Over the next few weeks, Geri fell into a steady routine. She would wake up around six and after breakfast work her boring job, dealing with walk-ins as necessary. Some time  after three, Beth would come over or she would go to Beth's apartment and they would play. Today, they were in Geri's apartment playing a board game.

Beth became aware of Geri's witch abilities when Fifi had removed her hat in front of her a few days after they started playing together regularly. But Beth did not make a big deal about it. Fifi was gone for the day today.

Geri was trying to decide what to do when the doorbell rang. Beth jumped up and said, “I'll get it.”

At the door was a woman wearing a wool sweater and a knit skirt in neutral colors. “Hello, are you the witch?” she asked.

“No, that's Geri. Come in.” Beth led the woman inside. “Geri, you have a client.”

Geri was looking around the living room like she forgot why she came into it. It was an odd feeling for her. She had been playing with Beth and had no thoughts beyond just being a kid. As soon as there was a reason, though, her adult mind woke up: a little disconcerting at times, but comforting as well. “Thanks, Beth,” Geri said, now calm and composed. “How do you do?” She offered her hand to the woman and they shook hands. “Please, take a seat so I don't have stare up at you.”

“Oh, well funny you say that,” the woman said. “I want you to help me get shorter.”

“Your name is Laura, right? You wanted to be able to shrink down until you were a doll, or something like that.”

“Not exactly. Sort of. I have a ring I want to wear on my thumb. While I'm wearing it, it can be used as a value to let the height out of me or to blow more height into me. So I blow on the ring to get taller or I open the top of the ring and the air that makes me tall escapes and I shrink. As I shrink my skin gets thicker until all the air is gone and my skin is so thick I can barely move. That happens when I'm around six inches tall.”

“And as you get bigger, your body gets lighter almost buoyant?”

“Exactly.”

“I think I've got it. Hand me the ring.”

The ring was a thin, rolled, silver band with a flat circle that covers the finger's last knuckle. It had a hinge to reveal an empty compartment.

Geri began speaking words of magic and soon was handing the ring back to Laura. Laura immediately put it on her hand and lifted the circle. A soft hissing sound, like air leaking from a tire, could be heard coming from the ring. Slowly, her body started to shrink. She stood up. After about twenty seconds she was the same height as Geri and Beth, though her proportions were still those of an adult woman.

“Oh, my clothes are shrinking too.”

“I just assumed they should. Otherwise you wouldn't have anything to wear.”

“It's fine.” When she was three feet tall, over a foot shorter than the girls, she closed the ring. “This is perfect. And you get to look down to talk to me.”

“That is rare these days.”

“Do you mind if I go to doll size? I want to feel what it's like.”

“Okay.”

She opened the ring valve and started shrinking again. Within a minute she was just six inches tall, her legs were shoulder width apart and her arms were straight and angled away from her body about thirty degrees. She was standing on the floor motionless.

Beth picked her up to her face. “How do you feel?”

Her lips barely moved as she said very quietly, “I feel great. I feel like a doll.” Geri had to lean in close to hear Laura talk.

“Your skin looks like a doll's,” Beth said.

“Could you two girls play with me?”

“Sure.”

The board game forgotten the girls added Laura to Geri's collection of dolls – Tammy had given Geri her old collection of dolls after visiting her mother the last weekend – and played.

After about an hour, there was a knock at the door. It was Beth's mother. She had to leave early for a dentist appointment. “Geri, are you still going to have dinner at our place tonight?” Her mother asked.

“That was the plan, Mrs. Marsh.”

After they left, Geri checked her work email and did a some work before she noticed the extra doll on the coffee table.

“Sorry, Laura, I got distracted.”

“Not a problem, I really got to feel like a doll just laying here. I called out to you once, but I suppose you could not hear me. Can you inflate me again?”

Geri opened the value on the ring and blew into it. Laura was about twelve inches tall she could move more easily. She said, “Can I blow myself up?”

“I don't know. Give it a try.”

Laura found she could not exhale enough air at her current height to do it. But when she was two feet tall, she could. At that point she took over the inflation task and made herself about seven feet tall. “It's funny. I feel light headed.” She opened the value and returned to a height closer to how tall she was when she first arrived. She then removed the ring and her height adjusted again. “Well, I feel like I owe you something.”

“There's no charge. And I did get to play with you. So you use that ring responsibly and carefully. If you run out of air and no ones knows to inflate you, you could be stuck as a doll for a long time.”

“I hadn't thought of that.” Laura said as she left.

Later, Geri went to Beth's apartment for dinner. It was Mei's day off from cooking for Geri. Mei needed to spend longer periods of time as a figurine to balance her age regression. Though Geri could not understand why that did not apply to her own regression.

