Doing math in his brain came easy for the respected scientist, but Bryan Smith astonished himself when he did some quick mental calculations and realized his nephew would loom over him like some 3,400-foot-tall behemoth if he went through with his insane scheme to shrink himself to the mere size of eighth-of-an-inch tall.
Just trying to picture his athletic, uninhibited nephew at such a grand scale overwhelmed Bryan's more rational and sensible caution. After he drank the liquid formula, smacking his lips and gulping down a fluid that tasted vaguely of strawberry, he figured he would have plenty of time to make it onto the kitchen counter and into the shipping package.
He expected the process of shrinking to take place in much the same manner as on previous occasions. In that one, but critical, respect, he found himself quite mistaken.
The floor rushed up to meet him as the walls and furniture in his kitchen suddenly expanded. In an instant, he had gone from a size a bit shy of six feet tall to a measly fraction of an inch. Even more unsettling, his shipping package with the antidote and all his supplies for the journey now rested on a cliff that loomed more than 1,700 feet over his head.
As his situation dawned on the tiny, naked scientist, he was left with very little time to consider contingencies. Slightly ahead of schedule, his teenaged next-door neighbor intruded onto the scene. Once entering via the back door, Tommy and a pair of old, disintegrating sneakers stomped across the kitchen tiles.
"Oh, shit! He's early!" Bryan exclaimed.
Although he has known the teenager for years, Bryan felt an unmistakable sense of awe as he stared at the titanic youth. Part of the thrill, he realized, came from the fact he knew the giant. But anything familiar about Tommy had vanished now that Bryan beheld him from such an insignificant perspective.
"It's just Tommy... same scrawny kid I have known for years," he intoned. "But look at him!"
Then, his mind snapped into self-preservation mode when Tommy continued his trek across the room toward the kitchen counter. Each of the worn rubber soles of the old sneakers slammed down with ear-splitting blasts as they came closer, threatening to mash him like the bug he had become.
He didn't even have time to scream for assistance. The shadow of a sneaker engulfed him...
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