Mike walked into the living room, standing a foot shorter than his usual 5-foot-7.  His stepsister and her friend sat upon the dark-blue sofa, their shapely legs crossed, gently bouncing their socked feet impatiently.

“All right,” Colleen said calmly, stepping over to the loveseat.  She sat down, wearing a relatively short business skirt, crossing her attractive legs.  “Take a seat, Mike.”

Olivia chimed in, her arms crossed, “Do we really have to have another family meeting?  We haven’t had one in years.”

Mike climbed onto the gray and plaid armchair opposite of Olivia and Rebecca, hearing stifled laughter as he situated himself.  His eyes glanced at the girls for a moment, quickly switching to his stepmom who was already looking in his direction.

“We are having a family meeting, right, Mike?” Colleen said, then turning her gaze toward her daughter, “Because this is a family matter which is important to all of us.”

Olivia rolled her eyes.

“Well, umm, if I may say something,” Mike started, his voice cracking.

“Yes,” Colleen replied, motioning with her hand.  “Please continue.”

“I just wanted to say that even though Rebecca is here, and she technically is not a family member… that I won’t hold it against her.  And…”

Rebecca snickered.

“And…” Mike continued, “… that’s all I wanted to say.”

“All right,” Colleen answered, “Anything you want to add, Rebecca, before we start?”

The brunette crossed her arms, still bouncing her calf.  “Nope.”

“Hey, Mom, this is not the fault of the sibling or friend.  Mike is the one who has this disease.  We didn’t give it to him.”

“Okay, Olivia, I understand what you’re saying,” Colleen acknowledged.  “No one gave your brother or my son this ailment or problem.”

“Well…” Rebecca spoke, smiling, “it isn’t really a problem… you know, depending how you look at it.”

“Really, how do you think that?” Colleen said.  “He is a foot shorter than he used to be at no fault of his own.”

Rebecca replied, “Well, he can shrink a lot smaller than that… what he is now.”

Mike watched his stepmom turn her gaze toward him, her eyes widening as her mouth remained open.  It seemed an eternity before she spoke.  “Just how small… are we talking here, Mike?”

Olivia giggled, uncrossing and then crossing her legs the other way.

“Mike?” his stepmom repeated.

“Uh, pretty small…” his voice cracked.

“By ‘pretty small’ do you mean shorter than four feet?” Colleen asked.

Olivia laughed, putting her hands behind her blond head, stretching her abdomen as she leaned back.  “Mom…” she said, trying to speak despite her laughter.  “Mom, ‘feet’ is the wrong measurement for little brother when he shrinks.  Even ‘inches’ is pushing it.”

“What?” Colleen uttered.  Turning to Mike, she asked loudly, “Just how small are you getting, Michael?  I want to know now.”

“Maybe an inch.  I don’t know.”

“He’s lucky to reach an inch,” Olivia commented.

“I do too reach an inch!” Mike yelled.

“Whatever.  That’s not what I measured.”

“Wait,” Colleen said.  “You measured your brother after he had shrunk.  When did this happen?”

“Mom, it was just before we left for Texas for the funeral.”

“What?” Colleen stated.  “You said Mike went to sleep over at a friend’s house?”

“She put me in a shoebox, Mom, and she wouldn’t let me out, and a lot of other stuff happened.”

Mike saw as Olivia glared at him, frowning.  It was the type of loaded look that said, ‘You say too much and the next time I get you shrunk and alone you will deeply regret having shared so much with Mom.’

“Uhh…” Mike uttered.

“I, of course, let little brother out of the shoebox… Mom.  Duh.  He’s lying.”

“Well, Olivia is right that she let me out… eventually.”

“The shoebox kept my brother safe… your son safe.  He could have gotten stepped on and died… or worse.”

“I think worse happened,” Mike said.

Olivia flashed her stepbrother a dirty look, Mike noticing her face still appearing stunningly beautiful despite her foul mood — if anything, even more beautiful.

“The important thing is that I am safe, Olivia,” Mike asserted.  “And I want to keep it that way.”

“Well,” Colleen breathed out, “this is a bit overwhelming.”

“You’re telling me,” Mike said and then fake laughed, “Ha… ha.”

Olivia narrowed her eyes at her stepbrother as he glanced briefly at her.

“I knew some of what they’ve said on TV and on the Internet,” Colleen admitted, “regarding the shrinking disease.  About it lasting 24 hours and all.  I just didn’t know a person could actually shrink down to…”  Mike’s stepmom gestured with her thumb and forefinger representing an inch.

“Even smaller than that, Mom,” Olivia answered, laughing.  “Your fingers are more like an inch and a half apart.  You have to move your fingers closer together to show how tiny Mike shrinks.  It’s more like this…  See?”

Mike cringed watching his stepsister’s demonstration, his view turning toward Rebecca.  Olivia’s friend was staring at him directly in the eyes — a desirous look of eagerness, anticipation, and the pleasure of control.  Mike looked down and away as he heard his stepmom speak again.

