Jim stood there at the food court and thought a moment. He decided that he really wanted to try out the balloon on himself, but not here. He left the mall and rode his bike home. When he entered his house, he called out to see if anyone was around. No one answered. He was alone. Perfect, they must all be out at one of his sister’s soccer games or something.
Jim ran up to his room, shut the door and closed the drapes. Even in an empty house, he wanted to keep this as private as possible. He pulled out the balloon and considered what to try changing first. The old man in the shop had already played around with his height. Maybe Jim would just try a single body part. Briefly he considered growing his penis, but he decided that he didn’t want to mess with something as precious as that until he had some more practice with the balloon.
Then, Jim remembered that the old man had mentioned his feet before. It wouldn’t hurt to try changing them first as a test. At worst, his mom would have to buy him new shoes. He kicked off his size-6 sneakers and pulled off his socks leaving his feet bare. Looking down at his little feet, he said the spell, “Control my foot size.”
“Okay,” he said. “Just one or two breaths.”
Jim blew into the balloon and it expanded with a “FFOOOOOFFF” and the sound of stretching rubber. At the same time, his feet stretched out larger on the carpet below. He could feel the carpet sliding underneath them as the soles of his feet took up more surface area. They now appeared to be a few shoe sizes larger. He lifted his right foot up and wriggled his larger toes. Everything felt normal, except that his foot seemed slightly heavier.
He blew into the balloon again, “FFOOOOOOF.” And again, he felt his feet spread out larger on the carpet. Looking down, he had to laugh. His feet were huge now, probably bigger than his Dad’s. He lifted his right foot again. This time the weight difference was very noticeable. It seemed like someone had tied a lead weight to his ankle. He wriggled his big toes again. They were thicker than his fingers now. How weird, he thought.
Jim had to try taking a few steps. It was a strange sensation, walking with such big feet. He had to be careful to lift his knees up high so that his long toes wouldn’t catch on the carpet and trip him up. It reminded him of a past family vacation when Jim had gone diving with his family and he had been walking around with flippers on his feet.
He slowly made his way to his bedroom door one careful step at a time so that he could look at himself in the full body mirror attached to it. (The mirror was left over from when his older sister had lived in this room before she moved out.) He looked at his body with his big feet and laughed again.
“I look just like a hobbit,” Jim said. He smiled. This was all so incredible to him. This was real magic, magic he controlled. The power was intoxicating. He felt so giddy transforming himself.
Forgetting that he only wanted to try a couple of breaths, he put the balloon to his lips again to inflate his feet some more. “FFFOOOOOOOOOFF.” Jim’s feet now rivaled the size of professional basketball players’. No, forget that, they were probably the biggest feet in the world. He was sure that they didn’t manufacture a shoe in this size. They would have to create a pair special order just for him. He tried lifting his foot again, but it was no use. Even using all of his might, he could just barely get his heel off the ground. He figured that he might be able to shuffle around if he pulled himself along with his toes and slid his feet along the carpet.
Feeling reckless, Jim took a very deep breath and blew into the balloon one more time. “FFFFFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFF.” Now his feet grew to be three feet long and a foot wide. His whole body rose up higher as his feet expanded, leaving him half a foot taller than normal. He wriggled his giant toes again and laughed to see that he now controlled such huge digits. His biggest toes were the size of soft balls now! After an experimental pull, it was clear that he wouldn’t be moving around at all with feet this big. He was anchored to the spot by them. Looking at himself in the mirror, he saw that he looked like some absurd version of a troll doll.
After admiring their size for a minute, Jim let the air slip out of the balloon in one long hiss, and his feet shrank back to normal. It disappointed him to see them back to their regular size as they felt so tiny in comparison to how big they had been.
Then, an idea came to him. He sprinted to his parent’s room, taking a moment to enjoy running on his swift little feet again. He pulled out a pair of his dad’s shiny black leather work shoes and stepped into them. They were huge on him, of course. If he had tried to walk, they would have soon slipped off his little feet.
Jim blew into the balloon. “FFFOOOOOOOOFF.” The shoes seemed to shrink as his feet expanded. He stopped blowing once he felt the shoes constricting around his feet. He let a little air out so that his dad’s shoes would fit him more comfortably. Then, he tried walking in them. After taking a few careful steps, he laughed to himself.
“Talk about ‘walking a mile in someone else’s shoes,’” He said and laughed again. “I really am ‘following in my father’s footsteps’ now.”
Jim let the air out and the shoes seemed to grow larger again. “Release,” he said. After putting the shoes away and running back to his room, he looked at himself the mirror again. Feeling excited, he tried to decide what to change next.