Lisa looked hesitantly about the front office as the door closed behind her.  The place was cluttered, moving boxes stacked along the walls, phone on the floor next to a new desk, other office furniture still unboxed, while the odors of new carpeting competed with those of fresh paint.  A  quite attractive woman suddenly emerged from an open door, strode over and extended her hand.  'Hello, I'm Theresa Steiner.  And you're Lisa, correct?  We've been waiting for you.'

'Right, that's me.   But I don't really know why I was supposed to come here.  I mean, Leo said, I mean Mr. Saks said you'd help me.  Only I don't need help.'  She looked around her a bit bewildered.  'This doesn't look like the sort of place...'

Theresa cut her off.  'This is our new place.  The old set of offices in town wasn't big enough for all our equipment and we like our privacy anyway.'  As she talked, she sized up the woman in front of her.  No surprises met her eyes.  Pretty enough, a bit on the thin side, a blend of intensity and spaciness in the eyes.  Theresa had seen her sort before.  Junkie, she'd be a crank junkie if she was poor but she wasn't poor right now so she was a coke junkie.    A recently dried out coke junkie.  ìLet's go into my office and talk about  how we can help you.î  She led the way through the door she'd come out of into a well appointed office, meticulously organized in contrast to the chaos outside.  'Have a seat.'

Theresa sat  behind the elegant desk and picked up a file folder from it as Lisa sat in a chair facing her.  'I don't see why I'm here.' she began.  'I've been clean for almost three months.  I'm through.  I'm off everything for good.'

Theresa almost, but not quite, held back a snort of derision.  'I'm sure you've said that before, Lisa.  Fact is though, the reason you've been clean three months is you were in a clinic for two months and three weeks.  You've been in a clinic, what, three times now.'  She looked at a sheet of paper from the folder and sat silent a moment.  ìBut Leo Saks wants you clean permanently and he's paying us to get you that way.î  She looked at the pale face before her.  'He must think you've got a lot of potential.  We're not cheap.'

Lisa's eyes flashed intensely for an instant, almost a match for Theresa's.  Only for an instant, though.  'Potential?  I've got more than potential,  I'm the best there is,  you'll see, you'll see that real soon.' Then her voice lowered along with her eyes.  'All I've got to do is stay focused, work hard and stay focused.  And this time I will. The therapists really taught me...'

'Taught you nothing.' Theresa broke in.  'What do they know?  Were they successfully reformed coke heads?  No?  Or maybe they tried some 12 step jive on you.  That only works sometimes and then only when you really want to quit, after you've hit bottom.  You haven't hit, not yet you haven't.   Mr. Saks doesn't want you to hit bottom and he's paying me and my...associates to see that you don't.  We have an...approach that can do that.  You're not the first client Leo has sent us.'

Lisa was a bit shocked by Theresa's blunt, even brutal, tone but she could see there was no point in arguing.  'What is this approach of yours?  Nothing too, uh, radical, is it.  I mean, you don't use electric shocks or anything like that?'  A trace of fear appeared on her face.

Theresa did her best to look reassuring.  'No, no, nothing like that, nothing painful, nothing that causes what you could call harm.  We just have a way to make your cravings stop.  We'll just make the tempting little voices in your head shut up.'

'How are you going to do that?  Nobody else can.'

'For now, let's just say we have our ways.  I was never the junkie you are but at one time I liked my toot a bit much too.  But no more of that.  I still like a drink now and then, or a bowl once in a while, or even a hit of Peruvian marching powder.  But they aren't as big a deal as they used to be.'  She closed her eyes briefly.  'Not any more.'  Her eyes snapped back to their normal intensity.  'But right now, it's time for you to meet one of my associates.  You'll be seeing more of her anyway.  Let's go meet Claire.'
 

Lisa thought that Claire would be in a nearby office or in the same building anyway, so she was a bit surprised when they walked through the building, out a back door and down a path to a rather small building, not much more than a storage shed.  Theresa pushed on a doorbell next to the plain steel door.  A woman's voice emanating from a speaker asked who was there.

