Being tiny, rubbery, and squished in a wallet next to a giant condom can be disorienting. It
took Matt nearly a half hour to remember he had made other wishes before his father
caught him. He could shrink himself when he wanted to, and he could summon the wand
whenever he needed it . . .
At least, he thought he could. He had no idea if his father had nullified his previous
wishes.
His compressed body ached and the leather smell of the wallet was making him
nauseated. He knew his father would be furious if he exercised any of his options, but he
simply couldn't stay like this.
"I wish I had the wand," he said. He tried to say it, anyway, but his throat must have been
constricted after being flattened. Shit. Well, he could do something else, and that didn't
require speech.
He willed himself smaller, smaller, smaller. Immediately, he felt the pocket in his father's
wallet expand. The condom he shared it with kept it partially open, so by the time Matt
was a millimeter tall, he was able to regain his previous shape.
Great, he thought. He cleared his throat, prepared to wish for the wand, but it occurred to
him that if it appeared with him in the wallet at its full size, it could squish him again. He
really had no idea if it would be its full size, to scale with his current size, or if it would
appear at all, but Matt wanted to take no chances.
It took him fifteen minutes to climb out of the pocket and another five to get out of the
wallet. Finally, panting, he stood on the vast plain of the locker floor. Through the dim
light of the ventilation slots, he could see his father's things piled up around him.
Maybe I should just grow back to the size of Dad's thumb, Matt thought, not eager to
upset his father futher by wishing for the wand. But when he tried, nothing happened, and
he remembered the exact words of his wish . . . he could get smaller when he wanted to,
but he could not make himself any bigger.
Shit! And his father would never see him like this. He had no choice but to wish for the
wand and see what happened.