Erin Hunter had no idea the call she took on the morning of the first Monday of June was the most important call of her life -- at least, not at the time.

Erin was getting ready for work in the office when the phone rang.  It was her stepmother.

“Jane, I’m on the way out the door for work,” Erin said.  “What’s up?”

“We just got a call from Ireland,” Jane said.  “They said your great-aunt Onora died and left you an inheritance of some kind.”

“Okay,” Erin said.

“They said you have to go to County Kilkenny as soon as possible,” Jane said.  “They said it was urgent, both for the inheritance and for you.”

“For me?” Erin said.  “Are you sure that’s what they said?”

“I double-checked,” said Jane.  “That’s what they said.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Erin said.

“I know, but they wouldn’t tell me any more,” Jane said.  “They said I wasn’t family.”

“You married my dad,” Erin said.  “That makes you family to Aunt Onora.”

“Are you going to go?” Jane asked.

“I don’t see how I can,” Erin said.  “I’ve got to work all week, and we’ve got David’s big dinner party here Thursday.  I can’t even think about it until the weekend.  I mean, it’s not like Aunt Onora and I were close.  Heck, I never even met her.”

Erin wrapped up the call and got to work.  As usual, she was dressed to show off her physical attributes, since they were an advantage in the courtroom.  At five feet, eight-and-a-half inches tall, she was nearly six feet in her three-inch heels.  Her skirts showed off her long, shapely legs, and she always wore blouse-skirt combos with a jacket so her 21-inch waist compared to her 44-inch bust.  The D-cup breasts she kept discreetly covered, except for the top button on her blouse.  She covered the blouse in a jacket that matched the skirt, except on warm days.

It was one of David’s late nights at work, and Erin worked late, too.  They basically didn’t see each other until fairly late that evening, and didn’t talk about the phone call until they were getting into bed.

After Erin explained the call, David said, “Wow, that’s weird.  She was your great aunt on your dad’s side?”

“Yeah,” Erin said.  “She was an Arndt.  On her mom’s side, I guess the family had been in Ireland for hundreds of years, maybe over a thousand.”

“Wow,” David said.  “A lot of history.  You sure you don’t want to go?”

“Eventually,” Erin said, shrugging.  “I can’t right now.  My caseload is too much for me to take time off.”

She fingered her engagement and wedding rings.  “Besides, this is the history I care about,” she said, kissing her husband.

David wrapped his arms around her.  “Let’s make some more history,” he said.

“Sounds good,” Erin said.

Erin was up the first of the two the next day.  She was sleepy enough at first that the changes only dimly registered.  The feet didn’t hit the floor when she swung them out of the bed; they had to drop down just slightly.  Her slippers felt loose.

Erin made her way to the bathroom.  Was the sink a little higher than usual?  And why was her hairbrush so far away?

Then, as she reached for the brush, Erin felt her rings sliding on her fingers, and she realized what had happened.  Instantly awake, she screamed.

David, awakened, shot into the bathroom.  “Erin, what is it?” he asked

Erin looked up at David.  “David!  I shrunk! I shrunk overnight!”

“What are you talking about?” David asked.  “People don’t shrink.”

“I did!” Erin said, pounding her chest.  “I’m shorter, and smaller!”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” David said.

“But it’s true,” Erin said.  “David, yesterday you were only an inch and a half taller than me.  But look at the gap now!”

David realized she was right.  He was a good four to five inches taller than his wife now.

Erin was crying.  “I shrank!” she said.  “I shrank!”

A quick round of measurements confirmed that Erin had shrunk proportionally.  David, an accountant, did some calculations and determined that Erin’s height and each measurement had reduced by 5 percent.

Erin took a deep breath.  “Well, I’d best get ready for work,” she said.

“Don’t you think you should see a doctor?” David asked.

“I don’t have time,” Erin said.  “I have to get to work.”

“Shouldn’t you take a sick day?”

“What am I going to do?  Call in short?” Erin said.  “ I can hear that phone call.  ‘I won’t be in today because I’m only 5-foot-5.’  And besides, what would a doctor be able to do?” Erin said.  “You said it yourself.  People don’t just shrink.  I’m betting this is something beyond the pale of what most doctors, and maybe all doctors, will have dealt with.”

Erin stuffed some tissues in the toes of her shoes.  “I’ll have to get a couple of outfits after work to tide me over until I can get some more tailored clothes,” Erin said.  “For today, I’ll just have to make do with what I can piece together.”

Erin got through the day with relative ease.  She got a few odd looks at work, as people noticed something was different but couldn’t tell what.  Two people asked her if she’d lost weight.  Since her weight had fallen when she shrank, she truthfully answered, “Yes.”

That night, David surprised Erin.  He took advantage of her smaller size to lift her into the air and carry her to the bedroom.  She giggled, enjoying how big and strong her husband now felt to her.  Their time in bed was quite intense, followed by an equally intense sleep.

When  Erin awoke on June 6, she screamed even before she’d gotten out of bed.  Her ings had fallen off her fingers, and she was even smaller.  She woke up David, who looked huge to her, with her screams.

The measurements showed she was down to just under 5-foot-2.  Again, every dimension on her body had dropped by the same amount.

“I don’t get it,” Erin said.  “I didn’t shrink as much overnight as I did last night, but it seems to me like it’s the same.”

David took a deep breath.  “To you, it is the same,” he said.  “You lost 5 percent of your height from yesterday, just as yesterday you had lost 5 percent of your height from the day before.”

