Jim thought a moment and looked at Tom. Then, he looked back at Judy. "Can you give us a minute alone to talk?" he asked her.
She nodded her little head. "Don't leave me alone too long," she said.
Jim motioned his head sideways to Tom and they headed into the living room together, leaving Judy to struggle with her glass of water for another sip.
"Well," Tom said. "She's got a point. What do we do now?"
"First," Jim said. "You give me the balloon."
Tom sighed and held the balloon out to Jim. "Yeah," Tom said. "You're right. I kinda blew it. Haha, get it? Blew it?"
Jim just took the balloon and groaned quietly at the bad pun. "Second, here's what I want you to do. Go into the kitchen. Tell her that I will be right back. That I'm going to the bathroom. Then, I'll blow up the balloon again. When her head looks to be the right size again. Call my name, and I'll stop."
"Hey," Tom said, his eyes lighting up. "That's a good plan. Nice one, man."
"Okay," Jim said, feeling weary and eyeing a nearby grandfather clock. His parents would be back soon. "Just go and try to call me exactly when her head looks right again. Understand?"
"I got it, man. No problem."
The two of them separated. Tom went to the kitchen to sit down with Judy. Jim ran upstairs to the bathroom. He left the door open so that he could hear his friend call.
"Here goes nothing," he said as he sat on the toilet lid.
He put the balloon to his lips and started to slowly fill it up with tiny little breaths of air. He could hear his sister squeak in surprise downstairs, and he knew that it was working. A few more little breaths later and Tom called his name. Jim pinched down on the opening of the balloon and said, "Release," quietly to himself.
"Coming!" he shouted back as he let the balloon quietly deflate and then stuffed it in his pocket.
He hurried downstairs to find Tom and his smiling sister sitting at the table. She was happily running her hands over her face and around her head.
When she saw Jim she cried out, "Jimmy! I'm normal again. Look at me." She giggled cheerfully. "I was so scared, but it's over now." She sighed happily and slumped back in the chair. "Thank, God."
Jim let out a relieved breath and sat down at the table smiling. He eyed Judy carefully, trying to decide if her head was really the right size again. It seemed about right, although he had a nagging worry that it still might be a bit small. Then again, how often had he tried to visually measure a person's head, let alone the head of a young girl. He would just have to hope that they got it close enough. At the very least, their parents should not notice that anything is wrong.
"I guess that old guy only wanted to scare me," Judy said reflectively. "Good thing he didn't really want to hurt me, or I'd still be stuck in my room."
"Yeah," Jim said.
"I tell you this," she said, pointing at Jim. "I'm going to be a lot more careful about what I say to other people from now on. You never know what they might do if you make them angry."
"Sounds like you learned a lesson," Tom said.
Jim and Judy both gave him an annoyed look. "Pretty cheesy, dude," Jim said.
Judy just laughed.
As she laughed, the two boys just looked at each other and nodded. They had pulled it off, even if there had been a few hiccups along the way. The plan seemed to have worked.
Outside they could hear a car pull up on the driveway. Jim and Judy's parents were home.
Judy ran off to greet them at the door. She gave their mother a big hug when she came in.
"Hi, honey," their mother said as she balanced a grocery bag in each arm. "My goodness. What's up with you?" she asked as Judy clung to her waist tightly.
Judy released the hug and just smiled up at her mother and said, "Oh, nothing. I'm just happy to see you again."
Her mother looked a bit confused, but she seemed to let it drop. She set her grocery bags down by the door and Judy volunteered to help her carry the rest of the bags inside.
When the two of them were out the door, Jim looked over at Tom and whispered, "That was close."
"Too close," Tom said. "But, it was fun."
"It was scary," Jim said. "But, maybe it was a bit fun too."
The two of them bumped fists across the table and smiled.
"Balloon squad forever," Tom said.
Jim chuckled.
"So," Tom said with mischief in his eyes. "What next?"
They talked over some plans for a few minutes while they were alone.