Three Friends, a Shrink Ray, and a Dog Named Blunderfeld
The three teenagers rushed through the backdoor, dropping backpacks, and stopping at the fridge before heading to Ajay’s room.
All three were seventeen and awaiting the final milestones — prom, graduation, a celebratory beach trip — of a high school career.
Despite all the pressures a senior year can bring, Ajay had managed to carve out the time to invent a functional size-alteration device. The technology had been introduced a decade earlier and, for a gauntlet of daunting reasons, had remained out of reach of ordinary citizens.
Ajay was many things, but ordinary wasn’t one to describe the teenager’s determination and intellect. He put those two together to focus on developing his own “shrink ray” in the basement of his suburban family home.
Now he wanted to let his best friends, Thomas and Zach, witness his ingenuity and resourcefulness.
Even now, Zach remained skeptical. “The technology is so exorbitantly expensive,” he had reminded. “You expect me to believe you cut enough corners to make it happen?”
“It’s not got all the features of a standard size-alteration device, but it works. Who needs all the bells and whistles?”
Thomas listened, quietly, praying it was true. All his life he had been fascinated with the small. If Ajay really had a shrink ray at his fingertips, the blond boy with the dazzling green eyes would be close to having a dream come true. He felt funny, though, admitting to his friends his obsession with getting tiny, so he simply responded with a show of restrained curiosity after Ajay announced his accomplishment.
Ajay pulled a bag of chips from a cabinet and told his friends to help themselves to sodas in the fridge. Zach pulled out a soda, but Thomas opted for a bottled water.
Ajay grabbed himself a soda and, with his hands full, asked Thomas to grab a tub of onion dip.
“Sure thing,” Thomas said as he grabbed the dip and followed his two friends downstairs to the basement.
Ajay had mounted his shrink ray on a sturdy tripod on a table in the center of the room. Cables snaked from the device to his computer on his nearby desk. “I program the device from the computer,” he said. “I just let the cloud take care of all the demands for memory. With the device activated from my computer, I could streamline it.”
Thomas felt shivers as he stared at the long, oblong piece of plastic with a pointed tip that held a red focusing lens.
Ajay loosened the tripod and swung the device around to face his friends.
“What are you doing?” Zach objected.
“I thought you said it wouldn’t work?” Ajay’s caramel features grew animated with a prideful smirk.
“I’ll be the guinea pig,” Thomas volunteered.
Zach stepped back. “Be my guest,” he said. “It could still vaporize you or something awful.”
Thomas looked nervous.
“Relax,” Ajay said. “I promise you’re not going to get vaporized.”
Before Thomas could finish his attempt at taking a deep breath, Ajay tapped at his keyboard and a flash of red light engulfed his friend. Quickly, still trying to inhale, Thomas dwindled from sight before his two friends. Once the process stopped, he finally finished pulling air into his lungs.
“Damn!” Thomas gasped and looked around him. Where had his friends gone?
He heard a strange, rumbling noise.
Ajay cleared his throat. “Up here, little guy,” he called down to what looked like a speck on the floor a couple of feet from his shoes.
Zach looked down, too, his face expressing astonishment. “That little speck’s Thomas?”
Thomas gazed skyward and saw monumental mouths open and close on the majestic faces of his two buddies. Their words rumbled like thunder and lacked any cohesion to allow him to understand them. Based on the size of their huge footwear, Thomas figured he had shrunk to the size of a puny ant. Perhaps, even smaller.
“Believe me now?” Ajay asked Zach.
“You’re amazing,” Zach said. “I want a closer look.”
He took a single step before Ajay grabbed his arm. “Be careful, dude.”
For Thomas, his friend taking a simple step proved a moment that almost undid him. The concrete floor beneath his feet trembled as the impact of Zach’s sneaker caused what felt like a minor quake.
A shadow engulfed him briefly when Zach had raised his foot, and Thomas had screamed in alarm, thinking he might be stepped on. Unprepared, he had panicked, ending up on the seat of his pants looking up as Ajay restrained Zach from advancing closer to the speck-sized teenager.
“He’s very vulnerable at that size,” Ajay explained.
Chastened, Zach sounded pouty. “I wasn’t gonna stomp him!”
Thomas realized the moment of crisis had passed, leaving him giddy with excitement. He truly felt like a bug. All too soon, Ajay lowered a strange disc to the floor. "Climb aboard," he instructed at a volume he hoped wouldn't deafen his friend.
Thomas moved closer and realized the shiny disc was a dime, which looked as big as a room. He climbed over the lip of the coin and proceeded to the center, settling himself over the engraved image of President Roosevelt. He couldn't help but cringe as Ajay used two fingers to pick the dime off the floor. Thomas felt the rush of air as Ajay quickly raised the dime and placed it on the table in the shadow of the shrink ray.
