Looking up to the titanic Sara standing next to his bed, Matt started to shudder. His hands and feet turned ice cold. He shouted “S-S-Sara! What’s happened to you!?” He looked around to see that his bed looked like a football field. Did his bed grow up too? And why did his room grow up? Soon, the terrible feeling of reality sunk in his head—it was not Sara or his bed or his room that grew up… It was him that was shrunk. He also noticed that he was naked. Being tiny and naked under the inspection of the gigantic blue eyes of Sara made him feel the most vulnerable and weakest he ever felt in his entire life. He was cold—no, he was freezing. He curled into a fetal position and start to cry in fear.

Watching this scene in front of her eyes made Sara even more anxious. She was never used to seeing Matt so lost and weak. He was the calm and strong friend who had a habit of riding on stressful situations throughout his life. What happened to him, now? These thoughts caused even more tears to form in her eyes. She closed her eyes and took three deep breaths.

“Okay, Sara! You must be strong now! He needs you! You need to be strong for him! No matter what has happened to him, you are the one who can help him!” Constantly reminding herself these thoughts, Sara took a couple more deep breaths. “Inhale… Exhale… Inhale… Exhale…” Sara opened her eyes and wiped her tears. She forced herself to smile and asked with a gentle voice:

“M-Matt? Wanna t-tell me what happened?” Matt didn’t respond. He was shuddering and rocking back and forth in the fetal position he was in. She cautiously and slowly approached Matt with her index finger, trying to gently touch him and comfort him. When she was right about to touch Matt’s back, she was startled by her friend’s quick yelling:

“Get your hand away from me! What did you do to me!? Why did you shrink me down?” Sara was absolutely confused and mostly heartbroken by the accusations of her friend. Every word of what he just said hurt Sara like daggers stabbing her, but she reassured herself that her friend was being irrational because of the trauma and shock he was going through. She knew she had to excuse Matt. She continued with a gentle voice:

“Look, Matt. I have nothing to do with what just happened to you, okay? You know I would never hurt you, right?” Matt looked up at Sara smiling him gently. After a moment of pause, he nodded. Sara continued:

“Indeed. I would never ever hurt my best friend. No matter what on earth has happened to you, you are always safe with Sara, okay?” Sara was talking slowly with a soothing voice, as if she was talking to a baby. She knew Matt needed physical comfort the most. She decided to go for a second try and tried to touch Matt’s back with her fingertip again, waiting until she made sure that her fingertip was warm again. She asked:

“May I?” Matt nodded again, with a blank face. Sara replied: “Thank you” and touched Matt’s naked back with her fingertip. Matt’s body was ice cold. She started to rub her fingertip gently on Matt’s back. Sara asked:

“Now, would you like to tell me what happened?” Although initially scared by the idea of his titanic roommate touching his body, Sara’s gentle back massage was comforting him. The warmth flowing from her fingertip into his cold body was making him feel safe and secure. He just remembered what he had said earlier to Sara in his initial shock. “Dammit” he thought to himself. Looking up to Sara, he could say after a great amount of effort:

“S-S-Sara?” Sara raised her eyebrows while continuing to rub Matt’s back. She said with her gentle voice:

“Yes, my dear?” Sara was also trying her best to remain as calm as possible. The shuddering of her fingers would be the last thing she would ever want at this moment. Matt opened his mouth again and said:

“I-I am sorry for what I j-just said. I am so embarrassed… I am s-scared.” With these words, he burst into crying again. Trying her best to keep tears from welling in her eyes again and forcing a smile on her face, Sara got her face closer to Matt and whispered:

“Shhh… It is okay. I know you didn’t want to hurt me. I am here for you. Everything will be alright my sweet dear.” She continued rubbing his back gently. Then she slowly closed her palm on her tiny friend’s body like a blanket, in an effort to keep him warmer. She asked:

“Is this better?” Matt had mixed feelings. He was so disoriented and lost. He was covered entirely by the palm of his best friend. She could smash him flat effortlessly under her palm if she wanted. He quickly reminded himself that Sara would never do that. He completely trusted her. He bitterly smiled, remembering the quotes of a scientist from a TED video he had watched about an experiment on mice:

