The George Fox Chronicles: Facing Fears (Chapter 4)

Anika slept in her bed with her computer on the floor. It was morning and Gabe (once again) had already left for work.
George, still sleeping in the sock, had a dream about a mysterious woman. It was the home of what his mind told him a Fennec Fox and he had stumbled upon her shoes. Heading inside them as she was coming to put on her shoes, he was soon pinned below light blue socks similar to what he was in when he started sleeping. The fennec headed out for what seemed to be a run. He was used to being stepped on, but then he heard the tapping of raindrops… Why would anyone head out in the rain in tennis shoes?
She started the run by stepping in a puddle. This was something George feared: water in a shoe. Not looking, the fennec stepped in an ankle deep puddle and the entire shoe was drenched. George was soon feeling a rush of water from all sides of the shoe. Oddly, time slowed down as if he was trapped in a sinking car.
He climbed the sock out of the shoe in desperation, reaching her yellow fur and burrowing halfway inside the sock at it’s very top. The whole time, he couldn’t catch a glimpse of her face. All he knew was his mind was telling him this was a fennec.
Next thing he knew, it was a weird feeling to him, but it looked like she had tripped because of that one puddle. The foot tried to propel forward, but instead remained there. George could see the toe of the shoe fully extended with the surface of the puddle facing right at him.
SPLASH! George was submerged in the puddle and the world went black.
George woke up gasping for air. He then realized he was still safe inside Anika’s sock. In the process of climbing out of the sock and through her fur in panic, it woke her up.
“Is that you tickling me, Gabe?” Anika said, appearing still half asleep with her eyes still closed. George’s quick breathing gave him adrenaline, and he ran to her nose and tried to lift her eyelids.
“Anika! Can you check the weather for me?” George said while lifting her left eyelid. It shut after George let go and Anika started stretching to reach for her laptop. George turned around and rode on her nose, still breathing heavily from running.
Anika turned on the computer. She went to her usual weather website and read the forecast: “Cloudy with a 0% chance of rain. Why?”
“Not much… had a nightmare, that’s all.” George said, still gasping for air. Anika could sense something was clearly wrong.
“It’s alright, you can tell me. No one else is around.” Anika said, trying her best to comfort George. He was a sucker for accepting help, so naturally he said what came to mind.
“Well, to put it in short, the nightmare was about water coming in from a puddle a fox stepped in. I was inside her shoe and I seem to have drowned…” George said nervously. Anika had slight confusion in her eye, knowing for a fact George couldn’t be hurt and had natural invulnerability.
“Sounds very scary, but aren’t you immune to being hurt? I mean, I can make sure to not go out in the rain if that helps.” Anika said to George. George still felt like he had to explain to her his fear of drowning.
“This is a regular nightmare I have. Never in my life have I swam or been forced into water. My mind often reminds me of my luck by giving me a nightmare of it happening. In every nightmare I’ve had, I felt the sensation of drowning before waking up.” George explained. Anika almost wanted to hug the tiny fox, but instead used her fingertips to brush George’s body.
“Nightmares are always rough, little fox. My worst one was literally being struck by lightning and waking up to find a thunderstorm outside.” Anika said. She was careful only to scratch George’s back, knowing how delicate his arms were at his size. “Besides, I haven’t forgotten about last night. We need to get Carmelita’s running shoes, right?”
George nodded. He also remembered the only way there was public transit, another one of his weaknesses. Temptation to sneak into other people’s shoes was the biggest thing he had to overcome. Whenever he took transit for business, he had to take it at his normal size of 5’ 9’’. He often looked down to find sneakers or flats he was attracted to. Back when he was going to work, he knew he couldn’t shrink in public. At his present size however, his temptation grew. Whenever he was smaller and taking transit for pleasure, he teleported in and out of many shoes.
“Yeah, we should head out soon, right?” George said nervously. He felt and heard his phone vibrate in one of his pockets. He took it out and a text message from Eggleston had arrived.
“Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I went to your lab briefly after construction was completed on it and integrated its technology in a Mark II version of your phone’s back cover. It’s sitting on the research desk in the lab.” The text message said. George pondered this. It meant any abrupt movement would knock it off the table, possibly breaking it.
“Anika, once we arrive, can I kindly ask you to let me find the shoes? The technology to return me to size is very delicate, and a slight bump could break some stuff.” George said with more certainty.
“How are you going to walk the distances? Or is there something you’re not telling me?” Anika said. She then remembered George disappeared in a flash of light at one point last night and ended up somewhere completely different. “And how did you end up in the sock drawer last night?” George only now realized he never told her the full story about his phone, even with explaining his entire history with Carmelita and the occasional contact with Eggleston.
