On Friday morning Mom took me to work with her again. I would be subjected to some more tests, although Mom told me that she’d probably be too busy to be with me the whole time. Instead, she handed me over to her colleague Dr Spencer – or Nicole, as she asked me to call her – who carried me off with her, still strapped into the little baby’s seat she had lent Mom. I wasn’t too bothered by this – my first meeting with Nicole had been great and she seemed like a decent person whom I could trust to look after me.

“So, what are we gonna do today?” I asked the lofty woman as she carried me to her working space. “Not more physical tests, I hope?”

“Why, were they too difficult for you to handle?” she asked jokingly. “If you have to know, I’m just going to ask you some questions and evaluate your mental and emotional state. Basically, I need to know how you’ve experienced your first week of being reduced in size. Then, once we’re done with that, we can do some more fun exercises if we’ve got time.”

Inside her office, which was a lot like Mom’s, she sat down at her desk and set my chair down on the floor next to her. I looked up at her as she started to work, feeling pretty much useless, and of course not even able to get out and move about. After about half an hour, she asked me how I was doing and if I felt ready for her questioning session. I said yes, so she reached down and unstrapped me, then hoisted me up in her arms and headed over to a nearby couch. She sat down and sat me down on her knee.

“Are you comfortable like this, or would you like some more space?” she asked, getting a notebook and pen ready to write with.

“No, this is fine,” I said. “I don’t feel quite as…tiny sitting here, you know? As opposed to sitting next to you.” I didn’t tell her that I actually felt a little bit like a child about to receive a scolding from his mother.

“That’s good to hear. Okay then, Ben, take it away. Tell me about your first week as a shrunken man. What’s it been like, being so much smaller than everyone around you? Did you feel threatened or intimidated by any of the people around you, myself included?”

“No, not really…well, actually, sometimes, a little bit…but mostly I really enjoyed it. Everyone’s been really nice to me, though, so maybe that’s why I don’t feel scared. Like right now, for instance…I know you’re here to look after me and that you wouldn’t hurt me or anything, so I don’t feel threatened…if that makes sense”

“Oh, I understand perfectly, Ben,” she said, smiling down at me. “You’ve only been in contact with five individuals since being shrunk, is that correct? Your mother and sister, myself, Dr Ajani…and your girlfriend Kara.”

“Uh-huh, that’s right…hey, how do you know about Kara? Did my mom tell you? I told her not to tell anyone!”

Nicole began to laugh.

“Sorry, little guy, but I guess she felt I needed to know. Congratulations on your date this afternoon, by the way! It’s not every girl who’d be open to the thought of going out with a guy no taller than her knees. Have you guys planned anything fun to do yet?”

“No…well, Kara has, but she hasn’t told me anything. She’s picking me up later this afternoon, but I have no idea where we’re going.”

“Somewhere private, I assume? Unless Lauren has changed her mind about the whole thing needing to be a complete secret.”

“No, I’m still supposed to be a secret. Mom’s been pretty strict about that. In fact, she said she thinks it’d be best if I don’t meet any more people from now on, until I’m back to normal size again.”

“I see. So that means you’ll be surrounded by giant women and girls all the time, huh? Does it feel strange, especially with you being a man after all? You’re taller and stronger than most women normally, so I imagine it must feel pretty unnerving to be smaller and weaker than us all of a sudden.”

“Yeah, sometimes, but like I said, I like being this small. Being surrounded by giant women like you and Mom…I guess it makes me feel, I don’t know, safe and protected? Like, if it were just giant men who were around me, I might feel more unsafe and threatened, but not with you. Being smaller than my baby sister, well, that’s another matter!”

Nicole made a note of my answer, while I carried on talking about Emily and how much it annoys me when she treats me as one of her dolls, which she’d been doing all week.

“Well, a loss of authority is to be expected as going along with a loss of size,” Nicole observed. “Hmm, this is very interesting, Ben. Now, how would you like to stay like this for a longer period of time? Not forever, but more than a few weeks? Not that that’s the plan for you right now, but just as a hypothetical question.”

“Sure! Why not? As long as Kara’s okay with it. Of course, I’ll still have to go to school and everything, so it’s not like I can actually stay like this for much longer. Unless you’d be okay with exposing me to the rest of the world.”

