Chapter 4

Over the next few days, Jack found himself settling into a new kind of routine. For one thing, his grandmother was now texting him multiple times a day, and her texts always referenced his diminishing height. From the enthusiastic way she had been enjoying his shrunken stature at her birthday party, Jack had expected Elena to be checking in with him every now and then, but he certainly hadn’t expected to be on the receiving end of this kind of attention. Every day, around mid-morning, Elena texted him, usually something like:

“Good morning, little grandson! Fill me in — did you get any smaller last night?”

At first, Jack had rolled his eyes at her eager inquiries, wishing that she wouldn’t keep harping on his shrinking; it made him feel self-conscious, like he was under a magnifying glass…like he was actually smaller than he already was. But gradually, as the days went by, he found himself getting used to Elena’s texts, and on the rare occasions when she didn’t text him, he would actually wonder why she didn’t want to hear about his shrinking the night before.

“Yes grandma,” read one of his typical replies, “Alice just measured me this morning, and I lost another half-inch last night.”

“Ooooo, wow!” Elena would respond. “A whole half-inch! That’s soooo much, Jack! Show me — take a picture with Alice standing next to you, and let me see for myself. No slouching now!”

“Texting with grandma?” Alice had asked one morning, coming around behind Jack so that her shadow fell across his whole body.

“Um…heheh, yeah,” he had replied, shaking his head a little helplessly. “She…uhhh…she wants me to take a picture with you, just to…uh, you know…show how much smaller I got.”

Alice smiled down at him a little sadly, blinking her eyes slowly as she regarded him.

“She’s getting to you, isn’t she?” Alice asked quietly.

“Huh? Wh-what do you mean?” Jack replied, as he tried not to fixate on the fact that, at 4’7.5 now, his eyes were actually below his younger sister’s breasts now, staring straight into the top of her taut stomach. He was also trying not to focus too hard on the fact that, recently, Alice seemed to be wearing tighter, more revealing clothing. She certainly hadn’t been in the habit of wearing crop tops before, but now that she was around her house all day, she seemed to have graduated into more comfortable, informal clothing. Her belly button was now an inch or two higher than his shoulders, and whenever Jack caught himself looking at her exposed stomach, he felt such a confused array of emotions and sensations that he simply had to dart his glance away. It just made him feel so small, so helpless…and at the same time, there was something deep inside him that felt excited by it…even transported.

Alice cocked her thick, wide hip to the side, and Jack saw her expanded contours swelling the confines of the black yoga pants she was wearing.

“It’s ok Jack,” she said pensively, inclining her head towards her shoulder as she looked down at him, “I know you’re trying to be cool about all this, but you don’t have to pretend around me. I know this whole shrinking thing makes you feel upset and confused…I mean, it makes me feel the same way too, just seeing you getting smaller and smaller every day. But I want you to know that I’m here to take care of you, ok? You’re my little brother now, and I want to do everything to make your life easy and as stress-free as possible. So if grandma is bugging you too much about being smaller, just let me know and I’ll have a little talk with her.”

Jack stared up at his sister, trying not to gape from how gigantic she was compared to him. It was hard to believe that she was two years younger than him, and not just because of how much smaller he was — the past few days, he had felt out-of-sorts as he struggled with his condition, and this left him feeling untethered, almost like he was a teenager again. He was struggling to keep a disciplined schedule, and always found himself doing whatever his sister or mother suggested. Alice, on the other hand, had kept a calm, quiet energy about her the whole time, an energy that was tinged with a kind of wistful sadness, as she watched him get smaller and smaller. But had shown a determination to stay as positive as she could, constantly involving Jack in her gardening and baking projects, and her steady, determined activity only served to underscore her “adultness.”

“I…uhm…well…thanks for…uhh, for saying that, Alice,” Jack said a few seconds later. “I mean, haha…uh, I’m definitely still getting…getting used to the whole thing. And heh, grandma is, uh…has sure been hitting me up a lot recently…but, yeah…it’s ok. I mean, it doesn’t really bother me.”

“You sure?” asked Alice searchingly, bending down a little towards him to get an even closer look at his face. Jack realized that she wasn’t just doing this for effect — at her height, she really did need to peer down at him to scrutinize his facial expression.

“Yeah…yeah, it’s…it’s all good,” Jack nodded. He made a point to smile broadly after his words, to emphasize the apparent ease he felt with the situation.

