by Tony Abbott
Sean felt his forehead. It was burning. That’s the trouble, he thought, I’m coming down with something. I’ve got a fever and it’s making me feel strange.
He searched the street for a sign of his friend on his bike. “Jeff, you are nowhere on time!”
Finally, Sean saw him. Jeff was leaping over the sidewalk cracks, in red high-tops with blue laces trailing behind. He was holding a towel.
Sean pedaled over. “Where’s your bike?”
Jeff trotted to a stop, wiping his forehead. He bent to tie his shoes. “I can’t find my bike.”
“You can’t find it?” Sean asked.
Jeff shrugged. “Well, it was in the garage. My dad’s car is gone, too.”
“Gone? You mean, stolen?” Sean said.
“I guess,” Jeff said. “But whoever took my bike and my dad’s car, took the garage, too.”
Sean looked at him. “The garage?” He could see that Jeff was trying to be cheerful, but it wasn’t working. He could burst into tears in a second. “Hey, they’ll find it. I mean there’s probably a special garage squad or something.”
“You think?” Jeff asked. “Maybe a team of special guys?”
“Sure. Now hop on,” said Sean. “We’re late!”
Jeff stepped over the back fender and Sean stood, driving down hard on the pedals.
When they got to Beach Pool right next to Lake Lake, the line for diving lessons was already forming. Mr. Gilman, the school coach who taught swimming over the summer, was standing at the front of the line.
“Hurry, he’s got his clipboard!” cried Jeff.
“Not the horrible clipboard!” Sean laughed.
Sean squeezed into line behind Liz Duffey. Liz was okay, but Sean thought she must have done something wacko with her hair. It was really big, In fact, it was like a huge forest towering over him.
“Ryan Jeff,” said Mr. Gilman, making a mark on his clipboard. He always called everybody by their last names first, even himself. “I’m Gilman Mister,” he said. “Good. Everybody here.”
Then the coach said something very strange. “Except Vickers Sean. Vickers not here. Not good.”
“Hey, I’m here!” Sean called out. He broke line and waved his arms back and forth. “I’m here.”
“Oh,” he said. “Stand tall, Vickers. Can’t see you if you hide behind Duffey Liz’s hair.”
Everybody laughed, even Liz and Jeff.
Sean tried to smile but couldn’t. What’s going on here? he thought.
“Okay, Vickers Sean, front and center,” said Mr. Gilman. “Show me how you dive.”
Sean walked over to the side of the pool. He tried to get into a good dive position, but his trunks were bothering him. They seemed a little loose. He hiked them up and twisted his waist. That felt better.
Sean aimed for the ripply blue water.
Mr. Gilman made some squiggles on his clipboard then looked up again. “No, no, Vickers. Trouble with your form. Ryan Jeff, do it with him.”
Jeff stepped over, tucked his head between his shoulders, and squatted low. “Like this.”
Sean twisted himself to look like Jeff.
“Dive!” Mr. Gilman called out.
The two boys dived together in their twin blue-and-orange racing trunks. They hit the water at the same time. It was warm. It felt great.
They swam over to the side together, slapping the water in unison. As they pulled themselves out of the pool, Mr. Gilman had his head buried in his clipboard.
“Water’s warm,” Sean said.
A second later, everybody on the other side of the pool was laughing and pointing into the water. There, in the light and dark ripples on the surface of the water, something was floating. Something orange. With blue stripes.
“What?” Sean grabbed a towel from a chair.
He shot a look at Jeff. Jeff’s trunks were tight around him.
Sean ran.
5
Something Bad
Sean dashed into the pool house rest room and yanked his clothes off the hook. He jumped into his pants and pulled his belt tight. But even the last hole was too loose.
“My clothes are all against me!” he yelped. Finally, he just tied his belt in a knot.
“This is nutzoid!” he mumbled. “Something very weird is going on here.”
Sean peeked out the door of the rest room. He’d have to make a break for it. He tore off to the bike stand. He pulled his bike out, and climbed onto the seat.
In the fraction of a second before the bike tipped over, Sean saw his feet dangle inches above the pedals.
