Short story: "Don't Forget the Angel on Top"

[qzar9999]

Just in time for Christmas! I'll post the second half later tonight.

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Lucy grunted with effort as she lifted the big box labeled "Christmas Stuff" out of the closet. She hadn't realized it would be quite so heavy. With some difficulty, she carried it out of the spare bedroom and down the hall, setting it down with a loud thump in front of the unadorned tree in the living room. She took a moment to breathe, then opened the top of the box and frowned at the decorations jam-packed into it. *No wonder Gwen seemed so confident,* she thought.

Her girlfriend Gwen had bet that she couldn't get all the decorations hung up in the living room and on the tree before Gwen got home from work. "All of it. And don't forget the angel on top." The stakes, as was typically the case, were that whoever won would get to do just about anything they wanted in the bedroom that evening--which made it very hard for Lucy to turn down a wager. Generally even if she lost she'd still be in for a good time, and this one had seemed like an easy win. Now, looking down at the tangled light cords and the haphazard pile of ornaments jumbled loosely in the box, she was starting to have her doubts.

"Well. You won't finish if you don't get started," she said to herself. She reached into the box and pulled out a light cord, only to find that it was tangled in at least two other ones. Sighing heavily, she scooped out two handfuls of twisted cords, laid them on the floor, and set to work untying them.

Some time later, she stood with a satisfied sigh and examined her handywork. The knotted nightmare was gone; in its place were multiple strands of colored lights, laid neatly out in long lines on the floor. "I swear, when I take these down, I'm putting them in separate bags or something," she mumbled. She had also untangled the shimmery garlands and tried to arrange the small mountain of ornaments into some semblance of order. She glanced at the clock and saw she had five hours left before Gwen got home--plenty of time. Deciding to take a quick break, she sauntered into the kitchen and peered into the fridge. Something on a lower shelf caught her eye. Apparently, Gwen had bought her a six-pack of her favorite beer, which sat invitingly in the middle of the fridge.

"Ah, she's so thoughtful!" Lucy said aloud, snatching one of the cold brews and shutting the door. She popped the top and took a sip. "Mmm," she said, "perfection." She stood in the doorway to the living room, slowly draining the beer while looking around and mentally planning out where to put the other decorations before she started on the tree ornaments. Finishing the bottle, she grabbed a second one and a small stepladder and returned to the den. Grabbing a few decorations and some thumbtacks, she slid the stepladder over to the far wall and started pinning up a colorful garland near the ceiling. As she proceeded around the room, she felt a pleasant warmth suffusing her body; probably a little bit of a buzz kicking in.

After she rounded the corner of the room and started stringing more garland along the second wall, she noticed she was hanging it a little lower, making it uneven with the other wall. She made some adjustments, being careful to watch where she was pinning it. Moving further down the wall, she started to catch herself hanging it too low more often, causing her to waste time making more adjustments. Annoyed, she forced herself to focus intently on the task and was able to keep it on track all the way down the wall. Rouding the next corner, she reached up to put in another pin and felt an odd shifting sensation against her skin. Brushing absently at her clothes, she waited to see if she'd feel it again, but after a few moments she shrugged and went back to hanging garland.

A few more feet down the wall, she felt another odd sensastion. It was almost as if her clothes had shifted position. She tugged at the waist of her pajama bottoms, resettling them on her hips, fiddled with the neck and sleeves of her t-shirt, and went back to work...only to find she couldn't get the garland all the way up, even with her arms extended. *What the hell...?* She looked down at the stepladder in confusion. *Am I standing on the wrong step?* Carefully, she climbed one step; now she was able to reach the top of the wall. *Weird. I thought I was on the bottom step before...* She kept going, reaching the next corner quickly. As she raised her arms, she felt that shifting again and saw her sleeves fall down her forearms to bunch at her shoulders.

She lowered her arms and watched the sleeves drop, hanging around her arms and leaving a noticeable gap between fabric and skin. *That's strange.* She looked down at herself and saw the whole shirt looked a little baggy on her, as if it was a size too large. Puzzled, she gripped the bottom and shook it, watching the fabric flap loosely about her torso. She also noticed the waist of her pajamas had slipped down, threatening to slide off of her hips and showing the top of her panties. She tugged the bottoms back up into place, although they seemed like they might slip again. *Why are my clothes all stretched out? I thought they fit fine when I put them on earlier.* Lucy shrugged--feeling the shoulder of her shirt slide a little with the movement--and resumed working. A few minutes later, after unconsciously stepping up another rung, she finally reached the last corner, completing a loop of colorful garland hanging all around the room just under the ceiling.