'It's just me Claire.  Me, and our new client.'  Lisa doubted Theresa tried to speak sweetly very often but she sounded as if she were trying now.  The door buzzed.  'Claire likes her privacy.'  Theresa muttered to Lisa as she pushed the door open.  Inside, the building was almost empty.  A dim overhead light revealed a small couch along one wall but the only other object in the place was what appeared to be a waist high wooden box.  Theresa motioned for Lisa to sit down as she settled on the couch herself.  The door clicked shut behind them.

'Brace yourself, now.  You've never seen anything like this.'  As Lisa peered at the box in front of her, a light appeared at its base, as what appeared to be a very small door opened.  It proved to be a small door indeed, as it opened further and a figure stepped out.  'Lisa, meet Claire.'

Lisa let out a low cry that turned into almost a moan as the little figure lifted its face to her and she saw it was a moving doll, no, make that a woman.  A tiny, walking, living human woman.  A foot tall, at most a foot tall.

As Lisa cowered in shock, Claire glared up at Theresa.  'I still think this is a cruel way to break the news to people.  Look at her.  She's freaked, and I don't  blame her a bit.  I think you just get a charge out of doing this.'

'Maybe I do.  It's still the best way though.  What am I supposed to do?   Go ëGee, Lisa, let's go meet a shrunken woman.  I just know you'll be friends.í  I don't think that would be much improvement.  Nah, just hit ëem with all at once and then deal with it.  See, she's getting over it already.'

Sure enough, Lisa seemed to be coming around.  She stared wildly at the miniature figure before her and made as if to stand up.  Theresa reached over and gently pushed her down onto the seat.  'Wh, who is that?  What happened to her?'

'I introduced you, remember.  This is Claire.  What happened to her?  That's a long story.'

'YOU happened to me, dammit.'

'Now, now, let's not get into that here.  I had to do what I had to do.  Now that we have these new facilities, Dr. Froendlich can get to work on restoring you.  He says he's got some promising ideas.  First, though, we're going to to help Lisa here.'

Lisa was still coming around.  'Me? Help me? How can a doll woman help me?  I'd say she's got problems of her own.'

Claire gave her a quick smile.  'Yeah, I do have one problem, but I appreciate the thought.  Somebody at least  is concerned, somebody besides just me.'

Theresa cleared her throat.  'That's not true.  I'm concerned for you too, Claire, but we need to raise money somehow, quietly somehow, if we're going to work on your problem.  Right now the only way I know to make the kind of money we need is to help other people with problems.  Like Lisa here.'

Lisa had recovered fairly well by now.  'I just can't see how she, or you, has anything to do with me.'

'I don't suppose it's obvious.  All right, Lisa, your problem is you like some things too much.  Lots of fun things, but cocaine especially.  Right?'

'Yeah, I guess, but what does...'

'Let me finish.  The problem is, you know just how much fun coke is, sex is, adrenaline is, whatever is.  You know it's fun, you like it, you want more,  but you want more too much.  What you need to change that is to experience something that's more enjoyable, lots more enjoyable.  Then you can get your mind off the coke or whatever.'

Lisa frowned.  'Well, maybe, but what does this, what does she, have to do with that?'

'Listen, now.  Trust me on this.  The process, the shrinking process, is way more fun  than any drug.  It's more enjoyable than anything.  Once you experience that, you won't crave coke any more.  You'll still enjoy it, if you want, but you won't crave it any more.  You'll be able to handle it.  We know that, don't we, Claire?'

'I don't know about cocaine, but I have to admit that...ah, damn, Teri!  Look at her!  She's freaking again.'

Lisa sat bolt upright in shock and fear as what she heard sank in.  ìShrinking process,î she choked.  'Shrinking.  Me.  Making me a doll like...her. NO!  That's not going to happen. No, no, no.'  She leaped up and turned to the door, clutching the handle.  She tried to shove the door open, she tried to jerk it in, finally she beat on the steel with her fists, all to no avail.  The door was locked.  'Let me out of here.'  She was screaming now.  'I must be going crazy.  You must be, you are crazy.'  Her voice broke.  'Shrinking people.  Shrinking...me.  Let me go.  Please.  Please, I don't want to be a doll like her.'  Sobs racked her body as Theresa pulled her back down onto the couch.