Wham! He fell over onto the grass. His bike tumbled on top of him.
“Whoa!” yelled Jeff, running out of the rest room, pulling his T-shirt over his head. “What’s with you and bikes? Did you forget how they work?”
“Not funny!” Sean snapped, getting up again.
Jeff pulled the bike up by its handlebar. “Stand aside. I’ll pedal, you ride!”
The laughter still coming from the pool jabbed and jabbed poor Sean’s brain like a fork trying to stab peas.
Sean felt as if he were burning up. His cheeks were red-hot.
When they rounded the corner of Maple and Elm, Sean saw his garage door open. “Leave me here, you take the bike.”
“What? Hey, wait!” Jeff yelled. But before he could turn around, Sean had disappeared into his garage.
From there, Sean slid into the house, dashed through the back hall, across the kitchen, and up the stairs without his parents seeing him.
He needed to get to his room. He needed time to think. He needed—
“Ooof!” He collided with Holly coming out of her bedroom.
Their noses nearly touched.
Sean froze. His whole body went icy cold.
Some tiny part of his brain that was still working said, Holly is four inches shorter than you, Sean. Why is she staring at you, eye to eye? Why is she the same size as you?
Why? Why?
Sean pushed Holly aside, dived into his room, and slammed the door shut.
He stood in front of the mirror and let go of his pants. They fell limp on the floor. The sleeves on his T-shirt dangled to his wrists. The shirt bottom nearly touched the carpet.
What Sean saw in the mirror struck him with such terror that he almost fainted. His body was like a balloon losing air.
Inch by inch, he was getting shorter.
Getting smaller.
Shrinking!
That morning he was nearly five feet tall. But he must have lost almost five inches in the last hour! And it seemed to be going faster!
Sean’s whole room seemed to be growing around him. What would happen when he reached four feet? Three feet?
His clothes puffed up around him.
“I’m melting!” he shrieked to himself.
Suddenly, the doorknob turned and the door opened into the room.
“No! Go away!” yelled Sean, backing away behind his desk. But the sound he made was high and whiny. Could anyone even hear that?
The door swung wide.
It was Holly. “Hey, Sean,” she started, looking all around the room. “Liz just called and told me what happened to you at the poo—poo—pool—”
She glanced behind the desk.
Sean got hot all over. His tongue felt thick and rubbery, like a school hamburger.
“Get out!” he squeaked. “Get out!”
But she didn’t. Holly closed the door, stepped closer, and looked at Sean. He must have been down near two feet now. He could almost stand upright under his desk.
Holly stared at him, her mouth hanging open. “What’s happening to you?”
Sean couldn’t take it. A huge sob welled up in his throat and pushed itself out as if he had swallowed a baseball and his stomach didn’t want it there. “I don’t know! I’m … shrinking! It’s stupid. I’m dying or something! It’s probably some … bad thing.”
“What bad thing?” Holly asked.
“I don’t know,” he
sobbed. Terror began to creep into every thought. He couldn’t be sure about anything. “Maybe something bad I did.”
Holly rolled her eyes. “Dummy! Is your brain shrinking, too?”
Sean gasped. “Maybe it is! Maybe my brain is shrinking! I’ll start to get dumber. Like a little kid. Then a baby. Then a nothing, a zero, a—!”
“Stop it, Sean!” Holly said. “You’re shrinking. Okay, it happens. Now let’s think about this. Did you eat any strange food?”
Sean wiped his forehead with his huge T-shirt. He was still getting smaller. About a foot and a half, now, he thought. “Well, I had some eyeball candy and washed it down with that blue stuff Dad keeps in the milk carton. And some of that green goo on the counter—”
Holly nodded. “The stuff that looks like pudding but isn’t? No, that wouldn’t do this.”
Sean couldn’t see across the top of his bed anymore.
“Did you go anywhere different in the last few days?” Holly asked him. “Something you did that no one else did?”
“The only place was Kruger’s Toy World—”
“No, we all went there.” Holly shook her head and looked away.