“My phone, it has a teleportation feature. I can target shoes and socks from a distance.” George said. Then he realized his mistake… he had unintentionally let her know about his habit.
“Really? Well, I’m taking the moccasins out today, so if you want to head out now…” Anika said. George was still nervous. What if she started talking to every shoe on the bus or train? He had to make sure she knew he was always going to be in her shoe.
“Just assume I’m always in your shoes, okay?” George said firmly. “Wiggle some toes every once in a while and I’ll hug them to let you know I’m still down there.” George was uncertain whether she comprehended that, but decided not to follow it up and potentially look pushy.
“These moccasins are extremely fluffy inside though, you may be better off in my sock again.” Anika said, with her head pointing down at her socked feet. George reached for his phone, but Anika already had her finger ready on her nose. George didn’t want to leave her hanging, so he latched on and she lowered her finger to her right sock.
George got into the sock. The fit was tight, as he was swimming through the fur to reach her toes. George got comfortable around the toes and yelled to Anika. “All settled in!”
Anika started heading out of the bedroom to the shoe closet. She got out the moccasins and put them on. George could feel and hear the soft wool start sliding into place. She put on the other shoe and wanted to verify she could feel George. She wiggled her toes and George hugged on tight to one of the toes. Anika didn’t feel him, but proceeded to walk out the door anyways.
George was slightly concerned that the wool was blocking out the feeling of him inside her sock. All he knew was if he kept his cool, the ride on transit wouldn’t be as bad as he thought...
First ride of the trip was the local light rail. It was a noisier ride for George as the wool kept brushing against the sock. The clanking of the wheels on the rails could also be faintly heard by George inside the shoes. Overall, the ride was uneventful. Anika had forgotten George was inside, listening to music and tapping her foot to the beat.
It was the second half of the trip that gave George the most grief. The first half of the bus ride from the light rail station to Carmelita’s house was normal, with Anika still listening to music and George still inside the moccasins. It was then that curiosity struck George and he pulled out his phone. Last used app: Teleportation.
From here, George’s weakness proliferated, as on page 1 of the phone, it listed his favorite running shoe amongst the shoes present on the bus: The Future Cougar. George selected it, and with a flash inside of Anika’s shoe, he was transported to the nearby shoe owned by a female collie. She was wearing pink socks, and George was somewhat satisfied having fresh and new shoes to reside in temporarily.
The collie then had to step off the bus. She also had music blasting through her headphones and paid no attention to the little fox in her shoe. She stepped off the bus and began running.
George sensed the violent motions of the run, and knew she had just stepped off the bus. He had to be quick, before he was out of range of Anika’s shoes. He got out his phone and pressed the refresh button. He found Anika’s moccasins, but the violent motions of the run made it almost impossible for him to tap the correct shoe. He tapped the option below the moccasins and got teleported into the see through heels of a white lioness. He could see he was back on the bus, but he needed to get out of these heels before anyone noticed. With one last tap on the phone, he was back in Anika’s moccasins.
“Whew… Never again…” George said to himself. He remained inside and shut off his phone.
Anika arrived at Carmelita’s house around 1PM. After unlocking the door and getting in, she took off her earbuds and shoes and checked inside her socks. George wasn’t there.
“Ahem, you were looking for me?” George said from the left shoe. Anika was slightly confused at first at how George went from her right sock to her left shoe. She then remembered his talk on teleportation.
“Did you teleport out of my right foot? You like my left foot better, don’t you?” Anika said somewhat playfully. George knew he didn’t want to overreact, since she didn’t know that he teleported out to be in other shoes during the bus ride.
“Yeah, I did do that, but I don’t really have a preference when it comes to left or right feet.” George said nervously. “Anyways, I’ll be half an hour and I should be able to greet you at “normal people” size.”
George turned on his phone again and selected Carmelita’s runners and teleported inside. He landed right at his lab table. Looking around, the lab was in perfect condition. His emergency teleportation worked when Anika’s foot was about to destroy the lab around 2 days ago. The phone back cover was sitting on the table as Eggleston said.
A sticky note was on the cover. It had instructions written in sharpie: “To upgrade, meld with current cover” George was unsure what this meant at first, until he brought his phone next to the cover. It started to glow, and George knew he had to place the cover flush with the current back cover. One short white flash later and his phone indicated “Upgrade complete.”
“Alright, now to get to a safe place to recover my size…” George wandered out of the running shoe to find the walls of the box. He climbed out to see Carmelita’s bedroom, or at least, the underside of her bed. Rummaging through the landscape of shoeboxes and dust, he eventually made it to a space where it would be safe for him to unshrink. George tapped the “size change” option on himself in the phone and sized himself to 5’ 9’’. He tapped “Confirm.”