"Time to make you big again," Ajay said...
All three were seventeen and awaiting the final milestones — prom, graduation, a celebratory beach trip — of a high school career.
Despite all the pressures a senior year can bring, Ajay had managed to carve out the time to invent a functional size-alteration device. The technology had been introduced a decade earlier and, for a gauntlet of daunting reasons, had remained out of reach of ordinary citizens.
Ajay was many things, but ordinary wasn’t one to describe the teenager’s determination and intellect. He put those two together to focus on developing his own “shrink ray” in the basement of his suburban family home.
Now he wanted to let his best friends, Thomas and Zach, witness his ingenuity and resourcefulness.
Even now, Zach remained skeptical. “The technology is so exorbitantly expensive,” he had reminded. “You expect me to believe you cut enough corners to make it happen?”
“It’s not got all the features of a standard size-alteration device, but it works. Who needs all the bells and whistles?”
Thomas listened, quietly, praying it was true. All his life he had been fascinated with the small. If Ajay really had a shrink ray at his fingertips, the blond boy with the dazzling green eyes would be close to having a dream come true. He felt funny, though, admitting to his friends his obsession with getting tiny, so he simply responded with a show of restrained curiosity after Ajay announced his accomplishment.
Ajay pulled a bag of chips from a cabinet and told his friends to help themselves to sodas in the fridge. Zach pulled out a soda, but Thomas opted for a bottled water.
Ajay grabbed himself a soda and, with his hands full, asked Thomas to grab a tub of onion dip.
“Sure thing,” Thomas said as he grabbed the dip and followed his two friends downstairs to the basement.
Ajay had mounted his shrink ray on a sturdy tripod on a table in the center of the room. Cables snaked from the device to his computer on his nearby desk. “I program the device from the computer,” he said. “I just let the cloud take care of all the demands for memory. With the device activated from my computer, I could streamline it.”
Thomas felt shivers as he stared at the long, oblong piece of plastic with a pointed tip that held a red focusing lens.
Ajay loosened the tripod and swung the device around to face his friends.
“What are you doing?” Zach objected.
“I thought you said it wouldn’t work?” Ajay’s caramel features grew animated with a prideful smirk.
“I’ll be the guinea pig,” Thomas volunteered.
Zach stepped back. “Be my guest,” he said. “It could still vaporize you or something awful.”
Thomas looked nervous.
“Relax,” Ajay said. “I promise you’re not going to get vaporized.”
Before Thomas could finish his attempt at taking a deep breath, Ajay tapped at his keyboard and a flash of red light engulfed his friend. Quickly, still trying to inhale, Thomas dwindled from sight before his two friends. Once the process stopped, he finally finished pulling air into his lungs.
“Damn!” Thomas gasped and looked around him. Where had his friends gone?
He heard a strange, rumbling noise.
Ajay cleared his throat. “Up here, little guy,” he called down to what looked like a speck on the floor a couple of feet from his shoes.
Zach looked down, too, his face expressing astonishment. “That little speck’s Thomas?”
Thomas gazed skyward and saw monumental mouths open and close on the majestic faces of his two buddies. Their words rumbled like thunder and lacked any cohesion to allow him to understand them. Based on the size of their huge footwear, Thomas figured he had shrunk to the size of a puny ant. Perhaps, even smaller.
“Believe me now?” Ajay asked Zach.
“You’re amazing,” Zach said. “I want a closer look.”
He took a single step before Ajay grabbed his arm. “Be careful, dude.”
For Thomas, his friend taking a simple step proved a moment that almost undid him. The concrete floor beneath his feet trembled as the impact of Zach’s sneaker caused what felt like a minor quake.
A shadow engulfed him briefly when Zach had raised his foot, and Thomas had screamed in alarm, thinking he might be stepped on. Unprepared, he had panicked, ending up on the seat of his pants looking up as Ajay restrained Zach from advancing closer to the speck-sized teenager.
“He’s very vulnerable at that size,” Ajay explained.
Chastened, Zach sounded pouty. “I wasn’t gonna stomp him!”
Thomas realized the moment of crisis had passed, leaving him giddy with excitement. He truly felt like a bug. All too soon, Ajay lowered a strange disc to the floor. "Climb aboard," he instructed at a volume he hoped wouldn't deafen his friend.
Thomas moved closer and realized the shiny disc was a dime, which looked as big as a room. He climbed over the lip of the coin and proceeded to the center, settling himself over the engraved image of President Roosevelt. He couldn't help but cringe as Ajay used two fingers to pick the dime off the floor. Thomas felt the rush of air as Ajay quickly raised the dime and placed it on the table in the shadow of the shrink ray.
"Time to make you big again," Ajay said...