The Shrink Disease (by William)

I was prepared for another regular and relaxing Saturday, then I realized something unusual had happened to me, and my whole life turned upside down on that day of my life.

When I first woke up, I discovered that I had more space on my bed than the previous night. I got off my bed to get some clothes from the closet. While jumping off, I fell onto the floor, feet first. “What is happening to me?” I muttered. All of a sudden, mom burst into my room. She was looming over me, as she shouted, “Honey, where are you! We don’t have time for Big Tiger Chasing Little Pig (a game we invented)!” “I’m here mom! I’m here!” I squeaked. She looked down, and gasped in astonishment. “What has happened to you! Why have you shrunk in size! Are you feeling okay?” she demanded. And in a swift motion, she swept me up in her palm and took me to the restroom.

I looked into the mirror, and gasped loudly as I saw that I was not as tall as my water mug. My dad then came into the restroom, and gaped at the sight of me being 6 inches tall. He pointed to his phone, mouth still agape and said, “It is on ABC and CNN news that all kids between 7 to 14 years of age in California have shrunk overnight.” “How do you feel, William?” asked my mom. “I feel okay, do you want me to go see the doctor?” I answered her. “Yes,” my mom and dad intoned simultaneously.

I soon had a brief breakfast of some bread and orange juice, despite the difficulties I had with eating. I was quickly transported to the doctor’s office and he informed us, “This is quite an unusual case of sickness. Your son has the Shrink-Small Symptom, caused by the terrifying virus, Europhytus Gilenga Balphis. There have been no treatments so far, and the affecting age range is 7-14 years old, so your son has fallen ill. I will call the nearest health center, and have them make antibodies that counter the disease. This particular pathogen cannot be fought off by extra rest, so William may go about his daily business.” After hearing the doctor’s advice, we thanked him and left.

Mom wasted no time in getting me to my piano lesson. My piano teacher stared in bewilderment at my size, and after she recovered from her shock, mom told her what happened. She then told me to take of my shoes, and I did. She put me on the piano keys, and told me to play with my feet. Although it felt strange at first, but I got a bit more used to it. Before I knew it, time was up, and I said goodbye and thank you to my teacher.

Our next stop on a usual Saturday morning was to go to Trader Joe’s. I love to help my mom shop and help the cashiers bag the groceries, but today, she nestled me onto her palm in case other shoppers step on me. She walked around the aisles grabbing what we needed.  I looked around and I saw many other “few-inched” kids. Then my mom asked me, “Would you like to buy something?” “No, but thank you for thinking of me.” I replied. When we walked outside, she gave me a Trader Joe’s sticker. Its height was about 2 inches, and it was as tall as my legs to my waist!

After 30 minutes, we arrived at my second language school. My mom carried me up to stairs and to the classroom, and I saw my teacher standing over me. Mom set me down onto the table and then took out my learning textbook. “Goodbye mom!” I shouted, and she kissed my head. Across the table, my classmates were using cooperation to flip the pages of one textbook, and I soon joined them in reading the foreign text. In front of us, the text looked very big. Even my classmates who wear glasses took them off. We took a test, and my teacher looked on in amazement as the 4 of us had to work together to write the answers down. When we were done, the words we wrote were so small that the teacher needed to use a magnifying glass to read our answers. Before I knew it, my mother came to pick me up at once and we went home.

When we got home, a bowl of steaming chicken noodle soup was set on the table for me. Mom set me on the spoon, and I started drinking the delicious soup. In an instant, I saw that my body size was growing, and mom cheered with joy. I would find later that day, the medical treatment center made a breakthrough that Europhytus Gilenga Balphis could be cured with collagen, which is mainly found in chicken soup.

From this experience, I learned that no matter what setbacks you encounter, you can always move on with your life, and forget about the worries.

Paul Bunyan 2: A New Tall Tale (by Ethan)

  I’m taking a stroll through Yosemite National Park, breathing in the scent of the trees and listening to the bird’s song. Abruptly, my stomach curls in my body, and I double over. My eyes swivel in my head; suddenly, an animation plays in my vision. I see a nation, with millions of starving people all across it, groaning, wandering the streets, desperately eye-locking the ground for a tiny morsel of food.

  The aluminum and steel bodies of buses litter the streets, their drivers out of business. The air is white with crumpled and torn resumes, letters, and other official job papers, which I saw were stabbed onto the limbs of trees, posted to the streetlights, trash bins stuffed full to the brim with them, the crushed remnants of a glimmer of hope. I also see that the nation is China, from the writing scrawled on derelict buildings and buses.

  When the animation zooms into a stock building, I see the graphs, their lines falling so steeply that if it were a mountain slope, not even I, the mightiest logger and climber of mountains in America, could have conquered it. Stock percentages on all the screens were dwindling at an alarming rate to near zero. Deserted cubicles, each with its own sad story, are lined all about. There’s one person who does not share this cruel misery, though. He’s laughing an evil laugh, clutching pound upon pound of money in his strong, grabbing fists. He looks familiar, but I’m too engrossed by in this hellish scene to pay much attention.

  “I must save the nation!” I think.

  Out goes the hatchet from its old, worn leather pouch, off goes my coonskin cap from the wooden peg rack that I built myself and out goes I from the comfort of my warm home, setting off on an adventure of the grandest scale.

