The tiny scientist found himself in close proximity to Tommy's huge, bare feet, which were enclosed in a pair of rubber sandals. Staring the short distance from his position to those massive feet and equally huge sandals, the enormity of his situation was brought home to the unlucky little man.
The fact he was tiny as well as completely naked made the speck-sized man feel even more vulnerable at the feet of his teenaged neighbor and the colossal employee from the pest control agency.
Given his options, tiny Mr. Smith knew that his fate rested with Tommy, no matter how unaware the titanic teen remained of his employer's unfathomable predicament.
But, even as he was formulating a course of action, Tommy announced his intention to take Mr. Smith's mysterious package to the post office.
Trying to think of a plan on the go, he decided that if he could climb onto the bare foot, he could make himself felt by the giant.
Tommy's announcement provoked the bug-like man into action. He raced across the floor, desperate to reach Tommy's closest foot.
Seeing his only hope about to leave, the tiny man tried to run faster while screaming desperately for help.
He realized that, if either of the monster-sized humans spied his scurrying movements, there was an alarming probability they would mistake him for a bug.
Luck smiled on the little man, or so he thought. He reached Tommy's left sandal.
"I made it," he said just as he realized that the thick rubber sole represented an obstacle as formidable as a 12-foot wall.
The tiny man tried to jump, clawing for a grip on the edge of the sandal. His fingers, failing to find purchase, slipped from the sleek rubber surface.
-----
"Well, since you are heading out, I can start spraying," Diego informed Tommy. "Believe me, you don't want to be around this stuff if you can help it."
"Yea," Tommy said, not really sure of what else to say to Mr. Smith's exterminator.
Hearing that Diego meant to unleash deadly poisons on his immediate environment, the shrunken man made a last-chance attempt to scramble onto Tommy's gigantic sandal.
Perhaps driven by fear, he finally got his hands over the edge and, by straining his muscles to the utmost, managed to pull himself to safety.
He rolled onto the narrow rubber ledge, close enough to the side of Tommy's cruise ship-long foot that he felt the teenager's body warmth.
Mr. Smith vowed that, if he ever got back to his normal size, he would undertake a workout program to give him the muscles that Tommy and Diego took for granted.
But, now he faced the challenge of retaining his position as Tommy lurched into movement.
Knowing how precarious his situation had become, he raced along the wall formed by the side of Tommy's foot.
Reaching the front of the huge foot, he was confronted by a row of toes, each of them dwarfing his entire body. Eager for some sort of secure position, the bug-sized man ducked into the wide crevice between Tommy's big toe and its nearest neighbor.