The rest of the day was pretty much uneventful. A couple of times the customers got up and moved after I took their order, but since I had noted in my mind what they looked like and what they were wearing, I had no trouble tracking them down.
The biggest trick turned out to be avoiding getting stepped on or kicked by passing gamblers. Most of them simply didn't notice me, being as small as I was. I was about the height of a small child, after all. I had a number of close calls as people walked past me, preoccupied with where they were going and narrowly avoiding running me over. At first this was really frightening, but after a while, I found myself more annoyed by it than anything else.
It didn't take long to start keeping an eye out for people crossing at intersections, and spotting the signs of a person about to stand up and get out of their seat was a simple matter. I managed to escape the entire day without a single collision, though I did have a lot of near misses.
The thing that really took the most getting used to was all the stares. Normally I dress really conservatively, and like I said earlier, I don't like to flaunt my sexuality. When working out, I prefer sweatsuits to leotards, and at the beach, you wouldn't catch me dead in a bikini. While my good looks occasional draw a second glance, I rarely pull in the kind of stares I was getting today.
It wasn't just my body they were looking at, of course. They were staring at me because I was so small. I felt like I was some kind of sideshow performer on display. I probably spent a quarter of my four-hour half-shift blushing red from embarrassment.
Near the end, though, I was actually getting used to the environment, much to my surprise. In fact, I felt I was up to a challenge, so I tried delivering two orders at a time instead of one. This proved to be no trouble at all, so I did it a couple more times. It was so easy I wished I'd tried it sooner.
Beth came to meet me when my shift was up. "Nice job on the doubletons," she complemented. "Not many rookies try that on the first day."
"You were watching?" I asked curiously, feeling a little proud despite myself.
"Sure," she replied. "Like I said, we keep an eye on newbies to make sure you don't go nuts on us. I figured you were pretty stable, but you can't be sure. One time a guy reached down to give a rookie a tip and accidentally touched her, and she ran out of the place screaming. Needless to say, she didn't wind up on the payroll."
"Well, at least no one tried to grab me or anything," I said as we headed back into the access corridor. "If they had, I don't know what I might have done!"
Beth sighed. "It's a sad fact, but sooner or later someone is going to grope you," she said sadly. "It's not just because you're small, either. It'll happen in any casino in town, simply because you're a hot babe in a skimpy outfit. At any other place, though, you can get away with resisting. Here, you're too small to put up much of a fight. Your best bet is to dodge and run--like I said, you're quicker than you think you are, because you weigh a lot less than your muscles expect. Just drop the drink tray and high-tail it out of there. The carpet is treated to repel any spills, you know."
This talk reminded me of something that had been bothering me all day. "Let me ask you an honest question," I said, trying to sound curious without being apprehensive. "What would happen if I were working roulette or blackjack and someone reached down and grabbed me?"
Beth frowned. "That's something we always worry about," she replied, "but trust me, the guys watching on camera will have their eyes on you, not anything else that might be going on. For one thing, their focus will be so tight on the table that they wouldn't see anything outside that small area. If someone picks you up, they'll have someone waiting at any exit to make sure they don't get away."
I shuddered at this, again fearful of the thought of someone grabbing me with a giant hand, crushing me between his fingers. "Has anyone ever tried anyway?" I asked, not bothering to hide my disgust at the thought.
Beth sighed again. Obviously, this was not a subject she wanted to be discussing with a rookie, but she answered me anyway. "Yeah, a few times," she said honestly. "Mostly they were just clumsy snatch-and-grabs, but once, we had a team come in and try an elaborate capture. One man made a scene of grabbing some chips, while another plucked a girl off the table and started to run in the opposite direction. He made a show of bumping into several people, one of whom was an accomplice. He dropped the girl into that man's pocket, who then did his best to look surprised and act like he wasn't part of the plan."
"What happened then?" I inquired intently. I wasn't just asking because it was my job--I really wanted to know.
"I won't lie to you," Beth replied apprehensively. "They almost got away with it. Guards stopped the one guy, but found only a doll in his pocket. He claimed we were mistaken, that it was just a good luck charm he'd been holding. By then, the other guy was almost to the hotel elevator, where he would have returned easily to his room. Fortunately, Michelle spoiled his plan by climbing out and jumping to the ground. By the time he'd recaptured her, security had spotted the action on their monitor and he was as good as caught. He's in prison now for attempted kidnapping, but unfortunately, Michelle had to quit her job and undergo some serious therapy."
"I can understand that," I replied. "If someone picked me up and stuffed me in their pocket, I'd probably go catatonic!"
