The Incredible Shrinking City

For a while our town had been shrinking. The economy was drying out like the exoskeleton of a crab decomposing on the rocks. Thousands upon thousands had been losing their jobs. Popular landmarks that had been around for decades shut down. Businesses collapsed as newer business models redefined our landscape. Our city on the sea was shrinking. We knew this, but the major shock was still to come. As travelers flew out of town, they realized that upon landing, their planes were smaller than the others. The jetways at every outside airport were not able to connect our own 747's. The probing esophagal hallways towered over our planes. The mobile stairways that were driven to the exits were also too tall. Therefore, baffled travelers were only able to exit using the yellow inflatable slides that blew out from under the thresholds of the entrances. They slid down onto the tarmac, and walked out into much larger cities, at half their original size. Those were the lucky ones. Our city is still shrinking. More companies are folding. We are now a single broadsheet newspaper town, and our paper is now the size of an average business card. Our planes can no longer traverse the pacific. They are too small, and can carry only a few pints of fuel. The weather demolishes any plane that attempts to take flight. Our planes our blown over by the wind like abandoned paper cups in a park. They are dragged across the tarmacs and are thrown into the ocean. Large cargo ships can no longer dock, and goods are shipped in on smaller cruisers, where a single worker gently places a shoebox onto our shores. One day the waves will wash over us. Until then we have only each other.