The tiny man watched as Joe scooted a chair from the table and sat in it. His instinct told him to run, but he knew he could not possibly run fast enough to escape the two enormous teens.
"PULL UP A CHAIR AND WATCH," Joe instructed.
Tommy seated himself just as Joe lifted a bare foot and hovered it over the little man.
The bug-sized scientist watched the bare foot rise a few inches off the floor and move to cover him. The enormous foot blocked his view of the titans.
Slowly, without applying too much weight, Joe lowered the sole of his bare foot onto the tiles. He caught the speck of a man beneath the arch of his foot, halfway between the heel and his toes.
"WHAT YOU DOING MAN?"
"IT'S FUN. I'VE DONE THIS SINCE I WAS A KID." Joe explained as he rolled his foot back and forth.
"WON'T THAT JUST CRUSH THE ANT?" Tommy asked.
"NOT IF I'M CAREFUL," Joe said. He felt a tiny form, no bigger than a grain of sand, provide a hint of resistance between his foot and the floor.
Tommy grinned and began removing his shoes. "I WANNA GIVE IT A GO!"
Joe lifted his foot and saw the tiny bug sprawled on the floor. "BE MY GUEST."
Tiny Mr. Smith had been certain the giant meant to stomp him, but Joe had merely trapped him. Then, the cruise ship-sized foot began to roll him back and forth. He had produced unheard screams, begging them to spare him.
When the foot lifted, he imagined he had been heard. Instead, when he weakly turned over on his back and looked up, he saw Tommy removing his socks.
"No!" The little man screamed. "Tommy, it's me."
His neighbor's foot hovered over him for a moment and then began to move closer.
"Tommy! Please, stop!"
Once again, he found himself trapped against a teenager's bare foot. The pressure felt greater, owing to Tommy's inexperience with playing with bugs beneath his bare feet.
"CAREFUL," his friend advised. "IT'S EASY TO ACCIDENTALLY SMUSH THEM."
"YEAH," Tommy said as he began to slowly roll his foot forward.
"YOU FEEL IT?" Joe asked.
"YEAH, I THINK I DO!" Tommy exclaimed. Indeed, he felt the pinpoint of friction where the tiny body prevented his foot from meeting with the unyielding floor.
"NOW, ROLL YOUR FOOT BACK, GENTLY," Joe said.
Tommy followed the instructions, a wide grin on his face.
"ISN'T IT COOL, MAN?" Joe asked. "I COULD PLAY WITH THESE TEENY BUGS ALL DAY LONG!"
Tommy continued to roll the puny ant beneath his bare foot, discovering why Joe found this activity such a thrill. He held absolute control over the tiny creature. The application of the slightest pressure could smear it beneath his foot.
It became a game, the challenge being to see how long he could roll the unfortunate bug beneath his foot without accidentally bring too much force to bear.
He laughed. "Too bad you can't teach bugs tricks," he joked. "We could teach it to worship our feet."
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