Missing   (part V)

[i]Steve’s story[/i]

              Every muscle ache but the deed is done. Steve is standing on the slightly curved wooden plain, catching his breath at last. That was a tough climb again. The overhang was a bitch to pass, but he used some grain of …rock? mica? he’s no too sure, but the tiny shards acted as grappling hooks for him in the somewhat softer material of the wood. It allowed to clutch his way under the overhang without too much effort. His weightlessness and the apparent power of his arms at this size have indeed conferred him a definite advantage as a mountain climber.

 The house is quiet. Steve can hear the loud ticking of the Mickey mouse clock on the wall, (just why his sister would keep this ridiculous and ancient thing is beyond him), but this is about the only audible activity so far. Through the window’s curtains, a definite light is beginning to slip through, and the morning is not far away. Steve is apprehensive, and despite his hope of being rescued soon, he’s dreading the arrival of the two young women in the kitchen.

 The evening before had been as terrifying as he could expect it to be. Although most of it was dedicated to his slow progress towards the kitchen, he had a few times witnessed the unbelievable stroll  of his wife or sister in the house, massive mountains of flesh whose movements were heralded by tremendous earthquake-like vibrations that kept him from moving properly, and whose passage was followed by near hurricanes of displaced air. The enormous feet stampeding next to him were a vision of awe and even terror, as he watched the carpet forest being crushed under the enormous soles.

 He was able to hear their conversation from the lounge open door, their voices carrying the power of Goddesses, the blaring of the television sounding to him like an apocalyptic announcement far away. He could hear crying too and recognized Anna’s quiet sobbing. Suzie’s soothing voice hardly had any effect, and Steve had cursed himself for inflicting this pain on both of them. Then again, pain was something he had a fair share of, lately. He‘d finally heard the “Try to get some sleep” sign , that told him it was now safe to attempt the climb in the kitchen. The house had gone quiet and he’d started his new challenge.

 The ascension to the table top or the counter top had proved useless. The metallic feet of  Suzie’s furniture had made impossible for him to even lift himself from the ground. The only possible objective had been the old wooden chair Suzie had brought back one day from her country house and adopted in the midst of her modern looking kitchen. Good taste does not run I the family, he’d thought.
So he’d started the long climb along the rounded gigantic pole.

 In the middle of the night, as he was lost in the rhythmic climb, he had suffered a horrific shock as below him a dark spot had started to move on the lighter surface of the kitchen floor. Coming from under the main counter a series of scratching sounds had materialized into this large shadow angling its progression toward the chair he was climbing. Steve’s heart missed a few beats and his arms had started to shake violently.. Without the grip that offered his tiny rocky tools, he would have fallen below. The massive spider had moved closer, and Steve had watched in horror as long legs carried the ugly thing closer to the base of the pillar. Its body was easily five times his size. The thing had stopped right below him, at the base of the chair, and across the moonlit void, Steve had a long agonizing look into the monster’s multiple eyes.

                 At that moment, strong vibrations had started to echo in the distance, getting stronger by the second. Both Steve and the spider and turned their gazes towards the door, just as it opened, a terrific swoosh of air suddenly crossing the kitchen. In the darkness, a massive form had entered. Steve saw the spider suddenly rush back to the safety of the counter shadow. Huge feet had abruptly come to a stop , as a deafening yell exploded in the room. Steve had not been able to repress his  “Yes!” of triumph, as he watched the huge sandal come on top of the monster. The squishing noise that came up from under the loud crash had told him everything he needed to know. One problem solved. The impossibly large legs had carried on further away, and while various noises came from the counter (Anna or Suzie had had a sudden craving for cookies apparently), Steve could make out the squashed form of the predator on the floor below. Like an improbable dea ex machina, the young woman had saved him from a horrible death.

                  An alarm clock starts sounding from an afar room. Vibrations start traveling all around the place. The morning has come at last, and Steve braces himself for the coming ordeal.

 
[i]Anna’s story[/i]

           I wake up in a sweat. The sheets are cloying to my skin, as if to strangle me. I kick around and feel at last the cool air of the room wash over my naked body. I blink into the rosy light that invades the room. It’s early still. Ugly images are still turning in my mind. I must have had a nightmare. Breathing slowly, staring at the ceiling, I recall indeed some images from the night.

