Chapter 10

The next couple of days passed by without too much incident. Apart from the “bonus” that Jack had received, his daily schedule and routine remained unchanged. He performed chores for Sadie in the morning and early afternoon, and then had a little nap, after which he tagged along behind Alice, trying to help her do whatever she was doing, which usually involved tending to the garden or cooking a delicious meal for dinner. Sadie was true to her word, which meant that the chores she assigned to Jack were not quite as voluminous or strenuous as they had been before. For a good portion of the morning, for instance, she had actually started using him as a paperweight, ordering him to sit atop the stack of documents at the corner of her desk so that it didn’t blow away in the wind of the fan she kept constantly running.

“Wow, it’s soooo much easier having a sentient paperweight!” Sadie had laughed. “Before it was such a pain to always be picking the thing up and then putting it back down, picking it up and then putting it down again…haha, but now I save so much time, because you know exactly when to stand up and when to sit back down again!”

“Heheh, well I’m…glad I can help, mom,” Jack had chuckled, as his cheeks went a little rosy with a mixture of pride and embarrassment. He was proud to help Sadie with her work, and was thrilled that she had actually told him how much of a benefit he was. On the other hand, though, he couldn’t deny that he was slightly embarrassed by his new role. “Paperweight” had never been a profession he had seriously considered, and it was a bit difficult to feel proud of taking the place of an inanimate object in his mother’s office.

‘But that’s the point she’s making!’ he reminded himself, trying to brush aside the embarrassment, ‘She’s saying I’m a better paperweight. I can at least feel good about that, right!?’

The truth was that he did feel good about it, while also feeling slightly wistful about the life he was leaving behind the smaller he shrunk. Was this actually his new reality now? As a tiny man who felt proud to be sitting on stacks of paper in his mother’s home office? But Jack always caught himself in these moments, and prompted himself to remember that Sadie’s chores weren’t ALL he was doing.

‘I’m helping Alice too!’ he would tell himself. And while he was certainly joining Alice in a lot of her activities, he knew, deep down, that he wasn’t really “helping” her do much of anything at all. Alice, of course, was always kind and tender towards him, and never said anything of the sort. In fact, she tried to go out of her way to convince Jack that he was helping her. For instance, in the mid-afternoon, she generally went around the garden, thoroughly watering the flowers and vegetables. She had recently decided to let Jack “pour” the water, since her initial idea of having him carry around the watering can had proven to be too much for him — he simply didn’t have the strength anymore to even lift the can, much less carry it around. When Alice had noticed this, she had put her hand over her mouth to hide a little giggle as she bent down over him gently, her fleshy stomach looming over him through her crop top, as her hair spilled down over his line of vision.

“You poor little thing,” she had cooed down lovingly to him, as she effortlessly took the watering can away from him, lifting it out of his reach with two fingers, “It’s waaaaay too heavy for you. I’m sorry Jack — I shouldn’t have assumed…here, let’s…let’s get you to do something else.”

The “something else” was the act of “watering” the garden, but Jack quickly found out that he was doing this chore in name only. Yes, he was trying his best to tilt the watering can towards the plants, but he knew that Alice was covertly helping him, with a shy little accommodation from her huge hand. She was gently supporting the back of the can, so that he could at least feel like he was doing it himself — they both knew, however, who was really doing the heavy lifting. Alice loved this little charade. She thought her brother just looked so cute and adorable down there, with his little hands grasping the handle of the watering can, his tiny face getting red as he exerted himself. Of course, Alice made sure to remind herself not to let him exhaust himself, even though he insisted on at least breaking a sweat. But she was quite firm in making sure that their afternoon time in the garden was more fun and diverting than anything else.

The “diversion” of the fun, for Alice, was from the reality that her brother was unquestionably getting shorter and shorter, and smaller and smaller, with each passing day. Her conversation with Elena had definitely helped her embrace the changes a little more, and to see the joy and fun of having a brother that size, but at the same time, she couldn’t quite shake the impending feeling of wistfulness and sadness that she felt on his behalf. Her older brother had always been someone she had looked up to, psychologically as well as physically, and to see him diminish like this, into unimaginably smaller and smaller sizes…it was tough for her. She tried to make sure that Jack didn’t see the sadness in her eyes, or etched into her face, but sometimes she just wasn’t able to hide it.

“Alice, I’m…I’m fine…really,” he would insist, after catching her big, pretty eyes looking down on him a little forlornly.

