"Mom?"
"Yes, sweetie?"
The face of the young girl hesitated while a burning question formed on her lips.
"Has it always been like that?"
"Has what, sweetie?"
"The little men... and dad too... has it always been this way?"
The mother smiled softly to these words, recalling events that her daughter would never know. The time had come, and her two other daughters sitting on their bed suddenly showed an unusually sustained attention for tonight's bedtime story. She settled herself more comfortably in the armchair, carefully choosing her words before answering:
"No. Not always. There was a time when we were all the same height and actually..."
The mother giggled with some amusement.
"... men were a tad higher than us girls".
An exclamation of surprise raised from the sorority, followed by a barrage of questions.
"No way!"
"Seriously?"
"How's that even possible?"
Their mother spoke softly, calming them down:
"Easy, easy, my dears... one question at a time"
The older sister, Claire, spoke first out of authority:
"I don't understand... if you say they were taller than us, how did they become so small, mom?"
Their mother casually shrugged.
"I'll be perfectly honest, honey, I don't have the slightest idea about it. It seems like men have found a way to get themselves shrunk, but... your father never talked about it and, for all i know, no woman has ever tried let alone found how they had done it".
Jeanne, the youngest sister, hastily asked another question in her tiny reedy voice:
"Why did they do that, mom?"
Their mom blushed slightly and answered:
"One day, the men made an announcement to the entire planet. I think it was...
Yes. The russian president was the first to bring out the idea. So, he said that the world’s population was in a vital need to lower their food consumption, which we all knew back then, and that this had been miraculously made possible by a ground-breaking discovery: molecular compression or, in layman’s terms, shrinking. He proposed that we diminished... that we literally shrunk the entire masculine population. Every problem would be easily solved this way. He made a very convincing demonstration of his pretense, and the little man on his desk was indeed real. Then he did the same to himself and well... after a while it effectively worked!"
The three daughters looked at each other, perplexed by this explanation... then giggled gleefully,
seemingly accepting it.
"So all men shrunk themselves at once?" Claire had managed to get the upper hand over the hubbub.
"Oh no. It took time my dear... All men weren't agreeing with the idea"
"What about dad? Has he always been shrunk?"
"Ahah no, no. Dad shrunk himself after the three of you were born"
As the back of her mind realized the implication of these words, their mom blushed even more in the dim light.
"Mom?"
"Hm-mm... yes Jeanne?"
"How do we make babies?"
"... well... I think that..."
The mother cleared her voice out of embarrassment and swiftly dipped her hand in the pocket of her nightdress. What she had caught, she brought to her lips and whispered to:
"Hun. I think the girls have a question for you..."
"Dad! Dad! How do we make babies?!" asked along the daughters.
Nestled in the mother's fist, as her fingers unfurled with a careful daintiness,
was their father, no taller than a cigarette lighter. He sat down more comfortably in the giant palm, looking at his daughters with a hearty smile.
An attentive silence took place, giving room to the father's little voice who answered:
"The dad... and the mom... your mom, Julie... they love each other very strongly, and so strong that… They cuddle very strongly and soon, the cuddle turns into a baby! And voila!"
Claire frowned, perplexed.
"Hmm... mom? Is this how it really happened?"
The father blushed a deep crimson, but kept silent as his wife was thinking.
As her gaze shifted from her daughters to her husband, a mischievous pout had gradually drawn on her lips.
"You clever girl. This is not exactly how it happened."
The husband in her palm gasped in protest and she hastily shut it down with a tap of her index on the top of his little head, gently but firmly closing her fingers around him.
"You father has stayed normal far longer than the other men. He wanted to have three kids, three wonderful girls before becoming a ve-e-e-ery little mouse. That's precisely when, as big as me, he cuddled me so strong that I birthed you three, you understand?"
It was a tricky move, and their mother wondered if changing the topic ever so lightly would avoid her some embarrassing explanations.
Jeanne asked another question, apparently satisfied by it:
"This doesn't explain what dad's reasons were to become small..."
Julie sighed softly:
"Well... I think your father desired three things, important to him and, I think, important to the rest of the men as well."
Inside her fist, she felt her little husband squirm to manifest his disapproval. The daughters hung on her every word and leaned forward, to better hear their mother. Julie smiled softly and began:
"First... your father loves... roaming on me. I think this is the main reason for the men to have shrunk themselves, despite their silly excuse for food saving".
