The George Fox Chronicles: “Well, that was unexpected.”

It’s been 2 months since George moved everything out of Jack’s basement. It’s also been two months since a time machine exploded over Paris. George still had no job since he made no effort to job hunt, knowing Carmelita provided all the necessities.
A call came into Carmelita. “Yes? I’ll be right there.” She said to the nerdy voice on the other end of the phone. Carmelita had a heavy heart. She was clinging onto hope for the past 2 months on the whereabouts of the raccoon she loved to hate was. It burned at her soul that he was missing, but at the same time it was an anxiety to get revenge on a false love proposition.
George was busy on his laptop at normal person size, around 5’ 9’’. Carmelita stepped into the room, ready to deliver what she thought was going to be horrible news. “George, I may be gone for a long time. You control your habits, OK? Life isn’t all about shrinking.” George stopped his gaming for a short time and looked back. “What is it this time? Sly again?” Carmelita was hesitant to give an answer. “Look, I’ll be fine.” George said. “Go and find him. I’ve been keeping up with most of what’s happened, and I’ve seen weirder things this year than anything else I’ve ever encountered. By the way, why was Le Paradox a world president for a short time?” Carmelita paused. “How did you know about that?” George explained while pointing at one of his pockets. “The protection that prevents me from getting squished also neutralizes space-time changes to me. I remember everything.” Carmelita sighed “Then you know why I’m going to Bentley’s hideout, right?” George nodded. “Just go, I’ll be fine and self sustaining in the house. Takeout food can’t be that bad, is it?” Carmelita chuckled. “At least get some veggies from the grocery store.” George had a brainwave “I know! Homemade veggie pizza!” Carmelita couldn’t delay, the meeting was at 7PM at the hideout. She chuckled. “You’re so silly!” She kissed George and said her goodbyes. George went back to the game.
After she left, George was actually curious… What did a veggie pizza taste like? He quit the game and started looking up recipes and made his way to the grocery store with his list. He was going to make an Italian based veggie pizza. George got cheese regardless since he didn’t regard himself as a Vegan, and just wanted to throw random vegetables on a pizza. Out of this shopping list, one of the foods was eggplant. Little did George know eggplant had an effect on his body.
George went home, chopped up all the goods and randomly placed tomato sauce, sliced tomatoes, onions, spinach and eggplant on his pizza covered in a mountain of cheese. He bought pre-made pizza dough since he had no effort to make his own. Before he put it in the oven, he realized his mistake… “Did I ever calculate how long this is going to take to cook?” He was computer literate, but never studied food sciences. In fact, this was literally his first time cooking… “20 minutes at 425F, let’s just go with that. I don’t have to worry about veggies being undercooked…”
George came back 20 minutes later and cut up the pizza. He placed it on a plate and set it down in the kitchen. Discontent with his size at the moment, he wanted a better environment to eat this pizza. “Oh well, I may as well enjoy this at a smaller size…” He said. He rushed up to his room to grab something and went back down with a pair of boots. He set it by the shoe rack.
Grabbing his pizza and plate, he went over to Carmelita’s shoe rack and shrunk. There, Carmelita’s decommissioned boots (now George’s second home) greeted him as he climbed up, then jumped into the boot, shrinking further at the same time. Fortunately, the pizza survived.
 After George moved his stuff out of Jack’s place, he needed somewhere to put the extra stuff. His room had already been fully furnished with no room to spare. A peculiar trait about George is that whatever he holds onto shrinks or grows with him. Carmelita decommissioned the boots she used to always wear, instead opting for boots with higher heels. George after asking was now free to use these old boots for any purpose he wanted to. So 2 months ago, he used her old boots as storage lockers to store everything he used to have in Jack’s basement. He shrank himself and his possessions down to no taller than a nail on a thumb and carried the boots away at normal size, when Jack wasn’t around.
Recently, he had done a renovation of her boots so that his living quarters were in the left boot and his teleportation lab in the right boot. The only color George was able to use for the fabric mesh walls and ceilings were the same color as the rest of the inner lining of the boot. George thought camouflage was a good asset to have to his second home, it helped him to do more covert stuff, for instance, long distance shoe teleportation.
Normally, George has to be within 100m of a shoe to teleport inside. He figured out that if he tracked the manufacture and build of the accelerometers inside certain brands of running shoes in space-time, he could go inside any which one of them. It was easier for shoes with electronic components since those were emitting wireless communications to music players.
George started descending into the renovated living quarters of Carmelita’s boots. He loved how the second floor was always bouncy because of the fabric mesh. He knew his teleportation project in the other boot was waiting, but he didn’t care for now, he needed to eat.
George took a bite, but something odd happened as he swallowed. He felt like he was getting a minor cramp, he didn’t think much of it though and kept eating. He finished the pizza and felt tired. He sighed. “Well, go to bed in the boot or in my room?” George pondered, but decided his room would have been better.
George climbs out of the tongue of the boot, but when he tried to resize himself to climb down the laces easier, it didn’t work… “Why are her laces still so big?” He said out loud. He tried again, but the laces still felt like thick cruise ship anchor rope.
