Andrew was trapped in the little room at the back of the arcade, a twenty-five foot giant, with no coins left to get a wish, and afraid to do anything drastic with the magic machines.
"Help!" Andrew bellowed, and then louder, "Help!"
A minute later the door, which he'd thought had disappeared but had really just now become so much smaller than him, opened, and a tiny many--or maybe medium height, relative to the size of the door, stepped in. He looked up at Andrew. "Don't need to be so loud. I heard you the first time."
The tiny man didn't seem all that surprised to see the giant Andrew. "Can you help me?"
"Depends," said the little man. "I'm Murray. I do maintenance here. Did one of the machines take your quarter?"
"Uh, no," said Andrew. "I just wished to be bigger than all the other boys at school and now look at me."
Murray smiled. "Ah, you must have used The Wizard. He's a nice old machine. Always gives a fair interpretation of a wish."
"This is fair?"
"Well, you're probably bigger than all the boys put together, aren't you?"
"But I didn't want to be this big! I just wanted to be the biggest guy at school!"
"Well," said Murray, "if that's what you wanted, that's what you should have wished. Can't blame The Wizard for being literal. Why don't you just play until you get another wish?"
"I ran out of quarters. I can't work the machine very well being this big."
"Hmm, well, that's probably true. You seem a pretty nice kid so I can give you a free play on one of the machines, but that's it. If you lose, that's the end of it." He glanced around. "I can, however, give you a bit of advice: Play to your strengths. There's the old strength tester over there, see?"
Andrew looked and saw that there was indeed one of those, equiped with a rubber mallet and a post half as tall as he was with a bell at the top surrounded by the words EVERY TIME THE BELL RINGS A WISH IS GRANTED.
"What should I wish?"
Murray shrugged. "Whatever you want. But the strength tester works a bit different...you make your wish silently, then how big of a wish it is makes for how hard as it to ring the bell. Even with as strong as you probably are now."
"So if I wish for too much...?"
"You probably won't have any wish granted." Murray looked up at him. "But if you could, hurry up. I'd like to lock up and go home."
Andrew thought, then took the mallet. He wished he were smaller, but still the biggest guy in school. Something amazing but still possible, like maybe seven feet tall and muscular. And maybe well hung too." He took the mallet and swung down with all his considerable strength, watching as it went up past several markers, but still fell short of the shiny brass bell at the top.
Murray looked up at him. "Well, you'd have won a kewpie doll if we still had any." He sighed then. "But I still want to go home. Here, watch and see how it's done."
He went over to an old fortune telling machine with a granny mannequin inside of it and the logo GRANNY GRANTS YOUR HEARTS DESIRE. He put in a coin and fished out a card a moment later. He then looked at Andrew and intoned clearly "I wish this kid would shrink until he's small enough to get out the door so I could lock up and go home."
Andrew immediately felt himself shrinking in all directions, shutting up like the worlds biggest telescope. "How much am I going to shrink?"
Murray shrugged. "Dunno. Granny's tricky sometimes." He opened the door. "But I'd get out quick unless you want to be a midget."
Andrew did, ducking out frantically as his back scraped the top of the doorframe. Murray followed a moment later with Andrew's shredded shoes and jeans.
Murray locked the door as Andrew looked down at him, realizing that he was still huge. "How big am I?"
Murray glanced up at Andrew. "Nine foot seven and a half. I used to do the 'Guess your height' game back when this was more of a carnival."
"What am I going to do?"
Murray shrugged. "I bet your school's basketball team will be happy to have you. Anyway, good night."
Murray vanished around the corner, and when Andrew followed, the maintenance man wasn't there. And when he went back, the entrance to the arcade had vanished too.
Murray shru