“Oh I know you are, Jack,” she would sigh. But in her mind, she was thinking: ‘Sometimes it’s just a little hard for me to see you like this.’ She never said this out loud, of course, and then she would smile and squint her eyes down at him, as she scrunched up her nose playfully.

“Heheh, but you’re just getting so small that pretty soon, you’re gonna be the size of a teddy bear!” she had laughed at one point, as she reminded herself of the pleasures of having him this small.

“Oh boy…” Jack had remarked sarcastically, even as he privately enjoyed how his sister’s eyes sparkled whenever she was talking down to him like this.

“Mmmmm and when you get that small,” Alice had purred, bending down towards him, putting her hands on her knees, like she was speaking to a little child, “I’m gonna have to steal you from mom. I’ll make you my own little teddy bear, and then I’ll hug you and squeeze you and take you to bed with me every night. How does that sound?”

“I…I…” Jack had stammered, momentarily overwhelmed with the huge, beautiful face of his sister filling his vision. Whenever she bent down over him like this, he couldn’t avoid noticing how sexy her exposed stomach looked, extending high above him like the sky itself. Her hips and waist were so high up that he would have needed a stepladder to reach them. And her big, jutting breasts…well, they were so high above him that Jack literally had to crane his neck up to see them now.

“I’d have to check with mom first, of course,” he had finally managed to say.

“Oho!” Alice had laughed, straightening back up to her full height and putting her hands on her hips, arching her neck over her breasts so that she could still see him. “I know mom’s got dibs on you now, but mark my words, Jack, it’s not gonna be like that for long. This is MY house, after all, and I’m not gonna let mom hog you all to herself!”

Jack had only been able to laugh nervously in response. What else was he supposed to do!? Over the past few days, his shrinking had continued, to the point where he was now actually UNDER two feet tall. Alice’s last measurement of him, done in the morning, had shown a height of 1’10. He had to look UP now to see Alice’s knees, which towered above him. If Jack stood on his tiptoes and stretched his arms up as far as they could go, he was barely able to brush Alice’s kneecap with his fingers. And they both knew that his shrinking wasn’t done yet.

“Mmmmm, grandma calls you “belly boy,” chuckled Alice thoughtfully, bringing her hand up to her chin, “And mom calls you her “little paperweight.” Hmmm…so what should I call you?”

Jack didn’t know what to say, and he simply stared forward blankly into the firm, developed upper calf of his sister, marveling at how her calf itself was easily bigger, stronger, and more massive than his entire body.

“Hold that thought,” Alice had said suddenly. “I just remembered that I needed to pop out to the store to get a few things.”

“B-But…but I thought we were…gonna make dinner tonight!” Jack replied.

“Awww, how sweet,” intoned Alice, bending down and picking Jack up with an easy whoosh of her strong arm. “You’re so disappointed, aren’t you? I can see it.” She bopped him playfully on the nose with her big finger as she carried him inside, with his little legs dangling around her waist-level.

“Just tell mom that I’m planning on ordering in for tonight,” Alice continued, setting Jack down gently on the kitchen floor. “And don’t you worry your cute little head, Jack — we can cook together tomorrow. Heheh, maybe I’ll even let you try to chop the carrots again…I got much smaller, thinner carrots this time!”

Jack smiled and nodded, even as he reddened in embarrassment. The day before, he had tried to chop carrots for a stew, but had been unable to even press the knife down into them. Alice winked down at him, giggling at the memory, and then grabbed her keys and went out the door. Jack was left alone, looking around the kitchen. There were high step stools in place, so that he could gain access to the fridge and to the counter. Suddenly, he got an idea: he would surprise Alice and Sadie by cooking dinner for them…all by himself! They’d never see it coming, and they’d both be so impressed!

A couple minutes later Jack was standing on the edge of the step stool in front of the stove, teetering on his tiptoes, as he reached over to turn on the large front burner. His plan was to cook some pasta, since he reasoned that it didn’t take much labor, and that once he had put the pasta in the boiling water, it would only take about ten minutes for everything to be done. In a stroke of brilliance, he had even remembered the handy pasta basket that Alice kept in her pantry — a nifty tool that enabled him simply put the dry pasta in the basket, and then pull it out again, without having to pour the whole pot-full of water into a strainer. Of course, Jack knew full well that he didn’t have the strength to pick up a pot of water at this point, but he was happy to see that he still had the strength to push the pot from the sink (where he had filled it), across the smooth counter and onto the flat-top stove. Jack thanked the stars that Alice didn’t have one of those grated stove tops.

