As we’re carried from the lab through the hallways and into an elevator, our wives aren’t too too far behind or anything like that, trying to keep up with the pace of the fast moving Agents, seemingly a few talking into their mics and giving their location as a few of them make it on the elevator, the ones that know they won’t fit go onto the stairway route.  As we’re taken into the elevator, they do try to make room for our wives, about 5 people in total with us if you don’t include us in the shrunken plastic breathable container. It notice that it feels somewhat cramped for them, everyone seemingly elbows to elbows and the like. The agents don’t seem to mind, still talking on their earpiece headsets, but our wives don’t seem like they’re enjoying the crowd, especially Erica, who seems somewhat baffled by the experience she’s going through right now, if you’re looking at her facial expression. 

As someone punches a button for one of the floors for downstairs, I feel as if I’m sleepy again, and I notice that Tony and Dave do the exact same thing. The last thought I have as I realize what’s happening again is “yep, I guess we can’t see this one”. Everything after that is a blank due to the fact that I fell asleep during, getting hit by the gas we were given in the car, this is something that I thought only happened in movies but turns out it’s really real in some sorta form. This gas is apparently being stored in some small container I didn’t notice until the very last minute on the top of the inside of this plastic storage box that I’m in. I notice that our wives don’t say anything about this, so it really must be non harmful or anything like that. They’ve been pretty quiet in general during this whole situation when we’ve been inside the building.

I can somewhat remember the noises of where we weren’t allowed to be awake for, during my lack of consciousness, even though I was asleep during this time, the sounds of people talking and the noises of some sorta machinery. The sound of machinery and bubbles and types of things that you wouldn’t expect us to hear in this building. And it’s still all so vague due to my lack of consciousness when I guess my mind did pick up on this. I wonder if I should ask them about it when I do get situated and wake up and things of that nature, or I shouldn’t and even in a situation like this they’ll be like “he knows too much” and kill me or something like that. So I guess I probably should keep what I heard to myself and maybe bring it up to Tony and Dave or something along those lines. Someone who I think can keep a secret, because after all of this I consider Tony and Dave probably life long friends and almost brothers due to what we’ve been through together. 

When I do fully wake up, we’re in the backseat of a Suburban and its engine humming as it speeds down the freeway, on Nicole’s lap in the same plastic breathable box we’ve been in. She’s sitting in the middle seat, Jennifer on the left, and Erica’s on her right. Seems like despite the backseat being full it seems like there’s a lot of room between them. I notice Tony starts to get up next, him seemingly in a deep sleep before waking up and starting to get up off the floor of it. The last one to wake up is Dave, but he doesn’t wake up too long after Tony does I notice as well . He rolls around a little bit on the floor before getting up.

I look at my wife, as the box we’re in sits in her lap, she seems to be focused on the road ahead of her, Tony’s wife Erica seems to be looking at her phone, playing Candy Crush Saga or whatever judging by her constant finger movement, the sounds seems to be off though. Jennifer just staring out her window at the traffic and the city as we pass it all by. Not seemingly looking too much at me and the other shrunken spouses in this box. Almost as if she’s daydreaming or something as she’s looking out the window, as if she’s got a million thoughts about what’s going on inside her head but not really speaking out on it. As I’ve noticed before, as soon as the big government agents have gotten involved, all of our wives have been pretty quiet about the situation we’re currently in. 

I see a can of Cactus Cooler in the cupholders in the front seat as I start to look up front at the agents in the front seat and the road ahead of us, this soda being something I haven’t seen or thought about since I’ve lived in L.A. I never really drank the drink but I would see various grocery stores like Vons or Ralphs or Target or Walmart in the area carrying it. I remember you might see someone with a can or a two liter around campus carrying it or something along those lines. It’s almost like a throwback from the past seeing it again, even though I’m sure it’s something that’s been here since I’ve been gone from Southern California and I just didn’t happen to notice or see it until now. 

