Ethnic Food
I lay on my back. Below and above me there are other naked shrunken people. We are all stacked in a pile, laying on each other inside a metal container. My view is currently blocked by a pair of legs resting on my face, above it there are more bodies. I cannot move much, they must have injected me something that made my body go numb. There's a strong smell of street food, something fried. There are muffled human voices around, it must be somewhere central, with large traffic of people. I try to listen closely, but I cannot recognize any words.
I knew that one day it might come to this. I was always afraid that it would happen, but tried to stay optimistic. Now I'm here. I'm still not 100% sure what's waiting for me, but judging by the smell and the fact that I'm in a pile of numbed, naked, shrunken people, my best guess is that I'm destined to be eaten soon. Supporting my fears, there's also movement above me, and every few minutes the total pressure above me is lightened.
Shrunken people above me are one by one being picked up, and my turn will come soon. Meanwhile, I have some time to think about how my life has come to this point. Probably it is my last chance of calmly thinking on my own, or even having the ability to have thoughts for that matter. My name is Tom, a 26 years old shrunken man who's probably and inevitably going to be eaten, and this is my story.
It all started one day at high school. When I turned 16, I had a routine blood test, and found out that I carry the shrinking gene. The doctor told me that a lot of people are carrying the gene, but not everybody’s gene is dominant enough to actually cause a shrinking. However, I should keep in mind that I am carrying it, and shrinking might spontaneously happen at any point; as soon as tomorrow morning, or as far as in 40 years.
First, I kept it below the radar. I only told my close family and two closest friends. To my disappointment - though I didn't know at the time - one of the friends, Joe, shared it with his mother. Shannon was a gossip, and it was clear that once he told her, she would go and tell all the other moms in the community. One thing led to another and two weeks later other students, even a couple of teachers, started bullying me around it.
Being the shy teenager that I was, one of the popular girls, Taylor, had great fun of teasing me about it. She would often open her mouth wide, stick her tongue out, or licking her lips, making deep eye contact with me and throwing comments like: "Hey little Tom! Don't you think my mouth looks amazing? I hope I'll be there when you shrink, I bet you'll taste amazing as a snack!"
Some of the other girls and boys teased me the same way. Almost every day someone threw a comment about how they're gonna eat me, or step on me, once I get shrunk. One of the teachers gave me a wink every time she ate a sandwich with a Shrinkie inside for lunch. Whenever I went over to Joe's house, his mother, Shannon, would make a clear point that if I ever get shrunk at her place I wouldn't get any different treatment than the other Tinies that she buys at the groceries store. Often when she said that, she would pop a small Tiny in her mouth to suck and swallow like a candy.
Fortunately, that period of my life was over, and I continued to university, where I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice and told no one about my condition. I tried to live my life as normal as possible, living in denial of the fact that at any moment I might see the room around me get bigger. Despite that, I tried to avoid eating shrunken people myself. I couldn't manage it completely, and had a Tiny every once in a while, but hardly ever. Participating in college parties where alcohol and Tinies flowed like a river, was particularly hard.
I didn't want to join the "Free the Tinies" movement to not draw any unwanted attention, yet I cringed every time I saw someone from the rival group, especially when they dramatically demonstrated how they think Norms should treat Tinies.
Then it happened. One day I went to travel home for the summer vacation. At the train station, suddenly I noticed that the passengers’ hall ceiling looked taller than I remembered. The benches appeared to be wider too. Why is everybody here so tall? And I must have lost some weight, because my trousers keep slipping down. Then it struck me. Oh SHIT. My head started spinning and I fainted. I woke up later, naked under a bench, a few meters away from the pile of my clothes. Damn! I can't even notify anyone I know that might help me. Maybe if I can somehow sneak into the train home I might survive.
I estimate by the size of the bench near me that my size is roughly 8 cm, although I might get it wrong. Best to keep walking near the walls, to not draw any attention in the middle of the floor, and to not get flattened under someone's shoe. I cautiously start my journey. Before long, a hand came to grab me from behind. A looked to see a girl in her mid twenties, with dark hair in a ponytail. She wore a white polo shirt with a symbol on it. Most likely she's an employee of some company that collects wild Tinies and sells them to the food industry or something similar.
