Chapter Two
Δεῖμος καὶ Φόβος[1]
Stephanie reacted on instinct to her fiancé’s swoon. She rushed to his side, and knelt down by him, rolling him over and calling to him.
“Adam. Adam!” she called, as she debated whether to get some water to pour on him, wake him up. The weirdness of the previous seconds was gone in that instant, replaced by concern. She didn’t know what was wrong. But she didn’t want to lose him.
His eyelids fluttered after a second, and he looked up at her. His eyes grew wide for just a split-second, as if he was trying to get his bearings, as if he was half-wondering if he was seeing his fiancée kneeling over him because she was simply to big to do anything else. But he seemed to gather himself, as he stuttered, “What happened?”
“You fainted,” Stephanie sighed in relief, as she stroked his hair absently.
“I had a weird dream,” said Adam, struggling to his elbows.
“It wasn’t a dream,” Stephanie said, helping him up. “You’re smaller than I am.”
Adam sat by the dying embers of the fire, staring beyond her. He didn’t say anything, and neither did she; she didn’t know what to say. If it was cancer, or heart disease, or…well, she didn’t want any of those for him, not ever, but those were real diseases, ones she knew about. She could talk to him about those, offer hope, support him.
But this – this was something else. It chewed her stomach up as she looked at him.
Finally, after a long time, she broke the silence; she felt like someone had to.
“Should we hike out of the woods? Go to a doctor?”
Adam looked over at her, and gave a rueful chuckle. “And tell them what? That I’m shrinking?”
“Well…yeah.”
“And what are they gonna do for me?”
“I don’t know, more than I can do, right?”
Adam looked at her, looked at her a long time. She felt almost uncomfortable, he looked so long.
And then he burst into tears.
