CHAPTER 5: Making A Big Unseen

As Zelda continued thinking, her sister reappeared in the middle of the room.

"First of all, sis, I'm sorry I brought it up with Drell," Hilda told her. "If it's any comfort to you, the rest of the date went terribly. I'm not sure we're going to see each other again."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Zelda said calmly; this obviously was no time to go into a harangue over the loss of her size-changing abilities.

"What happened with Drell?" Salem asked.

"He found out, thanks to my blabbing, that Zelda had briefly been giant-sized where a mortal could have seen her, and so he took away her ability to grow or shrink for 90 days," Hilda answered.

"That's too bad," the cat sarcastically said. "I was so looking forward to chasing a mouse-sized Zelda around the house."

Hilda shook her head. "Zelly, as a way to make up for all this, I'll go to Brobdingnag every now and then to check on Sabrina. At least I can make myself big."

"But you haven't been there since when I was a grad student there in the twenties. The place has changed a lot."

"So, download some Other Realm travel information on that computer of yours," Hilda said. "I'm a quick learner."

Or so she thinks, Zelda mused. "Oh, all right," she said, "but don't tell Sabrina that I can't alter my size now. She's depressed enough as it is." She walked to her computer, thinking in the meantime of ways to prevent Maureen Mumford from becoming a mega-Maureen tomorrow.

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Sabrina walked back to the hotel following her first full day as a student. Other than the incident with Penny, it had been surprisingly enjoyable.

Now to relax, she thought, turning on the television, flipping the remote, and stopping on the Brobdingnag Movie Channel's version of "The Invisible Man," which apparently was not much different than the Mortal Realm movie adaptations of the famed novel.

Being invisible would be fun, Sabrina mused...and then she remembered that as a witch, she had the power to do just that. An idea came to her – if invisible, she could return to the Mortal Realm without people seeing her, even though she was now a 52-foot giantess who couldn't change her size. Of course, she couldn't visit for very long, and she'd probably also have to keep silent (to avoid people hearing her) and not move (to avoid damaging anything).

But where to in the Mortal Realm? She really didn't want to go near her aunts' house, for fear of giving herself away. She then recalled Harvey was attending a baseball camp in Maine, and still had the address he had jotted down on a slip of paper. It would be fun to see how he's doing, even if she couldn't let him know she was there.

Remembering Zelda's apparent gaffe – she hoped her aunt had restored herself to normal size in transit – Sabrina carefully prepared her journey. First, she changed to summer gear – a yellow top, white shorts and sneakers. Second, she cast a spell on herself to make herself invisible, standing in front of the mirror to make sure it worked. When it proved successful, she pointed at herself, saying, "Take me to Harvey's camp, but out of the way. Let's see how my boyfriend is doing today!"

The spell worked, and Sabrina found herself at the edge of a grove of trees only slightly taller than her. In the distance was a lighted baseball diamond with a group of teen boys playing; from Sabrina's towering perspective, they looked like dolls of about seven inches high. And since nobody was running away from her, or even noticing her gigantic presence, she definitely was invisible.

She looked about her, amazed at how small everything seemed. Aunt Zelda was right, she thought; there was no way she could live here at this scale, at least not while visible.

Sabrina searched for Harvey among the boys playing ball, and briefly considered kneeling to get a better look before realizing she would probably make noise rustling the nearby trees. Like it or not, she had to remain perfectly still. A few seconds later, she found him kneeling in the on-deck circle.

He looks so handsome, so dainty, so cute, she thought. She wanted to reach out, pick Harvey up and admiringly hold him in the palm of her hand, but knew that was not possible. Anyway, she had already held him in her hands, albeit as a different species, a few months before when a kiss that went awry briefly turned him into a frog.

As the batter ahead of him grounded out, she blew Harvey a kiss, one he'd never see but one she hoped he'd feel.

Harvey took a ball, then swung and missed. He then fouled off two pitches behind a backstop. Sabrina was tempted to cast a spell to give Harvey a big hit, but declined since she knew that wouldn't be fair to him.

And it wasn't needed, because on the next pitch Harvey got good wood on the ball, really good wood, and hit a long line drive to left field – towards the invisible giantess Sabrina. The ball traveled so quickly that she couldn't decide how to evade it, as the left fielder futilely raced for it; while the field had a foul pole, there was no fence.

For a second, Sabrina was worried the outfielder would run into her massive invisible sneakered foot, but that became moot when the long line drive instead hit her massive invisible knee cap and ricocheted towards center field. The ball felt like a BB pellet to her, and she had to muster up all her presence of mind to avoid screaming.

Send me back to my hotel room, she thought, pointing at herself – and a second later, that's where Sabrina was. Then she screamed.

Meanwhile, at the camp, Harvey legged out a home run, beating the relay to the plate. "Man, that was a strange hit," a teammate told him as he returned to the dugout. "Did you see that carom?"

Harvey nodded. "Must've hit a bird or something."

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Zelda drove to Dr. Mumford's office early the next morning, arriving before 8 a.m. She wanted to make sure she was there before he brought Maureen in, to prevent her from either purposely or accidentally ingesting the formula and start growing.