          It's quite vague but I remember the two police officers were there, the man and the woman. The three of us were in our underwear, but there was no one else in the room. It was a weird room, as if it was both an interior and an exterior. The two officers had large magnifiers and were searching the floor. At some stage I said something, I don’t recall what, and they both looked at me with irate faces. They were suddenly all over me, I was on the floor and their magnifier plates were pushing on my body. I remember struggling. I saw the woman through the magnifier, her face distorted and enlarged, till I saw nothing but her huge smile, that seemed to stretch for ever, obliterating her face. She had a cry of triumph and the plate was lifted off my face. Her hand came to ma face and seemed to pluck something near my eye, I was really scared.

 The next thing I was sitting with her at the kitchen table. She looked very happy and I asked why. She did not speak but showed me a glass on the table. I lent forward and saw too little men in the glass, about one inch tall. They were fighting. I recognized the other officer and …Steve. They really were at each other’s throat. I tried to get to the glass and put a stop to the fight but my arms would not bulge. It was as if I had lead weight hanging on my wrists. I shouted to Steve, but my voice seemed so frail , and they did not notice me. The woman was looking with a smile on her face.

 Then I remember she was lifting the glass and tilting it. The two little men inside started to shout. They glided and rolled out of the glass onto a buttered piece of bread, where they stuck and were struggling now to escape. I told the woman to let them go. But she just said “Thank you”. And lifted the bread , with the two tiny terrified men , to her lips. She opened her mouth wide, and for a second I had the feeling I was on the bread, but I was not and I had to watch as she slowly inserted the bread deeper in her mouth. Her teeth went over the little officer before sinking into the bread. I heard a shriek from inside and I started to cry, pleading with her to stop. But she started to munch slowly, swallowed and just said “Thank you, you’re too kind.” She looked at Steve, licking her lips, and I was beside myself with confusion. I wanted to grab her , but no movement was possible, I as stuck in some quicksand of slow motion.

 The woman then said “we’re here to help , you know”, and she brought the piece of bread closer to my lips. I could see Steve on it, struggling to unstuck himself, his little face a mask of terror , as he shouted  to me “ Anna, don’t!!” I opened my mouth, and felt the bread on my tongue. The woman said again “ Thank you”, when I had closed  my lips around the little offering. That’s when I woke up.........  God this was horrible!

 Still unnerved, I get up and go straight to the shower.  The hot water is calming me. I smile as I remember Steve always complained when we took showers together that I used way too hot a water for him. But then I realized he said so when he was still taller then me, and that sends a wave of pain through me. But I still remember taking showers with Steve when the shrinking was well on its way, his small frame under me, between my thighs, catching the water running down my body. It was always a fun moment, as he always harbored a hard-on then, seeing me like this, naked over him. And mostly surely I responded in kind, the view of his naked body between my leg, sending me in a then familiar and exciting territory. I used to push him around gently with my thighs, something squeezing him between them, sometimes cornering him against the wet tiles, sometimes squatting under the hot jet , to press him against my breasts. We had a hard time keeping on time for my work then. Eventually, his size dwindled till it was not safe any longer. I could have slipped on the wet tiles and crushed him under my foot, we simply had to stop meeting like this…. I stop the shower and put on panties and a tee-shirt.

 When I get to the kitchen, Suzie is already there. We look both tired and unwell, I guess. She’s wearing nothing but her panties and a very sexy tank top, that uncovers nicely her flat stomach. I can’t help for a second looking at her, she’s so gorgeous. I do not believe I ever had any lesbian thoughts towards my best friend, but I am always stunned by her natural beauty.  She’s drinking a glass of water, leaning the counter, her long legs crossed. “Watch out for the mess on the floor, I did not have time to clean it” she says. I look down and sees the flatten body of a pretty large spider. “Hugh” I said , as I step over it with a smile. At the back of my mind, a dark thought tries to emerge.

[i]Steve’s story[/i]

           Steve is getting ready now. Both Anna and Suzie have entered the kitchen. Anna smells wonderfully, her long legs are still moist from the shower she’s taken. He shouts and jumps up and down on the chair, but to not no avail. He looks at her as she makes a face at the squashed spider on the floor. Her knees pass just in front of his eyes, leading up  to the momentous passage of her perfect thighs. He gets closer to the bars that constitute the back of the chair, and go prone, up to prepare for the coming motions.

