THE CHOICE
By Minimizer
Chapter 1
"Sir?"
Lance glanced over at the source of the voice. He didn't see the speaker right away, for the sounds were coming from someone who stood a full two feet shorter than he did. Turning his gaze downward, Lance raised an eyebrow, for the voice came from a round, bald, four-foot-high man in a form-fitting white jumpsuit. If he had orange skin, he'd be an Oompa-Loompa, thought Lance.
"Sir, can I have a word with you?" the little man said in a squeaky, high-pitched voice. "Please, it will not take long."
Lance glanced around. The other people in the group were all still busy looking at the freak show behind the glass, and weren't paying any attention to him at all. Lance had seen bearded ladies and dog-faced boys before, though. Why he'd bothered to pay to get into this section of the carnival, he had no idea. He was bored, and the pitchman had been pretty good at his job, that much was obvious. He'd sucked the dollar right out of Lance's wallet like he had a vacuum cleaner in his jacket.
"Sir, please," said the little bald man, tugging on Lance's overcoat. "I just need to show you something very important."
"All right," Lance said irately. The funny-looking carny worker grated on him for some reason, possibly his reedy voice. "What the hell is it? I paid good money for this tour, you know."
"Oh, thank you, sir," said the dwarf. "There is more to this show than most viewers see. We keep other displays for a select few, such as yourself."
"Why me?" asked Lance, even as the rotund little fellow started to move off towards a passage in the rear of the tent. With barely a glance back to the rest of his group, Lance followed along, more than a little curious about what it was that was kept secret from ordinary patrons.
They passed through a tent flap and through a door made of shiny metal. The hall beyond was white and lit by glowing rods pressed into the walls. Lance found this strange, but didn't say anything about it. Carnivals have a lot of weird stuff, after all.
They moved quickly along, for the strange little man could move faster than Lance would've thought. Finally, he took a sharp right turn into an oval-shaped room. Lance followed and the door slid shut noiselessly behind him. "Why you?" the dwarf asked as he moved behind a row of machinery set up at just the right height for him to use. "You meet the qualifications, that's all. My name is Enrik, and you are?"
"Lance, Lance Harrison," he answered. "Glad to meet you, Enrik. Now what's this special display you wanted to show me?"
"Oh, it's more than just a display," the little man said, adjusting a few dials on his odd-looking machine. Then he reached down and pulled out a small box, about the size of a cigar case. He set this on a nearby table, one that stood about three feet off the ground. "It's a gift, really," Enrik went on. "You may take your pick of the three items inside. Your selection is yours to keep."
"Really?" he asked, glancing over at the dwarf curiously. "You're going to just give me a gift, just like that? What's the catch?"
Enrik laughed, and the tinkling sound echoed off the smooth metallic walls. "You--oh, that's right, I forgot the axiom, did I not? Nothing is free, is it? Well, I assure you, a different saying applies, as you will discover. The best things in life are free, Mr. Harrison. Go on, open it. Just remember, you can only have one of the items."
"All right, I'll play along," said Lance with a chuckle, brushing back his black hair and adjusting his coat nervously. He wasn't sure what he'd find, but was pretty sure it was some kind of trick. They were probably trying to sell him something, and this was going to be a free sample. Smiling, he lifted up the top of the box.
And gasped.
He wasn't sure what he'd expected to see. Money, maybe, or jewelry, or plane tickets, or maybe even cigars. The last thing he thought he'd find was three tiny women, but there they were, blinking and staring up at him from their positions in the bottom in the container.
They weren't dolls, either. They were too perfect for that. Three women, each no more than four inches high, looking at him with a shifting mixture of expressions: fear, surprise, anger, horror. One of them screamed and backed up into the corner of the box, while another fell backward and gazed up at him with her mouth hanging open. The other just shut her eyes and seemed to collapse into a heap.
"Nothing to say, Mr. Harrison?" said Enrik, a tremendous smile slashing across his round face. "I assure you, they are real. Simply choose, and she will be yours."
"You're freakin' kidding me," mumbled Lance, unable to take his eyes off the tableau inside the box. The woman on the left, who had backed away from him, was a long-haired blonde, sort of thin, wearing a blouse and a pair of tight slacks. She seemed to have recovered from the shock of seeing his giant face dominating the sky above her, and was now looking up at him and smiling almost seductively. The middle one, who lay on her back, had long black hair and an Oriental look about her. She was wearing a business jacket and knee-length skirt that concealed most of her figure, but what he could see of her legs was pretty nice. The third, on the right, was brown-haired and had on a pretty little flowered dress, but he couldn't see much of her because she was curled into a little ball and appeared to be crying.
"No, I assure you, this is no joke," the dwarf went on. "Simply choose, Mr. Harrison. Do not take too long, please. I don't have all that much time."
"I don't understand," he countered, still unable to tear his eyes off the itty-bitty women. "Why are you doing this?"
"What does it matter?" said Enrik with a shrug. "Now, please, pick one."
Lance sighed. "All right, all right," he replied. "I will, okay? But what am I supposed to do with a tiny woman?"
"Whatever you like," chuckled the little man. "She will be yours for whatever purpose you choose."
Now Lance was smiling. If this was a free sample, he wanted to see what this guy was selling! "Okay," he said, "If you put it that way, sure, I'll take one, but I can't just go on looks, you know? I have to see what they're like first."
"Very well," Enrik replied, though by now his smile had disappeared. "Do what you must, but remember, I am on a schedule. I will leave you here for a while, but the exit will be locked. I will not permit you to take them all, understand? I will return when my time has run out, and you must be ready then. Perhaps twenty of--well, perhaps twenty minutes."
"All right, thanks," said Lance, watching as the dwarf turned and headed back out of the room. After the door slid shut, there was a loud clank to signal the portal was now sealed.
Now he looked down again at the box. The three ladies inside were looking up at him with a mixture of expressions. "Which one of you first?" he wondered aloud, rubbing his fingers back and forth over his chin with a smile on his face.