"We should call Uncle Mike," Bryan said.
"Yeah," Brett agreed. "Call Mike!"
Although calling his kid brother sounded like a logical choice, Paul
had his reservations. "Maybe we should think of someone else."
Suddenly, Paul shrunk again, finding himself only a foot tall, the
same height as his shrunken son, Brett.
Bryan, still two feet tall, leaped into action. Now twice the size of
his father and brother, he didn't need to heed his father's protests.
He had never understood the strained relationship between his father
and uncle.
In Bryan's opinion, Mike was a cool guy. Only 30 years old, Mike was
more like an older brother, not an uncle.
Of course, Paul had never divulged to his sons that their uncle was
gay. And he had ordered Mike not to reveal it to them. Mike's casual
acceptance of his own sexuality was something that Paul had fully
accepted.
Bryan punched in his uncle's number. After a few rings, he heard a
voice. But not his uncle's voice.
"I've got Josh on the line!" Bryan exclaimed.
"Hang up the phone!" Paul ordered.
Bryan ignored his father and began to talk to his uncle's roommate.
"Hey, Josh! Is Mike around?"
"No, Mike's still at work," Josh said. "Is this Bryan?"
"Yeah!"
"You sound strange," Josh said. "Must be a bad connection."
"No, listen," Bryan said. "We need your help. Can you come over? It's
weird, man, but everyone here is shrinking..."
Suddenly, the phone went dead. Bryan, shocked, saw that Paul had
purposely ended the connection.
Paul could not face beeing found by his brother's gay lover.
"We will call someone else," Paul said flatly. "Try your brother."
Bryan, unable to comprehend his father's attitude, nevertheless dialed
Don's number. The phone rang at least a dozen times. "No answer at
Don's dorm," Bryan said.
••••••••
Meanwhile, Josh was still trying to interpret Bryan's strange phone
call. He wanted to blame a bad connection, but he was certain that
Bryan had said that everyone was...shrinking!
Josh got along well with Mike's nephews. He didn't get along so well
with Mike's older brother. Josh resented that he and Mike had to
remain closeted around Don, Bryan and Brett.
And he resented Paul's refusal to acknowledge him as anything beyond
Mike's "roommate."
But, there had been something desperate in Bryan's voice. Josh decided
that he owed it to Mike to investigate and see if Bryan was in some
sort of trouble. He scribbled a note for Mike and then left to visit
the De