"Yeah, summoning up enough courage to escape was almost more than poor Michelle could handle," said Beth. "I've been trying to convince the management that we need more training for that kind of situation, but they won't listen. Just so you know, it's actually strictly forbidden for any normal-sized person--even another employee--to pick one of us up, unless you give them your explicit permission to do so. Being held in someone's hand is extremely traumatic--you're completely in their power, and most people just can't deal with that. Well, a few rare people really enjoy it, but not many.
"Oh, and that reminds me," Beth went on. "If you're thinking about it, it's also strictly forbidden for you to leave the casino area while shrunk. In fact, when your shift is up, you're expected to immediately report to the restorer without delay."
"Oh, trust me, I'll be first in line!" I said hastily. In fact, I was already wondering just how much further the damn machine was. Even though I'd sort of adjusted to the idea of being small, at least somewhat anyway, right now I think I wanted to be big again more than anything in the world.
"Yeah, I figured, but it's one of the things I have to say," Beth explained. "You'd be surprised what some of the girls fantasize about doing while they're small, and their boyfriends and husbands have their own ideas, too. At first, we allowed it--what with their being consenting adults and all--but there are all kinds of security issues involved. Plus, there were a couple of accidents, so we had to put a stop to it."
"Accidents?" I asked, frowning as I considered some of the possible mishaps a tiny person could get into.
Beth looked embarrassed. "Yeah, things would get stuck, you know?" She looked down at her nether regions, then made a curious motion with her hands, like trying to shove her fist through a hole too small to fit through.
It only took me a moment to realize what she was talking about. Then I laughed out loud. If a man felt he was...ummm...how do I say this...underequipped, well, having his girlfriend be reduced to one-third her normal size would be the perfect solution to that problem!
Beth grinned, as it was obvious I'd caught on to what she meant. "It wasn't just that, either," she went on. "At smaller sizes, even stranger sexual practices start to come into play. I'll just leave those to your imagination. We actually found some of the women were joining the crew just so they could try those out on the side. That's not the sort of thing that's good for the casino's image, you know."
"Yeah," I agreed, "I guess I can see that." I pictured someone going on one of those sleazy talk shows and explaining some bizarre shrunken fantasy they'd lived out at the casino, which could of course do nothing but bad things for the Sidewinder's reputation.
"Well, here's some good news," said Beth after a moment. "Your first day's over. Here's the restoration machine."
By now we had emerged into a small side room. Compared to the flashy, futuristic-looking miniaturizer, the restorer looked like a weak sideshow reject. It was really just a closet, with a single, yellow lamp hanging from the ceiling. It might have been an open-air tanning booth for how high-tech it looked, and I said as much.
"Just get in," Beth told me. "Right now your molecules are being held at a reduced size. All this thing does is release the hold so they expand back to normal."
Somewhat eagerly I stepped into the box, and immediately the light grew in intensity, then faded back to normal. I walked back out and Beth went in behind me, whereupon she was also treated to a brief shine from the lamp.
I almost shouted with happiness as I saw the walls of the room begin to collapse inward towards me. I was growing, and growing quickly! In about ten seconds, I'd expanded back to my normal size, and just a few moments after that, Beth joined me, her proper scale once again. The restoration booth was now so small I doubted I could fit myself inside it, but that hardly mattered any more. I was back to normal, and that was all I cared about.
I can't really describe the kind of relief I was feeling. Yeah, rationally I knew the shrinking process was completely safe and reversible, but that didn't stop me from worrying about it the whole time I was two feet high. Besides, several women had already disappeared under mysterious circumstances while working here, so there was always the fear that something similar could happen to me at any moment.
We stepped through another door and emerged back into the dressing room area. Beth congratulated me on completing my first day as we walked back to my locker, then told me to come back tomorrow at the same time for another four-hour training shift. Also, if I wanted to, I could collect my tips for the day (which had, as expected, been pretty meager) at the employee's desk, or just leave them there, where they'd accumulate and even earn a small amount of interest. I decided to leave them for now, as I really didn't need the money at the moment, and it was probably less than twenty dollars anyhow.
I thanked Beth for helping me through a tough first day, and she departed, presumably to go back to supervising other new employees like Heather Andrews.
After changing back into my street clothes and putting my uniform in the laundry basket, I hurried out of the casino, not looking back. I was supposed to go over and debrief with Mark, but I didn't feel like it at all, so I called it off and went directly home. I spent the rest of the night in my apartment, not really caring how small and cramped it was, just glad everything in it was in the proper proportions.
At this point, I was pretty sure I'd never get used to being shrunk, no matter how many times I had to do it.