Alice perused his face for a few long moments, treating his words with a healthy dose of skepticism. Jack couldn’t help but feel smaller under her gaze. Plus, the fact that she was deciding for herself how to take his words just served to accentuate the power difference. She was very much the caretaker now, and despite his assurances, she felt like she needed to examine him closely before feeling satisfied. He knew she didn’t mean it, but she was making him feel even more like a little kid.

“Well alright,” Alice said, straightening back up to her full height. “Let’s do it, then.”

“Do?” asked Jack, confused. “Do what?”

“Haha, take the picture for grandma!” laughed Alice, her face breaking into a bright smile.

“Oh…oh! Um…heheh, yeah,” muttered Jack, looking down a little, noticing Alice’s full thighs right around his chest level. He didn’t know why, but she had caught him off-guard.

“I mean…like, you’re ok with it, right?” Alice asked, stepping towards him and reaching down to snake her big hand along the middle of his chest, beginning the pose. “This doesn’t bother you?”

“Uh…no! No, haha, yeah, I’m…this is fine,” chuckled Jack, blushing as he felt his younger sister’s huge hand cover the entire middle of his chest. “Just…uh, lemme get my phone out here…ok…um…you think that’s a good angle?”

“I think maybe hold your arm out farther,” Alice advised, “So she can actually see the full perspective.”

“Like…like this?” asked Jack. His arm was at its full extent now, but the camera was only showing Alice up to the base of her neck. Her whole head was cut out of the frame.

“Uhh, heheh…awwww, your little arms are too short, I think,” Alice laughed softly. “Here, let me take that real quick.”

Without asking, she reached down and gently pulled Jack’s phone away from him, extending her arm out way farther, allowing the picture to actually show their full profiles, with her standing behind him.

“There we go…perfect,” Alice purred, snapping a couple pictures before stepping away and handing Jack his phone back. “That should give her what she wants.”

“Uhm…haha, ok…thanks Alice,” murmured Jack, staring in disbelief at the pictures she had taken. Her boobs were literally resting on the top of his head…her hips were just under his shoulders…she looked like what she was — a tall, shapely, full-blown adult woman…and he looked like her young teenage brother…or even (he shuddered to consider) her son.

“Of course,” she answered, giving him a sweet smile as she gestured towards the kitchen. “Now go ahead and send that to her so we can get started making that stroganoff for dinner tonight. I’ve got your stool pulled up and everything.”

“Ok…haha ok, yeah,” said Jack, glancing at the kitchen set-up. Two aprons, one that said “Chef” and another, much smaller one that said “Chef’s Little Helper,” were hanging on pegs by the counter. Elena, who had enjoyed her birthday meal prepared by the two of them, had sent the aprons the day before. Again, Alice had looked sideways at Jack, asking if it bothered him, and again, he had answered that it was all fine. In truth, it did bother him a little, but it also made him feel confused…perhaps even a little excited to fall into a role, even if that role was as his “big” sister’s “little helper.”

Just a minute later, after having sent Elena the comparison picture, Jack felt his phone buzz again. A text from grandma.

“Ooooo wowwwww!” it read, “How cuuuute! You’re like a kid next to your big sister, Jack! My sweet little shrinking grandson…awwwww! Now keep me posted!”

By far the biggest change in Jack’s routine was the fact that his mother had now set up her home office in one of Alice’s spare bedrooms. Sadie had received a bit of an uncertain response from Alice about this proposal, but their mother simply refused to have it any other way — her son was suffering from a serious and unexplained condition, and it was her motherly duty to be as close to him as possible, working with him and giving him little tasks to do to keep him occupied. It was more or less the same idea as Alice had, which was one reason why Jack’s sister had tried encouraging Sadie to give him a little space.

“I already have him gardening and cooking with me, mom,” Alice had said, in a private conversation, while Jack was asleep one night. “I don’t want to exhaust him. He’s gotta have time to rest too.”

“Oh come on Alice,” Sadie had answered immediately, brushing aside her daughter’s concerns with a wave of her hand, “You’re acting like I’m gonna be a slave-driver or something. Far from it — I just think it’ll be good for him to interact regularly with his mother at a time like this. I know you’re a reassuring presence, Alice, and really, I can’t say enough what an amazing job you’ve done looking after him so far…but I also think it’s important for him to have that…well I don’t know what to call it…motherly touch, if you will. Once you have kids, Alice, you’ll understand. I know he needs to have me around, and I’m not going to shirk that duty, alright?”