While she didn't have a key to his office, she was able to magically zap herself in. However, the plant growth formula was inside a small safe, and since she couldn't adjust her size to get inside, it was off-limits to her. Frustrated, she zapped herself outside the office and sat on a hallway bench – just seconds before Dr. Mumford and his wife turned from a nearby corridor and saw her.

Zelda looked at Maureen, and was shocked to discover how petite she was. Even in heels, she probably wasn't quite five feet tall – far shorter than the normal-sized Sabrina, and not that much taller than her niece now appeared to Brobdingnagian eyes.

"Zelda, I'd like to introduce you to my wife, Maureen," Dr. Mumford said. "She is one of the most respected dermatologists in the region, and has a clinic down in Quincy." The women shook hands.

Zelda decided, on the spur of the moment, to freeze time during the handshake, leaving Maureen's husband immobilized. "You, uh, must be a witch," Maureen said.

"Yes," Zelda replied, "and I understand you are a half-mortal."

"That is correct," Maureen said. "My husband knows I'm a witch. Is he aware you are one?"

Zelda shook her head. "No, and I don't want him to know, but that's not relevant right now. We have a problem with the plant growth formula. My half-mortal niece Sabrina accidentally drank some of the formula – about half a glass worth – and...well, how can I explain it?"

She came up with an idea, pointing toward the empty corridor, and one of Sabrina's huge high heel pumps from Brobdingnag filled the hall; fortunately, her niece, now visible again, was not yet awake to see her shoe disappear. "She's ten times her size and exiled to the Other Realm."

Maureen nodded. "So you're saying that–"

"We can't market that plant growth formula, because it causes half-witches to become giants."

Maureen smiled. "Well, I've always wanted to be taller, but not that much."

"I'm working on an antidote to restore Sabrina to her old size, but we have to make sure this formula never sees the light of day. And, of course, don't you ingest it." Zelda went on. "I've told your husband that I've discovered it causes itching and scratching, which might add to your business but probably isn't a good thing."

"Does it?"

"Well, thanks to magic, it does now – at least my share of it does. But I need to provide the same effect to his container, and it's stuck in his safe."

Maureen nodded. "I'll magically copy the effects in his container once he pulls it out of the safe, okay?"

Zelda was reassured. "Very good. Let me unfreeze time – but first let me ship Sabrina's shoe back to her." She pointed, and it reappeared next to its partner a few seconds before Sabrina woke up.

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Sabrina entered Brobdingnag Central for another, musing on her overnight "change" from titan to tiny. It was good to see Harvey, even though he seemed so small and helpless to her giant eyes. Now, she had to look up to almost everybody above elementary-school age.

She was particularly fascinated with learning Brobdingnagian history; evidently Jonathan Swift had made quite an impact with these people despite his diminutive size. A tiny, life-size statue of him was in the central square, a few blocks from the high school.

While there was indeed a king and queen during Swift's day, his comments about his native England and how it was governed by a parliament, instead of by royal decree, resonated with the Brobdingnagians. So much, in fact, that after the royal couple died, their son renounced the throne, and the nation was thereafter ruled as a republic.

Moreover, Brobdingnag was a placid, peaceful land which had never gone to war. It helped that it was a remote island with no neighboring countries. Through the Other Realm's connections to the Mortal Realm, it had adapted many technical advancements – and in a few cases, it was actually ahead of normal-sized human society.

I can live here for the rest of my life if I have to, Sabrina thought while studying in the school library. The people are pleasant – well, other than Penny – and the society seems comfortable.

Was she rationalizing? Sure; all things being equal, she'd return to the Mortal Realm in a heartbeat. But she knew for now, "equal" was merely a dream, and that if worse came to worst, she could adapt to being among the smallest of giants.

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In the lab, Zelda, Maureen and her husband Horace examined the plant growth formula. "I find it's making me itch like crazy," Zelda explained. "Not a good side effect at all."

"But are you sure that's from exposure to the formula itself?" Horace asked. "Would there be a similar effect if someone ate fruit treated with the stuff?"

Zelda had an idea, and again froze time. "Maureen, I'm wondering if you might be able to help me find an antidote."

Maureen glanced at her. "In what way?"

"I need a guinea pig to make sure the antidote works, and since there are no half-mortal guinea pigs – well, there may be a few in the Other Realm penitentiary, but I think it would be against the law to use them as test subjects – I was wondering if you could serve in that role."

Maureen laughed. "What – and grow as big as a house? The attack of the 50-foot dermatologist?"

Zelda got the joke, but shook her head. "No, I would only give you a very small dose to cause very slight growth. How tall are you now?"

"Four-foot-eight-and-three-eighths." She sighed. "I can't even round up to the next full inch."

"Based upon how much Sabrina took and the effects the formula had on her – she grew in three different spurts – I can figure out what dosage to give you to make you grow, say, about an inch or so."

"You mean, all the way up to 4-foot-10?" Maureen exclaimed.

"Maybe not that obvious a change. More like 4-9 and a half." Zelda paused, then smiled. "But you could round up to 4-10. We would measure you after every antidote you consume until you find the one that restores you to your old size."

