I woke up the next morning, I felt great. Like, I won the champion heavyweight
title of the world. I notice that Linda already left, since it was Friday. I never felt more
alive. But after I got out of bed, notice something weird now. I use to stand at 6’0”, but
why do I feel a bit shorter. It’s like I lost my height around an inch or two. I decided to
measure myself, so I picked up the measuring tape and measured myself assuring like. I
stand at 5’8”, my god what happened to my height? Am I really losing it now? My god, I
needed to do something. All of sudden, I got a phone call which scared me straight as I
jumped up. I answered:
“Hello.”
“Hey Paul, are you up?”
“Yeah, John I’m up.”
“Well, I sort of got bad news for you.”
“What is it?”
“Well, Mr. Luciso today told me he has to let you go.”
“Wait what, I’m fired.”
“No, it’s just that he said that, well he had to let you, Rove, and Nancy go.”
“My god, first my wife died, than I lost my job, and now I’m going insane.”
“I’m sorry, Paul. But if you want I can help you find another job.”
“No, just let Mr. Luciso know to give me my last paycheck by the end of the
week, and well I’ll be looking for a new job in about two weeks or so.”
“Alright, Paul I really am sorry.”
He hung up afterwards; I actually don’t know what to tell Linda anymore. She
does have financial aid when she’ll go to college and a part-time job. But still, I needed to
help her, protect her. It’s not right to see her struggle, because of my own fault. I had to
help her out some how; I decided that maybe I needed to do some yard work, to think
about what to do. I got dressed in some work athlete clothes; it’s weird how my clothes
feel a bit looser. I then settled myself outside and pull out some weeds. Afterwards, I then
began mow the lawn, which took me about twenty minutes, while mowing. My neighbor,
Daphne Carrington just waved to me as she pulled out of her driveway in her car,
probably going shopping, and so I waved back.
Daphne was a 38 year old single mother, to a 17 year old daughter, name Julia.
She and my daughter have been friends ever since they moved in to the neighborhood.
Daphne really helped me get through my wife’s death in the past days, as she too faced
this situation when her husband and son died in a car accident, four years ago. I thought
maybe if I were up to it, maybe I should ask her out to dinner, but I thought it’s just too
soon. I didn’t want Linda to think, that I was trying to find her a replacement mother, it
wasn’t right and it didn’t feel right, not yet anyway. I just needed someone to talk to, who
I can connect to this, and what I’m feeling.
I’ll probably stop by later and talk to Daphne about my situation. I decided now,
to clean up the garage, and throw out some old boxes. As I began cleaning up, by lifting
the boxes, another of the weird factors came to me again. The boxes feel heavier than
when I lifted it. I tried lifting the box with my legs, but they were swelling up too
quickly. Instead, I just pushed the boxes down to the recycling bins. It didn’t necessarily
take long, but it was hard work since I couldn’t lift the heavy boxes. I couldn’t figure out
one bit why I couldn’t the boxes like before. I must have lifted boxes that were twice this
heavy, and yet I barely lift it up to my knees. I felt that strange feeling again, that I had
yesterday with the hearing problem, squeaky voice, and today’s height shrinkage and
declining strength. I made a joke about it right now thinking, its reverse puberty. I
laughed and laughed, until my voice changed again. I placed my hand into my mouth and
quickly went back into the house as fast as I can.
I went back inside, and discovered I’m shorter now; I must be at least 5’6” and
inch shorter than Linda. How could this be? You don’t automatically lose height to four
inches in one day. Unless you have some sort of disease in your body that damages your
bones. I felt so lightheaded now. What was I going to do now? Everything was getting
worst by the minute. What am I suppose to do? Can Linda……… do anything to help
me, possibly?