For as long as she could remember, everyone had called her Lettie.  Her name was Violette, but she was named for her grandma, and her aunts, uncles, great-aunts and great-uncles had taken to calling her Lettie when she was little, since they called her grandma “Vi” or “Violette.”

Lettie kind of hated her name.  The spelling on “Violette” was odd enough that people always were misspelling her full name, and “Lettie “ sounded old-fashioned.  Still, when she was little, her mom had told her kindergarten teacher Lettie was called “Lettie,” so the name stuck, even at school.

Now Lettie was a freshman in high school.  She was tall at 5-foot-9 and slim, but felt her looks were unspectacular.  She didn’t mind.  She preferred the background.

The big fall dance was coming up, and Lettie liked Kurt, a taller boy who was well-built and athletic.  He was on the football team and two years ahead of her, but he had always been nice to her in the halls and classes.  She was trying to work up the nerve to ask him out.

Lettie saw Kurt in the hall.  She swallowed hard and remembered a story her mom had told her about Grandma Violette.

When Vi was little, she had become separated from her parents and was lost for months, Mom had said.  During that time, Vi had helped stop a group of criminals before she was reunited with her parents.  It had really helped Vi develop courage, Mom had said.

Trying to channel her grandma’s courage, Lettie walked up to Kurt.  “Um, hi, Kurt,” she said.

Kurt turned and smiled at her.  “Oh, hi, Lettie,” Kurt said, smiling.

“Um, Kurt,” Lettie said, “um, look, I was wondering, um, if you would go to the dance next week with me?”  She looked up at him hopefully, nervously.

Kurt paused for a couple of seconds, then burst out laughing.  He stopped himself quickly.  “Oh, I’m sorry, Lettie,” he said.  “I didn’t mean to laugh in your face, but I’m dating the head cheerleader.  Why would I go to the dance with a frosh?  You’re nice enough, but --”

Lettie was blushing with embarrassment.  She felt awful, felt like everyone was staring at her.  She wished she could hide.

Then she saw a horrified look on Kurt’s face.  “Lettie, what’s going on?” he said, starting to look genuinely scared.

Then Lettie realized she was looking up further than usual at Kurt, and the gap was widening.  What was happening?

The feeling that everyone was staring at her was even stronger.  She looked around and realized everyone in the hallway really was staring at her.  Now she wished even more that she could hide.

Suddenly Lettie understood why everyone was staring at her, and why Kurt was staring down -- now way down -- at her.  She was shrinking, and shrinking fast.

Worse, she realized her clothes weren’t shrinking with her.  She was pretty sure she was now under three feet tall, and with the clothing situation she wanted to hide even more.  Growing even smaller, she grabbed her top to keep herself covered and ran down the hallway, stepping right out of shoes that were now as long as her legs.

Lettie made her way to her locker.  She could just barely reach the lock with enough strength to manipulate the dial.  She dialed her combination and opened the door, then realized that even more people were staring at her.  Getting even smaller, she climbed into the locker and shut the door behind her.

Now Lettie became so tiny that she couldn’t begin to hold up her tent-sized top.  Crying, she climbed atop her book bag.  With effort, she managed to open the zipper and climb inside the bag.

Lettie was looking for her cell phone.  She found a ruler first.  Morbidly curious, she stretched out on top of it, and realized she was now about six inches tall.  Crying even harder, she dug down until she found the cell.  It was as long as her torso, and probably outweighed her now.

Pushing with all her might, Lettie pushed the buttons to call out.  Then she realized how small her voice would sound and set the volume controls to the max as the call rang in.

Lettie heard the phone pick up and the thunderous voice of her mother come through.  “Hello, Jan Munson.”

“Mom, it’s Lettie,” the six-inch girl shouted, sobbing.  “Something’s happened, something unbelievable.”

“Oh, God,” her mom said.  “Lettie, where are you?”

“In my locker,” the girl answered.

“How tall are you?” Mom asked.

Now Lettie was confused.  “About six inches,” she said.

“I was afraid of this,” Mom said.  “Wait there, honey.  I’ll get you out.  Meanwhile, try to stay calm and let go of whatever upset you.  It’ll help.”  Then Mom hung up.

Lettie sat there in disbelief.  Her mom knew about this?

The wait in the locker seemed interminable.  Making it worse were her fellow students.   Lettie realized some of them were trying to peek through the locker’s vents to see her, curious about her condition.  The boys seemed to be looking especially hard, apparently hoping to see a tiny, naked girl.

Lettie began to sob, wishing now that she could hide even more.  Then she started shrinking again, plummeting to less than an inch tall. Standing atop the ruler in a corner of the book bag not visible from the vents, Lettie lay down and stretched out.  She calculated that she was only about six-tenths of an inch tall.  Thank God I called Mom before I got this small, she thought.  I could never move the phone buttons now.