‘Ok, now…just gotta…turn the stove on here…’ he thought to himself, straining to reach, ‘And then…my work is pretty much done!’

After about twenty seconds of straining, he finally managed to turn the stove on. Again, he was thankful that Alice’s stove was electric rather than gas-powered. The sound of the spark lighting the stove might have alerted Sadie, who would most certainly have disapproved of what was going on. But that was the whole point: he was trying to surprise them, to impress them with how much he could still manage to do on his own.

The bottom burner coil started glowing a bright red, and Jack got down off the stool. He had turned the burner up to 10/10, which was exactly what was needed to quickly boil water. A slight flit of nervousness tickled the back of his brain as he bustled around the kitchen, getting out other ingredients to make the sauce.

‘The stove’s on,’ said a voice in his head, ‘You better be sure you can turn it off again!’

But Jack brushed these concerns aside. It wasn’t like there were any open flames or anything! And besides, he had everything completely under control. To prove it to himself, he got out a jar of tomato sauce (having to use both hands to carry it, of course), set it next to the stove, and then fetched a large sauté pan from the bottom cupboard. After a full minute of struggling with the pan (which was more than half his size), he finally managed to set it down on the stove, inadvertently causing a loud smack as it came down on the stove’s smooth surface.

“Jack?” came Sadie’s voice from her office. “Is that you? You ok out there?”

“Uhh y-yeah! Yeah everything’s ok!” called Jack, his heart thumping in his tiny chest.

“What was that noise?” asked Sadie.

“J-just…just cleaning some…stuff up!” Jack called back. “Everything’s fine mom!”

There was a pause, and Jack stood there on the step stool, waiting and praying that she’d stay in her office.

“Well alright,” she replied after a few seconds. Jack heard nothing more from her, and he could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Not wanting to reach and risk falling on the stove now that it was on, Jack managed to pull himself up onto the counter and turn the other front burner on, which he carefully dialed to “medium” in preparation for making the sauce.

‘Well now that I’m up here,’ he thought, ‘I may as well go ahead and pour the sauce in. It’ll heat up just fine eventually.’ He bent down and used both hands to laboriously twist the top of the tomato sauce open. If it had been an unopened jar, there would have been no way that Jack could have opened it, but, as luck would have it, Alice had opened the jar a few days before, and so Jack was able to open it after a minute of teeth-gritting work. He somehow managed to unceremoniously dump the sauce into the pan, and then he rolled the can back, pushing it upright against the back of the counter. His heart was beating hard now from the effort, but he was thrilled with how successful everything had been so far.

‘Look at me!’ he thought proudly. ‘See!? I totally have this!’

Almost drunk with enthusiasm, he spied the little bottle of Castillo de Pinar olive oil that Alice always kept handy. She certainly liked her fancy olive oil, and Jack suddenly got the idea that a little splash of the good stuff was just what the tomato sauce needed.

‘And it’s such a small bottle!’ he thought, easily screwing the top off in a mere 10 seconds. ‘It’s perfect!’

As he tipped the bottle over the tomato sauce in the pan, however, Jack underestimated how heavy the force of the rushing olive oil would be. It came on like a flash flood, too fast for him, and he ended up pouring way too much into the sauce. Even worse, in his haste to rectify his mistake, he tried to yank the bottle back up, but his little feet slipped on the counter and he fell backward, spilling the olive oil all over the stove top. Jack lay on his back for a moment, dazed, and thankful that he had not fallen backward off the counter. Such a fall would have seriously injured him, for sure, or worse.

‘That’s it,’ said the voice in his head, ‘That’s your sign to stop now. Just give it up. You can’t do this.’

But Jack’s face hardened and he pushed the bottle of olive oil off him, steadied it into an upright position, and then stood up. He WAS going to do this. A little mishap wasn’t going to stop him! He steadied himself for a moment against the bottle of olive oil (which was three-quarters as tall as he was) and surveyed what he had to do next. A thick, slick sheen of oil was splashed on the front burner around the sauté pan, and Jack knew that he needed to clean that mess up first…and fast. But before he could find a paper towel, a loud hissing assaulted his ears. The bot of water on the other front burner was boiling over!

