“Naomi?” Rick asked. Naomi just nodded, an almost fearful expression on her face. “Naomi Zimmerman?” he continued. “From…from the dating website?”

“Yuh-huh…” she said. She continued to move her eyes over him, as if studying him for an indication of what he was thinking. Rick couldn’t help but feel worried under that gaze. Her eyes were large enough that he felt he could be sucked away inside of them. Simply staring into them felt as if pieces of himself were breaking away and being swallowed into that piercing blue abyss.

He continued to be silent for a long time. He was unsure of what to say. Would he ask in vain why they were there, when he knew full well she knew as much as he did? Perhaps he would strike out in anger? That last thought was amusing. He imagined falling to his knees and beating his fists furiously on her palm while she merely smirked and closed her hand tight. Finally, he gathered, his courage, swallowed, and spoke:

“Oh.”

They were again silent. She was no longer staring at him, for which Rick was grateful. He was getting more or less used to the fact that there was a very obvious size difference between the two of them, but when she stared at him like that…it almost felt dehumanizing. As if she was some scientist studying him beneath a microscope, waiting to see what he would do under certain conditions.

“So, um,” Naomi asked, her booming voice sharply breaking Rick out of his reverie, “you woke up here just like me?” Rick nodded, and Naomi bit her lip. “And you have no idea how we got here?” He nodded again.

Naomi moved cautiously back to her bed, and slowly sat down upon it, gently putting Rick down next to her. His immediate realization was that her mattress was for more comfortable than his (or what used to be his). In fact, his had felt like a brick compared to this. Moving around on her bed felt like moving about on a trampoline, and he found himself resting an arm against her thigh for balance. He did this for quite some time before actually realizing where he was putting his hand, and looked up at her face. She looked down at him with an expression that almost seemed to scream ‘What do you think you’re doing?’, which made her next statement unnecessary.

“Um…what are you doing?”

“I lost my balance…” Rick said, blushing furiously. He quickly took his hand away from her thigh, but she still stared down at him. The stare now was even worse than before. She almost seemed to be acknowledging the fact that he was beneath her. That he had no right to touch her as he did. He had the strangest desire to fall to his knees and beg for forgiveness. It almost felt natural. But then, a smirk appeared on her face.

“You lost your balance, huh?” she asked. She nodded slowly. “Suuuure ya did.”

“I did!” he shouted.

She rolled her eyes in an exaggerated motion, reached over for a blanket on her bed, and dropped it on top of Rick. He screamed at the sight of all that fabric rushing down on top of him and covered his head with his arms, but when it did make contact, it just seemed to all float around him. Opening his eyes, he found that he was indeed trapped underneath it, and there was darkness everywhere. He could barely hear the muffled sound of Naomi laughing at him.

“Oh, I can still see you! You’re just a tiny lump!”

Rick groaned. This was not good for his ego. He began crawling in a random direction when he suddenly felt himself blocked by a wall. Naomi had put her hand in front of him.

“Not that way,” she said, not unkindly. “Don’t want you falling off the bed.”

Rick turned around and began crawling back the other way, when he again found himself trapped by Naomi’s hand.

“Maybe I don’t want you going that way either. I’m starting to think I like you under there,” Naomi said, speaking through a smile.

“Very funny,” Rick said. “Can you let me out now?”

“Well, now why would I want to do that?” Naomi asked. “I’ve got you right where I want you.”

“What do you mean?” Rick asked, slightly nervous. Naomi just laughed.

“Sorry, kind of a power rush.” She picked the blanket up and tossed it to the side. Rick marveled at how easy she made it look. It was merely a blanket, but it looked like she had picked up and thrown a piece of the landscape.

“A power rush?” Rick asked.

“Oh, like you wouldn’t be doing the same thing as me if you were in my shoes?”

“Well, I’m not in your shoes, and no, I don’t think I would. I tend to not treat my friends like bugs.” Rick said, his smile betraying his pretend ‘angry’ voice.

“I’m treating you like a bug?” Naomi asked. “Funny, I hadn’t realized.”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Rick said.

“Did you hear something?” Naomi asked again, suddenly looking around the room intently. “It sounded like…like some kind of buzzing, or whining.”

Rick grew nervous, looking around the room with the same intent Naomi shared, before he looked back up at her and realized she was smiling maliciously at him.

