The first part of the shrunken man’s journey through the mail was nothing if not eventful. Tiny Mr. Smith was repeatedly shaken about; he was surrounded by the noise of machinery, human voices and the thud of other letters and packages landing nearby. It was alarming at first, and Mr. Smith feared that at any moment his fragile sanctuary might be carelessly dropped or the sides crushed in, reducing him to a tiny, unrecognizable smear. But Bryan eventually recovered his composure and scolded himself for his anxiety. Thousands upon thousands of parcels and letters went through this same routine every day. Just because there happened to be an infinitesimally tiny man hidden deep within this one didn’t mean that things would somehow be different. Nobody in the whole wide world knew he was even here.
After an hour or so Mr. Smith finally became accustomed to the various sounds and movements around him. He even began to enjoy it a little: trying to make out the muffled snatches of conversation outside or imagine where exactly his box might be at this precise moment. Once his mind was occupied in this way time seemed to pass more quickly.
Eventually, however, the movements ceased and the noises faded into the distant background. The package had been left somewhere, apparently unattended.
Bryan prided himself on his ability to plan ahead. He had arranged the fastest shipping available, but had nevertheless anticipated that there might still be hours of tedium before him. One of the pieces of “equipment” he had therefore taken care to miniaturize beforehand was a smartphone loaded with articles and e-books for him to read. Unfortunately, there were certain other problems that Bryan had failed to anticipate.
For a start, he hadn’t realized just how dark it would be inside the package. He should have guessed this, of course, but he had been too wrapped up in the excitement of the adventure to give it proper consideration. It wasn’t immediately a problem: the phone provided its own illumination. However, his eyes soon became strained from trying to read the glare of the small screen in the otherwise near-total darkness. Finally he gave up and decided to check his email instead--only to discover there was no signal.
Mr Smith mentally kicked himself. In its highly-miniaturized state - not to mention blanketed by the thick layers of wrapping and packaging - the device was simply incapable of connecting with the outside world. But worse was to come. Close to the icon indicating the (lack of) signal strength was the battery meter - and it was almost empty!
“10%?! It should be full! I’m sure I charged it last... DAMN!” And then he remembered. He had indeed put out the phone for charging the previous evening - only to be distracted by an unexpected phone call. How could he be so stupid?
For the first time Bryan started to feel genuinely apprehensive about the situation. He was by no means claustrophobic but he suddenly became uncomfortably aware of how he was now nothing more than a tiny little speck trapped inside a rather small and ordinary parcel travelling through the nation’s labyrinthine postal system. The phone hadn’t simply been there to keep him amused; it was his lifeline if something serious happened and he needed to contact somebody. It’s inability to function as intended meant that he was now cut off from the normal, everyday world he had previously taken for granted. He was completely alone: just a single teeny ant lost in a mysterious world of oblivious and unfathomable giants. Part of him wanted to scrabble frantically out through the minuscule tear in the wrapping and flee...
The calm and logical scientist warred with the frightened miniaturized human... and finally won. Leaving the relative safety of the box at this point would truly be the worst thing he could do. He had no idea where he was, and without the aid of his phone he had no easy means to communicate with any of the people who might be outside. Like it or not, Bryan told himself he had to remain calm and wait. He was already on his way to his nephew: in a few hours he would be delivered and Zack would open the package. Everything would be fine. He couldn’t wait to see just how huge Zack would be - not to mention the expression on his nephew’s face when he saw how utterly minute his uncle was by comparison!
The thought immediately made him relax and he concentrated on dreaming about all the things he and his nephew could do together. A few minutes later he heard muffled noises outside. The cardboard walls around him creaked as a gigantic pair of hands grasped the box and lifted it up. The package shook gently as it was carried away. “There,” Bryan told himself, “I knew everything would work out okay. It won’t be long now!”
But tiny Mr. Smith had no idea just how wrong he could be...
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