  Later, I arrive at the scenes of terror. I see that not only are people starving, they are also sick. And, there was the evil man, laughing, holding his clutches of money.

  A thorough look at him confirmed that I had seen him before: he was Wang Chen-Han, one of the most selfish, uncaring, and greedy stockbrokers ever to have been born on this planet. He had toppled thousands of stocks all across the world and made millions out of it. He was a billionaire. Now, I realized, he had destroyed every single stock in China, casting everyone into joblessness.

  When I arrive, everyone looked at me, even Chen-Han. They gape at me as if I’m from Mars. “Is he an alien?” someone said.

  “I am Paul Bunyan. Just a logger I may be, but I am here to save you!” I said.

  While I’m saying this, I take a close look at Chen-Han. He’s grown fatter and his voice has changed, but his fiery brown eyes are still the same ones, eyes full of unconcern for others. But, my musing over him is broken when Chen-Han says, “What’re you doin’ here, big dummy?”

  “Helping China, of course!” I say.

  At the word help, Chen-Han’s face grows exceedingly red. It’s one of his least favorite words. “What do you mean, help? You’re not helping anyone,” he emphatically states.

  “You’ll see.”

  I turn without a further glimpse at him and stroll off.

   Since it’s getting dark and I’m far too large for any bed, I decide to head for the Great Wall.

  I climb in pure darkness onto the Wall and lie there. Staring at the starry sky, I’m thinking “What’s my plan? How am I going to help rebuild the country? Maybe tomorrow, I can try to convince Chen-Han to give up his ways…zzz…”

  A sudden pain alerts me to my senses. Still groggy, I look around. It’s just beginning to dawn. The scenery is like nothing I’ve ever seen before, with the bluish mountains rolling in the landscape, the mist floating about like some hungry beast swallowing anything in its way.

  But, the pain lands me back to earth. When I look at my arm, it’s bleeding hard. Then, I notice words scratched into my skin: “U R LUZER - CH” My pain turns into white-hot anger, at the mere thought that Chen-Han would call me, Paul Bunyan, a loser, and that he didn’t even give me a chance to reason with him. Immediately, I spring from my lofty perch and see Chen-Han standing on a beacon tower not far from me.

  “I’ll make you a deal,” he snarls. “How ‘bout you skedaddle back to your cabin and I leave you alone?”

  “No. I’ll save the people here, whether you like it or not.”

  “You’re not saving anything whether it’s for your own sake or my sake or anyone’s sake.” He points with his finger at everyone! And his voice is very mean and hoarse, like that of a school bully whose had two hours yelling at nothing and then another thirty minutes swearing at the pain in his toe because he kicked a rock.

  “You can’t stop me!” I practically shout.

  “Let’s see,” he says and spits at me but I dodge it and spit at him. My spit is larger than his therefore he can’t dodge it as well. So, while he’s busy trying to clear my saliva off of his pug face with lots of overly dramatic swipes, I throw him to the ground.

  In a flash, he gets out a nail gun but I had just the right tool. While the nails are flying directly for my stomach like so many deadly silver darts, I bat them back with my ax; he tries to escape, but Chen-Han is fat from the hours he’s spent gorging on food he’s bought using his unrightfully earned money, so he moves a bit slow. One strikes his arm and wounds him. He yells ”OUCH, I’LL SHOW YOU!” and his voice is so burning with hate that I can feel the trees withering behind me.

  “Aww, you thirsty, here’s some pina colada for you mate!” he screeched, with a flask of poison in hand. Seeing this, I rip a tree from the ground and I see a split second of amazement on Chen-Han’s face, but he doesn’t have time to stare for long because his bottle of poison is in shards behind him, leaking acid green fluid.

  The stockbroker’s face is now no more than a beetroot with a taught white-lipped mouth and two piggy black, hate-filled eyes. Summoning up all his vocal energy, he booms “SO YOU HERUCLEAN, YOU, HOW WOULD YOU LIKE A LITTLE BBQ?” and gets out his Fire-Whippe, a deadly weapon known to be able to fry anything existing.

  While he’s firing the thing at me, trying to turn me into a Paul-Bunyankabob, I sneak behind him and knock him cold with a kick to the head, but I have a more painful way of dealing with him, since pain was the last thing anyone who met him felt. Taking his Fire-Whippe, I fry a tree until it is shriveled and very sharp. I then impale it in his bottom. He immediately wakes up and goes wild, clawing at his rear end like mad. But, I pick him up and carry him to his house. His Fire-Whippe is pointed at the outside.

  “Chen-Han, say goodbye to your money!”

  “Oh no.”

  BOOM!

  The sight of Chen-Han curled up in sorrow at the loss of his mega-mansion fills me with pride at the thought that he should get his rightful punishment. I also decide to make him a servant, helping me cut down trees.

  The following day, I gather some financial experts, and we set about helping the people mend the ruined country.

  Months later, I go back to my home at Yosemite. My bed is too short and weak for me again since I grow like a weed. After lengthening it and giving the old boards to Chen-Han to sleep on, I lay on my new bed. I fall asleep to the sound of Chen-Han’s shrieks of dismay at his being ultimately defeated. As I drift off, I am thinking that for once, China is back to the happy country it once was.