“Shit!” muttered Jack, tiptoeing across the stove, avoiding the active burners, as he reached for the pasta basket. Generating all the might he could, he managed to lift the basket of dry pasta up above the pot, and dropped it down inside as lightly as he could. But the basket was so heavy that Jack inevitably dropped it harder than he meant to, and boiling water splashed all over, with several drops landing on the soft skin of his arms.

“Owwwwwowowowow!!” he whispered out to himself in agonizing pain. “Oh god…Jeeeeesus!!” He managed to stumble over to the sink and start running cold water down his arms, but he could already see that a few spots had started to turn red. But he was only able to get relief for a few seconds before he smelled something burning. With a start, he realized that some of the dry pasta from the basket hadn’t made it into the pot (since he had struggled so awkwardly with the basket’s weight), had instead fallen down directly on the burner, and had started smoking.

“Oh no!” he moaned out loud. He jerked his arms out from under the faucet to try and pick up the rogue bits of pasta, but as soon as he took his arms out, they started smarting again from the burns. And then, right as Jack was feeling stuck in between his pain and his need to clean up the pasta before it caught fire, an entirely new and even worse calamity occurred. The olive oil spill on the far burner, which Jack had completely forgotten about, had heated up to a critical point, and suddenly burst into flames. Jack’s eyes widened in horror as the fire rose up about a foot off the stove, licking around the pan of tomato sauce, which was already starting to bubble over untidily, with bubbles popping and bursting the sauce all over the stove, the counter, and the floor below. Jack stood frozen on the counter, totally paralyzed. He had no idea what to do.

“Jack?!” came Sadie’s voice again, this time louder and more urgent. “Is something burning!?”

He opened his mouth to answer, but no sound came out. It didn’t matter in any case, because a moment later Sadie had appeared from the hallway. Conveniently, right at the same time, Alice came in through the side kitchen door, having returned home from the store. In a tense moment, both women quickly scanned the scene, and then sprang into action.

“Is that a grease fire?” asked Sadie calmly, even as her big body strode quickly across the kitchen, her curves gyrating and jiggling with her rapid movements. Still not able to say anything, Jack managed to nod. Alice had run straight up to the stove as well and switched off both burners as Sadie promptly covered the flames with a kitchen towel, smothering them. Alice quickly brushed the smoking bits of pasta off the other burner and into the sink.

“Jack!?” came Alice’s incredulous voice as she turned toward her brother, putting her hands on her hips and staring down at him with real censure. “What on EARTH do you think you’re doing!?”

“I…I w-was trying to…t-to s-surprise you guys and…and m-make dinner!” he exclaimed hopelessly, looking up with pleading eyes at his sister. Even though he was standing on the counter, the top of his head still only came up to Alice’s shoulders. He had never seen her look so severe and angry before — her gorgeous face was twisted up in unabashed outrage, which paradoxically made her look even more beautiful — and her hands on her hips made her look even bigger and more imposing.

“Fire’s out,” muttered Sadie, lifting the towel to check. “Looks like he spilled olive oil everywhere.”

“You were trying to COOK!?” cried Alice, “All by YOURSELF!?” She shook her head in disbelief as her eyes got wider, and her brow furrowed deeper. She was upset. “Jack! You’re less than TWO FEET TALL…you couldn’t even cut CARROTS yesterday! What…WHAT made you think that you could cook PASTA...ALONE??”

Jack could do nothing but gape up at his sister. He felt absolutely devastated; at this point, it wasn’t even about his horribly failed attempt at making dinner. Instead, it was about how much he had disappointed his sister. He could see it in her eyes. Sadie’s grim and pragmatic reaction was expected, but it was clear that Alice was truly, truly upset with him.

His hands inadvertently jerked to the burning red spots on his arms, and Alice’s eyes followed. All of a sudden, her severe look softened, and she bent down towards him, tender concern now dominating her face.

“Oh Jack! What…what happened to your arms!? Those red spots…did you burn yourself?” Her voice was so caring, so kind, and so gentle…and it clashed so directly with her previous tone of voice that Jack was immediately overwhelmed, and that, plus the pain, combined to make tears spring to his eyes.

“Y-yeah,” he said thickly, “I…th-the w-water splashed me when I —”

“Shhhh, ok, ok,” whispered Alice tenderly as she gently guided his little arms back under the faucet with her huge fingers and started running cold water down them. “It’s all gonna be ok Jack…let’s just…let’s just run this cold water over you for twenty minutes or so…mom? Can you go get some lotion and aloe vera out of the bathroom cabinet?”

