Jim peeked out from inside of his giant shoe. He had heard Judy walk away, but he wanted to be sure she was gone before he left the relative safety of the shoe. The bedroom door was open, and there was no sign of her giant green-socked feet. He crawled out and tumbled into another pile of dust. After quietly reminding himself to clean his room more often, he tiptoed out from under his bed over to his clothes and looked around.
"Where is it?" he said. He could not find the balloon anywhere. Even if he was too small to use it now, he needed it to turn back to normal. He started to panic. What was he going to do now? He was tiny, and he might be stuck this way forever!
"Judy must have it," he said, trying to calm himself down. "If I can get to her, maybe I can get her to help me." He just hoped he could find the courage to talk to a giant this time. "First," he said. "I need to get through the house." He remembered hearing her walk downstairs after she left his room. That meant that he had a long journey ahead of him to reach her, and, at his size, the house felt 10 times as big as it had been before. That meant that there was no time to waste. He needed to get to the balloon fast before something happened to it.
Jim looked down at himself. He was naked and sweaty, which meant that the dust had stuck to his skin. This was definitely not the simple fantasy he had imagined for so long. He certainly had never imagined how dirty life on a floor would be or how terrifying a normal-sized person would seem from his perspective.
He looked around for anything to cover himself up with, but there was nothing small enough to fit him. He did find a pencil under his bed, which was a bit heavy to lift, but he felt a little safer holding something with a pointy end on it. He tried to sharpen the graphite on his floor until he was confident it would serve as a primitive spear. Then, he walked through his door, using the pencil like a walking stick with the eraser end on the floor. Looking down the long tall hallway ahead of him, he steadied himself for his trip. "You can do this," he told himself. "This is an adventure."
He took a deep breath and headed for his sister.
***
Meanwhile downstairs, Judy was getting bored watching TV. She started thinking about something else to do as she waited for her parents to come home. Then, she remembered the balloons.