He decided that he’d have to have Anita’s help with his nails too. The clumsiness of his short fingers combined with the unaccustomedly long fingernails would make it almost impossible for him to manipulate the fingernail clippers by himself. Howard saw that his toenails had changed as well; until they were clipped, he wouldn’t be able to wear anything but sandals.
Howard tossed the yardstick in the closet and looked at himself in the mirror again. All definition between his stomach and his chest had been lost. A slight pot belly of extreme youth was beginning to show itself, replacing the flat washboard that had been his stomach the day before. If there had been any question that he was regressing rather than shrinking, the question was resolved. He had become a little boy.