This choice: Alex doesn't know he can use the key yet, and wanted to show you something else • Go Back...Chapter #6Big Shoes to Fill by: Jubal   Startled out of your thoughts, you wonder what Alex wants you to see. Turning around, you notice he's sitting on the floor near the doorway; the key seems to have vanished. To the side of the door, right next to your brother, is the floor mat where everyone drops off their shoes when they come home. Taking up half the space are your dad's work shoes, blown up to the same huge scale as the rest of the house. Closer are your shoes, and your brother's, both tiny in comparison just like the two of you.
Well, you thought, Pinstripe said he had height issues. I guess dad still makes me feel a bit small sometimes, too.
Your brother's focus wasn't on your dad's giant shoes, though. They were on your shoes, which looked slightly bigger than his own in spite of him dream-growing himself so much already. Not as much bigger as they should have been, but enough that subconsciously he must have thought they were supposed to be bigger than his. Alex grabbed one of your shoes and held it up, looking at you with an excited grin.
"Bro," he whispered excitedly. "You'll never guess! My feet are too big for my shoes!"
"Really." You reply, deadpan. Alex had made himself almost a full head taller than you, and made it so that had always been the case, and he was surprised that his shoes, like all of his other clothes at the moment, didn't fit.
Clearly he missed the sarcasm, because he just nodded so fast his head looked like it might come off, grinning hugely.
"Ahuh! I just tried them, 'cause I thought it'd be safer to have my shoes on, but my feet wouldn't go in."
He looked down at the shoe (your shoe) in his hands, and then back up at you, wide eyed.
"I wanted you to see, when I tried yours." He said quietly. Then, poking his tongue out, he started to do just as he said, and slipped the shoe onto his foot. Or at least, he tried.
"Oof." He grunted softly, as the toe of your shoe bulged out with pressure. The heel of his foot was still hanging over the back! Slowly, he peeled it off and set it down, and looked at you grinning wider than ever.
"This is just like dad said!" He almost yelled, grinning.
"What?" You asked, looking at your brother in confusion. This was his dream; so clearly this was something he wanted to be happening, but you could admit at least to yourself when you were completely lost.
"I talk with dad sometimes," Alex said, standing up to pace. He paused briefly to beam down at the top of your head, because even in his dream, he probably realized on some level that this angle was new, and he loved it.
"He knows I hate...hated being little, and how everyone picks on me," his story was a bit confusing with the dream-logic," but he said he was little too for his age and one day he woke up and none of his shoes fit anymore, and he started growing real fast! He got to play basketball in school and got picked first a lot, just like you! And I remember kinda a few years ago when we were almost the same size and then your feet got really big and I couldn't walk around in your shoes and then..."
He slowly panted a bit, beaming, as his story wound down. Suddenly you understood this place a bit better. The giant house, with everything you needed always out of reach. Alex suddenly always being the bigger brother, but the house changing so that he was still too little, and even his sudden basketball jumping skills and now the shoes.
Humor him, Pinstripe had said. Well, it was his dream, and you loved your little brother, so why not?
"Wow Alex!" You exclaimed, maybe hamming it up a bit. You plopped down quickly and stuck out your foot, matching it up so that you could both see how your toes stopped where his toes started.
Alex laughed, wiggling his toes and curling them over the tops of your feet.
"I bet you're right!" You said. "And you're already outgrowing my shoes! I'll bet you'll be first pick on your school teams in no time!"
"Yeah!" Alex cheered, hopping up and racing for the stairs. You see him scowl slightly at their size; the house is still keeping everything out of easy reach. Then he smiles and turns back toward you.
"I'm gonna go change into some daytime clothes," he calls back as he slowly clambers up the steps. "Maybe not socks though!" He giggles.
You smile and nod a bit to yourself as you sit down to wait him out; 'humoring him' might not be too bad.
Suddenly...  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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