Heidi Hayes was sitting at the dining room table eating a bowl of cereal when her mother Violet kissed her goodbye and left to go work out at the gym. Heidi was 13, with long blonde hair tied into a braid, and beautiful blue eyes. It was a Saturday, and Heidi didn't have anything planned for the day. Little did she know that this seemingly uneventful morning would be remembered as the strangest day of her life!

There was a knock at the door, so with a mouthful of cereal, Heidi marched to the door and opened it. A woman stood there, dressed in clothing of a strange fashion. Heidi was knowlegeable about clothing styles, and this outfit was way off the chart of conventional fashion. Heidi decided that the outfit the woman was wearing definitely looked a little bit out of this world.

"Hello, Heidi Hayes!" the woman announced. Heidi noticed the woman was carrying a black case under one arm.

"How did you know my name?" Heidi asked.

"I know everything about you," the woman answered, "because you are my distant ancestor! I've traveled 20,000 years into the past to warn you that an intruder will break into your house tonight!"

With that, the woman opened the black box and pulled out a strange metallic pistol and held it out to Heidi. "Take this!"

"What is it?" Heidi asked.

"It's a shrink ray-gun!" the woman answered. "It will help you to disable an attacker without harming him. It will decrease the size, weight, volume, mass, and strength of any opponent to any fraction of normal size you desire, even to microscopic sizes!"

"So some guy is gonna break into my house tonight?" Heidi asked.

"Affirmative!" said the time traveler.

"And what happens after I shrink this guy?" Heidi asked. "Do I have to give the shrink-ray back?"

"Negative!" the woman from the future responded. "You can keep the shrink ray-gun, and use it as you please!"

"I guess I could invite Lacey and Brandy over tonight for a sleepover and wait for the intruder," said Heidi. "Will I ever see you again?"

"Negative, but you can accompany me to my time ship and see me off!"