Alice knew better than to try and stand in her mother’s way, even if it meant surrendering one of her guest bedrooms to her as a home office. Privately, Alice thought that her mother was being a bit overbearing, and a part of her even resented Sadie’s encroachment into her caring regimen for Jack. As far as Alice was concerned, she was doing a fine job, and didn’t need any help. But she wasn’t going to try and talk her mother out of this; she knew it wasn’t worth it, because she knew she would lose out in the end.

A day later, Sadie was all moved-in, and the guest bedroom had been transformed. Her heavy desk, her filing cabinet, her desktop computer, the whole shebang…it was all there. She had called Jack into her new office, and he had approached the closed door timidly, his heart drumming quickly in his chest. He was nervous about what she was going to have him do, and he wasn’t quite sure why. All he knew was that he had overheard her talking on the phone to Elena earlier in the day through her closed office door…something about some new heels she had just bought. Alice had been outside with him all morning gardening, to keep him away from the heavy furniture being moved inside. He hadn’t seen Sadie yet in her new office.

Jack knocked on the door softly and stepped back a little. There was no response. He didn’t hear anything coming from inside the office…maybe his mom had her headphones in or something. But he had heard her calling him in less than a minute before. Surely she wouldn’t have just put headphones on…surely she’d be waiting to hear him knock. It was second-nature for Jack to knock before entering — ever since they were young children, both he and Alice had been disciplined by Sadie to always knock before opening a closed door in the house.

After a few long moments passed, he knocked again, though harder this time.

“Is that you, Jack?” came Sadie’s voice from inside the room.

“Y-yeah…yeah it’s me!” Jack answered, straightening up at the sound of his mother’s voice. He heard some shuffling behind the door, and a couple seconds later he heard her speak again:

“Come on in, please.”

Jack wished he didn’t feel so nervous…the closed door, the formal tone of his mother’s voice…it all somehow combined to make the situation feel serious, like something crucial was about to happen. But Jack knew that he was only exaggerating everything — his mom just needed a little help with some simple tasks in her new office, right!? That was surely all this was. He swallowed and leaned into the door, pushing first with his arm and then with his whole shoulder; he needed more force than he had anticipated to push it open all the way.

The guest bedroom had been totally transformed — the bed and nightstand had been pushed into the far corner of the room to make space for Sadie’s big, heavy, mahogany desk, which was situated directly in front of the bedroom’s central window. A series of filing cabinets lined the walls, rising up taller than Jack, and a host of bulletin boards had been hung on the walls, each of them already hung thick with memos. Above all else, though, Jack’s eyes were drawn to the tall, huge swivel chair in front of the desk, whose back rose up a full foot taller than Jack himself. But even though the chair was tall, its occupant was taller still — Sadie was sitting with her back to Jack, and he saw her huge figure rising up beyond the chair’s backing, towering over him even though she was sitting down.

“Close the door, please,” came Sadie’s voice, which was the only acknowledgment of his presence. She hadn’t even turned around yet. Jack swallowed another lump in his throat and, with effort, turned and shut the door behind him.

As soon as Jack turned back around, he inadvertently let out a quick exhale of breath, and he found himself backing into the door he had just closed. His mother had spun around in her chair and was leaning in towards him, giving him a more-than-healthy view of the swelling line of her cleavage pushing the confines of the tight black crop top she was wearing. Sadie leaned in on her knees, clasping her hands in between her legs as she swung them gently back and forth, regarding her shrunken son.

“Alice measure you this morning?” asked Sadie mildly, as if she were asking for an update on the weather.

“Um…uh, y-yeah…yeah she did,” Jack replied, with his back still to the door. Even though she was just sitting down, his mother looked positively huge. She filled out the entirety of her big office chair, and as Jack’s eyes wandered downward, he noticed that she was sporting a brand-new pair of black leather heels…heels that looked far taller than any he had ever seen her wear.

“Soooo?” asked Sadie expectantly, tilting her head to the side ever-so-slightly.

“Oh! Uhhh…I’m…I’m 4’7-and-a-half,” said Jack quickly, “And…uhm…84 pounds.”

Sadie blew a low whistle through her mouth as she kept her eyes fixed on her son.

“84…pounds…wowwww,” she whispered, more to herself than to him. “Is he actually going to be able to help me, at that size?”

“Wh-what…was that?” asked Jack. He hadn’t heard the last part of what his mother had whispered to herself.

