Chihiro Short Story
Writing Commission “Chihiro” Short Story
Commissioned by: Redreaper1951
Written by: Danni Lynn
1,000 Words
One Sunday morning, Chihiro is resting in her room at her Aunt’s house. She lays lazily on the floor; her finger traces the red heart on her favorite black T-shirt. Her short black hair is all pinned out of her face by her red clip except for this one annoying piece that keeps getting in her face. She wonders what she will do today.
Getting up, she paces the small room until she comes to an end table with a sealed pack of party balloons on it. The colors are generic: red, green, purple, and blue. An idea comes to Chihiro’s mind. She grasps the packaging and rips it open with a crinkle. No one’s birthday is coming up anytime soon, so she is sure her aunt wouldn’t mind her blowing up just one little balloon.
The assortment of colors is a little overwhelming as Chihiro sticks her fingers in the package and pushes them around until she finds what she wants.
“Ah-ha!” she exclaims. Chihiro pulls a pink balloon out of the bag, the deflated rubber dangling between her fingers. “I want to use this one,” she says to herself. She puts the bag down and goes to the middle of the room. Chihiro sits and begins to stretch the balloon in her hands. The pink rubber stretches and twists as far as she dares to pull it. Just how big can these balloons grow before popping or blowing up? If I blew it up really big, could I even tie it closed?
With these questions in mind, Chihiro brings the balloon to her lips. She bites on the end, the coppery taste of the rubber filling her mouth, and begins to inhale. Then, slowly, she blows into the balloon. The balloon shakes and slowly begins to fill up. Chihiro keeps one hand on the back of it, and one on the tip so she doesn’t lose control and let go. Puff after puff, she blows air into the balloon. It begins to fill her hands, pressing against her palms as it grows.
Chihiro takes a break once her cheeks begin to burn from the effort. To judge the size, she sticks the melon-sized pink balloon under her favorite T-shirt. It plumps out like a little belly to her delight. I wonder how big I can make it without breaking it? She wonders. In case it gets too big, Chihiro carefully maneuvers the tip of the balloon to stick out of the neckline of her shirt. She bites down and begins to blow again. Cradling it with her legs and hands, Chihiro blows the balloon up with more strength now. It grows bigger and bigger, and she starts to take more breaths with confidence. The pink balloon stretches and grows to fill her entire shirt until it is stretching and pushing against the seams like a big belly. Chihiro stops there. She pinches the top and before she can break it on accident, she ties the top closed and admires her work.
The pink balloon fills the area from her hips up past her chest with its large size. The rubber tickles her skin, staticky to the touch. Chihiro’s shirt pulls at her shoulder blades and at her waist as the balloon pulls it far forward, past where the stitching should allow.
“Wow!” Chihiro gasps. She stands up and pokes at the balloon, it barely budges, and her fingers barely make an indent into it’s maxed out surface.
“Can I reach my arms around it?” Chihiro wonders aloud. She sticks out her arms and proceeds to wrap her arms around herself like a hug, but she stretches and stretches but the balloon squeaks in protest. She cannot reach to touch her fingers together.
“How did it get so big?! It was just a little normal balloon!” Chihiro says. She laughs at this discovery. She decides to test her balloons limits while it is trapped under her shirt. First, she decides to walk across the room to the far wall. The balloon pushes on the tops of her thighs so instead of walking, she waddles, shuffling her way across the carpet. If her best friend Nekokowa saw her, she’d say she looked like a penguin for sure!
Next, Chihiro waddles around the room some more. She tries to turn and reach her arms around the balloons’ side—she can’t. She tries to reach over the top and from near the bottom—still no luck. It rubs and presses against her, if she ever moves too fast on accident or too harshly, she freezes as the rubber pulls, scared it will pop suddenly and surprise her. It took a lot of work to blow up, she wouldn’t want it to pop now.
Having tested the balloon in every way she can, Chihiro plops down in front of the TV. The balloon squeaks and rubs against her knees as she sits crisscrossed. She reaches for her Wii-remote and nun chuck and decides to play a videogame.
“This will be interesting with my balloon in the way,” Chihiro says to herself. She puts her chin on top of the large balloon, so it doesn’t accidentally pop out of her shirt or roll away. The countdown of her racing game begins. Chihiro holds the remote and nun chuck so far apart on either side of her balloon that the wire is stretched nearly taut. As the carts in the game race by, Chihiro leans and waves her arms, attempting to keep up with the demand of the game despite the giant pink balloon. She jerks the remote and her arm bounces off the side of the balloon, the pink rubber squeaks and complains at all her movement. By the end of the virtual race, she comes in eighth place.
Chihiro drops her remote and flops onto her back with a gasp. “That was more difficult than I thought!” She laughs and pats the balloon, entertained by all the space it is taking up. If an inanimate object could be alive, it would be quite the attention hog.