George closed his eyes, and when he opened them, the bedroom no longer looked like it was 50 stories high. Finally, for the first time in 2 days, it looked normal.
“YADDA!” George shouted. He was glad he was back to a size where he could legitimately socially interact with people, but he noticed was his phone was at 1% battery. “Yikes. Size changing actually drains battery… It’s either that or I haven’t charged this in 2 days.” George thought. “Let me check the battery meter…”
George entered the battery metering portion of his phone only to see a straight line down from 100% to 1%. “Huh, so it completely drains the battery. Must have had a full charge when the new back cover was integrated.”
Anika heard the commotion from downstairs and decided to head upstairs. George tried the door at first without looking. It was locked. He then spotted the second lock above the knob and unlocked it to open the door. Anika and George met face to face in the hallway.
“Congrats! You did it!” Anika said. George was still unsure how this whole situation was going to close itself out.
“Thanks… Listen, I am kind of lonely right now since I don’t know where Carmelita is. Would it be alright if I came over…” George was stopped by Anika interjecting mid-sentence.
“Sure. You can come and visit with us every Thursday.” Anika said, interrupting George’s words. “Besides, you still owe Gabe a tour of your home theater.”
George realized it was too much to ask to be a roommate with someone who was only a complete stranger only 2 days ago. Besides, she was supposed to be a roommate with Carmelita. 
“Sure, I’ll make sure he gets that treatment this Thursday. As long as you don’t wear those boots until Friday.” George said. He paused for a bit and knew he had to restore his natural size change ability. “Since we have time, you mind heading with me to the grocery store to get 10 oranges?” 
Anika was distracted by her phone. Gabe had shared a photo with her of some of the set shenanigans and she giggled as a result. “Gabe’s hanging from a stunt wire! He looks so silly upside down!” Anika showed George the photo and George couldn’t help but let out a slight chuckle.
“But yeah, 10 oranges? Yeah, we could get those. Guide me to the nearest store and we could get some more veggies for you.”
“Except Eggplant.” George said sternly.
“Except Eggplant! We can make an orange Caesar’s salad!” Anika said. George liked this idea, it meant he could eat his oranges and have a meal to share with Anika for the rest of the day.
“Yeah, we could get a couple extra oranges so that we could share the salad.” George said with more confidence. “Let’s head out before it gets too late. You don’t want to take transit at night…”
Anika and George headed out the door to the grocery store and bought 20 oranges, along with lettuce, dressing and cheese for the Caesar’s salad. They spent the afternoon preparing the salad together, learning more about each other’s lives, and then eating the salad they’ve prepared. Anika even showed a few movies she was fond of to George while eating the salad.
By the time the bowl was empty, George was full. Anika made sure to give all of the orange pieces to George, as she was anxious to see his size changing ability in action.
“Wow, that was 10 oranges of salad?” George said to Anika, who was also full, even though she had less.
“Actually, I only put in 5 oranges and just gave you all the pieces…” Anika said. “But hey, we could make another batch you could finish tomorrow…”
George looked to the clock on the wall. It was 9PM. “Whoa, it’s getting late. You sure you’re OK staying here for the night?”
Anika was already texting Gabe. George could see this and came over to peek. “Is it alright if I stay at Carmelita’s tonight?” was what Anika texted him.
Gabe’s reply was “So that’s where you’ve been at. It’s fine. I’m off the whole day tomorrow so I could come pick you up by car.”
“Gabe’s fine with me staying over. I’ll get the salad done for you for tomorrow. I can’t wait to see your size changing ability!” Anika said.
“Okay, I’ll be upstairs in my room. The sofa’s where you’re sleeping for the night.” said George.
George closed the door to his room and went back on his laptop. His phone was finally charging after 2 days of battery use.  This was normal for a typical uneventful day. Except, this day wasn’t uneventful. He had unintentionally made a new friend over these past two days, and that was a weird feeling to him.
George came back downstairs slowly to see Anika in the kitchen. She was peeling the last orange needed for the salad. It tugged at him to know there was someone more than just Carmelita in his life now.
“Hey Anika… You need any help with that?” George said from the stairs.
“Yes I do, my little fox. Wanna come down?” Anika said.
George didn’t hesitate and stood by her side in the kitchen. He started tossing the salad and adding the dressing. George knew this was more productive than playing online video games all night. He also knew, at least for tonight, he had someone he wanted to feel comfortable in his house.
TO BE CONTINUED
(Next chapter: George grows and shrinks in front of Anika and Gabe. Gabe gets his home theater fix.)