While the older sister blushed on these words, the youngest one asked innocently:
"Dad roams on you? How so?"
Their mother giggled softly and replied:
"Wait. You don't wanna hear about their other reasons jeanne?"
"Hmm... hmmm... … yes!"
"So! The second reason was that the men were tired, really tired of running everywhere to work and feed their families. Once shrunk, things got far easier for them."
"But... this means that women had to feed their families instead?" asked Claire.
"Well, yes my dear. But it's far easier than one thinks with a little organization. And the men were very, very poorly organized. They mostly were far too busy making war and trying to steal each other ressources to be efficient".
"And the third reason?" asked Luce, the one who hadn't spoken yet and had listened to everything. Their mother laid a finger on her lips while thinking, imperceptibly casting away her fist from their sight. She leaned toward them as if plotting something.
"The third reason is a direct consequence of the two others... once they left their job, once admitting that all they ever wanted was to enjoy life and roam giant women - I'll be coming back to it later, sweetheart - ... men avowed to themselves, avowed to everyone that they needed submission. Like the super cute itsy bitsy mousies they were." The mother’s voice had turn to pure mischief and play.
A curious silence settled in on this strange revelation. Julie, noticing the incomprehension in the silence of her daughters, smiled and opened her fist before them, revealing the father curled up in her palm.
"Darling? Are you frowning?"
The little husband squirmed and sat, staring at his wife's eyes while trying to hide his anger.
"Mpf... what?"
"I think the girls are curious to know what submission is and I think i'm gonna show them. What do you think?"
"I... what no, no! This is not a good idea at all, they're too young, and... come on Julie, be serious! You wouldn’t!"
Julie pulled on an amused pout:
"My lovely little mouse... you know the rule: You set it up yourself"
"I..."
"It's not exactly like you have a choice... is it?"
"..."
The little man meekly bowed his head like a boy who'd just been scolded. His daughters looked at the scene without a word, fascinated. Julie kept on with her explanation:
"I'm gonna show you, girls. A demonstration will be much clearer than a thousand words."
With her hand, the woman gently wrapped the little man, and with the other, pulled aside a part of her nightdress, revealing some of her chest. She gently lifted her breasts with her arm, and preciously placed her man there, in the little nest of her cleavage under the attentive gaze of her daughters.
The little man wriggled a bit, waving his limbs in search of something to grab on his wife's skin, without success.
"Julie! No!"
The more he squirmed, the more he delved deeper in her cleavage and soon, stopped moving, vanquished, firmly locked in the embrace of his wife's breasts.
"H-honey! Not before the girls!"
Jeanne squirmed on her bed, a bit unease and asked her mother:
"Mom? You're not going to hurt him?"
"Of course not, sweetheart. Look... look at his little cheeks. Say, come closer girls... do you see how the little man’s blushing?"
The three daughters, hesitant at first, came closer, their eyes locked on their tamed little dad.
His cheeks were a deep red and he was smiling goofily, wriggling in the most comical way against the overwhelming skin. Julie placed the tip of her finger on the little man's head and pressed softly, forcing him to lower his gaze before the three girls.
"He... dad isn't saying anything" noticed Luce.
"Yes, sweetheart. And he'll only speak when i'll allow him to".
"He... is he happy?" asked Jeanne.
"Very. He's warmed by me. He's roaming me. He doesn't have to care about making any decisions. He submitted. Do you understand?"
"Are... all men like this, mom?"
"All of them. I choose your dad and he submitted to me. Some other men don't make a choice but they, all of them... have this need to submit."
Julie smiled softly, recollecting the time before the change and spoke proudly:
"You, my loves, will never have to submit. Ever."
Julie daintily removed the little man from her cleavage and laid him in her palm. With a little shake, he jumped up on all fours and began kissing her palm, her fingers, exalted.
"My Julie, my Goddess!"
The mother pushed him back to center of her palm, gently scolding him.
"Darling, not before the girls."
"Mom?" asked Claire.
"Yes dear?"
"May i play with dad too?"
Julie smiled at her daughter's eyes, understanding how her thoughts got her there.
"No! This here little man is mine"
She lovingly brushed her hand in her Claire’s hair, smiling at her daughters on the bed:
"But i'm sure that the three of you will find your little man too.
One that will belong and submit to you, and you alone."