“It’s only happening at night,” Erin said.  She rubbed her forehead.  “God, this is just so weird,” she said.

“Well, your new clothes will be too big, but they’ll fit you better than your old clothes,” David said.  “Are you sure about not going to a doctor?”

Erin took a deep breath.  “Let’s give it another day or two,” she said.  “If I fall under 4-foot-10, then I’ll officially be a little person, and we’ll go to a doctor.  At that height, legally, I’d have a handicapping condition.  Meanwhile, I have work to do.”

More people noticed the change in Erin that day, but now fewer were asking her about it and more were whispering about it behind her back.

The next morning, David awoke not to a scream, but to the sound of Erin sobbing.  She had again shrunken overnight.  She was now a little bit over 4-foot-10 ½.

David picked Erin up and put her on his lap to hug her.  She marveled at his sheer size, caressing his unshaven cheek.  They found themselves getting to work late that day because they let their passions get away from them.

This was Thursday, the day of David’s party.  Erin had already scheduled the day off work to deal with the party.

“Are you sure you can handle everything?” David asked.

“You’ve got the stepstool set up for me in the kitchen, right?” Erin asked.

“Yep,” David said.

She trotted over to the towering man.  “Then I’ll be fine,” she said.  She reached up.  “Pick me up and give me a kiss and hug,” she said.

David did so, with some passion behind the kiss on both sides.

“You’re a giant to me now,” she said.  “My big, strong giant.”

David stroked her hair.  It was getting shorter at the same rate as the rest of her.  “Your voice is getting higher,” he said.  “It’s shrinking, too.”

“Yours sounds deeper, more manly, to me,” Erin said.  She kissed him again.

Erin got the food on all right, using some clothes she’d pieced together from some items she’d gotten for a friend’s children.  But the constant use of the stepstool, combined with how much heavier everything was now that she was so small, left her exhausted.  The dinner preparation would be in two stages.  She set the timer and staggered in to the love seat, on which she could now stretch out comfortably.

Erin only partially woke up when the timer went off.  She staggered out to the kitchen, climbed up the stepladder, stretched out to reach the food, turned what needed turning, reset the timer, and, exhausted went back to the love seat.  As she climbed up, her shoe slipped off her foot, but it didn’t register what that meant.

When the second timer went off, Erin, now barefoot, staggered out to the kitchen.  She found she couldn’t reach the oven controls, even with the stepstool  And everything was so huge!

Realizing what had happened, Erin was desperate to save the dinner and whatever little bit of normalcy remained in her life.  She knew it wasn’t rational, but she didn’t care.

Erin found she couldn’t lift the stepladder.  She ultimately decided to climb up on a chair, which got her enough height that she could -- barely get the controls and save the meal.

Erin sat down on the gigantic chair and cried.  She’d been so proud ot the oven, as high up as it was in this kitchen.  Now it was just a reminde rof what she’d lost.

Sliding off the chair, Erin made her way to the living room, which now seemed colossal.  She got the phone off the end table and pushed the buttons, much easier to do since they were so big now.

“Hunter,” came David’s voice.

“Honey,” said Erin.

“Oh, God, your voice!” David said.  “You’ve shrunk some more!”

“Preparing the dinner wore me out,” Erin said.  “I took naps.”

“How many naps?”

“Two,” Erin said.  “David, I’m scared.  I don’t even think I’m four and a half feet tall anymore.”

“I’ll be right home,” David said.

Erin was, in fact, just under 4-foot-7.  She sat on David’s lap after the measuring was done, taking comfort from hearing his heartbeat and being enfolded in his strong arms.

Erin insisted on continuing with the dinner party.  David managed to get her some viable clothes.  They weren’t to Erin’s usual standards, but they’d do.

The party was a big success, but the sheer size of everything made it a huge task for the now-tiny Erin.  Trays of food were heavier, and the distances within the house were much bigger.  Even the furniture was a climb now.

At one point David’s boss, Mr. San Jose, leaned in beside David and said, “So, I see you took the old line about a man’s wife being ‘the little woman’ seriously,” he said.

“Don’t let her hear you say that,” David said.  “She’s really sensitive about her height.”

When everyone left, Erin, exhausted beyond words, collapsed on David’s lap and fell asleep in his arms.

He held her there, staring at her face, then realized he could see her starting to shrink.  She was getting tinier before his eyes and lighter in his arms.

David had already calculated Erin’s new height as four feet, four and a quarter inches.  Gingerly, seeking to avoid waking her, he carried her lovingly upstairs and placed her on her side of the bed.  He drew the covers up over her and quietly readied himself for bed.

Erin had slept so much during the day that she awoke inb the middle of the night.  She could tell she was smaller, and knew what would happen if she fell asleep again.  Part of her was terrified, afraid to fall asleep.  But for how long could she fight off sleep?

Then she looked at David.  To her, with every inch she lost, he was becoming more and more her knight in shining armor, her giant superhero.  She climbed up next to him and settled in.  She knew that, if she went back to sleep here, she would be somewhere around 4 feet tall in the morning, but she’d be there sooner or later anyway.  If she shrank that small, David would feel 9 feet tall to her in the morning, and that was worth another two to three inches off her size.

Erin snuggled in.  Why she was shrinking could wait another day.  Hearing David’s heartbeat, feeling his powerful arms and chest, she dozed off.  Her sleep was light enough when she shrank that she was aware of it, and smiled as, from her perspective, her husband became even bigger.