“Well, Mike, I agree with your sister that your safety is most important.  We should get the old terrarium out of the storage closet right away, should you ever shrink that small again.  You know the one Olivia used to keep her pet hamsters in.”

Mike looked at his stepsister, alarmed to see her beaming from ear to ear with a big white grin.  “I don’t know, M-Mom,” Mike stuttered.  “Maybe we should think about —”

“Oh, no,” Olivia interrupted, “the old glass container for my hamsters is definitely the safest place for little boys.”

“That makes sense to me,” Rebecca said, nodding.  “In order for Mike to be safe and all.”

“I’m glad you girls agree,” Colleen returned.  “The terrarium will be in my room then.”

“What?!” Olivia moaned.  “That’s not fair!  I want him in my room.”

“I’m sitting right here,” Mike stated.

“Oh, you’ll shrink down soon enough, little bro,” Olivia quipped, not even turning to look at him.

“The glass box will be in my room, and that’s final,” Colleen remarked.  “I am his mother after all.”

“Well, I have no plans on shrinking,” Mike said, “so, Mom, you can put Olivia’s hamster terrarium in your bedroom if you want.  I am going to focus on not getting sexually aroused — like at all.”

“Oh, sweetie,” Colleen spoke softly, “that is just not realistic.  You’re a teenaged boy, living in a house with all females… who all happen to be large-breasted.  You can’t control your sexual thoughts perfectly.  No one can.  It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“I know, Mom, I’m just saying I am going to try.”

“Good luck,” Rebecca replied, with a smirk.

“Shut up, Rebecca.  You don’t know,” Mike answered.

“Well, I do know, Mikey, that you can’t masturbate without shrinking down to a height barely able to see over my big toe.”

“Oh, Rebecca’s right,” Olivia chimed in.  “No jacking off unless you’ve already shrunk.  Too bad for you, isn’t it?”

“All right, that’s enough,” Colleen said.  “Mike doesn’t need to feel any worse than he already does.”  She glanced over at her stepson.  “Mike, where are you going?”

“I’m going to my room, if that’s okay….  And I wanted to speak with you in private, Mom, about something.”

“All right.  I’ll be up in a few minutes, okay?”

Rebecca observed Mike begin to ascend the stairs.  “Bye, Mike,” she called out.

“See you later, little bro,” Olivia said.

He could hear the three of them talking as he reached the second floor.  Walking into his room, he partially shut his door.

I can do this, Mike thought.  There must be a way people who have this disease cope with it.  Well, they probably don’t have Olivia’s and Rebecca’s in their lives.  Well, maybe they do…  And I’m one of the unlucky ones, shrinking smaller than most people.

After sitting on his bed for about five minutes, Colleen slowly nudged her stepson’s door open.  “You had something you wanted to tell me?” Colleen asked softly.

Mike watched as his larger-than-usual stepmom sat beside him.  “I didn’t shrink that much this time, Mom, so I should be back to normal in few hours at most.”

“That’s fortunate, because you have school tomorrow, and I have work.”

“Yeah, umm,” Mike continued, “I really asked to talk to you, because…”  He spoke more quietly, “I’d rather not have Rebecca sleeping over here.  When Olivia is with her friend, they are like twice as bad.”

Colleen smiled.  “Don’t worry.  I already had Rebecca call her mother, and she will stop by within half an hour to take her home.  I thought, you know, it wasn’t really appropriate for your sister to have a sleepover so soon after you got this disease that makes you so…”

“So tiny?” Mike finished his stepmom’s thought.

Colleen raised her eyebrows, gently biting her lower lip.  “An inch definitely is considered tiny.  It’s teeny-tiny.”

“Yeah, well…” Mike said, looking away.

“Oh, and another thing,” Colleen began, “I told both Olivia and Rebecca that they are not to do what they did before in your room — trying to seduce you like that in order to cause you to shrink.”

“Thanks, Mom.  I don’t know if it will make a difference, because I might shrink by accident from something I see on TV or when searching the web.  Actually… when we had our family meeting… it took all my concentration to not get aroused by everyone’s foot bobbing up and down.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.  Was I distracting you?  I thought it was harmless.”

“Yeah… yeah, your foot bouncing up and down… and Olivia and Rebecca’s as well.”

Colleen stood up, her 5-foot-9-inch height seeming especially tall standing so close to Mike.  “I’m sorry.  You figure out what you need to do, or not do, all right, sweetie?”  Colleen smiled warmly as she gently caressed her stepson’s head, then turning to walk out of his room.  “It will be time for bed soon.  Set your alarm clock for school tomorrow.”

“Okay, Mom.  Thanks.  Goodnight.”

Mike closed his bedroom door.  Returning to his bed, he felt an uneasiness in his mind and a nervousness in his stomach.  Too bad there’s no cure for this, he thought.  Tomorrow I’ll have to try to get ready for school before Olivia does, and as fast as I can.  That way nothing bad will happen.