Going back out to his bicycle, the newly youthened Ian swung his leg up and over the seat post, then stood up in the seat, only to have his
carefully tightened swim trunks slide down to his knees and exposing his shrunken equipment.
"Shit," said Ian, "I can't go out like this! I'll get in trouble for flashing. I'd better get some clothes." Hopping off the bike, he grabbed his
wallet, opened it to get his ATM card and his ID (did he really ever look like that?!), re-tied the swim trunks, and headed out to try again.
After a confusing session at the bank machine where he tried to remember how much clothes cost, he took his $400 and went to the mall
on the outskirts of town.
"Shoes first," thought Ian. "I'll keep getting kicked out of stores for no shoes." He headed into a discount shoe warehouse store and
headed toward the men's sneakers. "I was a size 13 before," thought Ian, "but I'm a lot smaller now." He grabbed a pair of Asics running
sneakers in size 9, slipped them on, tied them, and walked straight out of them, leaving them laced up and scattered on the floor.
"Guess I don't remember what size I was at this age," he thought. He grabbed a pair of size 8s in the same style, laced them up, and then
slid his toes forward. There was almost an inch gap between his heel and the heel of the sneaker.
A cold feeling overtook him as he put the size 8s back on the shelf and looked for a 7... but the 7s weren't a good fit either. "Damn," he
swore as he shuffled over to the kids' section. Was he really supposed to wear this stuff? He looked for adult-looking running shoes, but
almost all of the selection was either chunky, awkward skate shoes or skinny Vans. The skate shoes made him trip but he thought they
might help with pedaling; he finally settled on a pair of black and grey Vans and a pair of DC skate shoes. Size 5 1/2... how tiny his feet
looked! He grabbed a pair of socks from a rack (size 3-9, which wouldn't even have reached his heel yesterday) and paid for his
purchases.