When Paul turned to leave the room, he saw that he was less than a head taller than the doorknob. Dragging his robe behind him like the train of a wedding dress, he awkwardly shuffled down the hall. Bryan could see his shoulders shake as he repressed tears of rage and fear at the fate of his family.
Bryan's own clothes were completely hanging off of him. Before seeing what he could do to help his brother, he decided to shuck off his socks and jeans, leaving his tee-shirt hanging down over his legs like a baggy dress.
"Are you OK, Brett?" he asked finally. His younger brother seemed to be about three feet tall to the diminshed Bryan, probably half that in the "real" world, and there was nothing around that would fit that impossibly small size.
"I guess," said Brett, cowering in his wet nakedness. Bryan reached him a hand towel from the high rack and watched the smaller boy dry himself off.
"We should go down and turn on the TV," decided Bryan. He decided to do what his father had said, not wanting to let his mind wander to other options. Wrapping the hand towel around his waist, Brett nodded and followed his brother out of the now-cavernous bathroom.
The reached the stairs and looked down gingerly. To Bryan, it was a difficult but navigable elevation, barely remembered from his childhood size, but to Brett, who was the size of an infant in comparison with everything else, it was an impossible climb. Bryan realized this at once. "Do you, uh, need help?"
"If YOU can do it, I can do it," announced Brett, with a quivery bravado. Bryan shrugged and carefully began his descent, turning back to watch Brett having to practically climb down from stair to stair.
"Sure you don't need help?" Bryan asked, genuinely meaning it, although even he realized it came out more than a little condescendingly.
"YES!" snapped Brett, who chose the wrong moment to speak. At this moment, either due to more shrinkage or just his awkward movements, his towel came off, leaving his bare ass exposed. Frustrated, the small teenager kicked the towel off the stairs into the hall below.
Bryan shrugged and took the next step, nearly breaking his neck as he tripped over the hem of his tee shirt and almost went tumbling. Brett snorted at the unconscious slapstick, and, upset, Bryan flung off his tee shirt and tossed it down to join the discarded towel. "I must still be shrinking," he thought, echoed by Brett who said, "You don't look so big anymore."
"You're just on a higher step," snapped Bryan, reaching up to grasp his brother's small body and cradle it roughly in his arms. "See, you're still like a baby!"
Brett struggled against Bryan's naked skin, but he was unable to resist being carried the rest of the way down the stairs.