Chapter 2

"Hi, I'm Tim and this is my wife Jan. We're your next door neighbors."

They had discreetly waited a day or two to give the new arrivals time to catch their breath. Jan had baked a cake and now here they stood on the doorstep as the door had opened and a lovely blonde woman had smiled as they introduced themselves.

"A little something just to say welcome to the neighborhood," smiled Jan, hopefully, offering the cake.

"Why, thank you. How very sweet of you," said the woman, taking the cake. "I'm Sheila, Sheila Tompkins. Won't you come in?"

They had, of course, been in the house many times in the past. It seemed funny to see strange furniture occupying the front room.

"The house is a mess yet. We started on the bedroom and decided to work our way out, but at least there may be somewhere to sit down," commented the woman as she ushered them into the front room. "Michael's in the garage unpacking... Michael!" she called.

A moment later a brown haired man of perhaps thirty-five came walking in. His short cropped beard gave him an indescribable sense of worldliness, thought Jan, somewhat like one of the mysterious and romantic leading men on one of her soaps. His eyes scanned them both instantly but returned to Jan as he smiled.

"Honey, this is Tim and Jan Dennison, they're our next door neighbors and came by to say welcome. They brought this lovely cake."

"Hey, that's really nice of you. Come in. Let's sit down if we can find a piece of furniture which isn't stacked up with boxes."

They all smiled as Michael led the way into the living room where he did indeed move a box or two from the sofa and offered Jan and Tim a seat.

"We know you're busy unpacking and have a lot to do. We don't want to interfere."

"Interfere? Hey, Sheila's been working my butt off all day. I welcome a little interference!"

There was laughter all around. Jan already had a good feeling about this couple.

"Have you lived here long?" asked Sheila.

"About four years. Originally I'm from Milwaukee and Jan is from Omaha," responded Tim.

"We're both from New York," said Sheila.

"Well," smiled Jan, "I'm afraid you're going to find things here in Springfield a bit less exciting."

"I must admit, we both had reservations about moving away from the Big Apple, but with nice people like you next door, I know it's going to make things easier," Michael said.

"We look forward to being your neighbors. As a matter of fact we won't keep you from your unpacking any longer, but, first, if you need any help at all, please let us know and secondly, we were wondering if, after you've had a chance to get settled in, you'd like to come over for dinner?"

"That's really nice. We'd love to," smiled Michael.

"Friday OK?" asked Tim.

Michael looked to his smiling wife who nodded affirmatively.

"Friday it is."

In the next few days Jan visited Sheila and Michael several times, helping Sheila with unpacking and even fixing some sandwiches as they took a break from getting things out of boxes and stored away.

Jan and Sheila had gotten to know each other, engaging in girl talk as they worked. Jan had also become especially fond of Michael whose sense of humor kept her laughing much of the time, yet whose looks at her were obvious signals that she continued to ignore. She had to admit, however, he was an extremely handsome man and his looks that were at first disconcerting, were now welcomed, as Jan, for the first time in her life was made to feel attractive... even desirable? She smiled to think how absurd it was that Michael could have any interest in her, yet his looks, not lascivious, but appreciative, continued and Jan found herself liking the feeling of being noticed. As Friday approached, she looked forward to seeing him.

Jan had cleared away the dishes and they had adjourned to the living room where Michael and Sheila were seated on the full sized couch. Most of the furniture was full sized, a couple of pieces scaled down to accommodate the Dennisons. Tim and Jan sat in easy chairs which were much more comfortable for them.

"Your home is lovely," commented Sheila.

"What, this little ol' thing," smiled Jan and there was laughter all around.

"Since nothing's been said, "I want to inform you of something you may not have noticed," said the lovely small woman, again showing her sense of humor.

"What's that?" remarked Sheila.

"We're smaller than you are," said Jan, straight faced.

There was only a moment of awkward silence until all four broke into laughter.

"Gee, we'd never noticed," laughed Michael, then decided to follow up since the subject had been broached. "OK, I did a quick read at the library since we won't be hooked up to the internet for a day or so, but I admit we're still a bit confused."

"How so?" asked Tim.

"Well the article used the term midgets, dwarfs and little people almost interchangeably. What... ?"

"Term is correct? I suppose it doesn't really matter," responded Tim. "Dwarf is the medical term and most people of our stature still prefer that term, although "little people" is favored by many. We don't use the term midget and many consider it condescending, but a lot of dictionaries still use midget as a means of discriminating between types of dwarfs."

"What do you mean?" asked Sheila.

"Well, Jan and I belong to a class of dwarfism in which our bodies are proportioned exactly like yours, just smaller -- that's what most people call midgets. Most dwarfs are caused by either Cretinism, a disease of the thyroid gland, most common in this country, or by Achondroplasia a condition in which catlilaginous tissue is reabsorbed during the fetal stage of development. This is the condition that is most common worldwide and which causes the disproportionately large head and shortened limbs."