Petticoat Picnic

    Queensville: A town not found on any map, where women are larger than men, quite literally. Through unknown means, men are made to shrink when they reach adulthood. Having a sister in this town invites damnation, but a moody younger sister makes it an almost certainty.

*

    “Momma, where's my brother? I want to bring him on a picnic!” You heard Olivia call out.

    “He must be scurrying around somewhere...” Your mother said, unaware that you were standing almost directly below her, crouched in the base cabinet gap. You watched her heels scuff around the kitchen tile, and saw Olivia's Mary Janes approaching in the distance.

    “Aw, I was hoping you had him. Now who am I going to eat with?” Your younger sister sulked.

    Your stomach growled. Fearing the sadistic whims of your family, you had stayed hidden for a few days, but hunger had forced you to venture out. Now here came Olivia offering you food at the expense of whatever whims she had, unmediated and unsupervised.

    “C'mon out buggy, I just wanted some company...” Olivia actually sounded a bit pathetic. To be avoided by her own brother, bug or not, must have been quite damning to a girl her age.

    “Ffffffine...” Your sense of kinship, no matter how forcefully beaten by the soles of your sisters' shoes, had not expired yet, nor did your waxing hunger. You stepped out from your hiding place and began waving your arms to get your sister's attention. Her puffy, red dress was covered in white dots, making her look not unlike a big strawberry. She was holding a wicker basket in one hand.

    “Hey, is that him?” Olivia said, pointing towards you. Your mother's shoes shifted next to you, nearly knocking you off your feet.

    “Oh, so it is.” Your mother reached down and unceremoniously snatched you from the kitchen floor. “Well, have fun you two. Olivia, be sure to be back by dusk, and keep out of trouble.” She dumped you into your sister's waiting hand.

    “Of course, Momma. This is going to be so nice. Let's go, bugaboo~” Your sister gave you a quick peck, popping you against her pink lips, before dropping you into the picnic basket.

    Sitting on the soft, folded blanket, you rolled the nickname 'bugaboo' around in your head. If you remembered correctly, it meant something which causes anxiety out of proportion to its size. You'd say it was more appropriate for your sister, but her relative size did belie an accurate ratio to the distress she had caused you on other days. Maybe today would be different?

*

    Olivia gingerly sliced off tiny pieces of cheese and bread from the foodstuffs she'd packed, as you sat on the soft, down blanket. Your younger sister was still in many ways a mystery to you. Capricious as she was, she could be your most dangerous family member, or the sweetest. She sat down cross legged, before picking you up and placing you on her shoulder along with the food she had cut for you.

    “There, now we can talk and eat at the same time.” Olivia smiled and picked up her sandwich.

    “Oh, good idea. So, um, how's school?” You didn't entirely know how to have small talk anymore.

    “It's okay. Most of the boys are still around, but they're getting to be more afraid of the girls, you know?” Olivia said between bites.

    “I see.” You knew all too well of that particular transitional period, “Must be, um, pretty great?”

    “I guess...” Olivia looked pensively at her sandwich for a moment, “It's confusing sometimes. Like, I don't know how I'm supposed to act around them.”

    “How do you mean?” You said, after brushing the remaining crumbs from your hands.

    “Ugh, I don't know.” Olivia set down the remnants of her lunch, “I hate thinking about this stuff. Let's play a game instead.”

    “A game? Um...” You stammered.

    “Yeah, I came up with this one yesterday.” Olivia picked you from her shoulder and deposited you on the blanket. She stood up to her full, titanic height, and pivoted her body so that either of her smokestack legs was on one side of you.

    “W-wait, what are you-” You didn't get a chance to finish as Olivia sat down, her fluffy dress descending like bad weather with a substantial 'foompf.' The white petticoat beneath her outerwear suddenly became all you could see.

    “Okay, here's how we play.” Your sister's giggling voice came subdued through her garments, “You've got to get out from under my dress. If I figure out where you are though, I'm going to smush you under my thumb, so you have to be careful. It'll be like whack-a-mole down at the arcade.”

    Your sister's petticoat had created an inscrutable labyrinth of tangles, so much so that you didn't entirely know which was was further or closer to her body. Carefully you pushed the soft fabric away from you and attempted to move.

    “Oh, is that you?” Your sister playfully said, as some distant piece of her dress compressed to the ground under her finger, “Hm, I guess not.”

    You continued to move, sensing the fabric around you losing some deal of pressure. That could mean you were close to the outside or...

    Bop! Before you even realized it, you had pushed past a bunch of cotton and run directly into Olivia's soft thigh.

    “Hey! No getting fresh!” The ceiling suddenly began caving in, your sister trying to smash you through the layers. You backpedaled quickly, moving away from the (con)vexing situation. Stumbling through a few more knots, you found another clearing, although this time you were greeted with a clear view of your sister's white bloomers.

    “Ugh, okay, it must be in the opposite direction.” You reasoned, turning on your heel, and beginning anew your fight with your sister's undercoat. After some deal of progress though, the loud sound of ruffling came suddenly from both sides.

    “I'm getting bored up here, so I'm just going to bulldoze you unless you can get out quickly~” Your sister playfully laughed. She was going to pull her legs together, with you right in the middle. Figuring subtlety was no longer a concern, you began rip tearing through the fabric, finally catching a glimpse of the late afternoon sun peeking beneath the dress.

    Unfortunately, your sister's petticoat snagged your ankle in a tangle. You landed face first, dizzied despite the soft setting. The sound of swirling fabric and crushing weight continued to crescendo until your sister's thighs were on either side of you. You turned onto your back, only to see the ceiling suddenly disappear, replaced with Olivia's bright face as she pulled back the edge of her dress.

    “Oh, there you are. Almost made it too. Oh well, smuuuush~” She sang, pressing her thumb down onto you, driving you into the blanket.

    “Alright, I guess that's enough for today, it's going to start getting dark soon.” Olivia lifted her thumb away, leaving you breathless and bruised. She grabbed you and put you on the grass before folding up the blanket and storing it in the basket with the leftover food. She turned back towards you and gave an impish smile.

    “If I didn't know better, I'd say you were an ant down there, late to invade our picnic. Maybe I'll just...” Your sister giggled as she lifted the toe of her round shoe and hovered it over you. You put up your hands in defense, but were too exhausted from Olivia's game to do any more. Your sister laughed again, before stepping to the side and crouching down. “Just kidding, bugaboo. Let's go home. And, um, thanks for today. I needed to not think about stuff for a while, you know?”

    “N-no problem.” You said weakly, “Just, uh, maybe don't crush me next time...?”

    “No promises~” Olivia smiled Puck's smile, before nestling you back into the darkness of the picnic basket.

-END-