A Tragic Tale
By Astrogator




Morris was reading the paper at the table while Marge prepared breakfast. He said to his wife, "Marge, we should move to another neighborhood."

"No, Morris," said Marge. "I am not going to be driven from my home."

"But the neighbors, Marge," he said. "All of our friends have moved away. All of the remaining wives have taken the pill."

"I don't care," said Marge. "We aren't going to move. If you want to go, then go, but I am going to stay. This is my home."

Morris hesitated a moment, then said, with some trepidation, "Marge, I wish you would take the pill."

Marge stared at him. "I thought you loved me the way I am, Morris. You told me you would stand by me."

"I do love you as you are, Marge," said Morris. He laid down the paper and spoke directly to her. "But things have changed. The giantesses are everywhere, now. They control everything and they are changing everything to suit themselves. If you don't have a friend who is a giantess, you haven't got a chance, these days."

"We have a friend who is a giantess," said Marge. "Susan."

"Susan?" said Morris in startled voice. "You think she is a friend?"

"Susan and I were best friends before all this started," said Marge. "And we are still best friends now. I remember when Susan was only twelve feet tall, she told me 'Marge, this isn't going to change our friendship, is it?' I told her of course it would not."

"Can we trust her to look out for our interest?" said Morrisl

"I have known here since we were both little girls," said Marge. "I would trust her with my life."

Morris let it drop. He went back to reading his paper while Marge served the breakfast.

* * *

As he walked out of the house, Morris saw Susan standing in her yard watering her grass with a gigantic water hose. "Hello Morris," she called out, and turned toward him.

"Be careful with that hose," cried Morris as the torrent of water swerved toward him. He dodged backward as a few stray drops landed around him.

"Sorry," said Susan. She shut off the hose and walked closer. "How are you this morning, Morris?"

"I am fine," said Morris. "I have to get to work."

Susan laughed. "If you were married to me, you wouldn't have to go to work," she said.

Morris walked to his truck and put his hand on the door. "I don't mind working," he said. "I like my job."

"A lot of you little guys are getting laid off," said Susan. "Sooner or later, there won't be any jobs left for little guys."

"There will always be jobs somewhere," said Morris. It was uncomfortable trying to make eye contact with Susan. She was fifty seven feet tall and even though she was standing at the other end of the driveway, he still had to crane his neck to see her face.

"You could have been married to me once," Susan said, smiling. "Remember high school?"

"That was a long time ago," said Morris. It was also before he met Marge.

"Marge took you away from me," said Susan. "But I could take you away from her now, if I wanted to."

Morris said, "What do you mean?" Her tone alarmed him.

"I could just pick you up and take you home!" said Susan, and she laughed very loud then. "Marge couldn't do a thing to stop me." She laughed again, throwing her head back.

When she stopped laughing, Morris said, "You wouldn't do that."

"Why not," said Susan.

"It would be wrong," said Morris. "Marge is your friend. I am your friend."

"Yes, but the rules are changing," said Susan. "The world is changing. Marge was too timid to change with it."

Morris looked toward Susan's huge house. It was only a modest three room dwelling, for Susan, but built to her enormous scale, it towered into the sky like a goddess's temple, dwarfing the little california ranch house in which he and Marge lived.

"I bought the old Westfield place and the Dafferden's lot," said Susan. "I now own the entire block, except yours and Marge's lot. You should sell out. I'll give you a good price."

"Marge doesn't want to move," said Morris.

"I have plans," Susan said. "I want to have a patio on the south side of the house."

"You don't need our little lot," said Morris.

"But I do," Susan replied. "My front door will be right behind you. I want to put a sidewalk right here. You are in the way."

That sounded almost like a threat, Morris thought. "I have to get to work." He got into the pick up and started the engine. He glanced into the rear view mirror and saw Susan was still standing in the driveway, blocking his exit with her huge feet. He backed up a couple of feet and watched to see if she would move, but she remained still, looking down at him. Morris idled the engine and put his head out the window. "Please step aside, Susan," he said. "I have to get to work."

"Sorry," said Susan, with a grin. But she did not move. Instead, she spread her legs wide so that she stood astride the driveway. "Come ahead, Morris."

Morris fumed for a moment, but he knew it was useless to argue with Susan, or any other giantess. They liked to flaunt their power and as long as they did not cross the line, there was nothing to be done about it. He backed out of the driveway, carefully easing the truck between her sandaled feet and out into the street.

"See you later, Morris," she called as he drove away.

* * *

Susan was having a party and the thunder of music and laughter made it impossible for Morris and Marge to sleep. "This is not right," said Morris. "We should move."

"No, I will not move," said Marge.

"You should take the pill," Morris said. "You should become a giantess."

Marge said, "That's easy for you to say. You want me to take the pill and turn into a monster like one of them. It's unnatural. How would you like it? How would you like it if I asked you to put some poison in your body that would turn you into a monster?"

"I would take it if it would do any good," said Morris. "One of us has got to do it. But it only works on women."

"They should have developed a pill for men," said Marge. "Then you could become a giant if you wanted to. Then you could take care of us both. Why didn't they develop a pill for men?"