              The girls chat a bit for a moment, but sure enough, large thighs come closer to the chair. He sees the giant frame of his wife, looming above him as her hand is grabbing the top of the chair starts dragging. Good things he’s lying down , he thinks , as with an enormous screeching noise, the vast plain of wood moves away from the table. Giant legs position themselves across from him on the other side of the plain. As he looks up, his feet pushed against the wood of one of the bars, he can see the most enormous behind ever slowly descending upon him. The vast pink surface is covering the sky in a second, still rushing towards  him, the shadow deepening, as the huge thighs start making contact with the chair. The panties crush the plain in front of him and a gust of wind flies across the surface . the back of his wife is stunningly high, a new born cliff high above him.

             A sudden motion and the panties lift off again in the air, as the chair makes a sudden motion towards the table. This sends him sliding away from the protection of the bars, and he screams as the huge buttocks come crushing again, this time much, much closer. The fabric settles less than two of his meters away, and Steve finds himself nearly at touching distance of the sudden wall of pink. He awaits a second  in fear of another re-adjustment but the massive buttocks no longer move, as Anna’s back is now coming to rest against the back of the chair, like a falling mountain, plunging Steve in near darkness.

            Steve is shaking like a leaf, the rush of fear and adrenaline has been somewhat too intense. He has prepared himself, he thinks, but who can be prepared to this? Under the massive arch of Anna’s back, on the narrow ledge of wood left by her sitting bottom, Steve comes to his feet and with a sigh, launch himself on the pink surface and start his climbing under the overhang of the curving buttock. This is the most dangerous part, and he does not want to stay there too long.  Any movement and he’ll be squashed under Anna ‘s weight.

           The surface is familiar. Hell, he has spent two or three hours on the other side of the damn stuff, squeezed against Anna’s tender skin. He grabs ledges of fabric after ledges of fabric. His progression is really easy now. Sure he gets the odd wrinkles to pass, but all in all this is going pretty well. He can hear the incredible voices of the two young woman as they speak very quietly and intermittently t one another.  In no time, he has covered the height of the pink panties. An overlap of fabric, more acrobatics, and he’s tackling the bluish cliff of the tee-shirt. This is not as difficult as he expected, the fabric is not as forgiving, but there plenty of grips and threads to catch. His progression is going smoothly, if not really fast. It’s good he has decided to go for a back climb; he congratulates himself, as the idea of climbing Anna’s breasts while she’s moving seems now suicidal and far more problematic. Far above him, he can see the first golden threads of her long blond hair.

 An earth shattering din comes from another room and the wall he’s climbing makes a sudden lurch.

[i]Anna’s story[/i]

             The phone rings and I startle, we both do. We look at each other for a spit second and I rush to the lounge. When I pick up the phone, the calm voice of Dr Pleet is asking for me. He tells me the search has been negative so far. They have covered the entire floor space, he tells me. Since Steve has not shown up under the magnifiers or in front of the camera, it is reasonable to assume he might be stuck in a confined place, a small nook somewhere. The team is now passing all various objects under scrutiny, starting by the bed sheets. This is going to be along process, he tells me.

             A vaporization took place early this morning, and they added some vitamins and stuff into the water. An apparatus is being flown from Dallas that can spot the tiniest infrared signature. Steve has this uncommon quality at his size to still be a warm-blooded animal (I wince at the term but say nothing), and it may be possible to locate either him or his recent wandering in the room. A refrigerant unit is going to be placed to lower room temperature and make the contrasting signature more obvious. They do not think it will affect him too much. He tells me to keep my hope alive, that they do not expect the shrinking to have caused Steve to be undetectable. According to the most recent figures, he may be somewhere between three and six tenths of an inch, a very small size for sure, but still within our realm. Of course the magnification of the room to that ratio makes it a searchable place the size of large town. Patience is of the essence he tells me. I thank him and put the receiver down.

 I stay a long moment staring at the phone. Somehow I no longer trust in all this science stuff  to rescue Steve, I don’t know why, they are very competent and obviously work hard for us. I try and think of Steve over there. And I feel his fate is in his own hands now. He will have to make the right decisions and his decisions will necessarily involve me. I believe I should go back to the flat, if only to let him know I’m not giving up on him, that I’m right there and waiting for him. Only then will he make his move, for sure.

