After a moment, Jeff decided that he would like to walk in on her, and play dumb about the whole situation. He was curious to see what her reaction would be.
He walked into the kitchen calmly, trying his hardest to keep a straight face.
When his sister saw him she shouted, "Jeff!"
He did his best to act surprised and said, "Emily? Is that really you? What happened?"
His sister, Emily, blushed, "I... uh, don't know. I just grew really tall of the sudden. You've got to help me."
"How?" he asked. "I mean, what can I do? How did this happen in the first place?"
"I don't know!" moaned Emily. She looked ready to cry. "I was just getting some milk, and then my body started to stretch out until my head hit the ceiling. I feel like I'm made out of twigs now. I mean, just look at me. I'm a freak."
She held up her skinny arms in front of Jeff as she stared into his eyes with a look of desperation.
"What if someone sees me like this? I'd just die!"
"It's okay, Em," said Jeff as he put a hand on her bony shoulder to comfort her. "Don't worry. I'm sure we can figure this out somehow. Hmmm. Why don't you show me just where you were when all of this happened?"
"O-Okay," Emily stuttered. Looking a bit ungainly, she stood herself up again. She took care to crouch down a little to avoid bumping her head into the ceiling again. It took all of his self control, for Jeff to keep from laughing as he watched his sister walk across the kitchen on her long skinny legs.
Already, Jeff had come up with another transformation to try on her. As her back was turned, he set the Chronivac emitter for the new change.
"It was right here," said Emily when she reached the place in which she had been standing before.
"There?" said Jeff pointing to where she stood. He walked over to her and then around her, as if he was examining the spot of her transformation. In actuality, he was trying to get behind her so that he could fire the emitter at her again without being noticed. And, that is exactly what he did a moment later.
Immediately, Emily began to shrink.
"Oh!" she exclaimed as she became 7' tall. "I'm changing again! I think I'm getting smaller now!"
"Amazing," said Jeff as she passed 6' tall, and then moments later, she was shorter than him again. He watched her neck shrink back to a more natural proportion, as her limbs pulled themselves into her body. The wide gaps between her pants and her shoes and between her shirt and waist quickly disappeared. Emily had a look of relief on her face as her body started to resemble its normal proportions again.
Soon, she was back to her regular height of 4'8", but the shrinking did not stop there. She started to look worried again as she approached 4' tall.
"It's not stopping, Jeff!" she cried. "Help, I'm too small!"
All Jeff could do was watch as she approached 3' tall. Her body now looked as if it was being squished flat by some unseen hand pushing down on her shoulders and head. Her neck virtually disappeared as all of her limbs became stubby and thick.
When she reached the very small height of 2'8" tall, the changes stopped. She now stood thigh-high to Jeff's leg and was almost as wide as she was tall. She looked down at her body to see that her shirt now hung down nearly to her ankles and her pants were bunched up at her comparatively large feet. She held her hands up in front of her face, they too seemed far too large in proportion to the rest of her body, but even her fingers appeared a bit stubbier than usual. To Jeff, she looked like a very squat dwarf girl now, although her head appeared unchanged by the shrinking except for her now invisible neck.
Emily looked up at Jeff in horror.
"Nooooo!" she moaned. "I can't believe this is happening. I'm some kind of midget now."
"Maybe we should stay away from this spot, after all," said Jeff.
Emily's eyes went wide. "You're right!" she said and quickly attempted to run away. But, after her first step, she tripped and fell face forward onto the tiles. It may have been that her legs were too short for running now, or that her feet were a bit too big, but, either way, the best she could hope for now with her squat frame was a rapid walk.
Jeff walked over and lifted her back up onto her feet. He was a bit surprised as he realized that she weighed the same as before she had shrunk. All of the mass from her body had not disappeared. It was just concentrated into a much shorter body now, which made sense since her height was the only demension Jeff had changed. Her weight and her width remained the same.
"Better take it a bit slower for now," Jeff suggested once she had regained her balance.
This time as she walked, she was careful with each little step. The pace was infuriatingly slow for her now. She could just barely toddle along at about a quarter of her normal walking pace.
Eventually, they got back to the table. When Emily looked up at how high the chairs were to her now, she looked ready to cry again. Jeff just grabbed her under the armpits and lifted her onto a chair. As she sat down, her big feet stood up tall in front of her. With her back against the back of the chair, her legs did not even reach the edge of the seat now.
"What am I going to do now?" she moaned. "I'm to small to even walk up the stairs now. I can't go anywhere anymore. Not like this."
Jeff knew he should feel pity for her, but the whole situation was all just too funny. It was, after all, a joke that he was playing on her. Though, he sensed that he was being more than a little bit cruel to her.
He wondered a moment if the power of the Chronivac was going to his head.
"Don't worry, Em," he said. "We're going to figure out a way to get you back to normal. I promise."
Emily looked up at him hopefully. She seemed so pathetic and helpless now. He wondered what he would do to her next. Would he change her back to normal, or would he try something else? Then, of course, he could always just leave her like this for a while? What would it be?