There was nothing to do now but hide and wait.  After a few minutes, the class bell rang and the crowd at her locker left.  Lettie relaxed a bit, feeling less pressure.

Then Lettie realized she was changing again, but not like before.  Things around her seemed to be getting smaller.  She was growing, not shrinking.

Still, she didn’t grow much.  She stopped at one inch tall.

Lettie remembered the relaxation techniques her mother had taught her.  She thought of the phone call.  Was this why her mother had taught her those techniques?  Was mom trying to give her a means of coping with this?

Stretching out on some clothes in a secluded spot in the book bag -- an odd description, Lettie realized, but accurate at her current size -- Lettie took a series of deep, cleansing breaths.  After about a minute of this, she opened her eyes and measured herself.  She was up to about four inches tall.

Lettie used another technique.  Starting with her feet and working her way up her body one muscle group at a time, she tensed hard, then relaxed each one, finishing with her face.  She breathed easily.  She could tell she’d grown while this was going on, but she didn’t know how much.  She got down by the ruler.  She was up to 10 inches tall.

Lettie wanted to try to get bigger, but was afaid she might get too big for the locker, or that the other students would get back before her Mom could get there.  She decided it was best to wait for her Mom.

It wasn’t long before Lettie saw a shadow over the locker vents.  “Lettie, it’s Mom,” she said.  “I’ll need to know your combination to get you out, unless you can climb out a vent.”

“I’m not that small any more,” Lettie said.  She shouted the numbers to her mother, then heard the tumblers clanking as Mom dialed the combination.

On seeing her tiny daughter, Mom bit her lower lip.  “Well, at least you’re bigger than you were when you called,” she said.

“Not before I got even smaller first,” Lettie shouted.  She saw her mom was carrying a manila folder.

“Get in the bag,” Mom said.  “Carrying you out in it will be the easiest way to get you out of here with a minimum of attention.”

“What about my clothes and shoes?” Lettie asked.  “I left them in the hallway.”

“Someone turned them in at the office,” Mom said.  “I called the school office right after I got off the phone with you and told them to take no further action until I got here.  That’s probably why they weren’t looking for you, I think.”

Lettie rode in the bag.  She could hear Mom talking to the office staff.  “This is Lettie’s medical file,” Mom said.  “It will explain everything.  I’ve already got Lettie.  I need her clothes.”

“But the principal wants to see --”

“This is a medical emergency!” Mom said.  “Talk can come later, after he’s reviewed the file!  Give me the clothes now, or I’m leaving without them!”

Lettie heard the clothing being handed over.  At her current size, they sounded like giant flags being flapped. 

Once Mom got the bag into the car, she unzipped the bag.  “You OK, honey?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Lettie said.

“Just take it easy for now,” Mom said.  We can worry about getting you bigger when we get you home.  I’ll explain what’s going on with you then, and I apologize now for not doing it sooner.  But you look exhausted.”

Lettie yawned.  “I am, kinda,” she said.

Mom smiled.  “Rest.  If you can, sleep.  It’ll help,” she said.

Lettie didn’t understand it, but the stress of all this and the fact that her adrenaline rush was wearing off combined to make the tiny teen very sleepy.  She simply snuggled into the pile of clothing that was beside the book bag.  She felt Mom positioning objects to help keep the pile stable as she dozed off.

When Lettie started to reawaken, she realized she was in her bed, covered by a blanket.  Thank goodness, she thought groggily, it was all a dream.

But something was wrong.  The texture of the blanket wasn’t right, and weight of it felt … off, somehow.

Lettie, still half-asleep, reached for the edge of the bed, but it was nowhere to be found.

She opened her eyes, looked around and had to suppress a scream.  Her bed -- and, for that matter, everything else except her -- was huge, five times the size it should have been.  The “blanket” she was covered with actually was a dishtowel, which explained why it felt funny as a blanket.

Lettie sat up (well, as up as she could) and rubbed her head,  It registered that her bedroom door was open just as the titanic figure of her mom came in the room, carrying a large rag doll with blonde hair the doll wore a light purple dress.

“Oh, good, you’re awake,” Jan Munson said to her daughter.  “I’d hoped you’d regrow more by now, but you’re still getting bigger.”

“So, it wasn’t a dream,” Lettie said, making sure to keep the towel over herself.  “That nightmare was real.”

“I’m afraid so, Honey,” Jan said.  “May I sit on the bed?  We have a lot to talk about.”

Lettie, who was toward the foot of the bed, gestured toward the head of the bed as if to say, “Go ahead.”  As her mom sat, Lettie realized she was carrying an envelope in addition to the doll.”

But Lettie wasn’t worried about the letter or the doll right now.  “You knew I might shrink like this?” Lettie said.  “How did you know?  Why didn’t you tell me?”

