That evening, Katja sat at home at a table, with the scroll and a dictionary she took from the storage. She needed the latter, which was meant for language scholars, to translate the 200 years old english. She copied the translation on a piece of paper.

The scroll told about a ritual, a magical procedure, to change one's body height. Katja had understood that much while trying to read it that morning and had seen the illustrations of large human figures being turned into small ones. Where most other people would have perceived this as humbug or nonsense, the still as an adult in paranormal stuff believing Katja took it seriously. Could she make herself smaller? And be normal?

She needed to make an amulet first, which she had to touch with her skin while performing the ritual. Said amulet had to be made of silver, etched with ancient Babylonian writing markings while uttering spells in Akkadian, the ancient culture's language. Then she could perform the ritual itself. For that, there were a number of items, the scroll said, necessary. Katja needed charcoal to draw a pentagram on the floor, five black candles, a number of herbs to be burned, and uttering incantations also in the language of the ancient Babylonians. Then the person inside the pentagram, touching the amulet, would shrink. Katja, after having finished her translation, was enthusiastic. She would try it!

It would take time though. Some of the herbs she needed were unavailable in the States, and had to be imported from the Middle East. And because she needed to pronounce the incantations correct, she looked on the internet for videos and audio files of the Babylonian language. Luckily, a lot of people were interested in this now long gone culture, so she quickly got hold of a few files telling her how to do it.

After two weeks she finally got the herbs she ordered via mail. In the meantime, Katja had practiced her pronunciation of Akkadian and made the silver amulet (she had melted some of her silver rings and necklaces), which she had attached on a small chain to wear around her neck. Katja had also taken the book, which had been returned in the meantime, home with her and begun reading it. Katja saw all kinds of spells and incantations, and even one to reverse the effects of the shrinking ritual, or at least she thought it was a reversal, still unfamiliar with the 200-year-old English. Well no matter, she wouldn't use it anyway. She wanted to be of average, or even below average height.

She sat that evening, a Thursday, on the floor in a pentagram she had drawn with the charcoal and lit the black candles. Katja wore the amulet, touching her skin. Then, while uttering the spells, she burned the herbs as the scroll told her.

But nothing happened after she finished. Perhaps it took some time? The scroll said nothing about it. Katja waited. 

However, the next day, she was still 6'9. So she repeated the ritual after work. Nothing.

"Damn it!" she thought, disappointed. She had hoped, yes, even be convinced, that this would work. But nothing. Still tall Katja, whose height made old ladies startle once when they saw her and twice when they saw the tall person was a woman. Almost crying, she went to sleep. After the weekend she would bring the scroll back to the library and forget about it. 

But when she woke next morning, Katja noticed something wasn't right.