“I was just wondering,” said Sadie, louder, suddenly standing up with unquestionable authority, “If you’ve already gotten too small to provide me with adequate help.”

She crossed her office in two full strides. Jack’s back was really up against the door now. He felt totally trapped, helpless in the oncoming shadow of his enormous mother. Before he knew it, she was standing before him, towering up to her full height, with her hands on her hips. Her tight black crop top revealed a long, creamy line of flesh between the bottom of her shirt and the waistline of the skin-tight jeans that her thick legs and hips filled out completely. Jack was desperate to realize that he was now eye-level with Sadie’s belly button, which almost seemed to wink at him knowingly, playfully. If he slouched back into the door at all, Sadie’s navel actually rose above his eyes.

Jack’s mind was totally blank — he had no idea what to do or say. Never in his life had he felt so small, so tiny, so utterly dwarfed, as he did right now. He stood up as tall as he possibly could, determined to stay eye-level with his mother’s belly button. Somehow that seemed very important to him right now; he simply could not deal with the prospect of having to look up at it.

“Nothing to say?” asked Sadie, shimmying her hips a little back and forth as she stood in place. “Not going to speak up for yourself, Jack?”

It took Jack a few more long seconds of frantic mental processing to actually remember what his mother had been saying before…Sadie was 6’9 in her new heels, more than two whole feet taller than him, so his mental sluggishness was totally understandable. What had she been saying…oh right, about doubting his ability to be her “little office helper.” He felt a spark of protest arise in him — he might be small (and getting smaller every day), but he could still make himself useful! He was helping Alice with all her stuff — he could help his mom too!

“I…I can still…uhh….still help you…help you do stuff!” he countered. His resolute words, however, were counteracted by how high his voice sounded in the air, especially compared to the deep, rich timbre of Sadie’s voice. Her voice was like a waterfall…and his was like a little drip from a leaking faucet. Jack’s words were also offset by the fact that, try as he might, he couldn’t bring himself to bring his eyes up to look at his mother. Maybe it was because he was too self-conscious to look up at the undersides of her breasts, and maybe it was because he was helplessly fixated on the bottom of her stomach, but in any case, he found himself staring straight forward as he spoke.

Right after he was done speaking, Jack felt his skin freeze as Sadie’s huge index finger came lowering down, down, down into his field of vision. Her manicured nails glinted in the light, and it took him a couple seconds to realize that she was pointing at her belly button.

“There you go again,” chuckled Sadie from high above, beyond her breasts, “Looking at my belly button again while you’re talking to me. Hahaha, Jack, sometimes I wonder if you don’t actually wanna talk with me…you just wanna talk to IT instead.”

Her curvy body shook and jiggled ever so slightly with her amused laughter, and Jack found himself feeling a mixture of embarrassment and confusion. His embarrassment was understandable enough, but he felt confused because Sadie seemed a little more flippant, a little more lenient, than usual. Her voice didn’t carry the more severe edge that he had been expecting.

“I mean, it’s understandable and all,” Sadie continued in that same amused tone, “That you can’t help but talk directly to it. After all, it IS at your eye-level now. Tell me, Jack, is there any fluff in there? Maybe a piece of lint or two?”

Jack felt his face burning crimson with embarrassment. It had already been bad enough, but now his mother was just adding insult to injury. He shuddered, feeling overwhelmed and strangely aroused, as Sadie suddenly sucked in her stomach at him, then relaxed it again, causing her belly button to pucker right in his face. Jack couldn’t believe it — it was like his mother was using her stomach to communicate with him now, to tease him.

“Hahaha, ok, anyway,” laughed Sadie, taking a step back so that he could see her face as she leaned down towards him, “The point is, Jack, that I want to make sure that you’re going to be up for the job. The last thing I want to do is doom you to failure before we even get started.”

“I…I’m…up for it,” was all Jack could say. What else could he say?

“Ok, well, here are the main tasks I’ve listed out for you,” Sadie said, her tone reverting back to its typical no-nonsense and businesslike manner, as she went back and sank into her chair, crossing her sexy legs as she read from a piece of paper, swiveling back and forth as she read.

“You will bring me a cup of coffee in the morning, and a cup of strong tea in the afternoon. Medium cream and sugar, hint of cinnamon in the coffee, and three tags per cup of tea. You’ll be taking care of my shoes and heels whenever I take them off, polishing the heels especially, just to keep them up. You’ll also be on call to staple and hole-punch memos, as long as you’re big enough to press down the equipment, of course…we’ll see how long that lasts. I’ll also expect you to bring me snacks when requested, as well as carry out any other specified tasks I assign you that may arise throughout the day. How does that sound?”