 I go back to the kitchen and tell the news to Suzie. She’s not surprised, but I can tell she’s not despondent either. Steve is facing a major challenge, but she’s positive he‘s going to be ok.  Its’ only been a few hours, she says, and if he really got that small, a few hours is really nothing. He will pull through this one, she says. He’ll be back. We’ll go and collect him after breakfast.

 Somehow her sheer optimism is lifting my spirits a bit. She’s right, the fates are not decided yet. We will go together to the flat to let him know he has to show up. And he will.  I go to the fridge and get myself a little coffee mousse. I was surprised last night to see this sort of sweet stuff here I must say, but then I recall Steve loves those, and that’s probably why there is some in this house. Suzie is a bit of a diet freak, she’d never eat anything like this. Her bible is the weight scales in her bathroom, and once I was working on her computer I opened by mistake this Excel file with her own weight graph on it. I smile at that as I open the little plastic recipient. She will not doubt launch herself into one of her rants against sugar. No, maybe not today.

[i]Steve’s story[/i]

            He ‘s trying hard to keep his balance among the golden ropes that flow down the huge dome of Anna’s’ head. The trip to her shoulder was difficult. The constant sway of the hair was always threatening to wipe him away. A few times already he had no choice but to grab one and just hang on for sheer life, a little speck in the golden waves. Still he hanged on. And carried his trip upward. At some stage things went quiet , as Anna spent some time on the phone. She had pushed her hair away, which had liberated enough tee-shirt space near the shoulder to let him gain ground at a better pace.

             When he‘d reached her shoulder, the huge hand and receiver were high above him, her voice loud and booming near him. He could see the long graceful neck stretching high above, a sweet smelling wall of flesh leading to the root of the blond forest. Even at his size Anna’s profile was graspable and beautiful. He ‘d felt he was going somewhere at last, coming back from some unnameable place of oblivion into the world he was accustomed to. When she placed the receiver down, he saw the large ear above him. That was going to be weird, he had thought, but that’s the place he needed to reach.

                He’s standing at the hem of the tee-shirt, eying the motions of the hair near him. He needs to get to one of them to climb close to her ear.  The sudden downward movement she does when opening the fridge near throws him off the shoulder. He grabs the fabric with all his might, as lashes of blond hair suddenly wash over his body. He manages to stay on.  The problem is to get across the tanned skin that lead to Anna’s neck to reach the very fine hair that surrounds her ear. Steve feels fearful of this crossing, as he will have nothing to hang on and he worries that his light foot steps might make her think she has a crawling insect on her shoulder. She could swat him in oblivion without even knowing .

                He waits till Anna sits down at last. Opposite the vast space of the cluttered kitchen table, the huge form of Suzie is forcing some smiles et him…her. He wishes she could just spot him here, on Anna’s shoulder, put her hand to mouth in surprise and say suddenly “ Don’t move an inch” to Anna, while coming round the table and collecting him in the safety of her hand. If only it could be that simple. He’s not that small though , if only she focused a bit, she could see him. But she has nor reason to. He understood well from the electronic voice in the receiver that the main focus of research is is flat, understandably. Well, he think, there nothing for it, and he launches himself in the cautious walk to the base of Anna’s neck.  That’s when the phone rings again.

                 Anna, startled, turns her head violently to the right. A huge flow of hair suddenly rushes into Steve. He screams and tries to catch one, but this time the shock is too violent, and he’s catapulted in the air towards Anna’s’ breasts . He can see the huge chasm of the cleavage rushing to him. He has time to think “Oh no, not again” when the huge shape shifts suddenly and he misses, falling downwards. The word goes cold and gooey.