Sadie nodded silently and left the room. Jack tried to speak a few more times, but Alice wouldn’t let him. Instead, she shushed him, insisting that he take his clothes off as she ran the cold water down his entire body in the sink, petting his naked back with her huge hand. Sadie returned a few minutes later with the various treatments. It was clear from the looks she shot him that she was completely put out with his behavior, but she also seemed to understand that Alice had stepped in and taken responsibility for him. But that didn’t stop Sadie from shaking her head at him, and otherwise making it known how foolish she thought he had been.

“Jack…Jack…” cooed Alice, about ten minutes later, still running the water over him as she pet his back lovingly, “You should know by now that if you’re gonna do something like that, you need your big sister or your big mom to help you! To help you reach things, pour things, turn things on…come on Jack…really…you should know better. But I’m not mad at you anymore. I’m just sooooo glad you’re ok. And hopefully you’ve learned your lesson?”

“Mmhm,” nodded Jack, looking up at his sister with glassy eyes. Her care had been so complete and loving that he had even gotten used to the fact that he was totally naked in the sink, with her looming high over him, her exposed stomach jutting up out of her crop top against the counter as she took care of him.

“Good!” Alice said, “And mom…uh mom? What’re you doing?”

Sadie had just brought in some artificial plastic partitions, which she was setting up to the entrances all around the kitchen.

“I’m sure you’ll agree with me, Alice,” said Sadie shortly, “That Jack’s little stunt has shown that we can’t quite trust him to make the…wisest of decisions. And so I’m putting up the child-proof barricades, just so he won’t be tempted to…ahem…impress us…again.”

“B-but mom!” protested Jack, but Alice had put the nub of her finger over his mouth, shushing him once again.

“Jack,” she said gently, “Mom’s right. Try not to take it too hard, ok little guy? It’s just for your own good…and our peace of mind.”

The “kitchen incident” ended up resolving well — the fire was easily contained, and Jack’s burns healed quickly, thanks to Alice’s prompt intervention. But Jack felt ashamed of himself, and even though he wanted to keep this embarrassing little episode from his grandmother, he knew that Sadie or Alice would tell her — she’d find out one way or another. And in the meantime, he had kept shrinking. The next two days, his diminishment accelerated, seemingly fueled by the humiliation he was feeling. Alice tried to cheer him up by reading him little stories as he sat in her lap, and even Sadie had lessened the number of chores he was doing…but it all didn’t matter. He kept shrinking, getting smaller and smaller, and weaker and weaker, all the while texting Elena updates on his condition.

Two days later, Alice was humming along to herself as she bustled about in the kitchen, boiling water, chopping vegetables, stirring sauces, and grating cheese. Sadie was just finishing up her day’s work in her office, and Jack was standing in the kitchen, trying to arduously reply to a text Elena had sent him. It took him a long time to text now, since he had to actually stand on each letter, with the phone on the floor.

Suddenly, a knock came at the side kitchen door. Alice turned and strode over to open it, winking down at Jack as she did so.

“Wonder who THIS could be?” she joked. Jack’s heart went up into his mouth as Alice opened the door and Elena strode in, sporting her sexy black 6-inch platform boots, and wearing her skin-tight black jeans and a tight black crop top that showed a bigger, fleshier stomach than usual. Jack backed away instinctively, and Elena’s bright, happy face broke into a smile as she strode toward him. One single step from her mighty boots made the floor shake beneath Jack, making him stumble backwards, and then another huge step sent him tumbling onto the floor from the sheer strength of the vibrations.

“Well well well!” she laughed, bending down and shaking her head at him playfully. “You were taking so long to respond that I thought I’d just come and take a look at you myself!”

“You’re looking nice and curvy, grandma,” remarked Alice pleasantly.

“Listen to your sister!” chuckled Elena, gathering up her exposed belly, shaking and jiggling it down at Jack, “She’s waaaaay too polite! I’ve put on 10 pounds recently, but what can I say? I’ve been…hungrier than usual.”

She winked down at him and indicated with her curved finger that he should stand up. He did so, slowly, and he heard Elena exhale in wonder far above him. His head only came up to the top of her boots now.

“How…how short are you?” Elena asked breathlessly above him.

Jack stared forward into the shiny leather and blinked. He was getting aroused again.

“I’m…11 inches,” he croaked.