Paul spoke hastily, "Don, it's your father. I forgot my housekey. I've got to go back to work, and take care of something. So I'll be home late. Leave the key under the front mat for me."
"Sure thing, pops," Don said, "Though I may be up late myself. They're running the Incredible Shrinking Man on channel 8 tonight."
"They are?" Paul asked as he voice seemed to rise an octave as he shrank further into his loose close.
"Yeah, it's a regular shrinking marathon. :"The Shrinking Woman", "Valley of the Giants", "Dr. Cyclops", and I think a couple others. Probably, "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," too. It's running SciFi stuff all the way through Veteran's Day. Don't you just love it when the guy shrinks helplessly. It's like a metaphor about the insignificance of man, and-"
"Uh, I really got to go," squeaked Paul as he struggled to hold the increasingly heavy phone handset in both his hands. How many times had his son used the word shrink or forms of it?
He was now nose high with Jake's open pungently smelling gym bag. He peered in at the giant sweaty jockstrap and singlet on top. Paul was feeling so horny. He looked at the heap of clothing around him. Then he looked at the dog door in Jake's kitchen. The dog had died a couple years back, but they hadn't blocked up the dog door. He looked toward the door behind which Jake was presumably showering. His tiny prick was rock hard. If he was a bit smaller he could fit under that door, he thought. He lugged his shirt, then his pants and belt, then one sock and shoe and the other sock and shoe into the kitchen and shoved them out the dog door. As he ran naked and tiny back into the living room, he realized that he no longer heard the shower running. He heard a giant footfall and a sound of a door knob turning. Frantically, Paul looked around and then he dove head first into the gym bag.
Giant Jake strode out of the bathroom with only a towel around his waist.
"Mr. DeSoto?" Jake called.
Inside the gym bag, Paul De Soto buried himself in Jake's sweaty gym gear, and held his breath.
"Hm?" Jake bent over and picked up the handset of the phone from where Paul had dropped it on the floor. He pushed the redial button.
"Hello?" Don said.
"Hey, Don, it's Jake. What happened to your dad? He borrowed my phone to call you because he got locked out, and when I came out of the shower he was gone without a word."
"He was over at your house? I must've just missed him. He should've come over and gotten he's keys," Don blurted out.
"Oh, you're home alone?"
"Yeah, he must've gotten paged or something, cause he said he had to go back to work and he'd be home really late. I told him no problem because they've got a Shrinking SciFi Marathon going on tonight."
"Oh, yeah, "The Incredible Shrinking Man" that's a cool movie. Uh, say if you're alone, you want to practice some wrestling moves?"
"Yeah, come on over, Jake. Uh, what are you wearing?"
"Right now, just a towel, but I can be dressed in a couple-"
"Come the back way, just wear the towel, and bring your gym bag."
"But by wrestling gear is ripe," Jake protested.
"Even better," Don said.
Jake grinned, "Yeah, even better. I'm on my way!"
He hung up the phone and grabbed the gym bag and bolted for the back door. He threw the storm door open with such force that Mr. DeSoto's garments were all knocked off the porch without Jake even seeing them.
Inside the swinging gym bag, Mr. Paul DeSoto was excited, terrified and upset. He was really turned on by the nearly naked muscle giant carrying him unbeknownst to him in his own gym bag. He was upset that he didn't know what his own son Don was getting up to with the neighbor boy, and terrified that he would be discovered, and that he was still shrinking.
As Jake scooted through the shadows behind the Laird house, he whispered to himself in a sing-song voice.
"Incredible Shrinking Man", "Land of the Giants," "Dr. Cyclops," oh, I love those films. When I was a kid I used to wish I was the giant and that I captured Jack. Maybe Don will pretend to be Jack tonight?"
Paul bit into the fabric he was clinging to, and tried not to shrink and tried not be aroused. He failed at both.