Mini Magical Mishap

“Beet root, potato peel, onion bulbs...

“Abigail!” her mother’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

“Yes, Mom?”

“What are you doing in here? Are you still trying to concoct a vaccine for this virus?”

“I’m close, Mom; I can feel it!”

“Why don’t you leave that to the scientists and the medical community. You are 17; it’s not your responsibility to solve the world’s problems.”

“But I’m on to something, Mom. I really believe this would do the trick.”

“Okay. Just be careful that you don’t hurt yourself in this basement.”

“I will, Mom.”

Abigail continued mixing the ingredients she gathered from her grandmother’s garden and the chemical compounds she took from her school’s chemistry lab. She knew that she’d be expelled if her teacher ever found out; but once she finds the cure for COVID-19, they will forget about her little misdeed and might even award her Valedictorian when she graduates next year.

“And now for the catalyst!”

She squeezed three drops of a blue liquid into a flask containing the herbs, gave it a vigorous shake, and watch the mixture turn a shade of greenish blue. She siphoned a portion of the liquid into a syringe and injected it into her brachial artery. She then used a pair of feeding tongs to remove a small swatch of cloth from inside a vial. It was part of a handkerchief that her father sneezed and coughed on for at least a week now after having contracted COVID-19 from the hospital he worked at as a medical doctor. 

She inserted the contaminated swatch into her nostrils. All that needs to be done now is wait for a few days to see if she either gets an active infection or antibodies from the compound she created.

It was already midnight by the time she was done with her experiments so she decided to sleep on the cot right there in the basement.

-----

Abigail woke up to the sound of a loud banging on the door. She was shocked when she saw that instead of on the cot she was perched on a giant mattress that must have been the size of the Titanic. Was she still asleep and dreaming?

She tried to rub the sleep off her eyes but realized that she was wide awake in a strange environment. Where was she? Then she noticed all the flasks, measuring cups, and vials on the red table; she realized that she was still in the basement, but she has shrunk to the size of an ant!

The formula she injected into her veins the night before must’ve caused her to shrink to such a minuscule size. However, Abigail soon realized the absurdity of that theory. She didn’t live in a fantasy land and the chemicals and herbs she injected were not plausibly capable of performing what had obviously happened to her body.

She was still reeling from her predicament when she realized that the loud banging on her door must be her mother looking for her. She remembered that she locked it the night before while she was doing her experiments and forgot to unlock it before she went to bed.

Abigail climbed off the mattress by sliding down the side of the blanket that was hanging off one of the edges. She wondered how long it would take her to walk from there to the door and up to the kitchen where her mother was. How was she even going to climb up those steep steps – 15 in all! – and make it in time for breakfast or at least before her mother realized she was gone and panics?

The stairs had a net-like covering that ran the entire length of the bottom of the banister. Abigail crawled up the contraption like a spider would on its web. When she reached the kitchen, she didn’t know what time it was. The sun was already setting so she figured it must be around 7:00 p.m. The climb took her longer than expected. They don’t have any wall clocks and the time on the microwave oven display was too tiny for her to see.

She looked around to find her mother but she was nowhere to be found. She must’ve gone out to look for her. Just then Abigail heard her mother walk inside the kitchen and she tried to call out to her but to no avail. To her surprise, her mother vanished before her very eyes. Abigail swore her mother just standing by the kitchen table calling out her name a nanosecond ago and then she was gone! 

“Abigail! Oh, thank God, you made it up here. I didn’t find you in the basement.”

Abigail stared at the miniature version of her mother that was walking leisurely toward her.

“Mom?”

“Yes, it’s me. I know you have a lot of questions. But first we need to get to a safe corner before we get trampled out here in the open.”

Abigail’s mother led her to a small opening on one of the legs of the table. It was surprisingly roomy enough for them to stand in there together.

“What’s going on, Mom?” Abigail asked.

“Your great great grandmother messed around with a magical potion that she bought at the market. The tradesman told her it was a love potion. However, when she drank it, she shrunk. But she was restored to her original size after 24 hours. She went back to the tradesman and demanded an explanation. The guy sold him another potion which served as an antidote. But the damage was irreversible; it embedded itself into her genetic code. The antidote, however, was able to mitigate some of the effects in that even though she shrunk every now and then, she was able to learn how to control it.”

Abigail stared at her mother in disbelief. This woman, her mother, is a geneticist. She didn’t talk about magic, or fantasy, or love potions. Abigail thought she must be dreaming.

“You’re not dreaming, Abby. This is all true.” her mother said, reading her thoughts. “You apparently got the genetic code as well, as I have. Your sister didn’t and neither did mine. But don’t worry, I can teach you how to control it so you could shrink and unshrink at will. It’s actually a neat trick; kind of like a superpower.”

It was already midnight by the time they finished talking. At midnight, Abigail was restored to her original size. She went back to her basement and stared at the lab equipment that covered her table. Abigail believed in the infallibility of science and its theories and didn’t believe in magic; but now, she might have to.