Jennifer stepped out of the gym's front doors. She dug around in her purse for her cell phone. When she pulled it out, the idea that it felt odd in her hand flashed through her mind for a second before fading. She called her maid and said she'd be coming home early tonight. Then, she started out toward her car. She had to stop a few times on the way to adjust her clothes or shift her bag. "That does it," she said aloud to no one in particular, "I'm getting rid of this dress. It's been stretched or something." That settled, she continued toward her car, not bothering to adjust the dress when it felt odd again.
She eased the door of her sports car open and settled in behind the wheel. She cranked up the car and suddenly exclaimed, "What the hell?" Her seat had been moved, oddly enough, and her feet didn't quite reach the pedals as they should have. She rolled the seat forward just slightly, stepped on the brake, shifted gears, and released the emergency brake. She then headed out of the parking lot toward the freeway that would take her home.
Craig had done his best, but he decided that a three-inch reduction was just a bit too much to keep the video flowing smoothly. He hit the "Undo" button and then began to set it up for another two-inch reduction, so that she would be 4'8'', as she would have been if he'd stuck to the initial pattern. He was going to have to keep using two-inch reductions for a while, apparently.
Jennifer suddenly felt a jolt again-only this one was different from the previous ones. It was accompanied by a sensation of shifting. She glanced down at herself for a moment and realized the dress really hadn't been as low or loose as she had imagined-it seemed to fit better now. It was still longer than she remembered it being, but perhaps that was just a mistake of her memory. She began to think that perhaps she could put the feelings of weirdness out of her head for good.
Several minutes later, just as she was driving into the exit ramp, she felt yet ANOTHER shock. She ignored it, though, making up her mind to stop paying attention to them. She didn't even feel the dress shifting a little bit again, or her shoes sliding minutely. She parked the car in her garage and stepped out. Something felt off about the garage, even.but she refused to hear that little voice in the corner of her mind that was insisting the room was more spacious. It also claimed that the doorknob was higher up and didn't fit as well in her hand, and that the garage door opener button wasn't in the same place. It even had the nerve to remind her that her shoes were still sliding on her heels.
"Mariana? Are you here?" Mariana, her housekeeper, was a Latino woman in her early 30s. Her teenage son Joe was usually around when she was, and he seemed to be mildly infatuated with Jennifer. She heard Mariana's voice from the adjoining kitchen, so she ventured in. The tall woman was putting the finishing touches on some kind of soup she had on the stove.
"Hi, Jennifer!" Mariana had been around so long that formality would have seemed odd, which is probably what prompted her next statement. "You look different." She stared at Jennifer with a puzzled expression. "Did you change your hair or something?"
"No, why?" That little voice again chimed in, noticing that Mariana appeared taller than usual.
"I dunno, you just look." she started to say "shorter," but of course that was ridiculous. "Something just looks off about you. Maybe it's just from the workout." She shrugged. "Or maybe I just have an overactive imagination."
You and me both, thought Jennifer. "I'm kinda tired.would you mind terribly bringing the soup up to my room in a little while? I want to go lay down right now. That exercise wore me out."
"Sure, hon, just go on up. The soup'll be ready in another 10 minutes or so. When do you want it?"
Craig was very pleased with the results so far. The 4'8'' image turned out great, and it blended well into the video sequence. If he kept this up, he'd have a nice sequence of still images in addition to the video. After some final extra touches, he set it up for the next 2-inch reduction. "Well, is Ms. Hewitt ready to be 4 foot 6?" he asked aloud. Nobody replied. Then again, nobody hung around in his computer room except him anyway. Good thing, too-he doubted his family would really understand his interest in shrinking fantasies, so he had asked for privacy. He shook his head, realizing he was getting sidetracked. He clicked the "Apply" button again and waited for the image editor. "Come on, work your magic."
"Ouch!" Jennifer recoiled from the metal of the sink.
"You ok, Jennifer?" Mariana asked, concerned.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I must be statically charged tonight. I keep getting shocked!" She paused to recall what she had been about to say. "Well, anyway, how about bringing up the soup in around 25 minutes? That should give me time for a short nap." She tugged at her dress strap again. That voice in her mind said it was now even looser than it had been, and again, she refused to listen.
"Ok, sure, 25 minutes it is. You want." Mariana trailed off as she looked at Jennifer. She looked different again, as if she had changed in the past thirty seconds. Mariana realized she was staring, and Jennifer was looking at her expectantly. "Sorry, got distracted for a second. I was going to say, do you want crackers, and what do you want to drink?"
Jennifer tried to ignore the fact that the counter came up nearly to her elbows. "No crackers, thanks. And I'll have whatever you pull out of the fridge-fruit juice, whatever." She turned and headed for the stairs.