“Yes, I understand. Are you happy like this, though? Do you feel like you can still live a healthy, emotionally balanced life at this size? Or do you feel…I don’t know…trapped, or powerless, or anything like that?”

“Sometimes, but other times…hey, you’re not actually planning on keeping me this small, are you? Mom said I could return to normal any time I wanted to!”

“Of course not! There’s no need to get so upset, Ben! I’m just asking you what it feels like to live like this, that’s all! No-one’s gonna force you to stay like this, of course we won’t! I’m just curious about what it feels like to be shrunk and whether or not you enjoy it.”

“Okay, I get it…I was just making sure, that’s all. Are we almost done yet?”

I was eager to get this questioning session over with, since I wanted to move on to other, hopefully more exciting, activities. I felt the urge to jump down from her knee onto the floor, but I didn’t want to seem rude, so I stayed put. Nicole seemed to want to wrap up as well, though: she grasped me around my waist with her strong hands and lifted me up from my seat. When she stood up, I was reminded how tall she now was as I was carried twenty feet up above the ground. I wasn’t too bothered by this height, but I did start worrying about how it’d be like once I was shrunk down even smaller. Nicole carried me over to an area that was like a small gymnasium, which I guessed was reserved for employees of the facility only. Inside there was a small swimming pool, about forty feet long, which meant it was bigger than an Olympic-sized pool to me. I was set down by the water’s edge, and she looked down at me and told me that I could go for a swim if I wanted to.

“It’s not just for fun, mind you,” she said. “At your current size, you should experience water differently – as a liquid with a different consistency, I mean. I’d like to see how fast you can swim from one end of the pool to the other, and whether or not you find it easier or harder to swim than normally.”

I stood still for a moment, feeling rather awkward. There was no-one else around, which made me feel more awkward still. I wasn’t wearing swimming trunks, of course – only my custom-made shorts and T-shirt. I asked my towering guardian if she wanted me to undress right here. She looked shocked for a moment, then began to chuckle.

“Oh, come on, Ben, don’t tell me you’re shy!” she laughed. “You can just remove your shirt, that’s all. I hope you don’t think that I brought you here for…well, let’s just say ulterior purposes.”

“No, no! I was just…well, I guess wasn’t following you…”

“Good, now get to it! I’ve got quite a busy schedule today and I’d like to complete these tests as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Then you can go home earlier and prepare for your big evening. Does that sound good to you?”

“Yeah, sounds good.”

I didn’t hesitate anymore and took off my shirt, then slowly lowered myself into the thankfully heated pool. I don’t know why I thought for a moment that Nicole wanted to take advantage of me. I knew that she was married, and of course she was over twice my age – but when you’re only sixteen inches tall and standing at the feet of a beautiful woman, completely at her mercy, I suppose your mind goes to strange places. She’d been really great to me these past few days, to tell the truth, and I felt rather embarrassed for presuming that she wanted to…well, to have some ‘alone time’ with me, I guess you could say.

The water in the pool felt weirdly heavy – there was no other way to describe it – and I found I could float on top with more ease than I usually could. It was also harder to swim through, meaning that I took over a minute to swim my first length. After six whole lengths I was thoroughly pooped and I decided to get out of the pool, feeling like I didn’t even have any energy left to just float around. Another embarrassing moment happened then, when I found that my arms were too tired to pull me out of the pool, and Nicole had to come and rescue me.

She carried me in her arms, soaking wet and shirtless, to the ladies’ changing room, which was yet more awkwardness for me to endure, and gave me a small hand towel to dry myself off. I was then handed back my shirt, which I pulled on hurriedly. Nicole looked at her watch, then asked me how I was feeling.

“Uh, okay, I suppose,” I answered. “I hope there aren’t any more difficult tests coming up. Not to sound like a wimp, but I’d rather take it easy from now on if that’s okay.”

“Oh, I think we’ve done enough for today,” she said. “I’m actually running a bit late for a meeting I’m supposed to go to. Luckily for you, it’s at another facility, so I can drop you off at your home if you’d like. I’ll just go and get the keys from your mom. Otherwise, you can stay here with her, but she might be working late, which will make you miss your date.”

