"What are you doing!" screamed Sophie as three burly men picked up and carried out to a truck all of her living room furniture. "Yer brudder din't pay his gamblin' debts, so we're repossessing this stuff. If it don't sell fer 'nuff to pay the debt, we'll be back," one of the hard-bitten gents replied.
As Sophie was hosting a party for friends in the home that evening, she hurriedly moved a few older sticks of furniture up from the basement. Spotting her brother Eddie, she asked for help, but he demurred, saying he had something more pressing to do. He got on Sophie's phone to place a bet on the Dallas-Cincinnati football game.
"That's all he thinks about is gambling," Sophie thought to herself. "If I don't stop Eddie, he'll gamble away everything I own and leave me in debt." Sophie then placed a call of her own to her friend Sylvia.
That evening at the party, Sophie chided Eddie that unlike him, she could do anything she set out to do, no matter how impossible. Eddie just laughed. "Wanna bet on it?" he asked. Sophie agreed. "Let's make the task really impossible," Eddie said. Sylvia stood up and produced a very small fairy princess Halloween costume. "Why doesn't Sophie bet that she could put Eddie into this costume before midnight," Sylvia said. "Never in a million years! It's toddler size," Eddie laughed all the louder. But Sophie promised, "By midnight, I'll put Eddie in this costume. Is it a bet?" Eddie accepted, even giving her 10-1 odds.
Sure the wager was as good as won, Eddie decided to look for things he could sell to raise more gambling funds. Peeking into a bedroom, he saw Sylvia's purse unattended. Opening it, he found only a ring with what looked like a large ruby in the setting. Slipping it on his finger, Eddie wondered what the pawnshop would give him for it.
Within a minute, Eddie felt the section of his finger under the ring getting warm. Feeling uncomfortable, Eddie tried to remove the ring, but it wouldn't budge. The warm area spread to the whole finger, then the hand, and then up Eddie's arm. He tugged at the ring, but the more he tried to remove it, the more tightly it adhered to his finger. Worse, the feeling had become burning hot, causing Eddie great discomfort.
As the burning sensation spread across his entire body, Eddie panicked. Running into the living room in front of the guests, Eddie pleaded with Sophie to help him get the ring off. Sylvia identified her ring and said, "You can't take it off. It will fall off when it's done its job." She added, "Eddie, didn't you used to be taller than Sophie? She looks a half head higher than you."
Realizing that he was getting smaller, Eddie tugged all the harder on the ring, but to no avail. He could feel his body sinking into his clothing. Worse, his body was taking on child proportions. His husky chest was growing skinny, as were his arms and legs, which also were contracting like a telescope being readied for storage. "Will somebody help me?" Eddie yelled at the astonished guests, who seemed amused, but not willing to touch Eddie during his metamorphosis. Eddie at one point grabbed his crotch and screamed, "it's getting smaller faster than my body."
Now writhing on the floor, Eddie felt his body heat reach critical mass. Reacting to the heat, his oversized clothes began to visibly evaporate before the guests' very eyes, leaving only what to them looked like a diaper. And then Eddie's body rapidly got cold and the ring rolled off his finger.
Standing up, Eddie was doubly shocked to notice that Sophie, Sylvia and the other guests now towered over his 28-inch tall body. "He looks like a 2-year-old," one of the guests gasped. Sophie walked up to Eddie with the fairy princess costume. "Size 2. It should fit you perfectly," Sophie said. "You have to catch me first before you win the bet," Eddie countered in his now much higher voice.
Eddie shouldn't have bet on his unsteady 2-year-old legs, as he was easily captured and slipped into the fairy princess costume. Sitting on Sophie's lap in the costume, he watched as guests chuckled at his fate. "How could this happened?" Eddie whimpered. "I had a little help from my friends. My friend Sylvia runs a little magic shop a black magic shop, full of all sorts of objects that impart special spells," Sophie said.
Sylvia began distributing business cards to the appreciative guests.
"This has to be the most humiliating moment of my life,"
Eddie thought. He then noticed to his right an electric bottle
warmer. "This one's heated to the right temperature,"
Sophie said as she removed a baby bottle from the appliance and
inserted the nipple into Eddie's mouth. His 2-year-old body no
longer able to resist, Eddie began to gradually suck the milk
from the bottle. The guests began to walk up and admire the youthened
Eddie, tickling him under the chin or pinching his chubby cheeks.
"What's this cute little baby boy going to be when he grows
up?" one asked. "Not a gambler," Sophie smiled.