"I'll go for it," Maureen said. "When and where?"

"Pop over to my place after dinner this evening." Zelda smiled. "Tell Horace you're going out shopping."

"Okay. May we now return to advancing time?"

"Sure," Zelda said, unfreezing Horace and the rest of the lab.

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With school done, Sabrina returned to her hotel room to do some schoolwork. About 20 minutes into her studies, a guest popped in – Hilda, who, unlike her sister, arrived at 10 times her usual size, not 12. Thus, she was just under 57 feet tall, the Brobdingnagian equivalent of 4-foot-9.

"What are you doing here instead of Aunt Zelda?" Sabrina asked.

"Zelly didn't feel up to it," said Hilda, who had promised her sister that she wouldn't tell Sabrina about Drell's decree. "She's spending so much time trying to give you an antidote. So, how are things up here? Boy, this place seems a little spacious."

Sabrina smiled. "To them, you and I are little ladies."

"I see you're studying, which I'm sure you didn't want to do in summer."

Sabrina shrugged her shoulders. "Goes with the territory. I don't mind. And it's winter here."

"You making friends?" Hilda said sympathetically.

"A few." Sabrina was thinking about asking Scott LeGrand about going on a weekend date, even though she thought it might be unfair to Harvey. And perhaps in a few days, Sabrina would have reverted to her old size and returned to the Mortal Realm. But if that didn't happen, Scott might be good to fall back on.

"Oh, by the way, someone else wanted to see you." She pointed to her open palm, and there popped Salem, still his old size.

"I thought you were going to make me bigger, too," he said, staring up at Hilda.

"Enlarging you might mean trouble with the Other Realm parole board," she replied. "So, just to be on the safe side, I'm keeping you an itty bitty kitty."

Sabrina giggled. "It's so good to see you again, Salem!" she said, stroking the fur atop his head with her giant little finger. "You look so cute."

"Say, does Brobdingnag have mice?" the cat said fearfully. "At my puny size, facing one would be worse than being declawed."

"Well, if there are, you won't find any in this hotel," Sabrina replied. "It's very clean."

"Well, I'd better be going now," Hilda said, hugging her niece before placing Salem in the pocket of her slacks. "It was great seeing you. I'll have to drop by again."

"Aunt Hilda, don't forget to–"

"Shrink? Heck, I'll do it right now." She pointed at herself, rapidly dwindled down to 5-foot-8, then pointed again and disappeared. She had learned from Zelda's mistake.

Sabrina paused, then shuddered. "Oh, no – Salem!"

Hilda returned to her kitchen, only to feel a scratching in her slacks pocket. She dug down and pulled out a miniature Salem, one-tenth scale, placing him on the kitchen counter.

"Look at me...at most, two inches long! I'm a freak!" he yelled.

"You're adorable, though," Hilda said with a grin.

"Yeah – and I could soon be a bird's dinner if I don't get any bigger."

"Well, that would turn the tables on generations of natural selection, but I see your point." She pointed, and Salem grew back to full size.

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While Hilda and the restored Salem watched prime-time TV, Zelda was engrossed in Internet research from Other Realm medical sources on how certain substances affected half-mortals, just to make sure anything she gave Maureen wouldn't have any lasting or dangerous side effects.

Then the bell rang, and Zelda went to the door. It was Maureen. "I'm ready to move up in the world," the dermatologist said, staring up at her much taller host, "if only an inch or so."

"Come on in," Zelda said, "and welcome." As Maureen entered, Hilda waved hello.

"I've measured the proper amount of formula for your growth. It's in that small cup near the portable lab," Zelda told Maureen. "First, we need to measure you." She pointed at the petite guest, and a sign flashed that she was indeed 4-foot-8 and 3/8ths.

"Just as I told you," Maureen said as they walked to the lab area.

Zelda handed her the 1-ounce cup, which was less than a quarter-full. "Drink...and grow. It's not very much, but it should produce the desired effect." She hoped she hadn't given her too much. If she grew anything taller than 4-10, the change would be too noticeable.

Maureen swallowed the contents of the cup in one gulp, then waited a few seconds. She and Zelda looked at the sign, which slowly began changing, About ten seconds later, her height reached 4-foot-9, and eventually stopped at 4-9 and 9/16ths.

"Slightly more than an inch, and I can round up to 4-10!" Maureen said with a grin. "This is great – I feel so...so statuesque! Although I guess I'll have to cut back on the heights of my heels to keep people from getting suspicious. And platforms are out."

"But remember, we have work to do," Zelda said. "If things work out correctly, you won't be this way for long. Enjoy it while you can."

Maureen nodded.

"Now, I'm not going to conduct any experiments tonight because I still haven't come up with any possible antidotes," Zelda said. "But I do expect to have something ready in the morning. Can you pop over here during your lunch break?"

"Sure. In fact, I have the whole afternoon off – no appointments. I was scheduled to play a round of golf, but that can be canceled."

"Good," Zelda replied, smiling. "Let's get our hole-in-one tomorrow."