I definitely didn’t want that to happen so I accepted her offer. Mom didn’t seem to have a problem with it either and she handed Nicole the keys to our house. Then it was back into the carrying seat for me, where I stayed during the whole ride home. By the time we got there I was desperate for some freedom of movement. Nicole parked in our driveway and went to unlock the front door. Then she returned, set me free from the baby-sized seat, took me out of the car and placed me on the ground at her feet. She handed me the keys to the now-open front door.

“Well, goodbye for now, little Ben,” she said, as I stared up at her statuesque height. “Good luck with your date this afternoon, I hope the two of you have a wonderful time!”

“Thanks, I’m sure we will,” I answered. After she’d driven off, I headed inside and closed the door behind me, which took a considerable amount of effort. Emily wasn’t home yet, which was fortunate as I didn’t believe I had the energy at present to deal with her. I decided to get some rest before this afternoon, so I headed upstairs to my room. Climbing onto my bed was another tiring challenge, but it felt good once I made it, and I lay down and tried to fall asleep.

As it turned out, Kara didn’t arrive until four o’clock, which was fortunate for me since my sleep turned out to be longer than expected. I wondered whether or not feeling sleepy a lot of the time was an unintended side-effect of the shrinking potion? Regardless, I did feel a lot better once the time came to go out. I didn’t have much choice when it came to clothing, but I knew Kara didn’t care about that. She herself looked really stunning in a bright pink jacket and scarf, knee-length skirt and fashionable leather boots. In fact, when I ran up to her to give her a hug, I found that those boots alone were each taller than I was. Kara laughed as I climbed on top of her left boot and tried to wrap my arms around her lower leg. I suppose I must have looked pretty pathetic to her, but she found it cute and endearing. She picked me up and gave me a proper hug, then asked me if I was ready to go.

“You bet!” I answered enthusiastically. “I can’t wait to see where we’re going.”

“Oh, I’m pretty easy-going with what we’re doing this afternoon,” she said, winking at me. “But I do have an idea I want to try out…come on, let’s get going. See you later, Mrs. Sullivan!” she called to my mom, who had arrived at our home just ten minutes before Kara did.

“Goodbye!” Mom called back. “Take care of my little guy, Kara! Remember, he’s supposed to be a complete secret, so don’t take him anywhere too exposed or crowded, okay? And make sure he doesn’t run off or anything like that!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got everything covered!” Kara replied. “He’s completely safe with me. I’ll bring him back just the way I found him!”

I cringed a little, listening to them talking about me as if I were a helpless child. But, for all intents and purposes, that was pretty much what I had become now. My mind was still as mature as always, but my body was as vulnerable as that of the tiniest baby now. I needed my mom and Kara for protection, to make sure nothing harmful happened to me. Kara put me down in her little car’s passenger seat and fastened the seatbelt for me. My legs didn’t come close to reaching the edge of the seat. Sitting next to me, Kara looked large and powerful as she drove us off. I must have been staring at her, because she noticed it and asked me what was wrong.

“Nothing…just enjoying looking up at the most beautiful girl on Earth,” I said, hoping she didn’t think I was being too trite. “Kara…you have no idea how much I love it when you’re this size. You’re like a goddess to me now.”

“Really? And here I am thinking I’ve always been a goddess in your eyes, even when I was a few inches shorter than you!”

“Oh yeah, of course! But now you’re like…and even bigger and hotter goddess!”

She couldn’t help but laugh. She was clearly enjoying this way more than she thought she would, which made me glad. I was happy the girl I cared about had such an open mind and a willingness to explore…well, let’s just call them different perspectives to our relationship.

“Are we going to your place?” I asked her.

“Well, we could…later, maybe. First, let’s go and have some fun. You don’t mind doing something fun and exciting, do you?”

“No…as long as it doesn’t involve other people, that’s all.”

“Yeah, about that…I don’t wanna intrude or anything, but I think your mom’s going a bit overboard with your safety and the whole ‘big secret’ thing. Don’t you agree?”

I was rather taken aback. On the one hand, I did occasionally feel like my mom was coddling me a bit too much while I was this tiny, but on the other hand I didn’t want to disobey her and make my status as the world’s one and only shrunken man public. I asked Kara what she was planning to do. She saw how nervous I looked, so she tried to reassure me that I would be fine.