"They were working on one," said Morris. "But the giantesses made them stop. They didn't want giants. But you can be a giantess, if you take the pill, Marge. If you were a giantess, everything would be allright. I wouldn't have to be afraid of Susan."

"You aren't afraid of Susan," said Marge. "She wouldn't hurt either one of us."

"I don't like the way she looks at me," said Morris. "She isn't the same as when she was normal sized. There is something about being big that makes you get strange ideas. She doesn't have any respect for me anymore."

"If I were a giantess, we would have to move," said Marge. "This house would be too small for me."

"We could build a larger house."

"Not here," said Marge. "We'd would have to move."

"Then let's move," said Morris.

Marge said, "If you want to go, you can go. I am staying here."

There was a pause, the Morris sighed and said, "I couldn't go away and leave you here." He looked up at the ceiling and shouted, "STOP THAT NOISE! TURN OFF THE DAMNED MUSIC!"

"They can't hear you," said Marge. "You'll just have to be patient. The party will be over soon, I hope."

So they waited, and a couple of hours later, the noise began to subside. The partiers drifted away to their homes and the huge stereo was shut off. Morris and Marge hugged one another and settled down to get some sleep at last. "Good night, Marge," said Morris.

"Good night, Morris," said Marge.

Together they began to drift on the currents of sleep.

But their sleep did not last long, for in the middle of the night a tremendous banging came on the roof of the house. The giant voice of Susan shouted though the roof. "You in there! Come out! Come out here! I want to talk to you!"

"She's drunk," said Morris. "She is out of her head."

"I'll go talk to her," said Marge, rising from the bed.

"No, don't!" said Morris. "She might do anything when she is in this condition."

"If we don't come out, it will just make her mad," said Marge. "She might damage the house if we ignore her." As an illustration of Marge's words, the pounding on the roof came again, louder and faster and the beams groaned and made cracking noises.

"No," said Morris. "I am not going out there!"

"Don't be a coward!" said Marge. "Hurry, before she smashes the roof in!"

Reluctantly, Morris rose from the bed and in pajamas, followed Marge out into the yard where they saw the colossal Susan standing in their yard, nearly filling it with her feet. She wore a long cocktail dress that left her shoulders bare and sported gloves that came to her elbows. In one hand she held a barrel-sized glass full of liquor. "There you are, you little worms!" said Susan, when she saw Marge and Morris step out of the house. "What took you so long?"

"We were asleep, Susan," said Marge. "What do you want at this time of night?"

Slowly, Susan unfolded one long arm and pointed at Morris. "I want him," she said. "I want him now."

"Susan, you are drunk!" said Marge. "Go home and sleep it off!"

Susan laughed. "It's amazing how a little alcohol can clear your mind," she said. "I finally realized that I can have what I want. All I have to do is reach out and take it. I could have done it anytime, but I didn't see it until now. Starting with him." She started bending over, reaching out toward Morris and he darted back into the house, dragging Marge with him.

Susan began kicking at the door with her pump. The front wall of the house shook and threaten to give way with each kick. "Open this goddam door you little worms!" shouted Susan.

Suddenly there was a tremendous crash accompanied by a splintering of wood and a huge high heeled shoe smashed through the ceiling and crashed down on the living room floor. Marge and Morris fled to the bedroom. "She has gone mad!" said Morris. "She is going to kill us."

"No she won't" said Marge. "We can hide until she calms down. It's not Susan, its the alcohol."

There were more crashes as Susan smashed her foot down on the roof of the house, again and again and again, demolishing it bit by bit. Morris and Marge retreated to the basement and huddled together in the darkness waiting for Susan to tire of her drunken rampage and go away. "She'll feel bad about this in the morning," Marge said. "This is not like Susan at all."

"You don't know her," said Morris. "It's not the alcohol. She is drunk with power. She hates you, don't you see it. She has hated you since high school."

The house was now just a heap wreckage piled above the basement. The thunderous sound of Susan's stamping foot had ceased. "She's gone," said Marge. "You were right, Morris. We should have moved out before it came to this. We'll have to move now. The house is a wreck."

After a few minutes had passed and all was silent, Morris said, "Do you think she is gone?"

"Listen!" said Marge.

Morris listened and heard a slurpy scraping sound. "Oh no!" he cried.

"What it it?" demanded Marge.

"It's concrete!" said Morris. "She's mixing concrete!"

* * *

Susan was relaxing on her new Patio when the giantess Ellen came striding briskly up the walk. "Have some lemonade?" said Susan.

"Don't mind if I do," said Ellen, and sagged into a lawn chair. "I really like the way you fixed up the place. "It's very nice."

"How about my new sidewalk?" said Susan, gesturing toward the walk that Ellen had just traversed.

"Very nice job," said Ellen. "I never thought Marge would sell out, though. How did you finally get your hands on the property?"

Susan poured lemonade into a glass for Ellen and said, "You might say I encroached on it. In fact, I never did get Marge and Morris to sell out. They just left."

"They abandoned the property?"

"I found the house deserted one day," said Susan. "So I kicked it down and covered it up with concrete."

"What if they show up one day and demand their property back?" said Ellen.

"If they do, I'll just spank their little butts and send them packing!" said Susan.

The two giantesses laughed together, then relaxed in the warm afternoon sunshine of yet another excellent day.

THE END