She put me in a dark plastic container, together with other unfortunate Shrinkies in variable sizes. And so my new life began. I was afraid this moment would come. When I was a Norm, the thought of what would happen if I got shrunk, and what it would be like getting eaten crossed my mind several times, it was terrifying. I saw how most Norms treated Tinies, I didn't like to imagine myself undergoing the same ordeal. Now I wouldn’t have to imagine, I get to find out firsthand.
In the next few hours, more and more Tinies were added to the container I was in. When it was full, the employee stored it in a van. Noises of screaming and crying were all over. The air smelled bad from sweat. It was cramped and diminishing. After a short ride we arrived at a shrunken people sorting factory. The factory had a sorting line, dividing the Tinies by sizes, and also giving us some basic hygiene and durability treatment. After all, if I was to become food, I had to be clean enough to eat, and last long enough in the store or wherever they'll send me to.
At the end of the line, I was packed into a box with dozens more tinies about my same size. they appeared to be very diverse in ages, from kids to elders, skin color, and all. The pack was sealed close and I fell asleep in the darkness. When I woke up, I was in the situation described in the beginning of my story.
They must have injected me something that will make me hibernate and stay "fresh" throughout the journey from the sorting factory to wherever I am now. Only a couple layers of Shrinkies above me, and then it's my turn to meet my fate. A pair of metal clamps came to grab the shrunken woman above me, who's legs covered my view thus far.
Now I can see and hear more clearly. It appears that I'm in some street food stand, something like Kebab, but I'm not sure. I can hear the guy who makes the food and the customers from the other side of the glass wall talking. I do not recognize the language. It sounds like something European, but I'm not sure which. Maybe I'm in some eastern European country or in some city's immigrants district. It's not that common, but sometimes Tinies are being exported to other countries, something about different flavors.
As I wait for my imminent turn to be picked up by those metal clamps, a box full of more fresh Tinies is emptied on my container. I'm not completely paralyzed, but I can't move a great deal to avoid the pain of someone falling right on me. I came face to face with a cute brunette. Her eyes are closed, she will take a few seconds to wake up. Her eyes are opening, gazing at my own. Her face is very close to mine, practically resting on me. I try to talk to her and find out I can't for some reason. We don't have to talk to understand each other. The looks on our face says it all.
I didn't expect what came next but have no complaints. She kissed me. I guess we both needed a comfort like this right now. We continued gazing at each other for a few more minutes, then the metal clamps came to grab her as the guy who makes the food took her to be a part of someone's lunch.
To my surprise, almost immediately after I'm being picked up too. I'm being laid down on some sort of big tortilla or laffa bread. Below me there were already the sides, some chopped tomatoes and cucumbers, fried eggplant, some hot peppers, and some other stuff. A spoonful of yogurt is spread on the middle of my body. The seller guy rolls and wraps it all up, and puts it in a tight paper bag. My head is just about at the edge of the wrap level, so I can get a glance on the surroundings. My wrap is placed on the glass counter, right next to another wrap, where I see the brunette's head, the one who kissed me a few minutes ago. We smile at each other.
The customer who ordered us pays and her hands grab us both. Above me there's the face of an eastern European woman in her 50's. She has a white skin tone, a bit chubby face, dyed black and blond hair, and full dark red lips. She sits on a table in front of a much younger woman, in her mid 20's. They talk in that language which I still don't recognize. I see the resemblance in their face and deduce that the younger one is her daughter. She has long black hair, blue eyes, and noticeable breasts. She's beautiful.
The daughter puts her finger in her mouth and puts out a chewing gum to throw to the trash. Both the wrap I'm in and the other on, are placed on the table, and she reaches out to grab the closer one. It happened to be the one with the brunette, I guess she gets to be eaten by that beautiful girl while I'm going to end up in her mother's stomach. The mother lifts up my wrap and holds in close to her gigantic face. She looks straight at me, preparing to take a bite.
