Bryan Smith was a brilliant and highly respected research scientist who had been employed with EDL Labs for the past fifteen years. His work on several cholesterol drugs had been pioneering but his true passion always focused on a secret side project he had been nearly obsessed with for the past five years.
And six months ago, he had achieved a nearly impossible breakthrough. Although generally accepted throughout academia as an impossibility, Bryan had developed a shrinking formula, and of course, an antidote. After an extremely light regiment of testing with lab animals, Bryan made the hasty decision to try the formula on himself.
Over the past three months, Bryan had shrunk and returned to normal size four times. Each experiment had been meticulously planned and thought out. Each time, Bryan shrunk himself to where he was only about one forth of an inch high. The intense rush was a high like he thought he could never experience. During one of the tests in his office at home, Bryan remained at the insignificant size of a quarter inch for nearly three hours.
He was overwhelmed and fascinated as he explored the gargantuan objects throughout the vast, enormous room. He stared in complete awe at a simple pen that was lying on the floor. It seemed as large as a Boeing 747. His desk seemed to extend up endlessly. Even at a sprint, he could only cover small distances. He figured it would take him a half day’s hike to travel the office wall to wall.
Bryan could only imagine what it might be like to encounter a real person at such a minuscule size. A normal size person would appear colossal to him. The thought of such an encounter began to consume Bryan’s every waking hour.
- - -
Bryan was once again sitting at the kitchen table daydreaming about the next experiment with his shrinking formula, when the phone rang.
“Uncle B…what’s up?” Bryan’s nephew Zack was calling from California. “Just checking up on you to make sure you havn’t bored yourself to death.”
“No, not yet Zack,” Bryan said with a chuckle. His job and life were normally very boring, but Zack had no idea of his uncle’s recent discovery. “How’s school going?”
“Couldn’t be better Uncle B.”, Zack replied. “The weathers great, and there is so much to do. You gotta come out here and I’ll show ya how to surf…And, by the way, I love the Acura.”
Bryan smiled. Since Zack’s dad left when he was very young, Bryan had been like a father figure to his sister’s son. Bryan was paying for his nephew’s college, and had bought him an electric blue Acura RSX for his high school graduation.
“Wish I could Zack,” Bryan responded with some disappointment. “But you know I can’t get off work. I’m glad you like the car.”
“You never take vacations,” Zack argued. “What the hell are they going to do at EDL…fire ya? You made that dum fuck company. Just take off this weekend and fly out here. I want you to meet my roommate anyway. He’s one crazy dude.”
“Zack, you know I can’t,” Bryan tried to reason with his rambunctious nephew when suddenly a crazy idea filled his head. “But here is what I’m going to do. I am going to send you something very special in the mail. Expect it in a couple days. Okay Zack?”
“Well, unless you’re in it, don’t bother Uncle B.,” Zack responded with sarcastic disappointment. Zack had always wished his uncle would spend a little more time with him instead of working all the time. But instead, his uncle just bought him anything he wanted. “There are some things more important than that fuckin job!”
“I know Zack,” Bryan tried to console his moody nephew. “Just calm down. I think you will really like this. Be on the lookout. Okay?”
“Whatever Uncle B.,” Zack replied with the typically defiant tone of a teenager. “Guess I’ll see ya at Christmas. Take care.”
Bryan’s head spun with a fury of ideas and possibilities. Could he possibly do it? Was he daring enough? All rational had been replaced by sheer adrenalin. Yes! Yes! He would do it. He would shrink himself to the ridiculously small size of a quarter inch and mail himself to his nephew Zack in sunny California. He rushed to his office to get a yellow note pad. He would plan it all out perfectly to the smallest detail. If he did it just right, what could possibly go wrong.
A sudden knock on the door returned Bryan to a mild sense of reality, if only momentarily. Bryan went to see who it was.
“Hey Mr. Smith…ya got any jobs for me?” Tommy asked enthusiastically. “I need to earn some cash for a rad new skateboard.”
“Tommy, the yard really doesn’t need m….,” Bryan began just as an incredible idea entered his head. No outline. No meticulous planning. Bryan was now going to wing it. “As a matter of fact Tommy, I have an extremely important job for you, and its going to pay really well.”
“Awesome!” Tommy blurted out, unable to contain his enthusiasm. “What is it?”
“Well, I am going out of town tonight but I need a very important package mailed tomorrow,” Bryan began unable to believe he was just making this up as he went along. “Show up here at three o’clock tomorrow and let yourself in. There will be a key under the mat. I’ll leave the package on the kitchen table along with a hundred dollar bill. Take the package to the post office and mail it. And you can keep whatever’s left over out of the hundred. Think you can handle that Tommy?”
“Oh yes sir!” Tommy spoke hardly able to contain his excitement. “Don’t worry Mr. Smith. You can count on me.”
“Oh, and make sure it goes overnight mail,” Bryan added as Tommy began to walk away. Tommy shook his head okay still with a huge grin on his face.
“Well I got some packing to do,” Bryan thought to himself. “I guess I’m going on a vacation.”
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