Jack was silent for a few moments. A couple weeks ago, none of these tasks would have seemed difficult at all. But now that he was so small, and getting smaller, everything was no longer so simple.

“I’ll…I can do it!” he piped up, nodding. “Can I, uhm…can I have that list, maybe?”

Sadie nodded slowly as she handed it to him. Her lips were pursed, and her eyes slightly narrowed. To Jack, it looked like she didn’t think he was going to be able to pull it off. But oddly, there was a kind of fire that had started burning in him ever since he had recovered from the shock of being eye-level with her lower stomach. He wanted to prove to her that he could do it; he wanted to prove that he was still something of a man.

Over the next few days, Jack did manage to somehow balance his activities with Alice alongside his tasks for Sadie. Almost right away, Sadie began to insist on taking up more and more of his time, and it was only the second day into his “internship” with his mother when Alice frustratedly had to go into Sadie’s office and put her foot down, insisting that this was her house, and that she needed to make sure that Jack had enough down-time to rest. Sadie had reluctantly given way, but only after Jack had heard the two of them arguing through the walls.

“I’m not going to have my oldest adult son just…shrinking away like this into nothing!” Sadie had said. “If he just lies around he’ll shrink faster — the activity keeps the disease at bay!”

“Only to a certain extent, mom!” retorted Alice. Jack could tell, listening through the walls, that his younger sister was having a rare moment of genuine anger…and it was on his behalf, to protect him. He felt touched, but he also felt some kind of bizarre energy swirling around this whole exchange that he could not place.

“The doctors say that he needs his rest too!” Alice continued, “And I am NOT going to allow you to overwork him, mom! This is MY house, and we’re going to do what I say!”

“Alright, alright,” Sadie continued, relenting. Jack could almost see her putting up her hands innocently, as she swiveled back and forth in her huge chair. “We want the same things, Alice.”

It was true that they both kept Jack busy. While Alice liked to do activities together with him, like gardening and baking, Sadie mainly assigned Jack tasks to do alone. He used the step stool to make her coffee in the morning and her tea in the afternoon, taking great care to ensure that the balance was right every time (and Sadie was not always satisfied). He brought her snacks when she asked; he took her new black leather boots and polished them, marveling at how huge they were in his hands. She even had him do her laundry a few times, and Jack actually found himself slightly tangled up in Sadie’s gigantic bra one time. It was incredible — her bra alone seemed to be about half the size of his entire body. He just couldn’t fathom how huge both his mom and his sister were beginning to look…and how tiny he was becoming.

A few days later, he heard Alice saying it, almost like her voice was coming from a far distance away.

“4’1, Jack…wow…” Her voice was a quiet murmur above him. He didn’t even want to look up into her face — he didn’t want to see her reaction.

“I…ok,” he said pitifully, shrugging his shoulders. He had been hoping for something a lot less dramatic, especially since his shrinking had slowed a bit yesterday, to only a quarter inch. But during the night, he had shrunk a whole two inches.

“Well, grandma should be happy to see you, in any case,” chirped Alice, who had also shrugged, inhaling and exhaling, like she was mentally determined to keep a smiling visage.

“Grandma!?” asked Jack blankly. “W-What, is she…is she coming today?”

“Haha, ooops,” chuckled Alice, putting her hand over her mouth. “Guess I just spilled the beans. Heheh, but really though, I wanted you to know, just so you wouldn’t get too much of a shock when she showed up. She texted me last night that she hadn’t gotten a promised update from you, so she’d just have to show up this morning to see for herself.”

“But I…I just…I forgot!” cried Jack. “Mom had me polishing her boots and I got tired and —”

“Jack,” breathed Alice, bending down luxuriously and putting a long finger to his mouth, “You don’t need to explain to me. I know…it’s ok.”

A sudden knock came at the door, but this time it was the glass back door. Elena had apparently let herself into the backyard, and was waving at the two of them from the back deck. Jack blinked a few times, taking in her tall figure as his mind raced to catch up…was she wearing even taller heels now too!? He had not been prepared to see Elena this morning, and he felt his whole body tighten with nervous energy. But there was no denying that he was excited too.

“Well go on little brother,” smiled Alice, winking at him as she straightened back up to her full height, “Let her in! It’s you she wants to see anyway.”