“I won’t go against your mom’s orders, Ben, don’t worry,” she told me. “You’re my boyfriend now and I’ll look out for you at all times, I promise. I’m not gonna spoil what we’ll be doing, but there is a small chance of someone else noticing you. We’re just gonna have to play it cool and enjoy ourselves. Hey, what do you know? We’ve arrived!”

She pulled the car up to a halt. I didn’t wait for her to unbuckle my seatbelt and slipped out from underneath it. I ran over to the door and, by standing on the tips of my toes, was able to see outside the window. I recognized the place, and, after a moment or two, I figured out why we were here.

“You wanna go…ice skating?” I asked Kara. “On the pond in the park?”

“Sure! I love going skating. Not as a sport, you know, just for fun. It’s a great way for me to relax and unwind after a long week.”

“But…I can’t do that right now! I’m too small now! Plus, I’ve never done it before, so how am I going…”

“Oh Ben, you worry too much! Let me do the skating and everything. I’m just taking you along as a passenger, okay?”

“Okay…yeah, that might actually be great, you’re right. As long as you don’t the same thing my mom does when she carries me around, disguising me as a baby and everything.”

“Disguising…hey, what do mean by that?”

I told her how my mom always wrapped me up in a blanket to disguise me as an infant, then instantly regretted it as a devilish smile crept across her lips. Of course, she didn’t have a blanket, but she removed her pink woollen scarf from her neck and held it up against my body. Then, quick as lightning, she wrapped it around me several times – just like Mom had done on my first day of being miniaturized – until only my face was left unexposed. Kara lifted me up and sat me down on the steering wheel in front of her, giggling at my indignation.

“This is perfect!” she grinned. “You look just like a little baby doll now, Ben! No-one will be paying you any attention. Luckily it doesn’t look like there’s that many people here today anyway. Come on, let’s go, before it starts to get dark.”

She grabbed a pair of skating boots from the back seat and got out of the car. I was held under her arm like a loaf of bread, pressed tightly against her body. In this way I was carried over to the edge of the pond, where she lay me down on the ground at her feet. By wriggling around in the constricting folds of her scarf, I managed to roll over onto my side and could look at the makeshift skating rink, and I saw that there were about a dozen or so people circling around. Some of them looked straight at me for a moment, but I remained motionless and they didn’t regard me for more than a moment. I was almost completely unable to move in any case, and I must have looked like nothing more than a bundle of cloth from a distance. Kara slipped on her footwear, then scooped me up again and held me at arms’ length.

“Ready to go?” she asked cheerily.

“You bet!”

Skating with Kara turned out to be a genuinely delightful experience. As she held me aloft in her arms while gliding over the ice, I almost felt as though I were flying. She would spin and twirl around and around, drawing me in close to her chest so that her speed increased. Sometimes she would move forward with great speed, legs bent, holding me just above the pond’s frozen surface, while I tried not to scream. She would even throw me up in the air, spinning me end-over-end, then catch me again in her reliable arms. The first time she did this I was petrified, but eventually I learned to just relax and enjoy it. It helped that Kara was a really good skater. She said she didn’t want to do it professionally, but it seemed to me as if she definitely had the skills required. Maybe I could encourage her to give it a shot?

Eventually Kara decided to call it a day, despite the fact that she didn’t seem all that tired. It was getting dark now, though, and maybe she wanted to do some other stuff tonight as well. She glided over to the edge of the pond and flopped down in the snow on the shore. I was held firmly against her chest, feeling euphoric, both from the skating and from being held so closely to her. Seeing how elated I looked, she lifted my head up to her mouth and gave me a big kiss on the cheek.

“That was fun, wasn’t it?” she asked, putting me down on the ground again so that she could change back into her regular boots.

“Fun? Oh my God, Kara, that was the best feeling ever! You…you were amazing!”

“Really? Why, thank you Ben!” she said, and I could’ve sworn she blushed a little bit. “Hey, you wanna head back to the car for a bit? It’s a bit more private there, I think. I mean, my scarf is only gonna disguise you for so long.”

I agreed. She tucked me under her arm again and carried me back to the car. Our date was off to a terrific start, I thought. I had no idea where we’d be going next, but I felt ready for almost anything. In Kara’s loving hands, I had everything a guy like me could ask for.