"Well that's done," she said in satisfaction, stepping down the ladder. "Now to put a few things around the room and WHOA!" She cried out as her foot snagged on something and she pitched forward, nearly losing her balance and crashing to the floor before she managed to grab the sofa and catch herself. Glancing down to see what she'd tripped on, she found that she was walking on the cuffs of her pajama bottoms--they had somehow slipped down to cover her feet! In irritation, she checked the waist again and sure enough, the bottoms had slipped down her hips again, threatening to plunge to the floor. She hitched them up and was confused at how big they seemed around her waist. No matter what she did, they wouldn't stay in place; they were just too large. Finally, she untied the drawstrings and cinched them tighter, securing the strangely large bottoms on her waist. However, for some reason the cuffs still hung too low on her feet... *Damn. What's going on with my clothes today?* She bent down and rolled the cuffs up, taking them to a little above her ankles.

Lucy grabbed the second beer and sipped from it as she carried a few freestanding decorations to appropriate places in the living room. *The little mini-tree can go on the end table. The wreath over the front door. This little light-up Santa...here...* She felt the pleasurably warm sensation from earlier returning and getting stronger as she finished off the drink. *Mmm...nice.* She progressed quickly on the decorations and soon found herself with only one left before it was time to start on the tree: a wooden toy train being ridden by Santa and his elves. She picked up the train and was briefly struck by a feeling of wrongness. *This feels bigger than I remember from last year...*

Shaking her head, she looked around for the best place to put it and finally settled on the mantlepiece. Raising the decoration, she was again hit with the idea that something was wrong. *The mantle...why does it seem so high?* The flat surface looked like it was even with her chin, but she could have sworn that it was below her shoulders. *Am I getting drunk?* Trying to ignore the weirdness, she placed the train on the mantle (not paying attention to how baggy her sleeves looked as they again fell to hang on her shoulders) and turned to the ornaments, laid out in front of the tree.

Then her pajama bottoms hit the floor.

"What the hell?" she shrieked, looking down at the puddle of blue fabric around her ankles. Picking up the pants, she lifted them to her waist; as soon as she let go, they slid slowly down and dropped to the floor once they cleared her ass. "I know they fit fine a little bit ago!" Bending down to get them again, she noticed other details: her t-shirt was hanging much lower than it should have been, its bottom drooping over her waist and hips; her panties, inexplicably, looked very loose, their elastic waist having slipped partway down; and even pulling the bottoms all the way up, the rolled-up cuffs still covered her feet. *What's going on here?*

Holding up the loose pajama pants, she looked around the room, taking stock of even more oddities. Not only did the mantle seem higher, but also the unadorned Christmas tree stood taller than she remembered. The end tables and sofa looked larger, the ceiling seemed further away, and even the stepladder she'd been using looked higher. Everything appeared to have gotten bigger. *Or I've gotten smaller.* As soon as the thought was in her mind, she couldn't deny it.

Somehow, she had shrunk.

Panicking, she immediately thought to call for help. But who? She couldn't exactly call the paramedics and say she'd been shrinking. They'd never believe her. *I could always go to a doctor--* That thought was immediately squashed. Not only would her height not match her license if she got pulled over, and not only would she have difficulty adjusting to her new perspective, but there was also another scary thought. *What if I get smaller? I could get in a wreck.* She needed to call Gwen. She tried to run for the kitchen, where she'd left the phone, but as soon as she let go of the pants they immediately dropped again, tangling her feet and pitching her to the floor. "Ooof!" she yelled as she smacked into the carpet. She frantically kicked her way free of the encumbering pants and stood back up, now wearing only a baggy gray tee and oversized panties. Dashing into the kitchen, she snatched her phone from the counter, unplugged the charger, and dialed her girlfriend's cell. "Please pick up, please pick up Gwen..."

After three rings, Gwen's chipper voice answered. "Hey, Lucy! Having fun hanging decorations, sweetie?"

"Gwen, listen. I have an emergency here and I need you to--"

"An emergency. Suuuuuure," she interrupted sarcastically. "A convenient emergency that will get you out of our bet? Nice try."

"Gwen! I'm serious! I have a real problem here and I need you to come home right now and help me!"

"Now babe, you wouldn't want me to come home early, would you? That'll cut your time short!" she replied, still sounding amused.

"Gwen, dammit, this isn't about the bet!" Lucy snapped. "I'm really worried and I don't know what's happening to me. Please, come home!"

"Well I can't just get out of work for any old thing, lover. What's your emergency?"

Lucy tried to think of a way to say it that would sound credible and failed miserably. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. But you'll see for yourself."

"Honey. I can't just dash out of here without a reason. Tell me what's happening," Gwen said, sounding more serious now.

"Well...I don't know how to say this...but I think I'm--"

"Shrinking?" Gwen broke in, again sounding amused.