At the DeSoto home, Paul and his sons, Bryan and Brett, were learning
through trial and error about life at the size of six inches tall.
The first thing they learned was that they were trapped in their own
home. The doors were far too huge for them to push. The knobs, even if
they could have manipulated them, were far too high over their heads.
And both the front door and the back door were a snug fit between the
bottom of the door and the floor. They might be small, but they could
not squeeze under the doors.
"We will wait for Don to come home," Paul announced to his unsettled
sons.
"What if he doesn't come home?" Brett wailed.
"Your brother always comes home on the weekends," Paul reasoned.
"Yeah, to do his laundry," Bryan said.
Paul felt glad that Bryan was finally helping to ease Brett's fears.
He then made the suggestion they find something to cover themselves.
"Hey, Brett!" Bryan asked. "You've still got that collection of action
figures?"
"Yeah," Brett said. "So what?"
"Maybe we could fit into their clothes."
"That's worth a try," Paul said. He patted Bryan's shoulder. "That's
using your head, son."
Bryan gratefully accepted the praise, which felt good coming under
such crisis conditions.
"Go with Brett to his room and try to find us something to wear," Paul
instructed Bryan.
The two brothers took off, disappearing after a short trek from the
living room. They still had to navigate the long, poorly illuminated
hallway. They journeyed in the shadow of the stairs to the second
floor of the home.
"It's a good thing my room's on the ground floor," said Brett, staring
at awe at the flight of stairs, which looked like one vertical wall
after another.
"Yeah," Bryan agreed. "I don't think we could ever scale those steps!"
•••••••••
Paul, in the meantime, wandered around the living room, while also
trying to determine what could have caused him and his sons to shrink
to a size of six inches.
He was in the shadow of a mammoth coffee table when he heard the knock
at the door. His first thought was that his oldest son, Don, had
arrived.
He ran under the coffee table and crossed that space and re-entered
the open area in front of the door.
The knocking continued. That's when he realized that Don, who had his
own key, wouldn't knock.
Suddenly, the door opened slightly.
"Hello," a loud male voice called out. "Is anyone home?"
Paul didn't recognize the voice. As he watched, two huge giants in
police uniforms stepped into the room. At the sight of them, Paul's
legs grew weak from fear. They were so damn huge!
He turned and tried to run.
"I'll check upstairs," one of the officers said.
Paul watched the giant leave the room in only a few strides.
The other giant, a young officer, maybe in his early thirties, began
to glance around the living room. Paul, caught in the open, was unsure
what to do.
••••••••
Investigator Perry Smithdeal saw a phone and started toward it. After
all, two hang-up calls to 9-1-1 had brought him and his partner to
this house.
As he walked across the room, he heard a strange sound, almost like a
squeak. He looked down at his feet. What he saw caused his heart to do
a sudden flop. He felt his breath catch.
"What the hell?"
He stretched out a hand and bent over.
••••••••
"Help! Look out!" Paul had been screaming as the officer walked across
the living room right toward him.
Then, when the officer actually heard and saw him, Paul froze — until
that huge hand reached for him.
He could not evade that hand, though. Its strong fingers wrapped
around his small body.
•••••••
Perry lifted the small man toward his face. He enjoyed the feel of the
man's muscled, hairy body in his bare hand. "What the hell happened to
you?" Perry asked in a shocked, too loud voice.
Paul cringed. "Please, put me down."
Suddenly, Perry heard footsteps on the stairs. "I don't think anyone
is home," his partner shouted on his way back to the room.
Perry, still in stunned amazement, could not believe what he had
discovered. His mind, reasonably enough, wasn't functioning completely
in a rational mode.
In a swift movement, he stuffed Paul into the deep pocket of the
trousers to his uniform.
•••••••••
Bryan and Brett had hidden as the giant officer scaled the stairs to
the upper floor. They had managed to start back to the living room in
time to see the other giant officer capture their father. They watched
as the two officers conversed.
"There's not anyone here," said Captain Kevin Lochley.
"I agree," Perry said. "Might as well head back to the station."
"I saw some bedrooms upstairs. Looked like rooms for some teenagers.
Probably a prank call."
"That's my feeling," Perry said.
Actually, he was feeling a delicious tingling as Paul thrashed and
kicked deep within the pocket of the tight pants to his uniform.
"Let's go," Captain Lochley said.
The two officers left, slamming the door closed behind them, leaving
Bryan and Brett to fend for themselves.
.