“Nice to see that you guys are finally waking up” Nicole says, with a slight smile on her face as she notices and begins to talk to us, and she says this somewhat in a hushed voice. As if she doesn’t want to attract too much attention to herself in this pretty quiet ride to the airport. 

I don’t respond verbally, I just shake my head up and down with a smile, making eye contact with her, I look into her eyes, those brown irises of hers that drive me crazy as I look at them, another reminder why I love her and we’ve been together all these years now. Almost like looking into the moon at the size I’m at. Tony waves a little and Dave just smiles like I did. Their wives were still seemingly doing what they were doing before they woke up.

Nicole taps Jennifer on the shoulder, and Jennifer looks over and then looks at the box, and sees that we’re all awake, she still stays silent but she does smile and wave a little bit and we do the same back. Erica notices Jennifer waving and she looks over from her phone and notices that we’re all awake and she does the same as her, smiling and waving as well. 

The agents in the front don’t seem to care about what’s going on in the back, judging by their lack of reaction about it, still keeping their eyes on the road and trying to navigate the traffic on the freeway as we get closer and closer towards L.A.X. I can somewhat see them in the rear-view mirror looking a little bit at what’s going on through looking at the rear view mirror, although it’s a quick second before they put their eyes on the road. Still staying silent and still not really acknowledging what’s going on behind them and not really seemingly showing much of any emotion about it. Being stone cold about it. I guess that’s just how they’re trained to be under any circumstances, especially more unusual ones like this. 

I can tell Nicole wants to kinda talk judging by her smile and her eyes seemingly hyperfocusing on me but she doesn’t I’m guessing due to the fact of the awkwardness of breaking the silence, and Jennifer and Erica kinda feels the same but I guess with the agents being in the car and them hearing every word would make things somewhat awkward to add on top of it.  So it’s just quiet between us as a group it seems to be, and honestly it sucks. Maybe on the plane or jet or whatever they’ll send us on to D.C. we’ll be able to talk and converse a bit more, at least without the awkwardness of the agents seemingly like their listening to every single word that’s coming out of ours mouths, even though it doesn’t really seem like they are, we know that’s what they’re doing as their focused on the road ahead of us.

So it’s only a few minutes before Jennifer and Erica goes back to doing what they were originally doing, Erica goes back to using her phone and Jennifer goes back to looking out the window, and as we get closer and closer to LAX the Traffic starts to get heavier and heavier, being in stop and go traffic and all and as the SUV we’re in slows down and speeds up and slows down and speeds up again as they go through the traffic.

I start to wonder, who’s in the know about the situation? I know Tony’s and Dave’s families must know about the fact that he’s a shrunken man and everything, at least since the police and the government especially now are involved and everything. Tony especially since he’s got kids and the like, although all of them seemingly at least in their teen years. I start to think about myself, I know that my daughter and my mom must know about the situation, with me being missing at first and the like and all of that jazz. Something I haven’t really thought about too much now, my own family who might have contacted me during this whole episode. I’m sure Nicole said something about me being missing, Alexis I’m sure was worried about me as well too. I feel some sadness come over me, imagining how she felt, not knowing where her dad is and everything and my mom too. It’s bad enough she lost a husband and she’s still coming to grips with that, but losing me as well wouldn’t make the situation any better. Losing your oldest son.  I wonder if we can get in contact with them once we get onto the plane, or if they've already told them about the situation that we’re in at some point.

 I think about asking the agents about this, if they might be in the know and have access about if my mom and my kid know about what’s happened. I don’t really say friends, because there’s not really anyone I’m on a regular speaking basis with that would know that something was up with me right away. Guys like Richie and Jon and Alex and all my friends from Baltimore growing up I only speak to maybe once or twice a month, everyone busy with their own lives and a few with families and the like. So really it’s just family. I also think about should I tell them this isn’t the first time that I have been shrunk, or should I still keep it a “til’ the grave” sorta secret among those who still don't know. I guess we'll find out at some point, I guess. If they don't tell it off on me and the other guys in D.C. somehow.