Jan moved the doll onto her lap.  “The answers are connected to this,” she said.  “You probably don’t know what kind of doll this is, do you?”

“Not a clue,” Lettie said flatly, a hint of anger in her voice as she glared up at her gigantic mother.

“The doll’s name is Shrinkin’ Violette,” Jan said.  “Violette is spelled just like your name -- or, more accurately, your grandma’s.”

“You knew I might shrink because of a doll?” Lettie said, still sounding angry.

“You’re up about another two inches since I came in the room,” Mom said.  “That’s good.  And, no, it wasn’t because of the doll that I knew you’d grow, but it is related to it.

“See, the doll was based on a character from a kid’s cartoon show of the early 1960s, one fo the first educational TV shows.  But what most people didn’t realize was that, while a lot of the stuff on the show was made up -- a talking pterodactyl, a super-voiced Indian chief -- the basic situation was real.  Shrinkin’ Violette was your Grandma Vi.”

Lettie scooted closer to the edge of the bed.  As she did, she realized she was growing again.  She was soon up to about 21 inches tall.  She guesstimated she’s picked up about 7 inches since she’d awakened.

“You’re starting to grow back faster, and that towel won’t hold you,” Mom said.  She took out a slightly yellowed letter from the envelope and spread it out on the bed.  “I’ll give you some privacy,” Mom said.  “Read this while I’m out of the room.  It’s from your Grandma Vi.  She didn’t know who she’d be writing it to, but she wanted to tell whoever needed to know it firsthand what was going on.  Let me know when you’re ready for me to come back.”

Lettie crawled over to the letter, which was about as long as her torso, and started to read:

My dear child,

If you are reading this, then you’ve been impacted by my condition.  Since it hit me at a time of fear and embarrassment, I can only assume it may have done the same to you, and for that I’m sorry.

My story is so incredible that it’s hard to share with anyone who hasn’t experienced it.  My children know, and those of the grandchildren who are old enough, too.  But I’m in ill health and told I haven’t long, so I’m writing these letters to give to each branch of the family so I can share this with you after I’m gone, if need be.

My story began with my daddy.  He would come home from work every day, and I would be waiting by the door, run up and hug him.  I was 5 years old at the time.  None of us knew the consequences that simple, family gesture would have at the time.

We had taken a trip to a big wooded area I didn’t know in another state, and I was off playing by myself -- those were different days, when people felt safer letting their children do that -- when these two men I didn’t know came up and tried to grab me.  I panicked and ran, screaming for my parents.

Suddenly one of the men grabbed me by the sleeve of my dress (girls wore dresses all the time then.)  Terrified, I tried to pull free, and pulled out of the dress.  But it wasn’t in the usual way.  In a matter of a few seconds, I shrank to the size of a bug.  I fell out of the dress.   Because my mass was so light, the fall didn’t hurt me at all, and I was hidden in the grass, but I was tiny, confused, terrified and alone.  I grew even smaller in my fear.  Knowing what I now know, I think I was probably microscopic, but I had no clue what that even meant at the time.

Eventually I started growing back.  But, by the time I was 3 inches tall, I could see that, not only were the men gone, but so were my clothes.  I dropped down again below the grass’ height -- not intentionally at this point; that would come later -- and started to look for shelter.

I was lost, had no idea where my parents or clothes were, the size of a grasshopper and had no idea where those guys who tried to grab me were … pretty terrifying for anyone, let alone a 5-year-old.

I found a set of old crates some boys had made into a clubhouse and set up just outside the park boundaries.  I took shelter in there, and started regrowing.  They had some food inside, as well as sleeping bags and some sheets and towels.  I found out later that the towels were because they’d swim in a nearby creek.  Anyway, I made makeshift clothing out of what was there.

Then a group of the boys came in all at once.  They threatened to throw me out and hurt me until I started crying and again started shrinking.  Then they stopped long enough to listen to my story, and they took me in.

Thinking like boys in the early days of the Cold War, they reasoned Soviet spies were after me for my powers and decided to keep my location secret. They kept me at the clubhouse, brought me clothes and food and talked to anyone they could trust about trying to find my parents.

Over the course of the next two weeks, I learned to control my shrinking power.  I got to where I could shrink and regrow at will, and change the clothes I was wearing and small objects I carried with me when I did so.  The boys cheered me on in those efforts.

Then  it turned out the boys were right, sort of.  The two would-be kidnappers had been systematically searching the area around the park and had finally found me.  But, between the boys, the local police and now having my powers under control, we not only caught them, we actually succeeded in capturing them.

Then we found out the whole truth.  My dad was a research scientist exploring biological miniaturization for federal government.  The kidnappers had been trying to take me, not for my powers, which they knew nothing about until I shrank, but to use me as leverage to force my father to give up U.S. secrets.