“Oh, very funny!” he shouted. “Yeah, let’s laugh at the short guy.”

“I am laughing at the short guy,” she said. She pointed out her finger and held it upright next to him. He didn’t even reach the top of it. He just smiled up at her and wrapped his arms around the finger.

“You’re mean,” he said. She carefully pulled her hand up, but quickly enough so that Rick couldn’t let go. She held the finger horizontally in front of her so that Rick was hanging by both arms.

“Only to my friends,” she said.

“Um, I’m not so good with heights…” Rick said, looking down beneath him with worry.

“Heights? It’s a couple of inches,” Naomi chuckled.

“Yeah, to you.”

“Point taken.” She began shaking her finger, and Rick quickly lost his balance, falling to the bed with a short scream, and bouncing back up once he made contact.

“Don’t DO that!” Rick shouted up at her.

“Oh, look at the little boss man,” Naomi said. “Giving the giant lady rules.” She leaned her face in real close to Rick’s, close enough so that he could feel her breath wash all over him. “Well, you can only give someone rules if you can enforce them. And what are you gonna do to me?” she asked, with that smirk once more on her face.

Rick stared back into those eyes again for some time, focusing only on the eyes, but not really her. Her smirk vanished.

“What are you staring at?” she asked. Rick just blushed.

“Um, nothing…”

“Nothing, huh?” The smirk returned, and she pursed her lips together, blowing at Rick. He was knocked off his feet by the sudden and harsh gust of wind, and Naomi arched her head back in laughter. Rick was angry at first, but looking at her laugh, he couldn’t help but feel a smile grow on his own face, and he too laughed.

After they both calmed down, Naomi carefully laid stomach-down on the bed, her feet dangling up in the air and her head resting on her chin, looking down at Rick. He just smiled up at her.

“There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you,” he said.

“Hmm? And what’s that?” She was gently rocking her feet back and forth, a motion which was quite captivating for Rick, but he made sure to keep his eyes firmly locked on Naomi’s.

“Well…why were you trying to step on me barefoot?”

Naomi just looked at him, an eyebrow raised.

“Well, I don’t exactly have any shoes,” she said, poking him in the chest and giggling. He was again knocked off his feet, but was taking it all in good humor, smiling.

“No, no, I know that, it’s just…most women wouldn’t step on bugs barefoot,” Rick said, blushing.

“Well, I’m not ‘most women’, am I?” she asked with a grin. “Bugs have never bothered me,” she said. “When I was a little girl, I always loved crushing ants. I still love it today.”

“And you do it barefoot?” he asked.

“Sometimes. It’s not that bad, it actually feels quite good.” She wasn’t even looking at Rick anymore. Her eyes had wandered away, as if she was in another world. She was silent for a few seconds before shaking her head and looking back down at Rick. “Not that I’m thinking of stepping on you,” she said.

“Even though you already tried,” Rick said.

“Accident.”

“Tell me, do bugs wear clothes where you live?”

“Only the really squishy ones.” Naomi held up her fingers a few centimeters away from each other.

“Laugh it up,” Rick said. “When we wake up, I’ll be normal-sized again, so you better cherish this.”

“Oh? You’re so sure this is all a dream?” she asked. Rick just shrugged.

“What else could it be? We both woke up in beds, and it’s not like tiny men and giant women hang out in bars.”

“That’s because tinies always leave us with the bill.”

“If you want to pay for a mug of beer bigger than you, go right ahead. I’ll stick with my thimble.” Rick said, putting his hands on his hips.

“Pfft. Tiny.” She stuck out her tongue at Rick.

“Giant.”

Naomi put her hand in front of Rick, and very gently flicked him in the chest. He flew several feet backward before landing with a bounce.

“And don’t you forget it,” she giggled. Rick got up, still smiling. “So do you think we’ll just be back to normal once the dream ends?” she asked.

“Probably. The question is: how do we end the dream?”

“Do we really want to?” Naomi was again looking off into the distance.

“What do you mean?”

“Well…how many times have you shared a dream with someone, Rick? This could be a once in a lifetime chance…we should make the most of it.”

“How are we going to make the most of it? What can we possibly do?”

Naomi just smiled down at him.

“Use your imagination,” she said.