 Although a part of me wonders if it’ll get revealed anyways when we get to D.C., since the fact we all became shrunk in the first place was due to the fact we all made contact with each other, so maybe it’s best to come out to her about this instead of the government saying something. I’m pretty sure Tony’s got more to explain than all of us, since the fact he doesn’t have much of a backstory about his life is due to his time being shrunk, and the reason why he knows the people he knows is the fact that they knew he was shrunk and everything of that nature. So this might really rock Erica’s world when she eventually finds out about this and everything that went on before she met Tony. I think Erica would be more shocked about it, than his kids. Even though the life he’s currently living is all they know, they’d be surprised to find out the crazy backstory of their own dad that they never knew the full truth about.

I think we get closer and closer to the arrivals and the like and then we go into this other pathway, going down the ramp and onto the street and more towards this special gate entry and getting waved through by Security through this opening. The security guy doesn’t really seem like he cares as if we’re coming through, waving us through and looking like he doesn’t care. This feels like something a celebrity or the president or someone big and official would go through, not having to deal with TSA or any sorta thing of that nature and having easy access to get on a flight. Just taking us right onto the tarmac, and up to whatever jet or plane that we need to deal with. This sorta secluded area of the runway where we can get transported from the SUV and into whatever air travel vehicle we need to get into to get to the East Coast. I kinda feel somewhat giddy about this trip, even though it’s not like it’s a vacation and it’s sure as hell not a trip of leisure. Probably due to the fact it’s been awhile since I’ve been to D.C. , I don’t think I even went once when I briefly lived in Baltimore when I first got out of college. I don’t think I’ve been to Baltimore probably since I moved down to Atlanta in 2013 with Nicole around the time we got married, it being ten years since I’ve been to the city of my birth and where I spent the first part of my life in, I met up with my old Baltimore friends in 2019 up in New York City, when they came up there to visit us on their vacation. Frankie and Lenny and their wives and Frankie’s kids, although a bit older than Alexis at ages ten and eight back then. Jared not being there due to the fact he had some work duties, something about a major client meeting at his job or something. I mostly talked to them via on the phone and through my barely used Facebook account. Something I rarely ever used, and even back then. 

I might take my wife and daughter up there, once this is all over. If there is an end in sight to this weird situation.  Back up to Baltimore, that’ll be the first time for my daughter.

The SUV speeds up and we get closer and closer towards wherever we’re supposed to be, and then I see a pretty slick looking black private jet rolling up in the distance, as if it had just landed, and we get closer and closer towards it. I think Nicole is starting to get a little nervous as she starts to tap her foot a little bit more and more on the floor. Sending a bit of vibrations into the seats back here,I can feel it as I sit down and I think Tony and Dave are a little annoyed by it too by their reactions to the vibrations but they don’t say anything although the looks on their faces say everything. Nicole and Jennifer don’t react because I think they’re a bit more focused on the fact that they’re about to go on a private jet, seemingly with smiles on their faces. As I’ve said before about my wife she’s not a huge fan of flying and I guess with something a bit smaller where you feel every bump and move the plane is making compared to a bigger commercial plane is a pretty big difference and something you’d be pretty hyper aware of when you think about it. I start to get nervous myself honestly, once I think about it. It’s usually these smaller planes and these helicopters that usually crash, thinking about Kobe Bryant and how I heard about all of that news when it went down one unsuspecting Sunday afternoon. But again, with the way the government is you’d think they’d hire the best of the best of pilots to fly for them, and with the right conditions too. 

We start to slow down as we get closer and closer towards the jet, and the noises of the jet start to become louder and louder as the sounds of its roaring engines become closer and closer to us. I think the agent driving mumble something up front about how he hates being this close to planes and the like, and the one in the passenger's seat says something about tinnitus and going to concerts in their twenties. 

