Heather and Lori were already there, with bowling shoes on and everything. There were seventy-two lanes, and only a few of them were active. As I found out later, the place really didn't start jumping unless a bowling league or tournament was going on. Since this was Las Vegas, the bowling capital of the world, that actually happened more often than you'd think.
Once I had my shoes (which of course were free since I was a casino employee) and had picked out a bowling ball, I headed down to meet my fellow workers. Out of uniform, they both looked like any other girls you might run into on the street. Well, a little prettier, perhaps, but not strikingly so. They were both dressed somewhat conservatively, Heather in a long skirt and loose blouse, and Lori in a khaki-colored pair of pants and collared T-shirt. Seeing them here, you'd never know they were cocktail waitresses at the casino.
"Hey, Ashley!" Heather said as I walked up. "Glad you made it. This is Lori Wellington. She started a few days after I did."
"We've met," I replied amiably. "She was in the shift before mine."
"Yeah, I sure was glad to see you!" Lori put in. "My feet were getting tired. I'm not used to walking around in cowboy boots all day."
"Yeah, I know what you mean," I replied honestly. It was all too true, as I wore high heels about once in a blue moon. The boots weren't as bad as I'd thought, especially since they had built-in comfort padding in the soles, but were still uncomfortable after a while. "And these are only half shifts, too. I can't imagine what it must be like walking around for eight straight hours."
Heather nodded in agreement. "I did five today," she said, making a show of lifting up her feet and massaging her ankles. "Beth said they'll work us up to a full shift gradually."
"Thank God for that!" Lori exclaimed. "Have you actually been in the main casino hall? There's so many people! How can you even move around in there?"
Heather picked up her bowling ball and led off the first game with a strike. After we congratulated her, she sat down and explained a little bit about the main floor. "There's routes you take," she told us. "Beth showed me the one for the area I was assigned to. That way you serve everyone on a regular basis, and avoid the higher traffic areas as much as possible."
It was my turn to bowl, so I showed both of them just how rusty I was at the game. I hadn't played in years. I knocked down only three pins on the first throw, and missed completely on the second. While I was doing that, Lori asked, "You mean we won't be able to just wander around where we want any more? That's no fun!"
"It's not so bad," Heather replied. "Plus, it's important so you don't get lost. You've been out there, so y'know what I mean. Keeping track of where you are keeps that from happenin'."
She was right, of course. The casino was so large, and so much of it looked the same (row after row of slot machines damn near everywhere), it wasn't hard to get turned around. However, I was sure after I'd been working here long enough, I'd have it figured out.
While it was Lori's turn to bowl, I had another thought. "Did you have to learn the route on your own? Or did Beth walk you through it?"
Heather laughed. "Oh, nothin' as simple as that," she answered. "When I was leavin' yesterday, she ran me through a little briefing, then handed me a bunch of floor plans to memorize. I also had to spend an hour or so walkin' the floor on my own time, to make sure I knew where everything was."
Lori picked up her spare and sat back down. "Damn, I didn't realize we were going to be tested on this stuff!" she quipped.
"The toughest part," said Heather as she knocked down all the pins for the second time in a row, "was getting' used to walking around the place at 33. See, I memorized the layout at normal size, while I was off duty. Next day, it was all three times bigger!"
As I made another meager attempt at bowling, I said over my shoulder, "That's something I wanted to ask you, Heather. How is it you're so comfortable with this shrinking business?"
She chuckled at that. "Did you ever see the movie 'Honey, I Shrunk the Babysitter?'" she asked.
"Not really," I answered. "It was a kid's movie." As soon as I said that, I bit my lip. If I recalled correctly, that film had come out eight or nine years ago, before news of miniaturization technology had been released to the public. Heather, who couldn't have been more than twenty years old now, would have been a pre-teen at the time. In other words, just a kid.
Suddenly, I felt strangely old.
"Well, I loved it," she told me. "I used to imagine myself as that three-inch-high babysitter, tryin' to get back across town to Dr. Szalinski's lab. When the frat boys made Tiffany dance around on the table, and then played poker to see who got t'keep her for the night, I was in heaven!"
"Yeah, I saw the movie, but what does that have to do with anything?" asked Lori between frames.
"Well, everythin'," Heather went on. "I used to fantasize about being shrunk down like that. At night I'd dream about walkin' around on giant desks'n stuff, and havin' adventures just trying to get around in my house. I just thought it was the coolest thing, that's all."
I gulped. That didn't sound very pleasant to me, but to each his own, I guess. "Sorry if I seem like I'm prying," I said, "but I don't like being shrunk all that much, and I'm trying to figure out why anyone in their right mind would enjoy it."
Heather laughed. "Well, it's not just that I like the idea," she told us, lowering her voice slightly, "but it...um, well, it turns me on. Y'know, sexually. I get hot just thinkin' about it!"
Lori's mouth dropped open, and I suppose mine did, too. Not just because of what Heather said, but because she was admitting it so readily to two people she barely knew. "You're kidding!" Lori blurted out, looking a lot more shocked than I was.
"No, seriously, it's true," admitted Heather, with only the barest hint of embarrassment. "After I grew up, my kiddie shrinkin' dreams started havin' giant men in them. They'd play with me, with their fingers at first, and later on, with...well, other things, y'know?"
Lori looked at Heather like she was nuts, but I just nodded in understanding. Beth had already explained that some people were into that sort of thing, and it wasn't surprising that this casino would attract that kind of person as an employee. "You do know," I said after my turn on the lanes had passed, "that you can't do that sort of thing here, right? Beth told me it was all 'strictly forbidden.'"
"Yeah, yeah, I know," said Heather wistfully. "A girl can still dream, can't she? At least when I get small, I get a better idea what it'd be like. Besides, y'never know. Maybe someday I'll be in charge here and can change that stupid rule!"
"Well," I replied scornfully, "you can do that if you want, but for me, having someone pick me up is about the scariest thing I can think of. If I didn't need this job so bad, I'd have been out of here a long time ago."
"I know what you mean," Lori agreed. "Today, a guy knocked me over by accident and tried to help me up. His hands were so big! I thought I was gonna scream."
"Damn!" I said, horrified. "What happened?"
"I shouted that I didn't need any help, and got up on my own," said Lori. "He apologized about ten or fifteen times, and then he smiled really big like. I thought he was going to hit on me, but then he noticed one of the security guards standing next to him and bailed." She almost seemed disappointed at that last comment.
"Whew," I sighed, relieved that she'd gotten through that all right. Just the thought of a huge man looming over me, reaching down to pick me up, made me shudder with fear. Sooner or later, though, something similar was going to happen, and I needed to prepare myself for it. "Something like that would be my worst nightmare," I admitted.
"Not me," said Heather. "Mmmm, I wish some good-lookin' guy would put his giant hands on me sometime!"
Lori and I exchanged glances, and I rolled my eyes as if to say "She's crazy!" This elicited a giggle from Lori, who nodded in agreement, but we let the whole thing drop and went back to bowling.
I wasn't sure if Heather was being entirely truthful about her secret fantasies, but whether she was or not, I knew there was no way I'd ever feel the same way as she seemed to.