He had tried making part of himself larger. Now, he wanted to try the opposite.
"Time to shrink," Jim said and smiled.
Growing up, he loved stories about shrinking and tiny people. He always wondered what it would be like to see the world from that small perspective. Now, he had his chance. Giddy with excitement, he held up the balloon, but then he stopped.
"Wait a second," he said. "I don't know if the balloon will shrink with me or not. I might not be able to blow in up it if I get too small. I'll be stuck."
He stood there, paused in hesitation. He had the opportunity to live a lifelong dream. What an adventure that would be. Still, it was so dangerous. Even thinking about it made him sweat. What if he got stuck? What if he got hurt? He could be stepped on. Something could try to eat him. There were countless reasons that this was a bad idea, and he knew that. He was sure that the smartest thing to do would be to put the balloon down, take some time to think it over, and figure out a clever way to handle the situation.
Still, the dream... He could do it so easily. But reason kicked in and he decided to find how to be smart about his dream.
One problem was his clothes. Jim remembered when the old man used the balloon on him that his clothes were not affected. That could probably be solved by including his clothes when shrinking himself. The bigger problem however was that the balloon itself will not shrink with him….unless, could it really be that simple? He had to do a test to be sure.
Jim first blew up the balloon with three regular breaths, making note of the balloon’s size when inflated, then let the balloon deflate. Now, to test whether or not his theory was correct.
“Control, balloon size,” He said, and blew up the balloon with three breaths like previously. He checked the balloon to see if it worked.
“Yes! It worked!” He exclaimed. The balloon was definitely bigger, disproportionately bigger considering the amount of air he blew into it. This means that the balloon’s power can be used on itself after all, he just needs to include it when he wants it to be affected as well.
Satisfied, Jim let all the air out of the balloon. “Release,” he said when all the air was out. Now, Jim knew all that he had to do to not only shrink with his clothes, and a way to grow back up when he was done. He was ready.
Jim took a deep breath and inflated the balloon. FFFFOOOOOOFFFFF. "Control my size, clothing size, and balloon size" he said. He let his grip on the balloon slip ever so slightly. A light hiss escaped.
He shrank.
He held the balloon shut again. It was only a few inches of height lost, his clothes did not feel any looser on him, so he knew they were shrinking with him. The balloon in his hand did not feel any bigger to him either. He could however, tell that the room around him was almost imperceptibly larger. He chuckled. It was working. He wanted more. He let out more air.
That shrinking feeling was intoxicating. His whole body seemed to exhale in a sigh of relief. He stopped the hiss again. This time he was small, probably smaller than his little 9-year-old sister now. He was little kid-sized. He giggled. This was amazing! His clothes luckily still fit him and the balloon did not feel any bigger than before.
Jim was not satisfied though, he wanted to go even smaller.
He loosened his grip on the balloon again, this time letting out more air than before. He could feel himself dropping down, like riding a high-speed elevator. He felt a thrill-ride drop in his stomach. His clothes and the balloon shrinking with him as he went. The world expanded all around him. The furniture grew like living buildings in time lapse. He was grinning ear to ear.
Jim grew smaller and smaller as the balloon let out it’s air. Eventually the balloon ran out of air and the hissing stopped along with his shrinking.
Then, Jim looked up at the giant world he now inhabited.
He was living his dream, and it was awesome.