“Yeah, like P.M. Dawn?” The agent in the driver’s seat says a little sarcastically, a middle aged looking black dude. Probably the first actual sentence I could make out in the mumbling both agents have been doing in their first time of actually using their voices to speak.

“You know I didn’t listen to that soft rapper shit, you’re looking at a reformed metalhead right here,” The other agent says, a white guy seemingly around the same age as the black dude. He’s bald and everything

They chuckle a little bit at this, attracting the attention of everyone in the backseat. This interaction seemingly shocking all of us, I hear Tony also mumble “That’s a name I haven’t heard in a long ass time”. Referencing the “P.M. Dawn” in the conversation.

“Who’s that?” I say, to Tony, a bit hush hush to him. I’ve never heard of this artist before, at least when first mentioned

“Early nineties Hip Hop artist “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss of You” was his big song, I think he died a few years ago. The type of stuff I’d hear-” Tony says, and then cuts himself off, I think alluring to his time shrunk with the way he didn’t want anyone to know.

The SUV comes to a stop as the driver shifts to P, and they tell us to stay in the car unless they tell us to move, and then they get out and close the doors and then walk up the jet and some stairs start to form leading up to the top, and a door opens and they walk in for a little bit. What they’re going to tell the crew inside I have no idea, I’m sure they know why they're here and who they’re flying and everything. But maybe it’s some other stuff.

We wait about five minutes and then the agents come out of the airplane and down the stairs and walk towards the SUV and open the passenger’s side door where Jennifer’s sitting at and they tell Erica to hand the box that we’re in to them, and she obliges. She gently picks up the box we’re in off of her lap and reaches the box over to the hand of the White agent that asked for us, the agent almost snatches us from her hand, jolting us a little bit. Causing Tony to lose his balance a little bit but he quickly regains his composure. With us in his hand, he says to the ladies just to wait a few minutes and then we’ll come and get you.

The agent walks with our box in his hand, heading towards the jet, the smell of jet fuel in the slightly cold air on this runway, the fresh air is nice though, I will admit. That cool Californian air, although this is probably my last time experiencing it as we fly out to Washington D.C., somewhere you really wanna go ahead and layer up for especially in March. The sound of the engine of the jet running is still overwhelming to our ears. The agent walks onto the stairs and we feel every step he takes, knocking us a little bit. We make it into the jet, although our wives are still sitting in the SUV. I think about asking the agent about when our wives are coming on board but it seems as soon as I think that I can briefly see the black agent get towards the SUV and open the passenger’s driver’s side door before we go completely inside the jet. 

It’s not that big compared to a commercial airline’s cabin, it’s kinda like a living room on wheels and it gives off that vibe, there’s a flat screen TV on the side hooked up, seemingly playing MSNBC, talking heads talking about all that Trump stuff and I rather not see the news at all right now, I’ll probably request to change to something else when we all get settled in. There’s a mini fridge among the seats and the like, seemingly they really travel in style. But again, it doesn’t seem all that fancy or anything like that, just a living room for a cabin it seems. Plush black leather seats as well, I notice. Too bad we probably won’t be sitting in them. 

The agent sits us onto the table with a good angle to the flat screen mounted TV on the plane, and walks back out, and I can hear his heavy steps on the stairs. Not too long after he leaves, our wives walk in. Nicole, Erica, and Jennifer in that order. I smile and perk up, and they come towards our direction but an male agent pops out of the cabin and tells them to take a seat and leave us alone for now, we can talk more on the flight.

The women get settled into their seats, and I notice that the TV is a Roku sort thing going on and not cable or anything like that, since a female agent hands Erica a Roku remote and tells her that they can rent a movie or watch Netflix or Hulu or Youtube or whatever they want. Explaining this out to all of our wives.  The agent says that she and agent Richards ( the male agent from earlier she alludes to ) will be accompanying us on our flight to D.C , saying it’s a governmental flight and we don’t have to pay for anything besides renting a movie or something if that’s something we wanna do. She says that we’ll be taking off in about ten minutes and as soon as we get into the air we can start getting up and walking around.