Claire peeked out from the miniature doorway she had ducked into as Lisa attempted to flee.  'Now look at her.  I'm telling you, you can't drop things like that on people, not all at once you can't.'

'Sure I can.  I just did.  Look, I've got things to do.'  Theresa rose to her feet.  'Al and Doug should be about set up next door and I've got to see how things are going.  Try to talk her down, answer some of her questions.  I'll be back as soon as I can, maybe I can answer some too.  Buzz me out, would you?'  The steel door emitted a buzz and Theresa pushed it open.  Lisa started to stagger to her feet but Theresa pushed her back down.  'Stay there.  I'll be back in a bit to get you.  Claire, I'll be back right away.'  The door clicked shut behind her.
 

Lisa remained sobbing on the couch for a good while.  Finally she gathered a couple of deep breaths, wiped her eyes and turned back to Claire, who waited in her small doorway, not willing to risk possible hysteria from someone so much larger.  'It's okay, Lisa, you'll be okay.'

'But I don't want...no, you can't help, you can't help you, let alone me.  Please, though, tell me, what happened to make you like this, what's it like.  And Theresa, it sounds like it happened to her, too.  Does it have to happen to me?'  She looked as if she might start crying again.

Claire tried to make her tone as soothing as possible.  'I don't know if it has to happen to you, that's pretty much up to Teri.  Me, though, she pretty much sacrificed me so that she could be regular size again.  She got shrunk by accident and arranged it so that I took her place.  Really, it could be worse.  She makes sure I'm as comfortable as possible and one of these days they'll get me back to regular size too, I guess.  I know Al, that's Dr. Froendlich, is working on it.'  Claire hoped that acting calm, almost matter-of-fact, could help this girl deal with the set of shocks she had just been handed.  Actually she was taking it rather well, all things considered.  Better than some.  'To tell you the truth, being like this isn't that uncomfortable, at least not physically.  I've never felt more healthy, more alert,  never felt sharper.'  Her tone softened a bit.  'Truth is,  though, sometimes I feel real...alone.  Real helpless and alone .'

Lisa managed a brief smile, trying to be reassuring in her turn.  'I'll bet.  So Theresa was tiny once too.  How'd she handle it?'

'It was pretty amazing, actually.  She got shrunk, it wasn't planned at all, just sort of happened and ten minutes later she was in charge of everything, she was running the whole show.  She's really very good at being in charge of things so I think that being physically helpless really bothered her a lot.  It took a while for her to arrange to get unshrunk but she sure arranged it.'  Claire looked at the floor sadly.  'Only thing was, somebody else had to get shrunk for the process to work in reverse on her and I wasn't smart enough to see that she planned on using me.  It turns out the reverse process works better, it's more likely to be successful, the more the subject getting shrunk is similar to the one getting unshrunk.  I should have realized that.  I should have figured out I was the only woman available for her to use.  So now I'm the one stuck being tiny.'  She tried to smile bravely but looked as though she might be on the verge of tears herself as she considered her surroundings and her relationship to them.

Lisa leaned forward and reached toward Claire, who retreated a step back into her doorway.  Lisa tried to smile at her.  'Now don't you start.'  She gave a little shriek that might have been an attempt at a laugh.  'Anyway, it sounds like I'm next.  I'm going to be the one shrinking and you get to be normal again.'  She choked back a frightened sob.

'Me?  Normal again?  No, not yet, not this time.  We've done this before, you're not the first.  They'll shrink you but only for a while, a couple of days probably.  Then you're the one that gets to be normal sized again.'

Lisa's expression  brightened in surprise.  'I'll be the same size I am now?  You're sure?'  A smile broke out as relief washed over her.  'I won't have to stay doll sized like you.  That's the first good news I've heard since I...'  Her voice faltered as she saw tears leak from Claire's closed eyes.

'That's right.' she whispered.  'You won't have to stay like me.  But,' her voice grew firmer, 'you won't be as tall as you are now.  You'll be a little shorter, normal enough, but shorter.  But not like me.'  She peered up at her visitor and both were silent.
 
 

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