               “I’ll get this one” says someone. Steve is trying to break free from the brown goo around him. It has soften his landing but it’s sooo cold. When he manages to look up again , Anna is nowhere to be seen. Some sort of white round container is restricting his view. Only the kitchen ceiling is visible. He’s chest deep into a brownish cream. The smell is overwhelming and it takes a second for him to recognize the coffee aroma.  The world starts lurching and suddenly Anna’s huge face is looming above him, her eyes absently looking down at him. He starts waving his arms but a second later a massive shiny object id dropping in his direction, The spoon is entering the recipient and crashes silently into the mousse. It’s nearly as large as the container itself . And even larger fingers are holding it, big masses of complex flesh barring the view. Steve feels a tremor shaking the mousse, as the large object travels underneath him.  He feels it as an underwater surge, coming in his direction, passing right below and traveling towards the plastic wall.

             A second later a movement starts occurring as the white plastic walls seems to lower down and disappear. Suddenly the huge frame of his wife comes in full view, as the mousse is rising past her enormous breast, the huge tube of her neck and settles for a second under her face. Her vast eyes are green pools looking at him under  eyelashes longer than him,... but they're not looking at him. Steve screams himself raw as an enormous mouth is coming closer. He can hardly recognize Anna now, as her face turns into a rosy cliff, the vast cheek overlooking him , her nose starting to come closer, the huge nostrils sending warm air onto him. Next to him , huge reds lips are starting to part, revealing pearly teeth much larger than him and opening on a wet chasm , where a tremulous surface seems to be eagerly waiting for him covered in a transparent layer. Deep inside, a dark arch of flesh , obstructed by strands of mucous liquid is coming closer. The warm breath of Anna is washing over him, as he starts throwing mousse in the air, and resumes his screams. “Anna!!! Don’t!!!  Not like this, pleeeeeeeaaaaase!!!”

[i]Anna's story[/i]

Miracles [i]do [/i]happen.
As I lift my first spoonful of coffee mousse, I suddenly have this déjà-vu feeling. The dream….

            I can’t help myself and look down hard on the spoon I ‘m about to engulf.  Just as do so I notice a tiny geyser of cream, like a bubble bursting or something. Except that it’s not a bubble. More like little projections. I bring the spoon to my eyes. And I see him. A tiny tiny man sunk deep into the mousse, waving his arms…Steve... Steve is on my spoon…Alive, shouting…  I stare hard, mouth opened, in utter disbelief. Am I dreaming again?  I can nearly make out his screams now. Oh my god, it’s real. It really is Steve, he’s waving at me. I’m holding him on my spoon. It’s really happening. “Steve?”

           I hear a tiny “Yeeeeehaaaaw!!!” coming from the minuscule shape.  “Oh my God”,  my hand starts shaking and I lower the spoon on the plate in front of me. “Oh my god”. I lower my face  and yes, I can make out Steve’s shape quite clearly now. An intense glee is engulfing me. He made it, not only did he got noticed but he got noticed by me, in this house. How did he do this? And then the cold sweat of realization comes along too. I was a split second from swallowing him alive.  I would have… swallowed him…digested him…and not ever know it.  My head spins and I sat back for a second, fighting the sudden nausea.

            “Suzie, come in the kitchen!! Quick!!” I shout, as I lean closer. I cautiously use the tip of my finger to try and dislodge him from the mousse, but I see with horror, that his body his sinking even deeper, his head just about above level. A sudden shout from him makes me stop instantly. I’m confused, too excited to think straight. My heart is beating too fast. I need to relax, to think. Lets’ do this right.  “Hold on ,darling, I’m getting a magnifier, and a pair of tweezers, I’ll get you out! I love you!! I love you!!” a tiny arm is sticking out in acquiescence from the mousse.

             I run to the bath room, my mind in turmoil. Tweezers, tweezers, where does Suzie keep the bloody things? I open drawers, spills their contents, fumble a while. I see them. A shiny pair of tweezers. I rush to the lounge to the magnifier I had noticed was always on the shelf. My God, Steve is ok, we’re Ok. We gonna pull through this. We’ll find a way. Even as I think this, going back to the kitchen, I have this weird pang of despair that tells me that we’re not back to normal, we’re back to an impossible situation. He’s so small. I can hardly see him. How are we going to speak?  How are we going to…

           Suzie is in the kitchen, turning to me. She takes the spoon off her mouth. “What’s the story?” she says........ “What? What's with the face?..... Oh my God, Oh my God, but...it's just a spoonful! Do you think it's gonna show?" shes says, passing a hand on her perfect tanned belly, a worried look on her face.

The end

nostromo,            17th December 2006