Scott could have gotten out of the

Scott could have gotten out of the sock drawer if he tried. There were a bunch of white tube athletic socks rolled up into balls, and he would have to climb up over several of them, reach the edge, then jump down the 16 inches or so to the floor. At his tiny size and small mass he could probably survive it. But 16 inches to most people would be 48 feet to him. He was thumb or pinky sized and weighed a few ounces. If he did do this, he could crawl under a couple doors to the outside world..but what then? Or...he could go over to the nightstand on the other side of the bedroom and climb up a smart phone charging cord, some 30 inches to the top of the nightstand. Then he'd punch in various numbers and call for help...but would his extremely high pitched voice be heard?

The 14 year old boy who'd caused Scott's situation was asleep on his bed on the other side of the room. No doubt he was mostly covered by a blanket, with his bare feet (each seemingly 11 feet by 30 feet) sticking out. He could hear the snoring. Then Scott heard someone else enter the room, and a huge hand reached down to grab him. That belonged to the boy's 9 year old brother...who was 4 and a half feet tall but seemed the size of the Statue of
Liberty to Scott. His chest and back were grabbed by the boy's thumb and forefinger and he was soon placed on the boy's upturned palm. He was clad in a T shirt, pajama bottoms, and grey-stockinged feet. It was early morning and he had snuck into his brother's bedroom.

The 14 year old was Jeff and his younger brother was named Matt. One day Scott was standing around in a park when suddenly he felt a warm sensation--then the next thing he knew, two huge sneakered feet were on either side of him, and he was brought up by Jeff. The teen had a gun, but not the type with bullets. This was a shrink ray. Scott's clothes shrank with him.

So now Jeff, and Matt (who had a separate room) each had a man in his forties as a pet. Just think, Jeff,
who was too young to drive, or shave, or drink booze, or vote...he had power over an adult. Jeff, whose voice hadn't deepened yet into that of an adult (it was slightly high pitched--an F sharp instead of his father's
C natural), and who had eight years of school left between high school and college...he was in control of someone else. (Jeff had adult height, though; five foot ten. An inch taller than his dad.)

"We can shrink someone in their car," Jeff had told Matt. "and he can drive it around on our floor, at least till it runs out of gas."

"We'll collect people," Matt chimed in, "Grownups, kids, whatever. Maybe kids from school. Shrink a bully down!"

"That's the idea."

Scott had wondered if the boys' mom or dad would be victims, too. He doubted it, but one never knows.

Matt smiled down at him but said nothing. He heard rustling from the bed and suspected Jeff was starting to wake up. Matt dashed out of the room and back into his own room. He could hear a groan from Jeff's room. Two thumps, then loud footsteps. The giant was heading into the bathroom and soon he could hear the boy urinating followed by a faucet being turned on. At least he was hygenic.

Matt grabbed a sock and dropped Scott into it, then put it into his top drawer.

"I hope you didn't take the little guy," he heard Jeff say, "You don't want to go down to...an inch and a half."

"Um, well I was gonna wash him up," he heard Matt say in a voice higher pitched than Jeff's but certainly lower than Scott's. "When can you let me take him to school?"

"When you can ride in the pocket with him," Jeff said snidely. "Like I said...and oh, you couldn't go crying to mom or dad if I did. They wouldn't be able to hear you."

"They'd be able to see me. I'd wave my arms and get their attention, like, and they might figure out you did it."

"They don't know about the ray, and they WON'T know. Besides what if one of 'em stepped on you?"

Matt shuddered but said, "You wouldn't do that to me."

Their parents occasionally heard them talk like this but paid it no mind. Kids, pretending, right?

Jeff walked into his brother's room and saw the sock all by itself in the top dresser drawer. He gently lifted it up and Scott rolled out. Jeff placed him on his upturned palm.

Matt was huge. Jeff considerably bigger than that. A couple times he got a glimpse at their dad, who easily weighed twice as much as Jeff did. But heck, a newborn baby was a giant to Scott.

The boys didn't really know Scott's name, though he tried to squeak it at them when they asked him. It was ironic that he was named Scott as there was an old movie about a man named Scott who shrank to about his size.
"I cursed myself. If I was only a little bigger, a little stronger," the man narrates at one point. "There was only this one chance. And I had to take it. If I could leap from the painstick--and reach the other side. But there was no time to think. Only act.