I’d gotten the powers from being exposed to my dad’s clothes with those hugs, day in and day out.  It seems that, while none of his projects worked directly, the subtle exposure to my 5-year-old body of all those processes in combination created a complex cocktail that altered my DNA and gave me my shrinking power.

While it is a mutation that can be passed on, to be able to use the powers you have to have one of several combinations of genes that allow one or more of the powers to work.  We’ve identified at least four powers the genes I have can provide, but I’ve only got two myself.  Read the journal I’ve left with my oldest daughter Daphne to learn about the other one.

To date, none of my children or grandchildren had possessed the right “open circuit-breaker” genes to gain any of the powers.

Lettie, is you’re the one reading this, we think, because you resemble me so much physically, and not just in name, you may have some of the powers, but we don’t know for sure.  If you do, they may not have manifested at the same age or in the same manner as mine did.

To whoever’s reading this, if these powers bring you any hardship, I’m sorry.  But, if you can learn to control the, like I did, the results can be glorious.

Know that, even though I may not be with you in person, my love is with you, and that you’re not in this alone.  I’ve been down this road, too.  It may have its rough spots, but it also can be a lot of fun.

All my love,

Grandma Vi.

Lettie sat on the bed, wide-eyed, for a moment.  She was 2-foot-4 when she finished the letter.  By the time she’d really processed what it had said, she was an inch taller.

Now big enough to do so, Lettie slid off the bed.  As her feet hit the floor, her conficence increased, and so did her height.  In seconds she was up to 4-foot-7.  She went to her dresser and pulled out a newer T-shirt that hadn‘t shrunk much yet.  It was big as a nightshirt on her now, but that was OK; it meant she was dressed.

“Hey, Mom!” Lettie called, opening her bedroom door and walking down the hall.  “I’m ready for the rest now!”

Jan looked at Lettie while Lettie looked up at her mother, who still seemed huge to the teen.  “Wow!” Jan said.  “You’ve really grown back up.”

“Yeah,” said Lettie.  “So, how did you know about this?  I mean, you married into the family.”

“Your dad told me about it before we were married,” Mom said.  “I thought he was nuts, until I actually saw Vi shrink.  When I was able to stand back up again after the initial shock, I believed them both.”

“So, do you know what happened after she was a kid?” Lettie asked.

“I know that the rights to her story were sold to this TV producer, and the show made the Shrinkin’ Violette character a star,” Jan said.  “Your grandma wound up with a lot of money from that.  But most people didn’t know it was real.  She lived a pretty normal life through her growing up from there, and then was recruited by the CIA for her … special talents.  She undertook a lot of missions, and I guess was a top field agent for awhile, until she retired.”

“In the letter, she said something about a second power she developed later, but she doesn‘t say what it was,” Lettie said.  “Do you know?”

Jan shook her head.  “That’s probably in the journal she left with your Aunt Daphne,” the mom said.  “I actually called Daphne about that while you were asleep; I figured you’d want to see what’s in it.  Unfortunately, she’s about as organized with this as she is with everything else.  She’s going to have to look for the journal, and that may take quite awhile.”

Letti’s shoulders sank.

“Don’t worry, honey,” said Mom.  “We’ll get it eventually.”

“Mom, there was a little bit of the letter specifically addressed to me,” Lettie said.

“I know,” Jan said.  “We had talked about it -- your dad, grandma and I -- and decided we didn’t want to upset you unnecessarily.  Of all your cousins descended from Grandma Vi, you’re the one who most physically resembled your grandma, so we knew there might be a better chance you’d get the powers, but we didn’t know for sure, and, with no one else developing them, it seemd so unlikely.”

“So I’m the only one with the powers?”

“Since Grandma Vi, yes,” Mom said.  “Honey, you’re growing some more.  Put on some more clothes and we can talk more once you do.  I don’t want any views you wouldn’t want me to see.”

Lettie smiled.  “Right,” she said.

After redressing, Lettie, now nearly her full height again, returned to her mother in the living room.  Mom patted the sofa, and Lettie sat down.

“So, now what?” Lettie said.

“Well,” Mom said hesitantly, “I think we have to consider home-schooling you, at least temporarily, or getting your classwork sent from the school.  I mean, this was probably the most talked about incident in school since you’ve been enrolled.”

“Yeah,” said Lettie.  “Some dweeb will probably try to do something to make me shrink.  Until we get this under control, I should probably stay out.”

Mom patted Lettie’s knee.  “Your friends -- the ones who really are friends -- will still be able to come over,” Jan said.  “In the meantime, I know a little of what your grandma did to train, and you already know your relaxation techniques.  Your dad may know a few more things.  We’ll get you through this.”

Lettie smiled.  She could see her grandma’s picture on the wall, smiling down at her.  “I know, Mom,” she said.  “Grandma Vi had it harder than I should.  If she could get through this, so can I.”