A Real Short Story

A Real Short Story by Anthony Rain Starez
Once upon a time, just a short time ago, there lived a somewhat smart, yet very shy young man named Shea. Now Shea was a lovable boy who'd share anything with anyone at anytime, but there was one problem, Shea was not only shy but very short too!! Why most days in school meant Shea would here the same shrieking students screaming, "Here comes shorty Shea...Hey Shea, how'd you get soooo short?" Shea would just shrink even further and slowly slip away.... Sometimes Shea would secretly slip to the school's science center where he loved experimenting with solutions, mixing this with that with a little of this to a touch of that. "Someday I'll be a scientist, and I'll never be called shorty-Shea again," Shea would say to himself silently. One snowy Sunday while other children were out skating, or sledding or something Shea was working in his small science lab he'd built in his father's shed. Shea had mixed some yellow stuff with blue stuff to create a green stuff that seemed to smoke and stuff, then the stuff started to smell like soured squash sauteed with sweet sticky syrup. So, Shea sipped some!!
	"Ummmmm, not bad for a short order chief," Shea joked. Suddenly, Shea began to shake...then he shook...then he shook some more!! When the shaking stopped Shea stared at his shoes....the laces had snapped and the stitches were stitchless. Shea's shirt was too short, and his pants only reached his shin.
Realizing that his scientific solution stuff had somehow sparked his growth and made him taller, Shea screamed with joy. The next day Shea had snuck some solution stuff to school. Shea would have no more of those "shorty statements" by students. Sure enough, some kids started calling Shea "shorty." Shea just sat there steaming as the bullies shouted, "Shorty, shorty, shorty..." When he could take no more Shea pulled the green smoky solution stuff from the pocket of his shirt.....and sipped, and sipped, and sipped until it was all sipped away. Shea stood there staring at his tormentors...then he slowly started to shake. Smoke started slipping from Shea's sneakers as a high pitched shrill escaped Shea's mouth. His face became scarlet as he began to grow and grow and grow until his head hit the ceiling.....for a few seconds the startled students, and substitute teacher, stood there stunned. Then they ran from the school into the streets screaming. Six of the scared students were hit by cars speeding by. Six were safe. Shea's size was now the size of a super-Sampson, stupendous they say...the size of seven men times seven bales of hay. With Police sirens outside and the building surrounded, Shea sat there stuck, stuffy and impounded. Shedding oversized tears the size of small trees , Shea sobbed and sobbed until there was a small salty sea....Ohhh, how Shea now wished he was short, so Shea thought for a second. Remember, Shea's smart!! And so Shea thought of a scientific study about how fresh seafood would soak up solutions and stuff in the bodily system, and he smiled with a sassy sort swagger and said, "Someone supply me with sumptuous seafood of scallops, shrimp, swordfish and squid...even shark!
	Soon scaffolds filled with savory succulent seafood were being lifted to the sill of Shea's window. Why there was even a Caesar's salad with a slice of salami on the side. Slurping and swallowing and sucking sounds came from the small stuffy room that still held Shea, but soon the absorbent chemical makeup of the seafood began soaking up, and squeezing out, all of the sinister solution stuff from Shea's saturated system.
Slowly Shea started to shrink...and shrink...and shrink until he'd shrunk to his same short smaller self. Scratching his scalp, Shea searched for the words to explain the sensational sensation of being Shorty Shea again....the wonderful feeling was short lived as the smart-alecky students who started this stupid situation started shouting, "Shorty, shorty, shorty, shortyyyyyy Shea......" But this time Shea simply smiled!