Ephraim Shorter knocked on the door of the apartment his son and new daughter-in-law were renting. He was anxious to see how they were doing with his own eyes. Beef and Dolly had left their honeymoon early due to the bizarre condition Beef had described to him, but he had waited until the day before Beef was due back to work to see them. They were, after all, newlyweds, still taking honeymoon time, even if they weren’t on a honeymoon themselves. They needed that together-time to start their married lives.

Beef opened the door, smiling. The visit was expected, after all, Ephraim knew. “Hi, Dad,” he said. “C’mon in.”

Ephraim walked in, looking around. “Nice place,” he said.  “Open concept, huh?”

Beef nodded.  “Dolly loves the feel, and wanted the more ornate old furniture for when her sister Barbi visits. It’ll let Barbi climb up where she needs to more easily when she needs to.  Right now, Dolly’s using it herself, although that’ll probably only work for another day or two.”

“Where is Dolly?” Ephraim asked.

“Over here, Ephraim!” Dolly shouted. She was standing on the dining room table, all 3 inches of her, wearing a slacks and T-shirt combo, waving as if trying to flag someone down from the distance.

Ephraim froze for a moment. “Oh, my God,” he said.  “It’s true.”

Dolly shrugged. “’Fraid so,” she said.

Ephraim ran over to the table and knelt beside it to be eye level with Dolly.  “Are you OK?” he asked.

Dolly nodded. “I’m just tiny, but otherwise fine.”  She gestured to the chairs. “Have a seat, Ephraim.  You want some coffee?”

Soon Beef and Ephraim were seated at the table with steaming cups of java while Dolly sat on a matchbox. Her dollhouse teacup filled with coffee was beside her on the matchbox.

“So, you’ll need to change your legal name to fix this?” Ephraim asked Dolly.

The tiny woman nodded. “The magic that allowed my parents to conceive me and my sisters links our physical condition to our names. I want to have Beef’s name, but I’ll keep shrinking if I stay a Shorter, so I’m changing back to Hoest.”

Ephraim knew how Dolly’s maiden name was spelled and knew it was pronounced “Hest,” being Germanic in origin, so he wasn’t surprised to hear her say it.

“But we want to have the same name, so I’m going to change mine, too,” Beef said. “I’ll be Benjamin Efraim Shorter-Hoest. That way I keep the family name, and still have the same name as Dolly.”

Ephraim nodded. “It’s a good solution,” he said. “So, when will you do this?”

Dolly and Beef looked at each other for a moment.  “Well, that’s part of the problem,” Beef said. “The only judge willing to expedite the process is stranded by that hurricane. My brother-in-law, Mark, finally got a hold of him this morning. Judge Shaw and his wife are OK, but they’re stranded, and the airport where they are got taken out. We’ve got to figure out how to get them out, and it’ll take time.”

“Mark,” Ephraim repeated. “That’s the one who helped get Dolly to a normal size, and married Barbi, right?”

Beef nodded. “He’s the only brother-in-law I’ve got,” he said. “Summer’s single.”

“Wait,” Ephraim said, looking at Dolly. “Your sister is Summer Hoest? The one they’re calling the next Olympic beach volleyball star, and an up-and-coming supermodel?”

“That’s her,” Dolly said.  “Mark figured out how to construct a name to help her, too. She used to be Penny, and only stood three-quarters of an inch tall.”

Ephraim shook his head.

Dolly smiled up at her father-in-law.  “You OK, Ephraim?”

Ephraim chuckled. “You’re asking me that? Yes, I’m all right. It’s just a lot to absorb.”

Dolly nodded.  “Yeah, for me, too.  We’re just hoping we can get the judge here before I get so small I can’t sign the papers.”

Ephraim thought for a moment. “Maybe I can help,” he said. “With owning warehouses, I know top people in transportation companies. I can see if anyone can help figure out how to get Judge Shaw and his wife back here.”

“That’d be great if you can, Dad,” Beef said.

Ephraim eyed Dolly’s outfit. “OK, I’ve got to know,” he said, “How did you get clothes that fit?”

“They’re from a Barbie doll that came with a kid’s meal at a chain restaurant,” Dolly said. “The toy was miniature, and the same height I am now. Beef actually had to leave the toy itself in his car, or I’d become shorter than that dolly, and I’m shrinking fast enough. The clothes are a little tight through my bust and hips; I’m curvier than Barbie. But, tomorrow, these will be too big.”

“Actually, I’ve got other plans for the doll,” Beef said.

Dolly raised an eyebrow curiously, but said nothing.

After some visiting time, Beef saw Ephraim to the door.

“Take whatever time you need off work, son,” Ephraim said. “Family comes first.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Beef said.

