at Red. She was sitting on
my kneecap, combing her hair. "So just what seems to be the problem?"

His eyes were pathetic. "Again, like I told you. I'm too big for her."

"Yeah," I said. "Uh-huh." It had to be as simple as that. Something
practical-like; for Willy, like I said, was basically a practical guy.
Or practically a basic guy. I frowned at him, for the answer was also a
simple one.

"Then why don't you draw her full size?" I asked.

Willy looked miserable. "I do."

I said, "Mmm?"

"I _do_ draw her full-size. That's Red's full size. Twelve inches."

I nodded, following his lips.

"Once," he continued, "I drew her a little larger."

From her perch on my kneecap Red said, coolly, "Don't you dare try
_that_ again."

"No, dear," Willy said, sadly.

I rubbed my head. To Willy I said, "You can't--project her?"

Willy started to answer, but Red interrupted. She looked piqued.

"Of course he can't project me. That would be a distortion of myself. It
wouldn't," she yawned, ruffling her red locks, "be me."

I rubbed my head again. I couldn't think of anything to say.

Willy shifted. "I can draw her smaller," he said. "But that would make
it even worse, of course."

I nodded. "Of course." Because it seemed practical to say it, I said it:
"But wouldn't that be a distortion too?"

"Of course not," Red said, and I had the fleeting impression of being
faced by a school teacher in the minute end of a telescope. "Minimized
elements are true elements, merely condensed. Maximized elements are
bloated, therefore distorted." She sniffed. "Any figment knows that."

I tossed it around in my floundering mind, but it still came out the way
it sounded. There was another silence. I could see that the two of them
were losing faith in my godmaternal fairyhood. So just to keep the
conversation jogging, I tried another tack. To Willy I said:

"If Red's a figment of your imagination, why didn't you imagine her a
more practical size in the first place?"

* * * * *

Willy chewed on it for a couple minutes. Red turned away in disgust to
leap from my kneecap to Willy's. She seated herself primly and began
fussing with her infinitesimal nails. Willy said, "After all, she does
have a mind of her own, Jim. She wanted to be imagined the size she is,
so--" He looked at me and shrugged.

"Why," demanded the little woman, "should I go up to him? Why can't he
come down to me?"

I was getting riled