Her daughter is talking, and she pauses for a few seconds. I have just enough time to turn my eyes and see her taking a bite from her wrap. She chews and savors the taste. My recent friend is in that bite, or at least part of her I think to myself. That's all I get to see and think of, because the mother's mouth, the one that I'm about to get in, has just opened.
I see the large humid cave opening for me. I can see her yellowish teeth ready to chop me up for pieces. Her tongue is reaching out to welcome and taste me. Strands of sticky saliva are stretching from top to bottom. Her pink tongue is wet and glistening with saliva. Please! I don't want to be eaten by her! I wanna go home! A warm gust of air rushes over me as I get closer and closer to her mouth. Her breath is bad, having traces of cigarettes that she must have smoked earlier, as well as her own bad breath. Normally I would hold my breath for a bit or keep some distance when having to talk with someone that has unpleasant breath. In that case, I have no choice but to endure it, that's the only air available to me.
My head is inside her mouth now, past the teeth line. Her mouth was open wide, to allow her take the biggest bite she could, she must have been hungry. Her teeth came pressing to cut off the bite. I felt the pressure just about under my waistline. With a powerful bite, my upper half was disconnected from the lower half of the body. It was painful, but the numbing and durability injections did their work. Now the upper half of my body was surrounded by bread and all the vegetables from inside the wrap, as well as her accumulating saliva and stinky humid breath.
She started to chew. For some reason, she was careful and used her tongue to place me in a way which I won't get crushed down by her molars. My world became a whirlpool of chewed bread and vegetables, saliva, and some of my own flesh and blood. She then carefully placed my arms one at a time between her teeth and snapped them off. The chewing nightmare came to a halt. I embraced for the slide down as she was about to swallow, but something different happened when she opened her throat.
Instead of sending me straight down to her stomach, she paused for a second to sneak a quiet burp inside her mouth. Holy shit it smells terrible! I wanted to cut my nose off and realized to my demise that the origin of that foul smell is exactly where I'm going. She gave two more chews and swallowed. The loud GULP was tremendous.
I slide all the way through the esophagus from her throat to the sphincter above the stomach. Loud heartbeats and breathing sound could be heard from inside her body. The sphincter opened and I splashed down inside her stomach. I couldn’t see anything, nor had any useful limbs that I could move. I was completely hopeless, in the mercies of her stomach, which only saw me as food. I only felt the tingling burn of the stomach acids and the strongest foulest smell I've ever endured.
The stomach muscles sloshed me around with the digesting chyme as more and more chewed parts of the wrap and the rest of my body rained down on me. Occasionally a drink would splash all over, some sort of soda. The lunch was soon over, and I was left to be digested with the rest of the food inside her stomach. It is absurd. I've just met this woman, don't know her name, she doesn't know mine, I don't even know which country we're in, and she just ate me like any other food. I'm going to be part of her body.
It was more and more tempting to give in to the situation and doze off for eternal sleep. Alas, about an hour after she swallowed me (so I think, I completely lost track of time), I felt another drink splashing down on me. My skin was now burned off and it hurt even more when the hot coffee rained down. The coffee was accompanied by a cake, which was already mushed and wet from the lady's chewing and saliva.
What's left alive of my body, is failing by the minute. Stomach acids and digesting food and drink chyme are pouring into every hole available. Now it forces its way into my mouth, through my nose, washing into my eyes, and through my open wounds. I'm burning from every direction and drowning.
An organic valve is being opened somewhere below me, allowing the mush to be sucked into the intestines. About that point is when I get black out for good.
Svetlana and Natalia had great fun that day. They went on a mother's – daughter's fun and shopping day. Natalia always loved to go shopping with her mother, even at this age she would sometimes pay for her things. Svetlana liked days like this. Not everyday does she enjoy life in the city. Shopping and getting delicious street food like this with her beautiful daughter are great ways to spend her day. She loves to try new foods from different origins like Tinies in some middle eastern food.