“When you are this small, you feel like all the world is trying to get you. You are in constant fear.” He thought how well it applied to his case. He was even scared by his best friend, the sweetheart Sara, who would never hurt even a bug. She had always been as close to him as a sister. He wanted to cry. He wanted to vomit, but he couldn’t. All of the muscles in his body were sore. But he was at least warmer now, thanks to the warm and soft palm of Sara covering him like a blanket. Sara asked him:

“Are you feeling better now, Matt?” Matt nodded. Sara continued:

“Would you like to tell Sara what happened?” Matt tried hard to remember. He was in lab. He came back. He went to sleep. He was normal sized when he was sleeping. After a while, he quietly said:

“I…I have no idea… I went to the lab in the morning as usual. We were about to run the very first animal testing of our novel drug on the rats. I was assigned with the task of injecting the drug into the rats. And then…” Matt paused, while his eyes opened wide. Sara looked at him with a puzzled face, and asked:

“And?” Matt continued faster with a louder voice:

“The drug! The drug caused this! I accidentally stabbed myself with the syringe! My fingertip was bleeding, and some of the drug must have mixed into my blood!” Sara asked with a concerned voice:

“But how can that happen? Weren’t you wearing gloves? Didn’t you ask for first aid? Don’t you have health and safety regulations in your lab?” Matt lowered his head like a child got caught by his parents after causing a mess. He answered:

“I-I wasn’t wearing gloves…” Sara scowled in response and said:

“Of course you weren’t. How many times did I tell you to actually pay attention to those safety rules in labs? They aren’t there for no reason! But how about after the accident? Didn’t you seek for help?” Matt shook his head and quietly said:

“No, not really. I-I thought that my PI would get angry with me because of not paying attention to the safety rules. I thought I could quickly finish the task. I just removed the syringe tip with blood on it, put on a clean one and went to the bathroom to wash my hands.” Sara couldn’t believe what she was just hearing. Her chin dropped down and she had to cover her mouth with one hand. She said by slightly raising her voice:

“I can’t believe you, Matt! How could you be so reckless with your life? Yes, your PI didn’t get angry with you, but now you are shrunk to 6 inches tall!” Matt got defensive after hearing Sara’s words and he yelled:

“I know alright! I know I did something wrong! I know I am shrunk to 6 inches! Thanks for reminding me Sara!” Although getting frustrated with what his friend had just said, Sara reminded herself again that she had to excuse him in this moment of stress no matter what he said. Sara sighed and said:

“Well, fine. Then what happened?” Matt continued:

“Coming back from the bathroom, I started to feel sleepy. I just put on an antibiotic cream on my wound and closed it with a band-aid. I thought that it would be best to get some rest. I asked my lab-mate Vicky to continue the task, and told my PI that I didn’t feel well. He let me to come home and get some rest today.” Sara looked at Matt with eyes wide open and couldn’t stop herself from raising her voice again:

“You even had some symptoms following the accident! How could you be so careless with your life?” Matt replied:

“I don’t know… I thought I would be fine after taking a nap. I walked back home at about 1 PM. Just went straight to bed to take a nap without even changing. I quickly fell asleep. What time is it now?” After her friend finished his words, Sara replied:

“10:30 PM” Matt was absolutely shocked. “Wow! My nap turned into a 9 and a half hour one?” Sara shrugged and said:

“Yeah, it looks like it. And I guess the shrinking process happened when you were sleep.”

Making himself more comfortable under the warm, soft and slightly sweaty palm of Sara, Matt sighed. He was feeling much less scared and stressed than he initially did. He looked up to Sara and asked:

“Sara?” Sara smiled at him and said:

“Yes, my dear?” Matt continued:

“Will I be alright, Sara?” Sara forced herself to smile and replied:

“Of course, Matt! We will get you back to normal as soon as possible, and I will always be with you, okay? This is my promise.”

Matt wanted to believe the words of his gigantic friend. He turned to Sara and said:

“Thanks for warming me with your palm, Sara. I think I am okay now.” Sara moved her hand away from Matt and said:

“Okay, dear.” She looked out of the window to the cloudy night sky, and sighed with her head in her hands. The future looked as cloudy as the sky outside.