After dinner, the girls were in Beth's room. Geri assumed they would play with the dolls as usual but Beth asked her a question, “Could you do what you did to that woman to my Mom?”

It was the first time Beth had asked about Geri's magic. “Only if she wanted me to. Do you think she wants to be a doll?”

“No, but I'd like it if she were my size.”

“Your height or your age.”

“Both.”

“You want me to turn your mother into an eight year old girl?”

“Yes. When I was little she was always around but now she goes to work and I go to school and we don't play together any more. Maybe if she were my age she wouldn't be busy all the time.”

Geri knew far more about the concerns of adulthood than her small body might imply. But those concerns were not forefront in her mind at the moment. “Do you have pigtail bands? Maybe she could put them on to become a kid. I think she'd look cool with pigtails.”

“I have them.” She rummaged through her vanity table to find two pigtail bands with bright red beads on them.

“And she has to ask me.”

“I'll be right back.” She ran out of the room. Geri could not make out what was said but heard Beth talking to her mother.

Her mother entered the room and said, “Okay, I'll play along. Great Witch, could you use these bands to turn me into a little girl?”

“I can. Hand them to me,” Geri said. Geri spoke in the magic language. Evette was intrigued by the language Geri was using but did not say anything. When she finished, Geri handed back the bands to Mrs. Marsh.

“Thank you, Great Witch.”

“No, Mommy, you have to put the bands on.” Beth insisted.

Evette smiled, “Okay,” she pulled the hair on one side of her head into a bunch and twisted the band around it three times, making a loose pigtail. She repeated the procedure on the other side. When she finished, she started shrinking. “What?” Her clothes shrank as well and altered themselves. What had been a tweed business suit turned into a pair of denim overalls with a pink, gingham blouse underneath. Her body also took on the form it had once had when she was eight year old, many years ago. “It worked?”

“It did!” Beth said giving her mother a big hug.

To Evvie, her daughter's hug was bigger and stronger than usual. “Change me back,” she said to Geri.

“Does she have to, Mom? Can't you stay like this and play with me?”

“Beth, this isn't--” her eyes spied the dolls on the shelf. “Can I be Maggie?”

“Just this once,” Beth said grabbing her favorite doll and handing it to Evvie.

The three girls played for an hour before Beth's father came in the room. “It's getting late. Um. I thought your mother was in here.”

“I'm right here, Thomas,” Evvie said.

“Evette? How?”

“Maybe Daddy can be a puppy.”

“That would be cool,” Evvie ran from the room as only an eight year old on a mission can. She returned with a plain, brown leather dog collar. She handed the collar to Geri. “This was Duchess' old collar. I'm sure it could be used to turn someone into a puppy. A black Lab puppy.”

“Do you want to be turned into a puppy, Mr. Marsh?” Geri said.

“Kind of.”

Geri spoke the magic words and handed the collar to Thomas. “When you wear this collar, you will become a puppy. Someone else will have to take it off you since a puppy can't do that.”

Thomas looked at the collar and then into the large, round, wet eyes looking up at him from a little girl's eyes. Those eyes were also on the face of his daughter. He put the collar on and shrunk down to a black Labrador puppy. As a larger breed, the puppy was still nearly as tall as the girls' waists.

Evvie and Beth gave the puppy a big hug. And he licked their faces. Evvie got a look on her face that Geri recognized as her mind awakening. S he turned to Geri. “Okay, there are no adults here. How do I turn back?”

“Just take out the rubber bands. It's probably time for me to go as well.”

Evvie took out one band and nothing happened. When she removed the other she grew back into Mrs. Marsh. “He is so adorable.”

“Can I take Daddy for a walk?”

“It's too dark out.  And you have to get ready for bed.”

“Awww.”

“It was fun playing with you, Mrs. Marsh.”

“Yes, I had fun, too.”

* * *

Geri left and Beth went to the bathroom to get ready to bed.

Evette reached down to remove the collar from the puppy, but Thomas darted away from her. “Thomas, hold still so I can remove the collar.”

Thomas shook his head, and most of his body as well.

“You don't want me to remove the collar?”

Thomas nodded and barked once.

“You better not make a mess or I'll shove your face in it.”

Thomas just stared at her.

She laughed. “Fine, be a dog.”

Beth came in and started to get into bed.

“Did you brush your teeth?”

“Yes.”

“Did you was your hands and face?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, good night,” Evette said as she tucked her daughter under the covers.

Thomas bounded onto the bed and laid at Beth's feet.

“Are you going to stay there all night?” she asked.

The dog just laid its head down and closed its eyes.

“This is so great. Good night, Mom. Good night, Dad.”

“Good night, Dear,” Evette said as she turned off the lights in the bedroom and closed the door behind her.