This choice: Shelly takes them to a college class • Go Back...Chapter #6Shelly takes them to a college class by: c.   Heather and Nick squirmed uncomfortably in Shelly's pocket. Not that they were physically uncomfortable. The ripped jeans Shelly liked to wear were very tight, but for such tiny people as themselves there was still plenty of wiggle room. She had also provided them with a few crumbs of food and specialized water bottles for tinies that someone had invented. However, they were nervous for what they had signed up for.
Shelly's sociology professor had offered an extra credit opportunity for anyone who brought one or more shrunken people in the class and gave a report on how shrunken people could potentially be re-integrated into society and their experience with them. The shrinking phenomenon was the biggest national story of the year and had ignited all sorts of debates about human rights and society's obligation to help the weak. Shelly had asked their permission first, persuading them that she would keep an eye on them at all times and that it was the least they could do after all she had done to protect them.
"Besides," she had said. "How are you ever going to live a semblance of a normal life if you're too scared to leave my dorm?"
Nick's flashlight illuminated Heather's worried face, and he embraced her. "It'll be alright," he said.
They listened to Shelly's presentation, which they had helped with. She had taken a more compassionate stance than many on the tiny people, although she had been respectful of other viewpoints handled in her essay.
The next thing they knew, Shelly's pale fingers were fishing them out of her pocket, and she gentle placed them on top of her notebook. The paper was rough on Nick's feet, and he stared around at the giant ink words that looped around him. Shelly had neat handwriting, he remarked to himself. She liked to add little black stars here and there, and her penmanship had something of a gothic touch.
There was a series of excited whispers and the sound of movement, and he looked up. The other college students were crowded around. He could smell their breath wafting down at him, all those giant eyes and noses and mouths causing his heartbeat to quicken. He could see them stare up and down their tiny bodies, which were clothed in a loose white garment of very soft fabric-anything too tight against the body was very uncomfortable for tiny people. There was something lurid behind the gaze of one or two of the women that stared at him, and beside him Heather pulled the top of her garment up to cover the cleavage that several giant eyes had locked on.
There was the sound of someone walking in high heels, and the teacher-a rather beautiful blonde woman in her forties-announced that she was going to pick up the tinies. Nick and Heather yelped has her surprisingly rough and dry hands snatched them up.
"We have learned of many power dynamics in this class," she said to her pupils. "Some wider than others. But perhaps never in history has there been a gap as wide as this. Between normals and shrinkies." Her fingers had started to absent-mindedly stroke the shrunken people, like one might pet a hamster. Nick wanted to bat her huge fingers away, but he was afraid of angering this enormous woman. "With a simple movement of my hand, I could crush them into nothing. Our slightest movements can mean life and death to them. And that is why so many struggle to see shrinkies as even fully human anymore." Nick caught a worried glance from Shelly. "We've heard the stories, which may shock and horrify the more sympathetic of you. Of shrinkies who have fallen into less kind hands than our dear classmates. Shrinkies who have met their end crushed underfoot, or under other objects. Shrinkies who have died or been seriously injured by mere carelessness. Tinies that have been the meal of some animal, or sometimes even an unwitting normal. A shrunken person tumbles into a hot soup perhaps while trying to get normal's attention and winds up gulped down with the meat and noodles." There was a timely growl from the tight fabric of her lime-green dress. "Hell, I'm rather hungry myself right now," she guffawed. Nick shivered at the thought of his whole existence ending as the meal of some middle-aged woman, dissolving helplessly in the acids of her cavernous stomach. "Others have been broken satisfying lustful desires, as some who visit certain websites can attest to. Don't act coy, you know the ones I'm talking about." Nervous laughter erupted from parts of the class, but Nick felt like he was going to be sick, and Heather whimpered with fear.
Relief washed over Nick as the teacher walked back to Shelly, who snatched them out of the teacher's hands protectively, cupping her hands gently around the tinies as she held them to her body.
"Don't get too attached to them, Shelly. Even trained researchers have had gruesome accidents while attempting to study and take care of them. The more you see them as fellow people, the more psychologically devastated you will be should you lose them, especially if it's by your own doing. It's estimated that almost ninety percent of shrinkie fatalities are caused by actions or accidents made by the person who possesses them or someone in their household."
"I will keep them safe," Shelly said fiercely, her voice trembling with emotion. "I will."
"I'm sorry my dear," said the professor, "but you must acknowledge that the odds are against it."   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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