Our wives get settled down in their seats and the agents get settled too and the stairs retract and everything along those lines, as we get ready for take off. I noticed the time now is 1:35 in the afternoon when looking at the time on the TV when they’re on the Roku home screen. I feel a little bit of anxiety about flying and stuff, I don’t know why though, the only time I ever had anxiety flying was when I flew for the first time back in 2004 when I was eighteen, when I went to Europe for the first time. Again, I guess another call back to that whole situation from back then, which our current situation has felt like a little bit. 

As the plane begins to move and we get ready to take off, I start to relax a little. I notice Nicole doesn’t seem as nervous either as we begin to make our way down the runway and into the air. The ladies seemingly looking at their phones, Nicole seemingly looking at the Roku TV screen, watching it rotate as it’s remaining stagnant right now. 

Take off is much smoother than I thought it would be, and we ascend and everything along those lines, the agents seemingly looking at their phones as they’re sitting along in their chairs and the like too, the agents tell everyone to buckle up before we talk about and our wives do. 

About 20 or minutes or so we get into cruising altitude and then Agent Richards says it’s okay to get out of our seats and stuff, the pilots up front seemingly staying quiet about this.

As soon as he says this our wives slowly come up to talk to us one by one, slowly getting out of their seats and the like. We mostly talk about if our kids or other family know about what we’re going through, and for Tony and my case they kinda do but they kinda don’t, at least our kids and my mom doesn't know everything. Government doesn’t want them to know everything that’s going on quite yet. We talk for about 30 minutes, seemingly trying to catch up with each other a little bit. 

The agents, Agent Richards and the female agent who’s last name we finally learn, Agent Kirkpatrick are much more easy going compared to the agents we dealt with in the past, talking with us a little and laughing with us a little more as well too.

The flight itself from LAX to Dulles International is pretty anti-climatic, we just mostly talk a little bit amongst each other, mostly just about flying and our experiences doing this the agents mostly stay quiet when it comes to talking about life experiences and stuff, I notice. The talk seems to put Nicole at ease I notice too, seemingly distracting her from the fact that we’re high up in the air and the like as well too. I don’t really look out the window, besides I can’t really look out the window in detail besides seeing what’s through the windows of the plane anyways, so I can’t exactly tell the shift in landscape and everything too much besides when we past by mountains and desert and stuff to the greenness of the Midwest that we fly over. 

There’s some talk of watching a Movie towards the middle of the flight, Jennifer wanting to re-watch Drive with Ryan Gosling, something she said was the last thing they watched the night before all this seemingly went down the next day. Something that they’d said they’d re-watch but never got to. One of the agents says just look it up and rent it and Jennifer does, Dave seemingly being cool with it and no one else really caring. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this movie, but I remember hearing about it a little when it was in theaters and everything though and the buzz it got. People seem to be talking about it more nowadays, this quiet getaway driver that’s a stunt driver as his day job and he’s got the hots for the chick next door to him and all this stuff about it.  

It’s a pretty good movie and it’s a great way to pass the time, it finishes almost around the time we get to D.C. More violent than I thought it would be though. I remember Tony mumbled something about Blanche’s having a nice ass, which I guess is funny. I thought the Synthwave 80's style stuff was pretty catchy and I’ll probably look up the Drive Soundtrack on Spotify if I ever get the chance of doing that ever again. 

As we descend into D.C. and into Dulles International Airport, It honestly feels nice to be back on the east coast and especially a place like D.C. where a few of my childhood memories are, but a part of me wonders why couldn’t we went to Ronald Reagan International or something when I really think about it, Arlington’s a bit closer but whatever I guess. The agents seem to be texting someone as well too, seemingly in text with whatever ground unit they’re in contact with. 

I guess we’re gonna hit the ground running, as soon as we get out of this jet.