A Snowball’s Chance

“Not quite so cocksure now, are you?” Lucie asked, holding her hand out to receive him in her palm, wide smile on her face.

Not trusting his voice to betray the emotion swelling in him, he shook his head as he settled in her hand.

Lucie let out a small noise, “It is quite profound, the sense of holding his little life in your hand,” she commented, looking at Mirielle.

The other woman nodded, grinning.

“Funny how something so seemingly trivial can lead to such dire consequences,” she commented, looking from Mirielle to the boy.

Eyes fixed on Michael, Mirielle nodded.

“I didn’t know,” he pleaded softly. “Looking back, I was so stupid. I see that now,” he assured, hoping he sounded contrite.

Lucie chuckled, “And now you are this harmless tiny little thing,” she said. “Truly, a small man as my dedanya said.”

He nodded, tears welling in his eyes.

“So what is it you want from me then?” she asked, cocking her head slightly to the side

Turning onto his knees, he adopted a supplicating position, hands brought before him, “Please, I want to be returned to my former size,” he stated, holding his breath, repeating the word please over and over in his head.

Pursing her lips, Lucie nodded, “To be restored?” she queried.

He nodded, “I have learned my lesson and I promise to never disrespect your great grandmother or anybody else ever again,” he offered, nodding vigorously.

“Hmm,” she noised, lips together, eyes narrowing.

“Money, I could offer you money too,” he added, trying to sweeten the offer.

“To return you to your regular size?” she clarified.

He nodded some more, sensing she might be seriously considering his offer.

“And that’s all you want?” She inquired.

“Absolutely, nothing more I swear,” he said, turning to look at Mirielle, “I even promised her I would be nice to my sister and her friends, no hard feelings. Please all I want is to be myself again,” he begged.

“So you want to be yourself again, and that’s all you want?” she questioned.

He nodded.

“You have no interest in either apologizing to my dedanya for taking flowers from her and disrespecting her, or asking her for her forgiveness for the error of your ways?” she asked, shaking her head. “Still only thinking of yourself,” she added.

He felt hope bleeding out of him as he felt the impact of her words, his features transforming from expectant to scared, “No, that’s not what I meant, I mean, of course, she is the first person I would seek out to make amends, face to face. I need to say sorry to her and I wouldn’t ask you to carry my message, it’s something I must do to repair the harm I’ve done. I only hope you would be able to put me in a position to do that, that’s what I meant, really,” he said, speaking rapidly as words spilled out of him as he tried to explain himself.

“You said all you wanted was to be restored, nothing else, you swore it,” she countered, throwing his words back in his face.

Mirielle brought a hand to her face to conceal a little smile.

“No, no,” he responded, shaking his head.

“No?” she asked, looking at Mirielle, “Am I mistaken?”

“He said,” Mirielle said, nodding.

Rising to his feet in Lucie’s hand, he held up his own tiny little hands, “You asked me what I wanted from you and I said only to be restored, yes I swore that. I did not presume to think it was your responsibility to approach your dedanya on my behalf,” he blurted, desperately trying sway her mind.

“You said you would never disrespect her or anyone else ever again, you promised?” she inquired.

“Yes,” he agreed, nodding affirmatively.

“Yet you ask me to sneak behind her back to undo this thing she has done to you,” she impugned. “Is that not asking me to betray her trust? Is that not a form of disrespect? Even as you plead and beg for what you want, false promises dribble from your mouth,” she stated, eyes narrowed, lips pulled in tight to her mouth.

Michael’s gut was sinking, he could feel opportunity slipping though his fingers. “No,” he replied, shaking his head.

“What would you call it then?” she asked, giving him an opportunity to extrapolate.

“Okay,” he said, trying to calm the rising fear he felt, “Yes, I would very much like to be restored so that I could go and apologize to great grandmother, your dedanya, and yes, I was asking if you could help me to do that. If you feel that helping me back to my former self would disrespect your dedanya, I would not ask this thing of you and gladly retract my request,” he said, nodding before flicking a glance at Mirielle then back to Lucie.

“So rather than disrespect my dedanya, you would wish to remain small?” Lucie asked.

“Yes,” he replied. “I do not want to give her affront again. I was a smart-mouthed jerk.”

A slow smile spread over Lucie’s lovely face, “I am so glad you clarified that for me, for a moment there I think I was getting some mixed messages,” she said with a bit of a chuckle.

Hope rekindling, Michael smiled, “Thank you,” he said, letting out a big sigh of relief.

Reaching in with her other hand, she extended the index finger and tussled the hair on his head, “If it is your wish to remain small, then who am I to interfere?” she asked.

“Wait,” he started, “I only said I wanted to remain small if asking you to fix me would offend or disrespect your dedanya, not that I wanted to remain small indefinitely,” he hastily explained.

Mirielle was not quite sure herself where Lucie was taking thing this. Was Lucie going to help transfer the curse or was she just messing around? Was she going to leave things as they were? She didn’t know.

“Hmm,” Lucie said.

He wasn’t sure what to say next. Whether he might damage his chances further. After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, he said, “I thought when you gave me your phone number, you were offering me a chance is all. If I misinterpreted, I am sorry.”

She smiled, “I accept your apology,” she said, a gleam in her eye.

Did he misinterpret? Why did she give him her digits then?