He wondered if it was because he stopped wearing his size controlling hat. He got that out of storage in his boot apartment suite, but hesitated to wear it inside “Maybe I should climb back out and wear this… I wouldn’t want to make the boot explode.”
So, climbing back out, he tries the hat on, and tries again. The laces still felt the same size. In frustration, he jumps from the top of the boot and lands on the floor. He knew he was invulnerable, but the landing was hard, causing him to be dazed.
The doorbell rings. “Not good.” George rushed up the giant laces, and retreated inside the boot before another red fox vixen by the name of Anika opened the door.
She was Carmelita’s new roommate, her first day was supposed to be today, but being busy, Carmelita forgot to inform George about her. Carmelita already gave her the house keys, so she was ready to meet her that day, but she wasn’t home.
“You there, Carmelita?” Anika said. “My boyfriend’s waiting in the car and I promised him I wouldn’t take long to tour the house!” Anika started stepping into the house, taking off her boots, but leaving her striped fuzzy knee high socks on. George was petrified, the thought of another unexpected visitor didn’t cross his mind, and now he was hiding in his girlfriend’s old boots to not get noticed by an outsider.
Carmelita was specifically asked by Anika about sharing resources, including clothes. Carmelita had no problem with this, and said that any clothing she wore that fits her can be shared amongst both of them. This was George’s downfall.
Anika toured the kitchen, where the utensils George used were still unwashed. “Must have left in a hurry not to wash the dishes…” said Anika. She looked out the window and his boyfriend’s car was still parked in front. Anika grabbed a soda from the fridge and was about to set out for the car.
She opened the can and was about to drink when her phone went off from her boyfriend in the car. She chose a very loud rock song that startled her enough to drop the drink on the entrance mat, and subsequently, her boots. The noise was deafening to George. “Urgh, of all the bands, why that one?!?” George exclaimed.
“Damn it!” Anika yelled as her boots were dripping wet from spilled pop. Her phone was still going off, so she opened the door and yelled to her boyfriend in the car “JUST GIMME A SECOND, OK?” and slammed the door shut.
Remembering her agreement with Carmelita about shared resources, Anika without hesitation grabbed Carmelita’s old boots. George was flung to the inner lining, and he knew what was next. “Oh crap, activate protection mode!” he yelled to his pocket. A beam of light then touched and split on every single possession he had inside the boot.
George then realized his lab wasn’t protected yet… He was going to take a chance. Fortunately his lab would fit inside a running shoe, so he quickly teleported to the other boot and engaged a lab teleport to the nearest running shoe with an accelerometer. To his surprise, there was one in Carmelita’s shoe closet, still new in box, but with the paper stuffing taken out as she had worn it at the store. In a flash, it was gone.
George quickly teleported back to keep his protection power on his possessions active. Then the inevitable came. The pink and white fuzzy sock covered footpaw of Anika. It descended into the boot and took out the first ceiling, which was his bedroom, then the second one in the wider living room area as he and his belongings were squished up dimensionally by Anika’s footpaw without anything being destroyed thanks to George’s protection mode.
Anika didn’t feel the squeezing of George nor his possessions. Her thick fuzzy knee high socks blocked out most of the feeling of her foot to the boot.  She then started putting her other foot into the right boot. That boot had a second room above the lab, but because only the lab teleported, a projector and DIY home theater system went to waste under Anika’s foot.
Anika was satisfied, after putting on Carmelita’s old boots, she went to the kitchen and got paper towels to dry off the floor and her own boots. They would need a washing before they were going to be worn again. Each step she took sent a tingling sensation George was used to when he’s underneath women’s feet, but with the squished and warped protected living room components around him, he did not have the insole as a proper backrest. Each step was his usual feeling, then some numbness behind his back due to the protection mode.
With her boots relatively wiped dry, Anika heard a car horn. “COMING GABE!” she yelled to her boyfriend. Each step running made the numbness in George’s back more prevalent and he was afraid the electronics would malfunction or conflict with his body and paralyze him.
Locking the door to the house, Anika ran to the car and threw her wet boots in the back seats and buckled into the passenger seat next to her boyfriend Gabe. Gabe was a Border collie with a “cool dude” attitude on life. He won’t let trouble that comes to people he cares about stop him from helping them. “What took you so long?” Gabe said. “Well, apparently they aren’t in today so I guess we came all the way across the river for nothing, right?” Anika said to Gabe. He looked down. “You taking your roommate’s boots?” Gabe said. “I’ll return it, she said our clothes can be shared.”
George still had the shock of how suddenly this all happened. A random roommate Carmelita never told him about shows up and uses her clothes without knowing there’s a micro inside!?! If he could teleport to Carmelita’s new boots that she was wearing to meet Bentley, he would bite on her pinkie toe right about now.
 “We still have the rest of today on this side of the river. What do you think? Second largest mall in the city?” Gabe said getting close to Anika. “That’d be sweet. Let’s go.”
The couple drove away from Carmelita’s house, George in tow in Anika’s left boot. At least now the vibrations of the car are all George has to worry about, until the mall…
TO BE CONTINUED
(Next chapter will be George at Anika’s house that she’s about to move out from)