Tricked

After a long day at work Rebecca was glad to be heading home. As much as she loved living in the city she did sometimes miss living in a small town where owning a car wasn’t a massive expense that even if you could afford would just end up with you spending more time sitting still in traffic than moving. But she was young and in shape so she didn’t mind walking too much, she was just glad she didn’t have to take the subway. She couldn’t stand being in such cramped environments and since she lived close enough she rarely had to deal with it.

As she passed a grocery store she remembered she didn’t have anything to make for dinner so she decided to pop in real quick and get something.

She was relieved when she saw that it wasn’t too busy so she could be in and out in a matter of minutes. 

When got to the pasta aisle she saw a little girl struggling to reach up on one of the higher shelves. She smiled at his and went over to offer her help. At 5’11” she was used to helping even adults reach higher places and she loved children so she was all too happy to offer assistance. But when she got to the girl and looked down to ask her what she wanted she noticed that this wasn’t a little girl at all, it was an adult woman who couldn’t have been no more than four feet tall, probably even less. Unfortunately she realized it a little too late because she was already squatting next to her and had started talking to her in the tone adults usually speak to children.

To her relief the woman didn’t get offended and just laughed when she asked if she could grab a box of rotini for her. 

She did this and when she handed it to her, the tiny woman smiled up at her and said, 

“Thanks. I’m Tina by the way”, and offered her little hand which Rebecca’s much larger one engulfed and shook gently while saying, “Hi. Rebecca. Nice to meet you”.

Now that she was looking more closely at Tina she was surprised to see that this woman, who like her was in her mid-20s, seemed to be a normal proportioned person, only smaller than anyone she had ever seen. She was used to seeing little people but they usually had larger heads or shorter limbs but Tina looked every but like a taller person only in a smaller size. She could also tell that she was pretty attractive and had a decent body despite wearing baggy clothes that mostly hid her figure. She must have gotten lost in thought because she heard a small “ahem” from her new mini friend and snapped out of it. 

“Oh sorry, long day at work. I must have spaced” she stammered in a vain attempt to excuse her behavior.

Tina just laughed again and said, 

“That’s ok. You don’t have to make up a story, I know I’m a pretty odd little person”.

Rebecca tried to assure her she wasn't but Tina just shushed her and said it was ok if she looked. 

Even though she didn’t mind, Rebecca still felt bad and apologized and left the store in a hurry without buying anything. 

By the time she was a few blocks away she had gotten over her faux pas and was mostly on auto-pilot when she heard a familiar voice call to her from across the street.

“Hey! Becky!” the voice said. She had always hated being called Becky but when she saw who it was she decided she would let it slide. It was the least she could do. She crossed the street and met Tina.

“What’s up?” she asked.

Tina looked a little upset and she was going to ask what was wrong but was interrupted when she spoke, 

“Well, this is a little embarrassing, but I, um, I forgot my keys”, Rebecca didn’t know what she wanted her to do until she continued, “but I always leave that window unlocked”, she pointed to a window about six feet off the ground, “could you, you know, lift me up to it?”

Rebecca was a little uncomfortable lifting an adult woman like this, even if she was the size of a child, but looking down at her and seeing how distressed she looked she couldn’t resist and said ok.

She expected Tina to cheer up when she agreed but for some reason she still seemed upset, even a little nervous.

“So, how should I do this?” Rebecca asked as she bent down to pick her up not knowing how exactly she should do it. She was very worried about touching her in places she didn’t want to be touched or just hurting her if she gripped her too hard.

Tina reached her arms up and said, 

“just pick me up like you would a kid. It’s easy” as she raised her arms and Rebecca easily lifted her onto her shoulders and brought her to the window.

After a small struggle Tina got it open and climbed in. Rebecca could hear a small thud followed by her little head popping up in the window with her hair a bit messed up, 

“I’m ok!” she said, “I just slipped. Can you grab my bag and meet me inside?”

Rebecca did as she asked and was soon in Tina’s apartment. She was surprised to see that it was furnished for a normal size person and didn’t seem to have even a few things set up for a little person like Tina. She wondered if maybe she had a roommate who did all this or perhaps she just wanted to be treated like any other person and didn’t like to feel different. She felt a sense of admiration for the small girl at that thought. 

As she followed Tina to the kitchen table and sat down she was handed a bottle of beer while her little host went to a drawer, struggled to open it, and stood on her tip toes to rummage around for a bottle opener. Again, she found the clumsy way with which she did this odd. She would have thought she’d have been used to being so small all her life but she didn’t seem to be. 

She came back and handed Rebecca the bottle opener which she took and popped the cap off her bottle and handed back. She then watched as Tina struggled to get hers off, finally just giving up and putting the bottle back down in frustration. She looked like she was going to cry so Rebecca offered to help. 

“Oh, sure” Tina said in between sniffles, “It’s just that I…” and she stopped herself before she could finish then jumped down off the chair and said, “wait here, I have something for you” and took off toward the bedroom before Rebecca could even get a word in.

“What a strange woman” she thought to herself as she looked around the apartment and began noticing some more odd things. There were four pairs of boots in front of the door, all in a size for a woman of normal height. There was a coat hanging up that again, looked like it would fit her, and even stranger there was no lower coat hanger or a smaller coat hanging up.

She dismissed this as Tina probably having all her stuff in her room as she got up and started looking at the rest of the place. There was a couch with an ottoman in front of it that was far enough for her to easily rest her legs but would have been impossible for Tina, but again she just assumed she moved it or her roommate did. 

There were a few other inconsistencies, like no mirror at Tina’s height in the bathroom and no step stool at the kitchen or bathroom sinks, but nothing that caused her any real alarm until she got to the photos on the wall. 

They were of Tina and a few other girls her age, only all the other girls were around her size. Were there really so many small woman like her? Well, it made sense they would find each other if there were. 

But then she looked at a few more and things started to make less sense. One picture was of her on a roller coaster. Not only did she appear the same size as everyone else on the ride, but it looked like it was made for people their size. 

In fact, she was with people her own size in all of the pictures. Did she spend a lot of time with Photoshop to edit these so she could look like everyone else? If she did she was very good at it because these were flawless.

As she was studying a picture of a younger Tina wearing a graduation gown and standing near two older people who appeared to be her parents, again where she appeared bigger, she was actually taller than them, she felt a sharp prick in the back of her leg and turned around to see Tina standing there holding a large empty syringe, the contents of which she had just emptied into her.

“Wha-what did you d-do?” Rebecca asked as she felt herself losing consciousness. She landed on the floor with a thud and the last thing she saw before passing out was Tina standing over her with tears in her eyes and saying “I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry” before reaching into her pocket and taking out a phone.