Sean knew he must be gross to look at. He knew he was still getting smaller. But there was something else that kept popping back into his mind. “Kruger was very weird.”
“I’ll be right back,” Holly whispered. She left the room.
Sean wondered how long he would last. He was probably only about a foot tall now, maybe less.
But his mind kept whirling like a hurricane. The toy shop. The tiny Grover’s Mill for his dad’s movie. Pizza with anchovies. Mr. Kruger. His cat, Fluffy. What did any of this have to do with him shrinking?
A minute later Holly was back with her pocketbook. She took out a bunch of stuff and put it on the floor next to Sean. “I brought these for you. You can change out of your diaper now.”
Sean began picking through a pile of tiny blue shorts and weird glittery vests that Holly’s “Ron” doll wore. “Oh, man, this is pathetic.”
“Don’t worry, Ron won’t mind.” She smiled.
Then Sean stopped. In the pile was something familiar. Jeans and a T-shirt. A W. Reid Elementary School T-shirt! “My clothes! My sneakers, too! This is amazing. How could these clothes—”
Suddenly something struck Sean. Not something heavy, something—
“Light!”
Holly looked up at the ceiling light. “What about the light?”
“No. Last night. When we went biking up to find Mike Mazur’s house. And there was the blast of light.”
“You’re sure it wasn’t the moon?” Holly asked.
“No! And I was wearing these clothes!” Sean said.
“You can wear them again, it’s okay.”
“You don’t get it,” said Sean. “These clothes are the same size as me. They must have been shrinking the same as me! But I only wore this shirt with these pants once—yesterday!”
Then it hit him. Of course! He was the only one who saw the blast. He was the only one who was in the blast. “It was the light, the purple light, that made me small!”
6
Kid Shrinko
“Yes! I remember now,” Sean said, jumping into his T-shirt and pants. “The blast of light made me shrink!”
Holly shook her head from side to side slowly. “It’s impossible. Things like this don’t happen.”
“Yeah, don’t I wish,” Sean said. “Have you forgotten that we live in Weirdsville, USA? Besides, just look at me. I’m the size of a … a …”
“Toy?” Holly added.
“The toymaker!” Sean squeaked. “He must know something about this. He must! I’ve got to get there!” Sean started running for the door.
“But what does Mr. Kruger have to do with the purple light you saw?” Holly asked.
Sean stopped. “I don’t know—yet. But look, he makes small stuff. I’m small. Not only that, I think he’s hiding something in that closet of his. Hey, all I know is I’ve got to get back to that toy shop. The answer’s there!”
Holly stood up. “I’d better tell Mom and Dad about this.”
“No!” Sean shouted. “They’ll just take me to some hospital and I’d get smaller and smaller and no one would believe me and I’d probably just disappear forever.”
Holly bit her lip. “You’re right. We need to do something now.” She looked him straight in the eye and swallowed hard. “I don’t want a little brother. I want a big brother like before.”
She unzipped her pocketbook and held it open on the floor. “Get in!”
Sean stepped back. “What?” he sniffed. “I can’t fit in there!”
But he could, and it shocked him. He was now no more than four inches tall. The size of a little action figure. The size of a toy.
Taking a deep breath, Sean climbed in Holly’s pocketbook, into the middle of a bunch of girl stuff—a comb, a lipstick, a purple puppy pad, a glitter pen, and a mirror.
The mirror was only about four inches long, but Sean could see his whole body. “Thanks. Now I can see just how small I am.”
“Hang on,” she said. “We’re going downstairs to call Jeff. I’ll tell him to meet us at the store.”
ZIIPPPP! Holly zipped him in. He could feel her lifting the pocketbook and pulling the strap over her shoulder.
Then he felt her bouncing down the stairs. The next thing he knew, she was gently setting the pocketbook down on something. He crawled to the top and peered out.
The kitchen table! His father was there, a bowl of Wheat-O cereal and a cup of coffee in front of him. He was reading the Grover’s Mill Gazette.
Holly went over to the telephone and dialed a number. Then she stretched the cord from the kitchen to the living room. “Hello, Jeff?”
