevin to flip over, holding him upside down.  She squinted at Helen intensely, grimacing lightly at her as if she felt somewhat sorry for her.  “Helen, honey…” she whispered softly and gently as if speaking to a baby.  “Helen, Helen, Helen…”

“A-Anna… p-please?”

“Shhh...” sighed Anna, placing a finger over her own lips and lowering her voice to a level that Helen could barely hear her.  “Get back on your hands and knees.”

“W-What?  Anna…” gasped Helen, a few tears coming loose.

“Get down right now,” continued Anna in the same sweet, sing-song voice.  “Get down, stick out your little tongue, and don’t stop licking until this entire shoe is perfectly white again.”  The way she was speaking sent terrified chills down Helen’s back; the growing determination in Anna’s voice had risen, elevated from gentleness to what some might have perceived as near casual carnality.  Helen couldn’t be sure, as she was too horrified out of her wits to try and analyze the situation very deeply, but it sounded to her like Anna was getting far more enjoyment out of these particular words than she would have guessed.  And so terrifying was this final phrase to Helen, she raised no more words of protest.  She leaned down on her knees, stuck out her tongue, shut her eyes tightly, and pressed her tongue against the foam as the tears began flowing freely.

Immediately her throat began to protest.  The stale, dusty flavors of dirt began to fill her as she dragged her tiny tongue over a particularly large dreck patch; the fine, brown powder of it started coating her lips.  She tried to lick these off, but suddenly realized what she was doing, and tried to spit them out; this only resulted in her gagging, and ultimately swallowing the dirt particles.  She kept her eyes closed the entire time as she started to crawl forward, her tongue tracing the grooved, zigzagging 3D patterns of the shoe.  After no more than a few seconds, her tongue met the starchy, lush zing of grass stain.  She choked a little, as despite the grass tasting far less bitter than the dirt, it still was very strong, giving her nostrils a stinging effect.  As she continued on, she could feel the slight moistness in the foam, particularly as a decline in the shape began; she was directly over where the ball of Anna’s foot normally rested.  She pressed her tongue back down, hacking lightly, as she tasted the salt that had been ingrained into the shoe from so many layers of dried sweat laid down by Anna’s ped, mixing horribly with the sour, rubbery outer layer of the foam.  In particular, the material felt softest in this crater-like indentation, as Anna’s foot had so mercilessly ground into it with extra force with each step she took while wearing them.  Still keeping her eyes shut tightly, Helen heard Kevin protesting quietly and unsuccessfully as he hung upside down still from Anna’s fist.

Anna giggled to herself softly, watching with keen interest.  She reflected on the years of verbal abuse she had handled from Helen at family gatherings and the occasional social function that Tom managed to get her into.  Helen was a master of crafty language, always dropping merciless insults on Anna without being direct in her surmises.  Both knew the truth, though; however, as Anna had never been particularly accepted by Tom’s family, defense in these situations was all but impossible.  From suggesting her hair wasn’t washed and she had BO, to commenting on how out of season her carefully put-together outfits were and how out of fashion her shoes were.  Being so sick of the commentary and desperately craving basic acceptance at the family gatherings, she remembered spending two hours prior to the last major family get-together trying to decide with Alison what outfit to wear.  They had confidently decided on what they thought to be the correct combination, but of course it was still very vulnerable to Helen’s scathing onslaught of side comments.  No matter how hard Anna tried, she could never please any of them, and certainly not Helen.

Refocusing from her random mental vacation, Anna stared back down at Helen with a huge grin, watching the woman convulse with disgust as she tasted Anna’s skin-rending foot oils and mud-caked shoe foam.  She couldn’t help but feel an indescribable high in her brain as she surveyed the scene, gratified beyond belief to see the vile, judgmental woman finally being forced to realize what it was like to have someone looking down on her, figuratively and literally.  With a sly, cocked smile, Anna relished the fact that the demonstration was coming in physical form rather than verbal, as if to help make up for the combined sum of every insult Helen had ever flung at her so piously.  She watched as Helen continued crawling forward, retching as she went, leaving a tiny stream of wetness where her tongue had been along the shoe.  This sight along sent renewed, enjoyable chills through Anna’s body.

Helen, panting, her tongue horribly violated, felt the heavy stench of soiled rubber permeating her breath.  She came to a stop right over where Anna’s big toe had created a deep crater in the foam, the indent about as wide as Helen’s body shoulder-to-shoulder.  Somehow, this was one of the most difficult hurdles to cross as, despite the fact that she had already gotten across about a fourth of Anna’s horrid flip-flop so far, it was one of the clearest visuals for the abused Helen for just how far her dignity had been forced to fall in the last less-than-an-hour period.

However, she wasn’t given long to ponder the subject, as she soon found her face mashed directly into the soft give of the foam as Anna’s pinky finger curled against the back of Helen’s head with a powerful jab, bringing her lips into the tiny lowered valley in the foam.  “Get a move on, sis; you’ve still got an entire other shoe left!” laughed Anna, retracting her hand and raising an eyebrow expectantly.

Hacking one final time, the defeated Helen extended her tongue back against the swollen, big toe-shaped foam, clenching her eyes tightly in disgust as she felt the fresh, ghostly flavors of foot sweat and grass stains flowing into her digestive tract.