Ephraim narrowed his eyes. “Beef, how are things with you and Dolly … you know, sexually?”

Beef’s ears turned red. “Why do you ask?”

Ephraim thrust his hands in his pockets. “I would just think it would be tough, being newlyweds in this situation.”

“Y’know, it’s not that bad,” Beef said. “Mark gave me some tips on making love to a tiny woman, and it’s been working great. We do a lot of experimenting, and it’s sure different than normal sex, but it’s satisfying in its own way.”

“Really!” Ephraim said.

Beef nodded. “Mark said to just find ways to let her know you love her. That’s been working.”

“This Mark sounds like a good man,” Ephraim said.

“The best,” Beef said. “I’m glad he’s family to me now.”

“Are you sure Dolly will be all right when this is done?” Ephraim asked.

Beef nodded. “The way this magic works, she should go back to matching the closest dolly to her while she’s sleeping overnight. We’ll keep her shipping dolly in the room.”

Beef shuffled his feet. Ephraim raised an eyebrow. “What is it?” he asked.

“Dad, this is gonna sound really weird,” he said, “but I’ve got a request for when this is over. Do you still have that Japanese artist’s display in storage?”

Ephraim nodded. “Why do you ask?”

“There’s something in it I think Dolly would like when this is over,” Beef said.

Dolly’s dwindling proceeded over the course of the next few days. By three days after Ephraim’s visit, she was under one inch tall. The next day she realized she was smaller than Summer had been when her name was Penny. Two days after that, Dolly was down to barely a quarter-inch tall.

The next day, Dolly awoke on the strip of cotton fabric she was using as a bed to see an enormous eye looking at her. She smiled. It was Beef. Even with only one eye visible to her on his mountainous face, she knew he wasn’t wanting to just look.

Dolly walked over to a strip of paper. Its thickness, virtually nothing to a normal person, required her to take a step up. She heard what sounded like the distant roar of a waterfall and knew that Beef already was aroused.

Beef lifted the paper and carried it, and Dolly, to his penis tip. Dolly stepped off the paper and walked onto the tip, sauntering in an exaggerated way (so Beef could see it) to the opening. She was small enough now that the opening was a wide enough for her to crawl in, but she simply sat on the edge and slipped first one foot, then the other, in. She started to slowly kick each foot opposite the other. Beef’s face was too far away at this angle for her to see, but the reactions of his penis itself told her he was enjoying this.

Dolly slipped down, hanging onto the edge and in up to her shoulders, swaying with her hips as well as kicking.  Then she heard a colossal roar of fluid behind her, and worked to haul herself out of the way. She made it just before a geyser of cum flowed out around her. She held her breath as some came down on her. She lay there, covered in the results of her husband’s ongoing passion for her.

After a chance to recover, Beef moved the paper, with Dolly on it, back to the nightstand and placed a single drop of water beside it. Dolly climbed into the droplet; she was now so small she didn’t break its surface tension as she slipped inside. She washed herself off.

While bathing, she felt a series of low vibrations. She knew these would be sounds to her if she were normal-sized, but she was nearing microscopy. Now they felt like rumbles beneath her feet.

Another piece of paper was placed vertically in front of Dolly. On it was a letter J that was, to her, the size of a three-story building.

Dolly climbed out of the droplet, ecstatic. The letter was a signal that she and Beef had worked out before she was too small for them to communicate verbally. It meant the judge was coming today. The shrinking was nearing its end.

When Shaw arrived, Beef took him to their bedroom. The judge marveled at the sight of Dolly.  “Oh, my!” he said.  “She’s smaller than Penny was! I’m glad I wasn’t a day or two later getting back.”

“Me, too,” said Beef.

“Thank goodness your father was able to arrange for that boat, and the private plane to get us here,” Shaw said.

The paperwork was placed with the signature line near Dolly, as well as an inkpad that was outside any case.

Dolly covered her body with ink and rolled on the paper to make the letter “D.” Then she had to re-ink herself and repeat the process for each letter of her maiden name, which she was now resuming. It took some time, and she was exhausted when she was done. Unfortunately, it was indelible, not waterproof, ink; it would have to wear off, since it couldn’t be washed off, especially with just plain water as the only method available to her today.

That night, Dolly settled in to sleep.  She couldn’t hear Beef, but knew he was sleeping on the sofa. She was in the center of the bed so she wouldn’t fall off the nightstand when she grew in the middle of the night, and he didn’t want to roll over and crush her in his sleep.

As she started to drift off, Dolly smiled. Tomorrow things would be back to normal.

In the living room, Beef smiled.  Tomorrow he’d show Dolly his really big surprise. He hoped she’d like it.