Mr. Vickers rattled the newspaper and turned the page. Sean read the headlines on the front. “Water Tower Diapers” was on top. Below that was an article called “Doctor Varnishes.” Along the side was one called “Sports on Pluto.”
Sure, thought Sean. How long would it be before there was a story about him. “Local Boy Shrinks.” But no, the Gazette always spelled everything wrong, so it would probably be something like “Loco Boy Stinks!”
“Hey, that toymaker!” Mr. Vickers suddenly burst out. “He sure loves my movies! Well, who doesn’t love a Humongous Horror Movie?”
“No one, Dad,” Holly shouted from the living room.
“Quite right, daughter!” Mr. Vickers said. He set the paper down and placed a Wheat-0 on the handle of his cereal spoon. Closing his eyes, he slammed down the other end of the spoon so that the tiny Wheat-O flipped in the air right into his mouth.
Slam! Flip! Slurp! Mmm! Mr. Vickers quickly loaded another Wheat-O.
Sean looked up at the giants around him and a sudden, chilling fear settled over him. His father, even his little sister, could kill him with a single move. Squash him right onto the table. An inch one way or the other and he’d be mushed cookie dough. Then a single wipe of the sponge and he’d be gone!
When no one was looking, Sean slipped out of the pocketbook and onto the table. He ducked behind the coffee cup.
He felt totally alone in a world of giants. Everything he knew was changed. Everything was different now. He wasn’t like his family anymore. He was even weirder. He was a freak.
Maybe they’d put him on display.
Sure, thought Sean. Kid Shrinko! Mini Boy! Freak Child! They’d write articles about him. He’d be in books. Even in The Weird Zone he’d be weird! He had to get out of there!
Slam! Flip! Slurp!
Sean panicked. He ran.
Slam! Flip! Slurp!
But he slipped on a drip of coffee and fell over the end of his father’s spoon, knocking the next Wheat-O off.
With one quick stroke—slam!—Sean was propelled into the air. He was flipping over and over on his way to his father’s open mouth!
7
Stomp That Boy!
The wet tongue! The s
aliva! The sharp teeth!
“Yuuuuuck!” screeched tiny Sean as the giant jaws swung open for their treat.
Suddenly Holly was in the air, diving in from the living room, sliding across the kitchen table, her hands stretching for the tiny figure that was not a tasty Wheat-O but Sean Vickers, mini human boy! Her brother!
Wump! She grabbed Sean and tumbled, hitting the floor with a thud.
“Would you like your own bowl of tasty Wheat-O’s, dear?” Mr. Vickers asked her.
“I … uh.” Holly got up and quickly slid Sean into her pocketbook once more. “Dad, can we go to Kruger’s Toy World?”
“But my set won’t be ready until tomorrow,” her father said.
Holly shifted her weight. “I need to get something for Sean’s birthday right away.”
Mr. Vickers raised an eyebrow and stepped over to the calendar tacked on the wall. “Your brother’s birthday is seven months away.”
“He’s my only brother, Dad,” Holly said.
Sean knew how much his sister probably wanted to gag.
“I need to—you know—get him something.”
There was a tone in Holly’s voice that Sean hadn’t heard before. Was it fear?
“What children I have!” Mr. Vickers exclaimed. “Grab your pocketbook, missy!”
“I have it,” she said, swinging the pocketbook up for him to see.
Sean slid down the puppy pad, getting his feet stuck in the coil. “Hey, be careful!” he yelled.
After a short ride to Kruger’s Toy World, Holly jumped out of the car. She was holding her pocketbook close to her. “Hurry, Dad. Every second counts!”
Sean stuck his head out of the pocketbook.
Suddenly—
Bong! The giant donut-shaped clock on top of the Double Dunk Donut Den struck noon!
Sssss! The enormous pancake pan atop Usher’s House of Pancakes also hissed out the hour.
Noon! Lunch! Food time!
An instant later, the sidewalks were a mad rush of flip-flops, sneakers, sandals, and bare feet tearing off toward noontime eats!
Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!
Holly leaped from the sidewalk to avoid a horde of hungry people!
Her pocketbook whipped around behind her.