Ty entered the kitchen to find his foster mother, June, just taking out a frying pan to begin cooking breakfast. He took a moment to admire her body from behind. As much as he loathed her, Ty had to admit that she had an amazing figure. She loved her yoga DVDs and aerobics routines, and the exercise paid off well, leaving her toned and fit still in her mid-thirties.
That was about to change, though.
"Good morning, June," Ty said.
"'Bout time you got your ass down here," she replied as she took out some eggs from the fridge. "I swear you get lazier and lazier every year. Go set the table."
Ty walked closer to her and leaned back against the table. "I have a few questions for you," he said.
"So?" she said. "Hey, where's Dustin?"
Ty smiled. "Oh, he's right here." Ty held out his hand, palm up, revealing the doll-sized little girl on his hand. "Actually, I should say she's right here."
June frowned and squinted at the girl. "What in the world is...?" she started to say, but little Dusty cut her off.
"Mom! Mom!" Dusty was waving and shrieking in a tiny high voice, "Help me! Ty shrunk me. Look what he did to me. Help me! It's me. It's Dustin."
"What do you think of your daughter, Dusty?" Ty asked.
"What is this?" June said, stepping back to the counter behind her. "Is this some kind of trick?"
"I suppose it is a magic trick," Ty said. "Only, the magic is real." He pictured a bug jar in his mind, and then little Dusty was inside of the jar on his hand. She started pounding on the glass. Ty set the jar down on the counter next to June.
June had watched him make a jar appear out of nowhere with a look of shock and horror on her face. She reached to touch the jar next to her, but stopped, deciding it was better just to do nothing until she knew what was going on. Was that really Dustin inside of there? If Ty could do that... "What do you want with me?" she asked Ty.
"Like I said before, 'I have a few questions for you.'"
"What questions?"
"Important questions."
"Right," she said and started to wonder if she could scream for Mark before Ty could stop her.
"The problem is I need to make sure I get the truth from you, and I doubt your answers will be anything but lies."
"I'm not going to lie."
"Oh, you can lie if you want," Ty said. "But, if you do, there will be consequences."
"What do you mean?" June said, feeling sweat drip down her forehead. "What consequences?" She wondered if she could grab a knife before Ty could stop her.
"You remember that cartoon with the puppet whose nose grew every time he lied?" Ty said. "I was thinking I might try something like that on you."
Ty thought a moment. "How about this? Every time you lie to me..."